Yes I have a Mac, where to go from here...

[Buffalo Budd]

Was looking at this thread and forgot to thank you guys for the advice on the Macbook Pro.  Best purchase I've made in a long time.  I grabbed a terabyte external drive as well.  The only problem with this is using the docs stored on there.  I seem to have to move them one folder at a time to whatever app I want to use (ie. Photoshop).  And should I set up the time machine backup or is it a waste of time?

[mattstick]

I use Time Machine, I've never had to go back and "save" a file, but I want the backup there in case something happens to my computer.

[Buffalo Budd]

I guess the point of me getting the ext HD was to save space on my Mac HD.  But, for example, my wife created a calendar for a Christmas present that referenced the pics I had on the ext HD, we had to move each pic over before it could create the calendar.  I may just be doing something wrong and it's not the end of the world, just a pain.

[mattstick]

So iPhoto went to find the files, but you had moved them to the external?  Then you had to move them back?

[Buffalo Budd]

Exactly.

[mattstick]

I keep photos on the local drive, they don't take up a huge amount of space.

I'm sure you can tell iPhoto to store your photos on the external - perhaps this is what you should be doing.

[Buffalo Budd]

I keep photos on the local drive, they don't take up a huge amount of space.

I'm sure you can tell iPhoto to store your photos on the external - perhaps this is what you should be doing.

Was not aware I could do this.  I'm still very much a noob with this Mac and have been devoting more time to the music aspect than anything else.  I'll give that a try this week, thanks for the insight.

[jephrey]

Yeah, hold down option when you open any iApp with a "library" and it'll let you define  a new one.

[VDB]

I guess the point of me getting the ext HD was to save space on my Mac HD.  But, for example, my wife created a calendar for a Christmas present that referenced the pics I had on the ext HD, we had to move each pic over before it could create the calendar.  I may just be doing something wrong and it's not the end of the world, just a pain.

I'm not sure how big your internal HD is -- 180, 250? If you want to use your external drive for data backups (you should) and extra storage, here's what you can do if your internal HD is small enough:

Partition it three ways. Two partitions are the same size as your internal, the third is whatever's left over (assuming this leaves you with enough space). One partition is used for your Time Machine backups. The other same-sized one is reserved to restore your TM backup onto in the case of drive failure. This is simply to allow you to restore the drive and get back to work before you replace the dead internal HD. (You would start up the laptop from the system disc and from there restore the TM backup, then use that new bootable drive as your startup drive on the Mac.) The third partition you can freely use for extra storage. (You can also use the second partition for extra storage, but you will write over it when you restore the TM backup there.)

Follow all that?

[Buffalo Budd]

I guess the point of me getting the ext HD was to save space on my Mac HD.  But, for example, my wife created a calendar for a Christmas present that referenced the pics I had on the ext HD, we had to move each pic over before it could create the calendar.  I may just be doing something wrong and it's not the end of the world, just a pain.

I'm not sure how big your internal HD is -- 180, 250? If you want to use your external drive for data backups (you should) and extra storage, here's what you can do if your internal HD is small enough:

Partition it three ways. Two partitions are the same size as your internal, the third is whatever's left over (assuming this leaves you with enough space). One partition is used for your Time Machine backups. The other same-sized one is reserved to restore your TM backup onto in the case of drive failure. This is simply to allow you to restore the drive and get back to work before you replace the dead internal HD. (You would start up the laptop from the system disc and from there restore the TM backup, then use that new bootable drive as your startup drive on the Mac.) The third partition you can freely use for extra storage. (You can also use the second partition for extra storage, but you will write over it when you restore the TM backup there.)

Follow all that?

It's a TB, I think I follow you, thanks for the knowledge. 

[mattstick]

I don't see much purpose in partitioning an external drive, if it dies, it's dead - the fact that you had it partitioned won't make a difference.

It's not really useful for your TM backups to be the same size as your internal HD, and then reserving space on an external to restore your TM backup.... what?

[VDB]

I don't see much purpose in partitioning an external drive, if it dies, it's dead - the fact that you had it partitioned won't make a difference.

It's not really useful for your TM backups to be the same size as your internal HD, and then reserving space on an external to restore your TM backup.... what?

I'm talking about when the internal HD dies, not the external. Partitioning it will allow you to create a bootable drive on that same external so you can get right back to work (you cannot boot from a TM backup). That would be the only reason to do it.

[mattstick]

Why not just boot from the OS discs, and restore from the TM backup?

[VDB]

Why not just boot from the OS discs, and restore from the TM backup?

That's what I'm talking about.

Your internal HD dies. You have a TM backup but you can't boot from it. Nor can you restore a TM backup onto itself. So you start up from the discs and restore the TM backup onto another partition on your external drive.

Again, this is if you don't want to have to wait until you've replaced the dead internal HD.

[mattstick]

Gotcha.  I would just replace the internal HDD and restore to that - but if you were unable to do that, and you didn't have any other external drives available, your solution makes sense.