Thank you all for the advice. I went there today. There was a lot of stuff was going on. Here's a recap. This is what I mostly saw and worked with when I was there:
- iMac with a 500 GB drive, 2 partitions (one was 'Image', as I recall)
- MacBook Pro, with a 250 GB drive I think...
- iPad II
Drives & other equipment
- 1 T Time Capsule Machine from 2009
- 2 3 T WD external drives
- 2 1.5 T Seagate
- 1 4 T Seagate
Worked around 6 hours. Mainly, cleared off the 4 T drive, reformatted as ExFAT so it could receive PC files as well (read about that on a break!).
The iMac was completely full. I copied off, then deleted every folder except the photo one, onto one of the WD drives. Then I updated it and the MacBook Pro to OS X 10.11, El Capitan.
On the iMac, I looked further at the photos folder, (or was it Pictures, I forget), and was a little shocked. Seems the photos are 'encapsulated' in one file, unlike the jpgs I usually see on a PC/Linux, only to be read as a library by Photos, the application, so, consolidating seems to be not so straightforward. I am reading http://www.macworld.com/article/2909654/software-photography/how-to-import-merge -and-consolidate-your-libraries-in-photo…, trying to gain more insight.
What I thought was a Time Capsule was really a Time Machine. The 1 T drive was almost full. Tried to move all files from it to the 4 T drive, couldn't see how, however, found Carbon Copy Cloner, and started offloading around 900 GB, which I calculated would take 6 hours.
I told them I'd come back Wednesday. In the meantime I suggested, since they seemed they could, to:
- move all the data from the other drives (it was about 2T total) to the 4T Seagate
- run a duplicate checker. I suggested Duplicate Finder (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/49266/duplicate-finder), after finding it on a google search, as it states it's compatible with OS X 10.11. I also recommend dupeguru as another option, but it seems only goes to 10.10.
- delete all files from the 1 T Time Machine
- turn on the Time Machine software in the OS, and have the iMac and MacBook back themselves up to the 1 T Time Machine (I figured this would work, even though I did not know)
One other thing they wanted was to be able to access their files remotely.
I have a few concerns and questions
- Any suggestions or other links to read on consolidating photos from all their locations: iMac, MacBook, iPad II, iPhones and various external drives, which are from older versions of OS X, may be in "iPhoto format", and probably several in PC format?
- Will the iMac and MacBook both be able to back themselves up to the single 1 T drive on the Time Machine?
- Can they access their files remotely on any of the internal or external drives? If so, what would be the best way to so?