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frankthetank966 · Jan 22, 2007, 08:19 PM

I save movies to my internal HD on my Macbook all the time. After I watch them I securely delete the movie from my HD. Is it bad to add large files onto the HD and then delete them, repitvely? I have an external HD, would it be smarter to save the movies onto there and then delete it? I find it a pain to delete the files on an External since it seems to take longer and it freezes finder all-the-time when I am using my SimpleTech SP.

Any thoughts?

jmiddel · Jan 22, 2007, 09:22 PM

Secure deletion uses more hard drive activity than regular trashing, so there is more wear on the hd, probably not terrible much, but why stress the drive, unless they contain sensitive info, why not just trash them and save your hd some work?

Chuckit · Jan 22, 2007, 10:02 PM

It's not really bad. Seems like a waste of time, and will probably shorten the disk's lifespan (relative to not doing it) if you do it really often, but it's not really grievous harm.

Incidentally, there's no logical reason why your external drive should make the Finder freeze up just by being there. I've used many external drives with all different versions of OS X and not seen that happen. Are you sure there's not something wrong with it?

Gossamer · Jan 23, 2007, 12:05 AM

Porn?

badidea · Jan 23, 2007, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by Gossamer

Porn?

Rhetorical question?

(solution: don't share your computer, or rename the movie to something really boring before you delete it)

Macola · Jan 23, 2007, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Incidentally, there's no logical reason why your external drive should make the Finder freeze up just by being there. I've used many external drives with all different versions of OS X and not seen that happen. Are you sure there's not something wrong with it?

Those with crappy chipsets (read: Prolific) often do, just when accessing them or copying files.

chris v · Jan 23, 2007, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by badidea

Rhetorical question?

(solution: don't share your computer, or rename the movie to something really boring before you delete it)

Critical Analysis of Straussian Political Therory.mov? Great Chemical Compunds of the 19th Century.wmv?

I don't think the occasional secure delete is going to ravage your drive especially, either.

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 10:48 AM

No its is not porn. It is regular movies. Maybe I should exchange the External HD. It freezes finder all the time. I used Deja Vu to transfer songs onto it. I heard that is one of the safest ways to properly trasnfer files onto a external.

BlueSky · Jan 23, 2007, 11:15 AM

I had that problem with my Neptune firewire, freezing constantly. I found Spindown Fix. Macmaps.com Software

Just a simple applescript that does a great job.

CharlesS · Jan 23, 2007, 12:54 PM

I've seen situations where crappy flash drives could hang the Finder - I'd go look to see if you can get a better one, perhaps from one of the big memory manufacturers such as Kingston or Crucial.

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by BlueSky

I had that problem with my Neptune firewire, freezing constantly. I found Spindown Fix. Macmaps.com Software

Just a simple applescript that does a great job.

How would this fix the HD from freezing finder??? Is all you have to do is download it and install it on the HD

"I've seen situations where crappy flash drives could hang the Finder - I'd go look to see if you can get a better one, perhaps from one of the big memory manufacturers such as Kingston or Crucial."

Should I try exchanging it for another drive? Same brande just maybe something is wrong with the one I have.

Sherman Homan · Jan 23, 2007, 02:11 PM

If the external drive constantly crashes the Finder I would reformat the drive. It shouldn't crash! Then look into third party fixes. A good reformat might set its little brain straight.
Why do you want to Secure Delete the movies? The only reason would be to prevent someone from 'undeleting' them. I can't imagine that it would do more "harm" to the drive than watching the movie in the first place!

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by Sherman Homan

If the external drive constantly crashes the Finder I would reformat the drive. It shouldn't crash! Then look into third party fixes. A good reformat might set its little brain straight.
Why do you want to Secure Delete the movies? The only reason would be to prevent someone from 'undeleting' them. I can't imagine that it would do more "harm" to the drive than watching the movie in the first place!

First off how do I reformat? It might just be a bad brand. Everyone says that SimpleTech is awful. Secondly I use MTR to save movie to my HD so I can watch it on the plane, train... The reason I delete it is because I want the space. Should I just return the HD?

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 04:52 PM

How do I format the SimpleTech SimpleDrive so it will work on Mac OS X (intel) and on a PC? I currently have it partioned at: Mac OS X Extended (journaled)

Chuckit · Jan 23, 2007, 05:11 PM

If you want it to work on both, format it as FAT. You can do this with Disk Utility.

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

If you want it to work on both, format it as FAT. You can do this with Disk Utility.

Okay, I am new to macs and very oblivious. Where do I go in DU to format it to FAT.

P.S. what are the disadvantages to using FAT instead of HAFS or whatever its called.

C.A.T.S. CEO · Jan 23, 2007, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Okay, I am new to macs and very oblivious. Where do I go in DU to format it to FAT.

P.S. what are the disadvantages to using FAT instead of HAFS or whatever its called.

in DU click the drive you want to format and click the Erase and under the menu at the bottom select "MS-DOS File System" and click Erase

I see no disadvantages. The only thing is that you cant use lower case on a FAt drive connected to a mac. ie: a drive named "Storage" will become "STORAGE" on reboot or the next time you plug it in

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO

in DU click the drive you want to format and click the Erase and under the menu at the bottom select "MS-DOS File System" and click Erase

I see no disadvantages. The only thing is that you cant use lower case on a FAt drive connected to a mac. ie: a drive named "Storage" will become "STORAGE" on reboot or the next time you plug it in

What do you mean by your last part? Storage?

abbaZaba · Jan 23, 2007, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

I save movies to my internal HD on my Macbook all the time. After I watch them I securely delete the movie from my HD. Is it bad to add large files onto the HD and then delete them, repitvely? I have an external HD, would it be smarter to save the movies onto there and then delete it? I find it a pain to delete the files on an External since it seems to take longer and it freezes finder all-the-time when I am using my SimpleTech SP.

Any thoughts?

you have got to be the most paranoid person about their computer, most likely ever.

CharlesS · Jan 23, 2007, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

What do you mean by your last part? Storage?

He means the name of the drive that shows up on the desktop.

Basically, it's a non-issue and you shouldn't worry about it. For a large hard drive being used with OS X, there are huge disadvantages to using FAT, but on a flash drive, there aren't really any.

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

He means the name of the drive that shows up on the desktop.

Basically, it's a non-issue and you shouldn't worry about it. For a large hard drive being used with OS X, there are huge disadvantages to using FAT, but on a flash drive, there aren't really any.

Ahh, maybe that is why my 512 MB seems to work so much better with both. I will just leave it to HAFT.

frankthetank966 · Jan 23, 2007, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by abbaZaba

you have got to be the most paranoid person about their computer, most likely ever.

Thanks for helping. And YES I AM. I spent a lot of this puppy.

frankthetank966 · Jan 25, 2007, 09:12 AM

If I want to backup my "applications" is it safe to back them up to the external hd? Will these screw the HD up? Lets say it doesn't, and that I want to tranfers them back onto my hd or another macs hd from the external will the apps work properly? Or will this screw the computer up?

Nivag · Jan 25, 2007, 09:44 AM

Depends which "applications" you are talking about. I've found it easier to just install them from the DVD/CDs when moving to a new machine or after a format. The only App I would copy if MS Office 2004, most of the other Apps install files within the System folder.

frankthetank966 · Jan 25, 2007, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by Nivag

Depends which "applications" you are talking about. I've found it easier to just install them from the DVD/CDs when moving to a new machine or after a format. The only App I would copy if MS Office 2004, most of the other Apps install files within the System folder.

you want to be specific... LOL

Adium
AppZapper
Firefox
Microsoft Office '04
Onyx
Toast 8
Perian
Deja Vu
Flip 4 Mac
VLC
Mac the Ripper

Nivag · Jan 25, 2007, 11:51 AM

With the exception of Office and Toast, I would just download them all again if i needed to reinstall them. Plus it would mean you would get the latest version of them as well.

frankthetank966 · Jan 25, 2007, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Nivag

With the exception of Office and Toast, I would just download them all again if i needed to reinstall them. Plus it would mean you would get the latest version of them as well.

Yes, I guess you right. But there isn't really any point to backing up toast or office since I have them on a disc. And wouldn't I need the serial numbers to reinstall them onto applications anyways?

shifuimam · Jan 25, 2007, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

How do I format the SimpleTech SimpleDrive so it will work on Mac OS X (intel) and on a PC? I currently have it partioned at: Mac OS X Extended (journaled)

Originally Posted by Chuckit

If you want it to work on both, format it as FAT. You can do this with Disk Utility.

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Ahh, maybe that is why my 512 MB seems to work so much better with both. I will just leave it to HAFT.

If you want your hard drive to work on any computer that IS NOT running a version of OS X, you must format the drive as FAT32. The HFS+ filesystem can only be seen and read/written by OS X natively - you have to pay for software like MacDrive to read/write HFS+ in Windows.

The only disadvantage you might find with FAT32 is that it cannot store files larger than about 4GB. FAT32 drives also are limited in partition size. I have a similar connundrum with the USB hard drive I use between my Windows machines and my iBook.

I would recommend this: back up your data, and partition the drive to make a portion of it - say, 1/3 - FAT32. Format the rest to whichever filesystem you want, depending on which OS you use the most. If you use Windows the most, format to NTFS in Windows XP. If you use OS X the most, format to HSF+ on your Mac. This will allow you to have a FAT32 partition available for things like pictures and music that you want to use on both machines; you can keep your applications and movies on the other partition.

CharlesS · Jan 25, 2007, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

you want to be specific... LOL

Adium
AppZapper
Firefox
Microsoft Office '04
Onyx
Toast 8
Perian
Deja Vu
Flip 4 Mac
VLC
Mac the Ripper

Those should be fine for the most part, even MS Office. You should be able to back them up just by dragging them to your backup hard drive, and it won't screw anything up.

If one or two of the apps don't like it, you can always redownload or reinstall them. I think those are mostly drag-and-drop installs, though, so you should have no problems.

frankthetank966 · Jan 25, 2007, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

If you want your hard drive to work on any computer that IS NOT running a version of OS X, you must format the drive as FAT32. The HFS+ filesystem can only be seen and read/written by OS X natively - you have to pay for software like MacDrive to read/write HFS+ in Windows.

The only disadvantage you might find with FAT32 is that it cannot store files larger than about 4GB. FAT32 drives also are limited in partition size. I have a similar connundrum with the USB hard drive I use between my Windows machines and my iBook.

I would recommend this: back up your data, and partition the drive to make a portion of it - say, 1/3 - FAT32. Format the rest to whichever filesystem you want, depending on which OS you use the most. If you use Windows the most, format to NTFS in Windows XP. If you use OS X the most, format to HSF+ on your Mac. This will allow you to have a FAT32 partition available for things like pictures and music that you want to use on both machines; you can keep your applications and movies on the other partition.

Sounds like a neat idea. How do I do this. I am really bad and new to Macs. I plugged in my HD and went to disk utility now where to go?

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Those should be fine for the most part, even MS Office. You should be able to back them up just by dragging them to your backup hard drive, and it won't screw anything up.

If one or two of the apps don't like it, you can always redownload or reinstall them. I think those are mostly drag-and-drop installs, though, so you should have no problems.

Hmmm.... It shouldn't hurt the external drive should it?

shifuimam · Jan 26, 2007, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Sounds like a neat idea. How do I do this. I am really bad and new to Macs. I plugged in my HD and went to disk utility now where to go?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Disk Utility requires you to reformat in order to repartition. You'll need to find yourself a copy of PartitionMagic or some other similar application if you want to repartition your hard drive without reformatting it.

Partitioning is a way of separating out chunks of your hard drive. If you have to deal with multiple file systems, you might take a 300GB drive and split it up into three different partitions - FAT32, HSF+, ext3 (for example). Then, whatever computer the hard drive is connected to will see three logical hard drives. There's only one physically drive there, but the computer sees three separate drives. In Windows, each will have its own drive letter. In OS X, each will be mounted to a separate mount point (directory) in /Volumes/.

To partition, open up Disk Utility. Select the hard drive you want to format from the column on the lefthand side of the window. You'll see a heirarchy - generally the topmost level for each drive is a model number for the drive or something, and below that will be the names of each of your disk partitions. Make sure you select the topmost level for your drive, and make sure you select the right drive. Your external drive will probably show up with an orange icon, so that should make it easy to identify.

Once you've selected your drive, click "Partition" from the bar across the top of the window. It'll display the current partition scheme of your drive. From there, you can select a new scheme from the "Volume Scheme" drop-down list. Select the option to make two partitions. You'll see a little dot between the two partitions - you can click and drag on that to resize them. To the right, you'll see a box that says "size" - you can see there how big each partition is. Give your partitions names that make sense or names that you like. My iBook has two partitions - "iBook" and "Data". My USB drive, on the other hand, has partitions labelled "Fry" and "Leela".

Select the format for each partition from the drop-down list. You want one to be "MS-DOS" and one to be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". I would recommend making the larger partition the Mac OS one - as I said before, FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB, so you want your larger partition to be able to store larger files.

Once everything looks how you want it to, click the "Partition" button at the bottom of the screen.

If you mess something up, don't worry - you can just repartition. JUST MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TO YOUR HARD DRIVE. Repartitioning is fast on an empty USB hard drive, so play around with it until you find a configuration you like.

I can post screenshots tonight, but I'm in a hurry this morning. Sorry!

frankthetank966 · Jan 26, 2007, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Disk Utility requires you to reformat in order to repartition. You'll need to find yourself a copy of PartitionMagic or some other similar application if you want to repartition your hard drive without reformatting it.

Partitioning is a way of separating out chunks of your hard drive. If you have to deal with multiple file systems, you might take a 300GB drive and split it up into three different partitions - FAT32, HSF+, ext3 (for example). Then, whatever computer the hard drive is connected to will see three logical hard drives. There's only one physically drive there, but the computer sees three separate drives. In Windows, each will have its own drive letter. In OS X, each will be mounted to a separate mount point (directory) in /Volumes/.

To partition, open up Disk Utility. Select the hard drive you want to format from the column on the lefthand side of the window. You'll see a heirarchy - generally the topmost level for each drive is a model number for the drive or something, and below that will be the names of each of your disk partitions. Make sure you select the topmost level for your drive, and make sure you select the right drive. Your external drive will probably show up with an orange icon, so that should make it easy to identify.

Once you've selected your drive, click "Partition" from the bar across the top of the window. It'll display the current partition scheme of your drive. From there, you can select a new scheme from the "Volume Scheme" drop-down list. Select the option to make two partitions. You'll see a little dot between the two partitions - you can click and drag on that to resize them. To the right, you'll see a box that says "size" - you can see there how big each partition is. Give your partitions names that make sense or names that you like. My iBook has two partitions - "iBook" and "Data". My USB drive, on the other hand, has partitions labelled "Fry" and "Leela".

Select the format for each partition from the drop-down list. You want one to be "MS-DOS" and one to be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". I would recommend making the larger partition the Mac OS one - as I said before, FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB, so you want your larger partition to be able to store larger files.

Once everything looks how you want it to, click the "Partition" button at the bottom of the screen.

If you mess something up, don't worry - you can just repartition. JUST MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TO YOUR HARD DRIVE. Repartitioning is fast on an empty USB hard drive, so play around with it until you find a configuration you like.

I can post screenshots tonight, but I'm in a hurry this morning. Sorry!

Excellent response!!! I finally figured out what HAFT=Mac OSX (Journaled) which is OS X and FAT32=MS-DOS which is Windows. Is it bad to partion the hard drive alot? This will be the third or fourth time I have partioned it.

shifuimam · Jan 26, 2007, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Excellent response!!! I finally figured out what HAFT=Mac OSX (Journaled) which is OS X and FAT32=MS-DOS which is Windows. Is it bad to partion the hard drive alot? This will be the third or fourth time I have partioned it.

You should be fine. I've reformatted and repartitioned somewhere around 15 times in the last four years on one of my drives, and it's still fine.

frankthetank966 · Jan 26, 2007, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

You should be fine. I've reformatted and repartitioned somewhere around 15 times in the last four years on one of my drives, and it's still fine.

Which brand you got? thanks for the help

frankthetank966 · Jan 26, 2007, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Disk Utility requires you to reformat in order to repartition. You'll need to find yourself a copy of PartitionMagic or some other similar application if you want to repartition your hard drive without reformatting it.

Partitioning is a way of separating out chunks of your hard drive. If you have to deal with multiple file systems, you might take a 300GB drive and split it up into three different partitions - FAT32, HSF+, ext3 (for example). Then, whatever computer the hard drive is connected to will see three logical hard drives. There's only one physically drive there, but the computer sees three separate drives. In Windows, each will have its own drive letter. In OS X, each will be mounted to a separate mount point (directory) in /Volumes/.

To partition, open up Disk Utility. Select the hard drive you want to format from the column on the lefthand side of the window. You'll see a heirarchy - generally the topmost level for each drive is a model number for the drive or something, and below that will be the names of each of your disk partitions. Make sure you select the topmost level for your drive, and make sure you select the right drive. Your external drive will probably show up with an orange icon, so that should make it easy to identify.

Once you've selected your drive, click "Partition" from the bar across the top of the window. It'll display the current partition scheme of your drive. From there, you can select a new scheme from the "Volume Scheme" drop-down list. Select the option to make two partitions. You'll see a little dot between the two partitions - you can click and drag on that to resize them. To the right, you'll see a box that says "size" - you can see there how big each partition is. Give your partitions names that make sense or names that you like. My iBook has two partitions - "iBook" and "Data". My USB drive, on the other hand, has partitions labelled "Fry" and "Leela".

Select the format for each partition from the drop-down list. You want one to be "MS-DOS" and one to be "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". I would recommend making the larger partition the Mac OS one - as I said before, FAT32 can't handle files larger than 4GB, so you want your larger partition to be able to store larger files.

Once everything looks how you want it to, click the "Partition" button at the bottom of the screen.

If you mess something up, don't worry - you can just repartition. JUST MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TO YOUR HARD DRIVE. Repartitioning is fast on an empty USB hard drive, so play around with it until you find a configuration you like.

I can post screenshots tonight, but I'm in a hurry this morning. Sorry!

Should I change anything to the RAID?

Chuckit · Jan 26, 2007, 04:37 PM

You're not setting up a RAID, are you?

frankthetank966 · Jan 26, 2007, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

You're not setting up a RAID, are you?

Nope. My dad was telling me how he used to partition discs back in the day when he would use a c and e drive. He said it was terrible to do that to the discs then but thinks its a super cool idea now.

Chuckit · Jan 26, 2007, 08:14 PM

Eh, partitioning is only really useful if you're going to use multiple operating systems. Otherwise it's kind of pointless.

frankthetank966 · Jan 26, 2007, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Eh, partitioning is only really useful if you're going to use multiple operating systems. Otherwise it's kind of pointless.

Yea once, I only have my Macbook besides me and will not be dealing with windows I will re-partion it so its Mac OSX (Journaled). But 5GB out of 55GB for FAT32 is not that much space. I am just using it to switch between documents.

shifuimam · Jan 26, 2007, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Which brand you got? thanks for the help

I happen to have Western Digital drives in my desktop, but brands don't really matter as far as how to use the Disk Utility...

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Nope. My dad was telling me how he used to partition discs back in the day when he would use a c and e drive. He said it was terrible to do that to the discs then but thinks its a super cool idea now.

I know nothing about ten or twenty years ago, but I'd imagine that hard disks are much more resilient than they used to be. Partitioning won't hurt your disk.

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Eh, partitioning is only really useful if you're going to use multiple operating systems. Otherwise it's kind of pointless.

It's actually pretty dang useful when you have one hard drive in a laptop, and you want to have the option of reinstalling your OS without having to backup all your data every time. I created two partitions on a 20GB drive in my iBook for that very reason - I reset my user folder to the data partition, so if I reinstall OS X, I don't lose anything - not even my settings for stuff. I used to be completely against partitioning, but it really is helpful in providing a low-level method of organizing your files.

CharlesS · Jan 27, 2007, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Hmmm.... It shouldn't hurt the external drive should it?

Absolutely not.

Chuckit · Jan 27, 2007, 01:00 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

It's actually pretty dang useful when you have one hard drive in a laptop, and you want to have the option of reinstalling your OS without having to backup all your data every time. I created two partitions on a 20GB drive in my iBook for that very reason - I reset my user folder to the data partition, so if I reinstall OS X, I don't lose anything - not even my settings for stuff. I used to be completely against partitioning, but it really is helpful in providing a low-level method of organizing your files.

Archive and install serves the same purpose and doesn't run the risk of causing problems if one partition or another needs more room in the future. That way you can even selectively bring back parts of your old system that you found useful (e.g., I brought over my old MySQL install that I was using for testing).

CharlesS · Jan 27, 2007, 01:33 AM

Yep, unlike Windows, on a Mac it is completely unnecessary to reformat the drive when doing a reinstall of the OS.

frankthetank966 · 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

It's actually pretty dang useful when you have one hard drive in a laptop, and you want to have the option of reinstalling your OS without having to backup all your data every time. I created two partitions on a 20GB drive in my iBook for that very reason - I reset my user folder to the data partition, so if I reinstall OS X, I don't lose anything - not even my settings for stuff. I used to be completely against partitioning, but it really is helpful in providing a low-level method of organizing your files.

Let me make sure I got this right, if you have to reformat your mac youve saved files data onto your external hd so that you mac would be the same exact way as it was before? How do you back up that data? Do you copy the user into the external hd? And lets say you do reformat your disk, is all you do is copy the user from the external hard drive onto your internal hard drive for the mac and you will have the same documents, settings, for that disc?

CharlesS · Jan 27, 2007, 11:32 AM

Well, you can copy your Applications folder to an external drive to back up your apps, and you can copy your home folder over to get all your documents and settings and whatnot. Copying the Library folder also will get global settings like your network preferences.

With that said, I want to reiterate that it is not necessary to reformat in order to reinstall the OS. However, backing up your data is a good idea in case the hard drive crashes or otherwise causes problems in which the drive actually does need to be reformatted or replaced.

frankthetank966 · Jan 29, 2007, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Well, you can copy your Applications folder to an external drive to back up your apps, and you can copy your home folder over to get all your documents and settings and whatnot. Copying the Library folder also will get global settings like your network preferences.

With that said, I want to reiterate that it is not necessary to reformat in order to reinstall the OS. However, backing up your data is a good idea in case the hard drive crashes or otherwise causes problems in which the drive actually does need to be reformatted or replaced.

So you do recommend the home drive. So since I am fairly new, what exactly is the home drive? Is it the one when you go to Macintosh HD>Users (whichever user you use is your home drive)

Chuckit · Jan 29, 2007, 09:51 AM

That is your home folder, yes.

shifuimam · Jan 29, 2007, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Let me make sure I got this right, if you have to reformat your mac youve saved files data onto your external hd so that you mac would be the same exact way as it was before? How do you back up that data? Do you copy the user into the external hd? And lets say you do reformat your disk, is all you do is copy the user from the external hard drive onto your internal hard drive for the mac and you will have the same documents, settings, for that disc?

I'm not even using an external HD. The only way I'd need to do a complete reformat and repartition would be if a really, really nasty virus destroyed the file structure on both logical partitions.

I set my home folder to the data partition on my iBook's drive. This means that all my applicaiton settings, as well as all my personal files, are on that separate partition. If I have to reinstall OS X, I simply have to backup my Applications directory and then do the reformat on the OS partition. The data partition - and all my files and settings - remains intact.

The only things you may have to reinstall/reconfigure on a fresh install are things like using Theme Changer or ShapeShifter to change your OS theme. Everything else is in your $user/Library/Application Support folder as far as configs for things like Firefox, Adium, etc. go.

There are a few applications that install files to locations other than the Applications directory - specifically, Microsoft Office and Adobe's applications. Those you'd have to reinstall (or do what I do and look in the install logs to find where those other files are).

In Windows, Linux, and OS X, I have found partitions to be quite useful. I've used PartitionMagic in the past to resize my partitions without reinstalling, but I've generally done a good job of sizing my partitions correctly from the get-go. My 20GB drive on my iBook has 10GB reserved for OS X and Applications and 10GB reserved for data and settings. I have 360 GB space on my desktop (200GB + 160GB), so it's not an issue there.

CharlesS · Jan 29, 2007, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

I set my home folder to the data partition on my iBook's drive. This means that all my applicaiton settings, as well as all my personal files, are on that separate partition. If I have to reinstall OS X, I simply have to backup my Applications directory and then do the reformat on the OS partition. The data partition - and all my files and settings - remains intact.

Even that is overkill, since you do not have to reformat anything to reinstall OS X. Just use the Archive and Install feature, and it gives you a completely clean version of OS X while leaving your application settings, personal files, etc. intact. No partitions are needed, and the only thing you want an external drive for is backup (which is still, of course, a good idea).

tinkered · Jan 29, 2007, 02:16 PM

When you secure delete you are zeroing out the data. This means, in a way, you are transferring a file the size of what you are deleting.

If the reformat doesn't solve this problem i would try opening the case and reseating the drive cables. If you have carried the drive around at all, or even during the original shipping, the drive ide/sata cable may have come loose. A loose cable (ide particularly) with some connectivity but lots of errors would stall finder as it works to error correct.

My other thought is that it is getting hot. Cheap enclosures often lack cooling and during large transfers, like movies, it could be overheating and thus stalling. This will also kill your drive much sooner. Heat is the enemy of pallet coatings.