Using Macbook as External HD

[Ellen]

Would this setup work?

I'm renovating my apt. and want to be able to stream music in other rooms. So I am thinking of buying a Sonos wireless speaker system, which will stream the music off a HD. Since I'd rather not keep my iMac turned on all the time, I was thinking of storing my music on an external hard drive connected to my Time Capsule.

But, I wondered if I could do this - if I used my Macbook as my music storage device, could I connect it to the Time Capsule and treat it as a hard drive? Could I keep the Macbook turned on with the case closed? I would like to buy another Macbook, so this means I could use my old Macbook and wouldn't have to buy an external hard drive.

Sorry if I didn't explain this clearly enough - but perhaps someone reading this has tried the same setup. Thanks.

 

[cjlee07]

Well, I don't know if it is possible while closed, but if both mac's have firewire, you can do it like this. If they dont have firewire, then I am not sure.

As for using your old mac as an external, that sounds like a waste of space. If you want to keep your old HD as an external then buy an enclosure for cheap (10-20$) (newegg.com has many to choose from) and go that route. That way you dont have to lug another computer around. If you still want to occasionally use the old mac, they but another HD when you get your enclosure. You can even copy your old HD to the new one and you will have one to take with you, and one to leave in the old mac. A good program for this is Carbon Copy Cloner. Probably take awhile to copy the new drive, but will be worth it.