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What to do with hard drives?

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
i have 4 extra hard drives: 2 x 300 GB, 2 x 80 GB.

right now 3 of them are in enclosures.

one of the 80 GB ones are in an enclosure and holds my powerbook's itunes library.

i made one of the 300 GB my startup drive of my intel iMac just for fun really. the other 300 GB has backup stuff and my iMac's itunes library.

the other 80 is not being used at the moment.

also, is there any way 2 computers can share the same itunes library at the same time? what about 2 different users on the same computer?
 
twoodcc said:
i have 4 extra hard drives: 2 x 300 GB, 2 x 80 GB.
Click to expand...
It sounds like two of your extra HDDs are actually in use and have your data on them. (i.e. only two are "extra"). Since the other two are of similar size, why not just clone the used ones on to them every once in a while and put them on the shelf for a rainy day....

B
 
balamw said:
It sounds like two of your extra HDDs are actually in use and have your data on them. (i.e. only two are "extra"). Since the other two are of similar size, why not just clone the used ones on to them every once in a while and put them on the shelf for a rainy day....

B
Click to expand...

well, even though i'm using 3 of the 4 drives, i could use them differently.

i guess i should have said this differently. How would you use the 4 drives? i have the latest 15" powerbook with an 80 GB hard drive in it. i also have an intel imac with a 160 GB hard drive in it. i'm also thinking about getting a Macbook with a 120Gb hard drive in it. if i do, i'd probably wait until after August 7, just in case.

so with my current hardware, how could i share an itunes library? and can it be written to or whatever at the same time?
 
livingfortoday said:
I know two computers can - I used to have my iTunes library on a network drive and shared it that way.
Click to expand...

Note that when you drag new songs from Mac 1 into iTunes and subsequently onto the network, Mac 2 will not have those new files listed in its iTunes.

iTunes doesn't actively index its music folder and add songs accordingly. That is why you are often asked if you would like to Keep the Files or Send to Trash.

Your 2 iTunes' will not be synced. You will have to add songs twice.
 
chrismccorkle said:
Note that when you drag new songs from Mac 1 into iTunes and subsequently onto the network, Mac 2 will not have those new files listed in its iTunes.

iTunes doesn't actively index its music folder and add songs accordingly. That is why you are often asked if you would like to Keep the Files or Send to Trash.

Your 2 iTunes' will not be synced. You will have to add songs twice.
Click to expand...

so with the hardware i have, what's the best way to do it? or just have them seperate? also, does the play count and ratings add to both computers?
 
twoodcc said:
what about 2 different users on the same computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is possible. It requires some mucking about with directory permissions and changing the location of the iTunes library from the default for at least one of the users or create a symbolic links to replace the library folder and iTunes Library File for one of the users.
 
Move everything on the 300gig (if you can) over to one of the 80s (or both) and make a 300gig mirrored RAID out of the two 300gig drives. Then copy everything back, keeping it as a boot volume.

THEN move everything from the 80 gig to the 300 gig RAID, take the two 80gigs and make a 160gig striped RAID. Also make this bootable, and make this your primary boot drive (but back up EVERYTHING of value on it).

You end up with a VERY secure 300gig drive and a VERY fast 160gig drive, both of which are bootable. :)

(or skip the 300gig RAID and have 600 gigs of backup/safe booting drives)
 
mrichmon said:
Yes, this is possible. It requires some mucking about with directory permissions and changing the location of the iTunes library from the default for at least one of the users or create a symbolic links to replace the library folder and iTunes Library File for one of the users.
Click to expand...

this is what i want to do, and i've been trying to do, but the closest i've come is the 2 users can write to the library file, but not at the same time. is that all that can be done? or can it be that they can write to it at the same time? if so, could someone please help me out on doing this?

thanks in advance
 
disconap said:
Move everything on the 300gig (if you can) over to one of the 80s (or both) and make a 300gig mirrored RAID out of the two 300gig drives. Then copy everything back, keeping it as a boot volume.

THEN move everything from the 80 gig to the 300 gig RAID, take the two 80gigs and make a 160gig striped RAID. Also make this bootable, and make this your primary boot drive (but back up EVERYTHING of value on it).

You end up with a VERY secure 300gig drive and a VERY fast 160gig drive, both of which are bootable. :)

(or skip the 300gig RAID and have 600 gigs of backup/safe booting drives)
Click to expand...

thanks for the suggestion. is this all possible even though these disks are external? this sounds like a good idea. could you give me more details on how to set this up?

thanks
 
twoodcc said:
thanks for the suggestion. is this all possible even though these disks are external? this sounds like a good idea. could you give me more details on how to set this up?
Click to expand...
You'll need a new RAID compatible enclosure. Hopefully all the drives are either PATA or SATA and not a mix, right? You won't quite get the full effect if you hook it up by firewire instead of eSATA or the like.

e.g. http://www.cooldrives.com/noname.html

B
 
balamw said:
You'll need a new RAID compatible enclosure. Hopefully all the drives are either PATA or SATA and not a mix, right? You won't quite get the full effect if you hook it up by firewire instead of eSATA or the like.

e.g. http://www.cooldrives.com/noname.html

B
Click to expand...

thanks for the tip. dang, some of those enclosures are expensive. not all the drives are SATA. one of the 80 GB ones is PATA, while the rest is SATA (i think). would this be worth the money for my iMac? what about my powerbook? it has firewire 800. and what about if i get a MacBook? would it be worth it for that?

sorry for all the questions. thanks in advance
 
well any ideas? basically if you had a 17" intel imac, a 15" powerbook, and maybe getting a macbook, what would you do with 2 external 300 GB drives and 2 80 GB drives?
 
twoodcc said:
well any ideas? basically if you had a 17" intel imac, a 15" powerbook, and maybe getting a macbook, what would you do with 2 external 300 GB drives and 2 80 GB drives?
Click to expand...

That question is far too open-ended since you have given no indication of what you use your computers for.

For my home server needs I'd drop the 300GB drives into a dual drive enclosure and use the drives for file storage.

The 80GB drives are hardly worth messing around with any longer. But I've just dropped a spare 200GB drive into a USB enclosure to boot Windows with my MacBook. If I had a spare 80GB drive I would probably have used an 80GB drive since I only need windows for the occassional application. A second spare 80GB drive I would probably devote to an install of linux for system testing use and just plug it into a IDE/SATA to usb adapter when needed rather than dealing with an enclosure.
 
You have two sets of identicle sized drives. In my opinion they should ONLY be used for backing up. Hard drives are quite reliable, but eventually they just might fail and if you don't use them for backing up then you just might find yourself writing in the forums, in a panic, pleading for help on how to recover data from a door stop.

There was a post a few months back where people were yelling at each other to...

BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!

Solid advice.
 
Buy an old B+W powermac for $50 or a G4 powermac with gigabit ethernet (highly reccomended) for $100 and stick your 300 GB drives in there, and use as network server.

That's what I've done with mine. I have 900GB (3x300GB) in RAID5, giving me 600GB of useable space in a B+W powermac with a SATA raid card. 2 drives are SATA, one is PATA, with an SATA adaptor dohicky on the back.

Administration is via apple remote desktop, the RAID card supports online expansion, and partition expanding is via Drive Genius (or one of its cheaper alternatives.) All works fine.

Wish I'd gone for a G4 with gigabit ethernet tho - that will probably be my next step.
 
thanks for the replies. i use my imac for making movies, listening to music, watching videos, etc. and my powerbook for everything else and on the go, but it seems the Macbook would be better for me at college.

i have a big itunes library with music and videos. basically i would like to share the library with 2 and maybe 3 computers (if i get the macbook). but if not, then i think i'm going to have all videos on the imac, all music on the powerbook, and my favorites of both on the Macbook. what do you think?
 
twoodcc said:
i have a big itunes library with music and videos. basically i would like to share the library with 2 and maybe 3 computers (if i get the macbook). but if not, then i think i'm going to have all videos on the imac, all music on the powerbook, and my favorites of both on the Macbook. what do you think?
Click to expand...
I find the network sharing of iTunes libraries to be super-duper handy, at least for music, and at least partially for videos. So if your iMac is always on, just hook up the drive to that and be done with it. If not, consider hooking the drive up to a Linksys NSLU2 and run one of the many third party firmwares that will let you run libdaapd and share your library without the iTunes imposed limits...

B
 
balamw said:
I find the network sharing of iTunes libraries to be super-duper handy, at least for music, and at least partially for videos. So if your iMac is always on, just hook up the drive to that and be done with it. If not, consider hooking the drive up to a Linksys NSLU2 and run one of the many third party firmwares that will let you run libdaapd and share your library without the iTunes imposed limits...

B
Click to expand...

thanks for the tip. is there any way to do that without buying a Linksys NSLU2? i have a Linksys wireless router already.
 
twoodcc said:
thanks for the tip. is there any way to do that without buying a Linksys NSLU2? i have a Linksys wireless router already.
Click to expand...
Any box you can run linux on and attach the USB drives to would probably do, but the NSLU2 is great 'cause it's tiny and uses almost no power.

Some of the Linksys routers have USB, so they might do.... Do you have the WRT54G.

B
 
balamw said:
Any box you can run linux on and attach the USB drives to would probably do, but the NSLU2 is great 'cause it's tiny and uses almost no power.

Some of the Linksys routers have USB, so they might do.... Do you have the WRT54G.

B
Click to expand...

oh ok. i'm not sure about running another box. i'd rather use the machines that i have.

i'm not exactly sure which router i have (not at the router right now), but it doesn't have usb. i think the number is similar to WRT54G though
 
twoodcc said:
oh ok. i'm not sure about running another box. i'd rather use the machines that i have.

i'm not exactly sure which router i have (not at the router right now), but it doesn't have usb. i think the number is similar to WRT54G though
Click to expand...
I leave my Dell on 24/7 and let the iMac and iBook sleep, but my tunes are always available from any of the boxes.

B
 
balamw said:
I leave my Dell on 24/7 and let the iMac and iBook sleep, but my tunes are always available from any of the boxes.

B
Click to expand...

so could i just let my powerbook or imac stay on 24/7 then? and do whatever you have your dell set to do?
 
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