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External Hard drive question

yOyOYoo

yOyOYoo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2005
715
114
CA
I've never used an external hard drive before, so I have a couple of questions.

1. If I power off the computer, does the external hard drive power off automatically?

2. What's the best way to move my itunes library onto the external hard drive, and have itunes read and play music from the library?

3. Do I keep the external hard drive powered on at all times?

4. Do I need to unmount the hard drive before powering off the laptop?

5. Anything else I should be weary of when using this external hard drive?

Thanks!!!
 
I use a bunch of these, so I'll advise the best I can.

1. Yes, the external will go into standby mode the hard drive will spin down

2. Not sure here, I moved my files but lost all my playlists and metadata and such. I'm sure you can search for a forum thread that'll answer this.

3. Not sure what you mean here. If by powered on, you mean plugged into the wall, then yes. Leave it plugged in and don't use the power switch on the back, unless of course you don't plan on using it all the time.

4. You don't need to unmount before powering off, normal shutdown unmounts all drives. But you will need to unmount if you plan on disconnecting while running (but I get the impression you might already know that)

5. These are still hard drives which means don't move them while in use. It's slower than your internal drive, but this usually won't matter.

Good luck
 
I have my iTunes on an external. To do this, I went to my Music>iTunes Music folder (or wherever you currently have it) and dragged the whole thing to my external drive. It either moved or copied the folder, I don't remember that part. Then go to iTunes>Preferences>Advanced and under the "General" tab, you'll see "iTunes Music Folder Location". Click the "Change" button next to that and redirect it to your external drive. You will lose your playlists and metadata like Schroedinger said.

I don't have my external on at all times, but that's just me. However, make sure it's on before you open iTunes or else you'll get "!" next to all your songs when you try and play them. :p
 
What are the best Externals to get?

I've been reading up on getting a 250 gig or so and i've read that LaCie's aren't reliable. Can anyone confirm this? Anyone use the new Maxtors?

i need to get one with a Firewire 800 port.
 
I'd recommend an external drive from Otherworld Computing (www.macsales.com). I bought one from them a few months ago, and it's been performing really well. I've just recently started using it for audio work, and it's held up pretty good. My drive has a Seagate Baraccuda hard drive (I think they also use Hitachi, depending on the size of the drive) with firewire 400, 800, and USB 2.0. I went with the OWC drive because they scored really well in Macworld magazine testing, and it's in a cool aluminum enclosure that matches my PowerMac G5. It is cheaper to build your own, but I really just wanted something that I could take out of a box, plug it in, and turn it on.
 
External Hard Drive Editing Using Final Cut Pro

GOod morning. I have a Western Digital 250GB External Hard Drive that I have attatched to my iBook G4. I want to use the external hard drive for video editing using Final Cut Pro. When I use the hard drive I use a firewire cable from it to the iBook. When I connect my DV JVC cam I use a firewire as well. When I open FCP and begin to log it works fine for a minute and at no predetermined time it starts to skip and lock up and when you go down to the icon on the dock to "force quit" you can see where it says "application not responding". So In all I'm having an issue logging my video using my external hard drive. It's not the software because it works fine on my friend's Quicksilver. What's the problem? Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong or even understand what I'm talking about. Please help. Thanks.
 
2 personal recommendations

1. my LaCie Firewire400 drives have been excellent. Go with Firewire.
2. my new Iomega USB2 drive is junk. Avoid Iomega, avoid USB2.
 
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