Can you guys explain to me how an external hd works?

[CaptainCaveMann]

So i plug in the external and bam! How do i see whats on the external and whats on my ibooks hd? How do i make sure when i take things off the external and put it on my ibook(songs for instance) that im not going to max out or overload my ibooks hd? Im confused. 😕

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

So i plug in the external and bam! How do i see whats on the external and whats on my ibooks hd? How do i make sure when i take things off the external and put it on my ibook(songs for instance) that im not going to max out or overload my ibooks hd? Im confused. 😕

Doesn't the external HD appear on your desktop (in Finder) as a seperate HD icon (most often under your inernal HD icon, by default called "Macintosh HD")...?

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

Doesn't the external HD appear on your desktop (in Finder) as a seperate HD icon (most often under your inernal HD icon, by default called "Macintosh HD")...?

I dont have one yet. I want to know how it all works before i buy one.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Doesn't the external HD appear on your desktop (in Finder) as a seperate HD icon (most often under your inernal HD icon, by default called "Macintosh HD")...?

Yes. It will show up under your internal drive (or near it, or wherever you locate it). If there's not enough room to move files, it won't let you. Just like when you put a floppy in (remember those?) Same idea, only 100,000x bigger.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

It will show up as an another HD icon underneath your current one just like Mitthrawnuruodo said. It's simple. And it works just like if you attached an iPod, CD or other disc/network drive/device. Just drag stuff onto it to save to it. It appears in the Finder and in the sidebar by default, so it's easy to see what's on your internal Mac drive and what's on the external.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

This is not helping. Can you guys explain from the beginning. Ok so i plug it in....... and so on.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

In that case, disregard the question mark on my last post... 😉

When you connect the USB/Firewire HD it will mount automatically and another HD icon will appear on your desktop. (You may have to format it the first time you connect it, if it doesn't appear, easy done using Disk Utility... just remember to format it in FAT if you want to be able to use it on PCs, too...)

You can double-click the (new) HD icon, and navigate and get info about that HD just the same way as with your internal HD... very easy... You can also rename the external disk to a name distincly different from "Macintosh HD" to avoid any possibility of confusion... 😉

Edit: Man, I got to learn how to type faster... 😱 😛

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

It will show up as an another HD icon underneath your current one just like Mitthrawnuruodo said. It's simple. And it works just like if you attached an iPod, CD or other disc/network drive/device. Just drag stuff onto it to save to it. It appears in the Finder and in the sidebar by default, so it's easy to see what's on your internal Mac drive and what's on the external.

Ok that helps me a little more. Im trying to figure out the real world usability of it. If its practical. Or if its a pain. My brother has a 12 inch ibook as well with a 30 gig hd. The problem is i have about 40 gigs of music that i want to share with him. So we were gonna get an external and put it on there then he could plug it in to his ibook and have the music. Then he could take music on and off the external to the ibook when hes on the road. Do you guys think this sounds practical or like a good idea?

 

[Mord]

you have to place the itunes libary on the external drive, would it not be easyer to just get him a 40GB ipod?

 

[AstroManLuca]

No, because iPods don't let you freely transfer music from computer to computer unless you store it in "data" mode (which doesn't let you play back any of the music). Not to mention the price of a 40 GB iPod ($300+) versus a 40 GB external hard drive (which should only cost about $80). In fact, you may as well get an 80 GB external hard drive because right now 80 GB hard drives are only about $5-$10 more than 40 GB ones. Get an 80 GB drive for $60 and a case for $40 and you're set.

 

[dotdotdot]

No, because iPods don't let you freely transfer music from computer to computer unless you store it in "data" mode (which doesn't let you play back any of the music). Not to mention the price of a 40 GB iPod ($300+) versus a 40 GB external hard drive (which should only cost about $80). In fact, you may as well get an 80 GB external hard drive because right now 80 GB hard drives are only about $5-$10 more than 40 GB ones. Get an 80 GB drive for $60 and a case for $40 and you're set.

VersionTracker.com

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Download software that lets you rip from the iPod, use it on multiple computers, play music, etc...

OR, get the iPod and disable automatic updating and you should be able to play it on iTunes

 

[puckhead193]

VersionTracker.com

---

Download software that lets you rip from the iPod, use it on multiple computers, play music, etc...

OR, get the iPod and disable automatic updating and you should be able to play it on iTunes

Those things don't work well (at least on the pc side) It skips over alot of songs/gives you errors.

 

[Mord]

No, because iPods don't let you freely transfer music from computer to computer unless you store it in "data" mode (which doesn't let you play back any of the music). Not to mention the price of a 40 GB iPod ($300+) versus a 40 GB external hard drive (which should only cost about $80). In fact, you may as well get an 80 GB external hard drive because right now 80 GB hard drives are only about $5-$10 more than 40 GB ones. Get an 80 GB drive for $60 and a case for $40 and you're set.

but the whole point was not to store the music on the computer but on an external HD, i do it with my ipod, when i import cd's i put them into my ibook copy it to my ipod then delete them on my HD, also i go to friends houses and connect my ipod to there pc/mac and take there music.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

So its pretty easy to transfer music to and from the external hd to the ibook? Does anyone have this set up? Are you happy with it?

 

[Mord]

whats the point in moveing it to the ibook if it dose not have the space, just play it off the HD/ipod

 

[ja0912]

This is unrelated to the poster's dilemma, but I don't think I would ever recommend ONLY having your music on your iPod. It's easy to lose an iPod, or drop it, or corrupt the HD, or get it stolen... moreso than a computer.

Then all your music is GONE.

I was doing it for a while (10Gb HD on my old iBook), but it's not a good idea.

 

[Mord]

depends how likely you are to loose it, i have never had anything stolen from me ever, and it's not like people have not tried, if you were paranoid you could just burn aac cd's.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

whats the point in moveing it to the ibook if it dose not have the space, just play it off the HD/ipod

Because he is mobile with his computer a lot.

 

[PlaceofDis]

here is how the external works:

plug it in, it will mount on your desktop
so as posted before you will have the two hard drive icons, if you want to know about the space on each, in the finder view options or prefs (i cannot remember which) you can have it show the detailed info of items
once the external is connected you can format it in Disk Utility
after that is done, you just drag your files on there, and if you want to disconnect it, just click on it, hold and there will be an eject option like with cds

you can always connect it to another mac if you want, and if you format it in FAT32 you can connect it to PCs

this can be practical if you need the extra space, and it also allows for a good back up system as well

for iTunes all you have to do is make sure that iTunes knows that the folder is located on the External, you can do this by setting the path in iTunes prefs

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

here is how the external works:

plug it in, it will mount on your desktop
so as posted before you will have the two hard drive icons, if you want to know about the space on each, in the finder view options or prefs (i cannot remember which) you can have it show the detailed info of items
once the external is connected you can format it in Disk Utility
after that is done, you just drag your files on there, and if you want to disconnect it, just click on it, hold and there will be an eject option like with cds

you can always connect it to another mac if you want, and if you format it in FAT32 you can connect it to PCs

this can be practical if you need the extra space, and it also allows for a good back up system as well

for iTunes all you have to do is make sure that iTunes knows that the folder is located on the External, you can do this by setting the path in iTunes prefs

Thankyou. My next question was about itunes and you just answered it. 😀 Thanks again everyone!

 

[Mord]

Because he is mobile with his computer a lot.[/QUOTE

thus an ipod is convinient as he can have it on him all the time and connect it to his laptop whenever he likes.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

Because he is mobile with his computer a lot.[/QUOTE

thus an ipod is convinient as he can have it on him all the time and connect it to his laptop whenever he likes.

Yes but i thought that if you have songs on your ipod that are not on the computer, that when you connect the ipod it will automatically delete the songs from the ipod unless you have them on your comp also. This may not be true but my friend says his ipod does this.

 

[debroglie]

Yes but i thought that if you have songs on your ipod that are not on the computer, that when you connect the ipod it will automatically delete the songs from the ipod unless you have them on your comp also. This may not be true but my friend says his ipod does this.

That is not true. You can set up your ipod so that you manually manage the songs aka add and delete.

 

[CaptainCaveMann]

That is not true. You can set up your ipod so that you manually manage the songs aka add and delete.

How exactly do you do that?

 

[Jo-Kun]

How exactly do you do that?

connect your iPod (with all the songs still on your mac 😛) and browse trought the preferences in iTunes it's there, just open your eyes and look to the preferences pane more often before asking questions 😉 mostly everything is logically because its a mac not windblows 😛