External Photo Drives on Macs: It seems that a lot of Mac users, even instructors on YouTube, use external drives for holding their images on a Mac. Is this because the iMac has only...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It seems that a lot of Mac users, even instructors on YouTube, use external drives for holding their images on a Mac. Is this because the iMac has only one internal drive and fills up fast, or is there an advantage to having images on an external drive?

Yesterday, I copied my images to my iMac, and the drive is a little more than half full, so I'm thinking about using an external drive. Then I could use that drive to edit on my Mac or Windows machine.

Jbat Loc: Charleston, SC

In my case it is definitely because i have more photo space requirements than the internal drive could handle even if nothing else were on it. However, I would probably put them on the external anyway unless I just had a very small amount as it keeps the internal drive available for everything else, including the operating system. As far as editing the same drive on Mac and Windows, I have both machines and I do not do that. I have a high degree of caution when trying to mix apples and oranges and Mac and Windows are in that class.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

jerryc41 wrote:

It seems that a lot of Mac users, even instructors on YouTube, use external drives for holding their images on a Mac. Is this because the iMac has only one internal drive and fills up fast, or is there an advantage to having images on an external drive?

Yesterday, I copied my images to my iMac, and the drive is a little more than half full, so I'm thinking about using an external drive. Then I could use that drive to edit on my Mac or Windows machine.

Jerry, you have struck a nerve with ALL computer users who store photographs, not just MAC users. Personally, I use an external because of travel constraints. I carry a MacBook Air for portability. I use a WD 3 tb drive for the same reason. It is attached to the iMac at this time, and it travels with me when I use the MacBook Air. 3 tbs holds a lot of photos, and if it fills, WD makes more drives. I also carry a few WD 2 tb portable drives just for spares. My first HD was a whopping 20 MBs! I was sure I would never fill it. Surprise! Each photograph I make requires space for the jpeg image and the CRW file, usually from 30-35 mbs. They add up and after a while the drive gets full. With the cost of drives being so low they are easy and convenient to use as extras. Besides, the portable WD 2tb drives fit in a shirt pocket. They used to fill a wheel barrow. I'm grateful for technology.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

davidrb wrote:

Jerry, you have struck a nerve with ALL computer u... (show quote)

Are these the fullsize drives, or those smaller ones? I have a WD Blue drive, 1TB, that I removed from a new Dell when I installed a Samsung 500GB SSD. I'm going to put that into an external case with a fan.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Jbat wrote:

As far as editing the same drive on Mac and Windows, I have both machines and I do not do that. I have a high degree of caution when trying to mix apples and oranges and Mac and Windows are in that class.

Interesting. I'll have to give that some thought.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

jerryc41 wrote:

Are these the fullsize drives, or those smaller ones? I have a WD Blue drive, 1TB, that I removed from a new Dell when I installed a Samsung 500GB SSD. I'm going to put that into an external case with a fan.

The WD 3tb is full-sized with it's own fan. The 2tbs are WD Passports, shirt pocket size. I can, if necessary, connect up to 4 of these as they utilize USB connectors and the iMac has 4 USB slots. The iMac has it's own 3tb fusion-drive that I use for operating systems, programs, etc. Any photograph, movie, or musical track is stored on the external drive and goes wherever the MacBook Air goes. Haven't tried to connect it to the iPad yet. I wonder if the iPad would communicate with an external HD or not. Another project.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

davidrb wrote:

The WD 3tb is full-sized with it's own fan. The 2... (show quote)

If you get one of the wd wireless drives it should communicate with the iPad. I have a WD My Cloud 2tb And a WD mirror external drive that are hooked to my router and I can read & write files from iPad to the drive and back to the iPad.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

jethro779 wrote:

If you get one of the wd wireless drives it should communicate with the iPad. I have a WD My Cloud 2tb And a WD mirror external drive that are hooked to my router and I can read & write files from iPad to the drive and back to the iPad.

I have a 30 pin plug-in that connects a USB plug into the iPad. I can run directly from the Xternal to the iPad. Now if I can find the time.....

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

davidrb wrote:

I have a 30 pin plug-in that connects a USB plug into the iPad. I can run directly from the Xternal to the iPad. Now if I can find the time.....

The only problem I see with that cord is the external drive does not natively run IOS as an operating system and the iPad does not natively run OS X as an operating system.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

jethro779 wrote:

The only problem I see with that cord is the external drive does not natively run IOS as an operating system and the iPad does not natively run OS X as an operating system.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Presently the iMac and drive are disposed. This will have to wait til later. The question will be whether or not the iPad will accept an external device.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I don't own a desktop model. I use a 5 year old MacBook Pro. I use External Drives to store my photos because of memory constraints. Currently I have one for Time Machine upgrades only and four others for image storage.

blackest Loc: Ireland

davidrb wrote:

I have a 30 pin plug-in that connects a USB plug into the iPad. I can run directly from the Xternal to the iPad. Now if I can find the time.....

It maybe a bit more complicated than you might think. I found there are ways of getting a jail broken ipad to hook up with an external usb drive. The format for an Ipad is hfsx which is case sensitive hfs+ Ipads hide the file system from direct access. Wifi connected drives are easy since the ipad would only need to request and send files. It doesnt matter what format the drive is in, in most cases. (If it was fat32 it would have issues with files greater than 4GB in size).

There is also a power issue as iPads limit themselves to 20mA so its likely that other than a flash USB stick you would need to find an alternative way to power the drive.

There is a device which is a battery powered nas which can be connected to wirelessly and it can power an external usb drive for a time. I nearly bought one and reconsidered since I have a netbook which is more flexible but weighs a couple of pounds. Battery life can be around 7hours...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks for the info. At this point, I'm going to leave the images on the computer and copy them to the 1TB external.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

jerryc41 wrote:

Thanks for the info. At this point, I'm going to leave the images on the computer and copy them to the 1TB external.

Aw Jerry, no sense of adventure?

ejrmaine Loc: South Carolina

jerryc41 wrote:

It seems that a lot of Mac users, even instructors on YouTube, use external drives for holding their images on a Mac. Is this because the iMac has only one internal drive and fills up fast, or is there an advantage to having images on an external drive?

Yesterday, I copied my images to my iMac, and the drive is a little more than half full, so I'm thinking about using an external drive. Then I could use that drive to edit on my Mac or Windows machine.

Jerry, I bought a MacBook Pro and opted for a very speedy 256 G SSD. My only HD pig is my photos, so for about $120 I bought a 2T external, that now holds all my images.

Apples Time Machine can be set up easily to backup all of my drives, the SSD and the External.

You can by MacBook Pros with large drives or a combo fusion drive, but I feel my set works best for me.