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apollo11 · Jan 20, 2009, 02:55 AM

MBP will go out of AppleCare in about 1 year. Running Tiger.

120 Gb HD begining to creak a little (30Gb to XP)

Considering replacing MBP boot disk with a suitable SSD ( probably 256 Gb in 1 year) and upgrading to Leopard so as to use a network drive to store stuff such as photos , letters and perhaps smaller apps.

My rationale is that the apps I have, have not changed for about 3 years. The stuff that chokes the boot disk are pictures and the like. I archive them regualarly. I know thath platter boot HD's are very fast but I fancy the lightning performance of the SDD.

Shame iTunes music has to be on the boot disk.

My MBP spends 99.9% of its' life near my Airport base station, so access is unlikely to be an issue.

Is my idea going to be a pain to live with?

Spheric Harlot · Jan 20, 2009, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by apollo11

Shame iTunes music has to be on the boot disk.

Neither the iPhoto library nor iTunes music need reside on the boot disk.

You can just leave an alias called "iTunes Music" in your iTunes folder, pointing at a network folder.

OR: Both iPhoto and iTunes can access different libraries if you hold down the "Option" key while launching the program.

Simon · Jan 20, 2009, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

You can just leave an alias called "iTunes Music" in your iTunes folder, pointing at a network folder.

Does the same work for iPhoto actually?

Spheric Harlot · Jan 20, 2009, 07:07 AM

I would NOT attempt to replace any of the iPhoto library package's subfolders with aliases.

iPhoto is a fickle beast, and I've seen far too many photos deleted off clients' machines over the past years.

Simon · Jan 20, 2009, 08:34 AM

And the entire library package? Can you just symlink to it if it were on a network partition?

mattyb · Jan 20, 2009, 09:03 AM

iPhoto's library is now one large file (mine's at 7G). Surely a symlink would be acceptable?

Simon · Jan 20, 2009, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by mattyb

iPhoto's library is now one large file (mine's at 7G). Surely a symlink would be acceptable?

It's one large 'file' because a while ago Apple moved from a folder structure to a package. The finder displays packages as if they were files. If you right click the package and select show package contents you will see the folder structure you used to see.

apollo11 · Jan 20, 2009, 11:43 AM

Ahem! Hey guys , an opinion about my idea please ?

Spheric Harlot · Jan 20, 2009, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

And the entire library package? Can you just symlink to it if it were on a network partition?

Why would you?

You can just point iPhoto right at the library on the network drive. No need for a symlink.

I assume that this will be SLOW though - I haven't tried that.

I know that keeping the iTunes Music folder on a network drive is something of a drag - but I'm on a "g" network.

It might not be a problem for the original poster if he's on an "n"-only network, or hooked up via Ethernet.

Ted L. Nancy · Jan 20, 2009, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by apollo11

Ahem! Hey guys , an opinion about my idea please ?

Good idea. I know plenty of people who do this. Just move the ORIGINAL iTunes and iPhoto libraries to whichever drive you please. Hold down option when starting each app. You can take it from there.

iTunes will be tolerably slower. iPhoto will be significantly slower.

Also, don't forget to (regularly) make a backup copy of the drive in which the libraries sit.