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Trapper · Jan 28, 2006, 03:10 PM

I’ve just ordered an external firewire hard-drive (a LaCie mini drive – 160G) for my Mac Mini, and I have a few questions. I’ve heard that the Mini might run faster if I use the external as a boot drive. Is this true? There seem to be varying opinions on the forum, but I’d like to hear from anyone with actual experience. If I do end up using it as my main boot drive, I have a few additional questions:

1) I have the new iPod with video. I can’t hook it up directly to the Lacie mini drive, as the drive only has firewire. Will this be a problem? Does the iPod need to be hooked up to the boot drive in order to sync and charge?

2) This is how I was thinking of transferring everything over to the new drive. Is this an acceptable method?

Just open /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility, select your mini's internal HD and go to the 'Restore' tab. As a source select the internal HD, as the destination select your new external FW disk. Have the utility format the disk and restore in one step. Go to the system prefs and select the external disk. Done. All preserved.

3) Once I have everything transferred over and I reboot from the new drive, am I going to have to let any of my applications know of this change? For instance, if I launch iTunes from the applications folder on my new drive, is it going to access the iTunes Music folder from the new drive, or is iTunes going to look for it on the internal drive from where it accessed it last? Or Limewire? Will it automatically send all downloaded files to the download file location originally specified on my internal drive? Will I have to change the preferences to all such programs? Is there an online guide for this?

Thanks.

harrisjamieh · Jan 28, 2006, 03:15 PM

Yes, your mini will run faster from the external, as the internal drive is only 4200 RPM, whereas the external Lacie is 7200 RPM (same speed as a desktop HD).

1) It wouldnt make a blind bit of difference if you hooked it up to the HD or the mini. Since the new ipods are USB only, hook it up to the USB port on the mini - it'll work

2) In theory it should work, however i havent tried it

3) I dont think you will have to, however that is just a guestimate

Trapper · Feb 3, 2006, 05:13 PM

If someone could clarify something for me here that would be great. Given that this forum is all about the exchange of knowledge, does the fact that no one has definatively answered my question mean that: a) no one here actually knows the answer (in which case, could anyone direct me to the right forum to ask these sorts of questions); b) whoever knows the answer doesn't really feel like sharing it; or, c) I asked the question that in some way was insulting or contrary to forum ettiquite, and that, as a result, I am being shunned.

Any feedback would be great. Or, even better, if you do know the answer to my original questions and feel like answering, you could do that. Thanks to harrisjamieh for your answers.

-Trapper

SVass · Feb 3, 2006, 05:41 PM

There is a program called superduper that will copy your entire hard disk.

ttp://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/superduper.html

sam

SVass · Feb 3, 2006, 05:42 PM

There is a program called superduper that will copy your entire hard disk.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...uperduper.html

sam

mduell · Feb 3, 2006, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by Trapper

1) I have the new iPod with video. I can’t hook it up directly to the Lacie mini drive, as the drive only has firewire. Will this be a problem? Does the iPod need to be hooked up to the boot drive in order to sync and charge?

No. Read up on how computers work. Your boot drive could be in Mongolia for all your iPod cares.

Originally Posted by Trapper

2) This is how I was thinking of transferring everything over to the new drive. Is this an acceptable method?

Just open /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility, select your mini's internal HD and go to the 'Restore' tab. As a source select the internal HD, as the destination select your new external FW disk. Have the utility format the disk and restore in one step. Go to the system prefs and select the external disk. Done. All preserved.

Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper or dd or one of the million other programs designed to do this.

Originally Posted by Trapper

3) Once I have everything transferred over and I reboot from the new drive, am I going to have to let any of my applications know of this change? For instance, if I launch iTunes from the applications folder on my new drive, is it going to access the iTunes Music folder from the new drive, or is iTunes going to look for it on the internal drive from where it accessed it last? Or Limewire? Will it automatically send all downloaded files to the download file location originally specified on my internal drive? Will I have to change the preferences to all such programs? Is there an online guide for this?

If the paths change, you'll have files everywhere. If you keep the paths the same, none of your programs will know any better.

Trapper · Feb 6, 2006, 05:01 PM

Thanks for the help everyone. I appreciate your comments and feedback. Just a quick note to mduell (and I'm really not trying to start a flame war here): Thanks for your helpful advice; I'll seek out those programs and give them a try. But, really now - "read up on how computers work."? That's your honest advice? It stands to reason that *nearly* any question someone might have is probably addressed to some degree in one book or another on computers. Surely that can't be your advice to everyone. RTFM seems like an antithetical approach to a forum designed for the exchange of information. But, hey, I won't nitpick. Perhaps that was an extremely stupid question to ask, and that I'm the only one who had no idea what the answer was. But, I'm still glad I asked it. Your actual answer was informative, and the next time someone comes along whose ignorance is as profound as mine on this subject, they can do a quick search and get the answer. Again, though, thanks for all the help.

macintologist · Feb 6, 2006, 06:31 PM

mduell, great job helping out a fellow mac user

tooki · Feb 6, 2006, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by Trapper

1) I have the new iPod with video. I can’t hook it up directly to the Lacie mini drive, as the drive only has firewire. Will this be a problem? Does the iPod need to be hooked up to the boot drive in order to sync and charge?

2) This is how I was thinking of transferring everything over to the new drive. Is this an acceptable method?

Just open /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility, select your mini's internal HD and go to the 'Restore' tab. As a source select the internal HD, as the destination select your new external FW disk. Have the utility format the disk and restore in one step. Go to the system prefs and select the external disk. Done. All preserved.

3) Once I have everything transferred over and I reboot from the new drive, am I going to have to let any of my applications know of this change? For instance, if I launch iTunes from the applications folder on my new drive, is it going to access the iTunes Music folder from the new drive, or is iTunes going to look for it on the internal drive from where it accessed it last? Or Limewire? Will it automatically send all downloaded files to the download file location originally specified on my internal drive? Will I have to change the preferences to all such programs? Is there an online guide for this?

1. The iPod connects to the computer, not the disk, so it doesn't matter what drive you're booting from.

2. Yes, using Restore works perfectly. I have used this method countless times to restore machines in lab environments.

3. Very few applications will notice anything -- really only those involving copy protection. You might need to re-authorize your iTunes Music Store account. But otherwise, most everything should be entirely seamless.

tooki

mduell · Feb 7, 2006, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Trapper

Thanks for the help everyone. I appreciate your comments and feedback. Just a quick note to mduell (and I'm really not trying to start a flame war here): Thanks for your helpful advice; I'll seek out those programs and give them a try. But, really now - "read up on how computers work."? That's your honest advice? It stands to reason that *nearly* any question someone might have is probably addressed to some degree in one book or another on computers. Surely that can't be your advice to everyone. RTFM seems like an antithetical approach to a forum designed for the exchange of information. But, hey, I won't nitpick. Perhaps that was an extremely stupid question to ask, and that I'm the only one who had no idea what the answer was. But, I'm still glad I asked it. Your actual answer was informative, and the next time someone comes along whose ignorance is as profound as mine on this subject, they can do a quick search and get the answer. Again, though, thanks for all the help.

You expressed a fundamental misunderstanding w/r/t how computers work (that the iPod needed to be directly connected to the box containing the hard disk with music). I didn't have time to come up with a complete write up when I was replying, so I suggested further individual research into the underlying technologies and systems. My apologies if I came across too brusque.

Trapper · Feb 8, 2006, 10:07 PM

Thanks for clearing that up. In retrospect your answer seems substantially more helpful. My real concern was not so much that the iPod needed to be hooked up directly to disc containing music (and I apologize if I said anything in this regard that contributed to your misunderstanding the nature of my inquiry), but rather that it be directly hooked up to the disc that iTunes was running on (admitedly, in this context, these descriptions do overlap in their instantiation). I have no idea why I thought that might be the case. But as you suggest, perhaps the only explanation for my not knowing that answer is that I have a "fundamental misunderstanding w/r/t how computers work". However, I'm not completely sure whether you and I would agree on the appropriate use of the word "fundamental" here. But, as this is a Macintosh forum, and not a semantics forum, I suppose we'd best let the issue drop. Besides, this seems to me like it actually could escalate into a flame-war, and that would be silly and pointless, and very ungracious of me. I admit, I did think that there might have been an unwarranted brusqueness to your answer, but your advice was actually quite informative. Plus, it's hard to tell whether someone is brusque over email. And I'm from Canada, so I suppose my standards of ettiquite are tuned to a slightly different frequency.

Zubir · Feb 9, 2006, 12:08 AM

Well, first of all, you took a condescending, entitled tone with the "I assume no one here knows, and I guess no one is sharing if they do" remark when your questions weren't promptly answered. Your ettiquete needs work, friend. An old saying involving glass houses and stones comes to mind.

Trapper · Feb 9, 2006, 12:23 AM

My bad.

Trapper · Feb 9, 2006, 12:35 AM

Anyway, I did get answers to my questions, and I am very grateful for that, so thank-you everyone. If I came across as condescending, I am sorry to anyone and everyone who may have been offended. My attempts to be droll were clearly ill-conceived and clumsy and came across as facetious. So if I behaved in a manner that made me look like a bit of an ass, I am sorry.