# Can I run everything from an external hard drive?



## hugh1988 (Aug 14, 2006)

Hi, my current eMac is really playing up, so I want to get a new mac mini. But the mac mini's biggest hard-disk is only 120GB so I want to get a firewire external drive of 400GB and buy the mac mini with the smallest/cheapest hard-drive. This would mean I do not have enough space on the internal drive for all my music, and photos, which need to be run off the internal drive.

Is there any way in which I can access all my music from iTunes, with it saved to the external drive, as well as importing music to it? I'm not too sure having an alias of the music folder in my users with all the music on the external drive will work.

Basically, knowing how to completely running the computer from the external drive would be perfect.

Would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!


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## Mikuro (Aug 14, 2006)

Yes, this is very easy. Using an alias for your iTunes Music folder would NOT work, but a symbolic link would. But you don't even need to do that, since you can specify the location of your music folder in iTunes' preferences. No problem at all. I do this myself, actually. I keep very little on my boot drive.

You could also boot straight from the external drive with no problem. Just install OS X onto it from the DVD and set it as the startup disk in the "Startup Disk" section of System Preferences. The Mini's internal SATA drive would be faster than a FireWire drive (I think), so you might want to use it for disk-intensive things like multimedia work.


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## eric2006 (Aug 14, 2006)

You could install OS X on the external drive, and use the internal drive as a backup system.


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## hugh1988 (Aug 14, 2006)

omg, i'm so stupid for not realising that in the preferences... how embarrasing! Thanks a lot for the help


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## dmetzcher (Aug 14, 2006)

Others have pointed you to the preference in iTunes for running it from an external drive, so I'll just say that I keep my library on an external FW drive, and I used to keep most everything on that drive, prior to upgrading the drive in my iBook, including iPhoto. Everything runs great, too.

You can still drop aliases to the location on the external drive in your user folder, so it all works logically when you want to get to the exact location of the iTunes folder on the external drive.


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## shelbydodgeimp (Aug 15, 2006)

> You could also boot straight from the external drive with no problem



But the external drive must be firewire or SCSI (if you machine is that old) to boot from the external drive, correct me if I am wrong but I believe macs have never had the ability to boot off of usb (firewire is better anyway in all honesty).


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## bobw (Aug 15, 2006)

Beginning with the Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) and the iMac (Slot-Loading), two new features to USB are most apparent: support for USB audio devices and booting from USB drive

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58430


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## hugh1988 (Aug 15, 2006)

Thanks all for the help. Yes the drive is firewire, and I think I will install the OS on it and use it as the start up disk. does this mean all the apps and library etc. will be on the external drive too? I hope this wont be a problem.


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## fryke (Aug 15, 2006)

This being about a brand-new Mac mini (not even bought yet), I think FireWire would be it, then. 

And... Yes, if you install OS X on an external drive, it's "considered" as the main drive - and the whole system as well as applications and home folders are located on that drive. Just think "the other way 'round", then. The internal drive actually becomes a secondary drive.


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## hugh1988 (Aug 15, 2006)

Ah thats brilliant, exactly what I need. Is there any way of transferring all of the data from my old eMac to the external/primary drive so the new mac mini will seem exactly like my old eMac? I seem to remember when you 1st turn on a mac it asks you if you want to do this transfer, but i dont know how this would work as I need to make the external drive the primary drive after it asks me to do this transfer.

Is there any way in tricking the computer into thinking it has been turned on for the 1st time, while still using the external drive to run from?

Thanks very much!


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## Mikuro (Aug 15, 2006)

hugh1988 said:


> Ah thats brilliant, exactly what I need. Is there any way of transferring all of the data from my old eMac to the external/primary drive so the new mac mini will seem exactly like my old eMac? I seem to remember when you 1st turn on a mac it asks you if you want to do this transfer, but i dont know how this would work as I need to make the external drive the primary drive after it asks me to do this transfer.
> 
> Is there any way in tricking the computer into thinking it has been turned on for the 1st time, while still using the external drive to run from?


I think you should be able to use Apple's migration assistant to transfer your preferences and whatnot, yes. However, cloning your entire eMac system to the Mini wouldn't be possible, since the eMac is PPC and the Mini is Intel, so they use different versions of OS X.

The Migration Assistant is located in /Applications/Utilities, and you can run it any time you want; it doesn't have to be the first time you start up.

You can also transfer an OS from one drive to another using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then you can boot from the external drive and erase the internal.


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## hugh1988 (Aug 15, 2006)

great! thats all i need to know. Thanks to everyone for the help. OK, I'm off to buy my mac mini!


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## dmetzcher (Aug 15, 2006)

bobw said:


> Beginning with the Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) and the iMac (Slot-Loading), two new features to USB are most apparent: support for USB audio devices and booting from USB drive
> 
> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58430



But how do you install OS X on an external USB drive in the first place? Is this possible? I attempted to do so, and the installer told me that "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X cannot start up from this volume."

So, if I can boot from the USB drive, how can I get the OS installed there in the first place? Thanks!


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## dmetzcher (Aug 15, 2006)

Seems that the Intel Macs can boot from an external USB drive, but not the Power PC Macs, based on what I've been reading since I posted the above question. Is that correct, or am I missing something?


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## hugh1988 (Aug 24, 2006)

hi every1, ive now got my new 1.66ghz mac mini! I tryed to install the OS on the external firewire drive, but it said it could not be installed on this volume. this is not good! i just cloned the mini's internal drive with carbon copy cloner to the external drive and trying to boot from that and the comp wont start up.. its just on the gray screen with the gray apple, and the spinning thing forever! ahh! any1 know what i am doing wrong? i have other files installed on the external drive aswell.. whuld this be a problem?

thanks


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## dmetzcher (Aug 25, 2006)

Two things:
1. Before you cloned the drive, did you partition it via Disk Utility?
_Open Disk Utility. Click the drive on the left. Click the Partition tab on the right. Select Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). Choose the number of partitions from the popup menu (1 Partition, if that's all you want). Click the Partition button at the bottom._
Try that first, and then try to install OS X, from the installation disc, directly on the external drive. The installer will tell you if you can boot from the drive, and it will not allow you to install to it if you can't.

2. Some FireWire drives are not bootable. You have to check with the manufacturer. Who is the manufacturer of your drive? This same issue just came up in another discussion on this board. It's not good news, but you might be able to return the drive, if it is not bootable, and get one that is, being that you just purchased it. You have a valid reason, especially if the drive manufacturer either doesn't say it's bootable, or says it should be, and it isn't.


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## hugh1988 (Aug 26, 2006)

ok, I've managed to get the OS installed on the external using Carbon Copy Cloner (Source OS = mac mini). I've selected the external as the startup disk and transfered data from my eMac to it using migration assistant. But when I opened iTunes the screen froze. I restarted the computer and opened iTunes again. I managed to play a track or two, but it froze once again. I restarted the computer and opened microsoft word this time. On opening it froze. Is this to do with the fact that the applications were copied from my eMac which is power pc not intel? Or is something else wrong? Also, I wanted to print a couple of things on appleworks but the printer just printed blank pages with a bit of black ink on the top. I tried printing something with textEdit and it was fine. What is the problem here?


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## dmetzcher (Aug 26, 2006)

So, you are basically running a Power PC version of the OS (that you cloned from a Power PC Mac) on Intel architecture? If I'm reading that right, I'd say that's your problem. If you clone a Power PC installation, and then run it on an Intel-based Mac, I think you are going to have problems. Can you do a fresh install on your new Mac, clone it, and then move over all your large files (iTunes, iPhoto, etc.), when you boot to the external drive? You can get a FireWire cable and plug the old Mac into the new Mac when you want to copy things over manually, or use the Migration thing, but I've never used that. If you can at least get a working copy of the Intel version of the OS on the external drive, then boot to it, migration everything else over, without Carbon Copy Cloner should be easy.

(I've never done this though, so others may immediately shoot me down and give you better advice.)


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## hugh1988 (Aug 29, 2006)

no i am running the Intel version of tiger (on the external drive), and then used migration assistant to copy over apps and users. I have tried running all the apps from the internal hard drive as well, but this makes no difference. What could be the problem?

Thanks


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## dmetzcher (Aug 29, 2006)

hugh1988 said:


> no i am running the Intel version of tiger (on the external drive), and then used migration assistant to copy over apps and users. I have tried running all the apps from the internal hard drive as well, but this makes no difference. What could be the problem?
> 
> Thanks



Sorry, misread your post from the other day.

Regarding the problem...I have no idea, but you are getting the external drive to run as the startup volume? If iTunes came from a clone of an Intel disk, it should be fine. Word will run under Rosetta.

The only thing that I can suggest (and others may have much better suggestions), is to clone the Intel Mac again, boot into the clone on the external drive, and reinstall your apps. Move over your documents, pictures, and music (and other files that you need) manually from the eMac after that.


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## hugh1988 (Aug 30, 2006)

I have done everything you said and it is works fine... sometimes. I had the external drive connected to the mac mini by USB, to allow me to use my only firewire cable to transfer the files over from my old eMac. However when I had finished copying, I connected the external drive to the mac mini and booted with fire wire. When using firewire I get frequent crashes, even doing simple tasks like running software update and operating itunes. Now I'm back on USB and it's fine, but a bit slow. I heard it was better and faster to use firewire.
Is there anything i can do?

Thanks


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## hugh1988 (Sep 1, 2006)

bump!


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## Qion (Sep 1, 2006)

How 'bout you install OS X on the internal drive, and put music and whatnot onto the external drive? If it's really causing this much trouble, just work around it. There's no need fighting a losing battle.

I personally have installed Tiger on my eMac's internal drive, have about half the applications I run in my "main" applications folder, and half on my firewire drive. I also use my firewire drive for my music and video library. I've run this setup on four different Macs and haven't had a problem yet. I did, however, have some qualms using a firewire drive as the boot device. Speed alone made me change from running an operating system on an external drive to an internal drive. Paging is just too slow through a south gate, eh?


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## hugh1988 (Sep 2, 2006)

ok yeah that sounds like a good idea. is there any way i can boot from the internal drive, but have the home folder on the external drive, for the music and photos etc.?

thanks


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## Qion (Sep 2, 2006)

Um, I don't think so. You could probably create a link between the drives/folders somehow. What I do is set my folders of pictures in my dock and they act just like an internal drive if I click on them. I'm not sure about how iPhoto works with the library, but somebody's probably found a way to store the library on an external drive.

As far as music goes, somebody mentioned earlier that you can just point iTunes toward the music folder of your choice. Or, more simply, just drag your music folders onto the iTunes icon in the dock after selecting the option not to copy added songs to the library.


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## dmetzcher (Sep 2, 2006)

Qion said:


> How 'bout you install OS X on the internal drive, and put music and whatnot onto the external drive? If it's really causing this much trouble, just work around it. There's no need fighting a losing battle.
> 
> I personally have installed Tiger on my eMac's internal drive, have about half the applications I run in my "main" applications folder, and half on my firewire drive. I also use my firewire drive for my music and video library. I've run this setup on four different Macs and haven't had a problem yet. I did, however, have some qualms using a firewire drive as the boot device. Speed alone made me change from running an operating system on an external drive to an internal drive. Paging is just too slow through a south gate, eh?



Completely agree. I do this myself. My iBook has a 100GB drive, but that's not enough for all mu music, so the iTunes library is on the external drive. Also, I used to keep the iPhoto library, and most of my documents on my external drive, before I upgraded the drive in the iBook.

This seems like a losing battle, and he'll get better performance doing it your way anyway.


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## dmetzcher (Sep 2, 2006)

hugh1988 said:


> ok yeah that sounds like a good idea. is there any way i can boot from the internal drive, but have the home folder on the external drive, for the music and photos etc.?
> 
> thanks



Two tips will help you. You don't want to keep your home folder on the external. Do this instead for itunes.
http://www.mymacblog.com/index.php/archive/tip-move-the-itunes-library/

And this for iPhoto.
http://www.mymacblog.com/index.php/archive/tip-moving-the-iphoto-library/

Hope that helps.


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## hugh1988 (Sep 2, 2006)

thanks guys thats really helpful, i think i'll be moving my iphoto and itunes libary with help from those links. will let you know how i get on!


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## Ahriman (Jun 26, 2008)

This is a very interesting thread. I just got a WD My Book Home Edition and I was thinking about moving everything but the System folder to the external drive (connected via Firewire), so Tiger (10.4.11) could run free in the now spacious internal hard drive (only 40Gb). But I see it's a good idea to keep the entire Home folder in the boot drive (internal).


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## jbarley (Jun 26, 2008)

You can install OS X and have it bootable on an external FW drive quite simply.
If the system is an Intel mac....
Just make sure to partition it properly, and more importantly make sure to have it set to use "Guid" partition map.
I believe the Guid thingy was the biggest problem in this old thread.
After doing the above you can have your total system on the external, and if you were using Leopard like myself, you can use the internal drive for TM backups.

jb.


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## Ahriman (Jun 26, 2008)

My system still is Power PC.

I've seen that many users go for the bootable external FW drive, I'm still undecided about doing it or not. Something else that is giving me troubles is sharing the new FW drive with a Dell laptop. I can connect both computers via wireless fairly easy, but for the life of me I can't share the drive. I've looked in Sharing and Network and even in the drive's info file to see if I need to check anything with no luck. It is worth nothing I have not done anything to the drive yet, I plugged it in right out the box (and haven't installed anything either that came with it, either)


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## Mikuro (Jun 26, 2008)

If you use file sharing with an admin account, you will have remote access to all mounted volumes. If that's not what you want, and you would like to ONLY share certain volumes/folders, you'll need to use a third-party tool such as SharePoints, or upgrade to Leopard, which has this feature built-in.

I'm in pretty much the same situation as you. I have an internal 40GB drive and a big FireWire drive. I've decided to put my system and all the files that normally go with it &#8212; applications, Home folder, etc. &#8212; on my internal drive, and put all my large files like movies and music on my external. I have 17GB free on my internal drive now, so it's no problem at all.

Now, if you use some really massive applications like GarageBand or iDVD, you might want to use a different setup and just boot from the FireWire drive. A lot of those applications' girth lies in the Library folder, so separating it from your boot volume would be problematic (although probably not impossible).


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## Ahriman (Jun 26, 2008)

Mikuro said:


> If you use file sharing with an admin account, you will have remote access to all mounted volumes. If that's not what you want, and you would like to ONLY share certain volumes/folders, you'll need to use a third-party tool such as SharePoints, or upgrade to Leopard, which has this feature built-in.



Accessing from the Laptop, I can go anywhere on the Mac pretty much. Except to the mounted volumes (iPod, FW drive, etc). This is why I'm puzzled.

UPDATE: Sharepoints works like a charm. Now I have a shortcut on the Laptop's desktop to access directly to the FW drive.




> I'm in pretty much the same situation as you. I have an internal 40GB drive and a big FireWire drive. I've decided to put my system and all the files that normally go with it  applications, Home folder, etc.  on my internal drive, and put all my large files like movies and music on my external. I have 17GB free on my internal drive now, so it's no problem at all.
> 
> Now, if you use some really massive applications like GarageBand or iDVD, you might want to use a different setup and just boot from the FireWire drive. A lot of those applications' girth lies in the Library folder, so separating it from your boot volume would be problematic (although probably not impossible).



I mainly run Adobe CS3, iTunes, iPhoto and every now and then iMovie. I guess I will moving all my created files associated with those programs (music, pics, movies, CS3 files) to the FW drive. 

Right now I'm debating whether to reformat the FW drive to HSF+ or to leave it as FAT 32. The Dell laptop seems to get along with my Mac's internal drive (HSF+) quite well.


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## Mikuro (Jun 27, 2008)

If you can use HFS+, you definitely should. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, doesn't support journaling (making it more susceptible to errors from crashes/power failures), and suffers from fragmentation much more than HFS+. The only time you should use FAT32 is when it is required for cross-platform compatibility. If the PC reads HFS+ to begin with, you're golden.


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## Ahriman (Jun 27, 2008)

Mikuro said:


> If you can use HFS+, you definitely should. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, doesn't support journaling (making it more susceptible to errors from crashes/power failures), and suffers from fragmentation much more than HFS+. The only time you should use FAT32 is when it is required for cross-platform compatibility. If the PC reads HFS+ to begin with, you're golden.



Yep.

I reformatted the FW drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and installed MacDrive on the PC Laptop. Everything is working great so far and my internal has now over 22Gb for the System and Applications to use.

Thanks for the input!


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