iMac external drive, storage and streaming question

[Yomama126]

Hi all,

I have a mid-2010 iMac. I'm about to upgrade the ram, based on good info found here. I'd also like to add more storage in the form of some type of drive I could connect to the IMac. My storage needs are primarily movie and music based.

Is it possible to add a drive that could be configured to hold the entire iTunes library and stream the media held on it. I know my question may be oversimplifying the issue, but I guess what I'm asking is can iTunes live on the iMac and the library live on an attached drive but still be accessible for streaming to Apple TV, and sharing with other computers and devices?
If so would it be possible for anyone to share their thoughts on exactly what sort of drive I should purchase?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[smokeyrabbit]

Hi, I have this set up exactly as you describe. I have an external FW800 drive (actually a 2x4GB mirrored RAID, but a single drive works) that holds my iTunes and other media files. Simply plug the drive in to your iMac, format it as necessary, and follow the steps here exactly to move your iTunes library while retaining all your playlists, etc.

If you have homesharing on it will continue to run the same as it did before.

I don't think Time Machine backs up external drives, so you'll need some other way to backup your media files.

As far as drive recommendations, get one that's got both FW800 and USB 3.0 connections, because the FW800 will work nice and fast with your iMac, and USB 3.0 will work with your next one.

 

[Gauntlet]

I don't think Time Machine backs up external drives, so you'll need some other way to backup your media files.

Actually, Time Machine will back up external HDs. You just have to make sure to take the external HD off of Time Machine's "ignore drive" list found in the options. I have both my internal and external drives backed up on the a single Time Machine drive.

 

[smokeyrabbit]

Good to know! My TM backup is not big enough for all my media files, so I use a mirrored RAID and then BackBlaze online backup for those.