Best way to transfer 24gb of photos/videos to external hard drive?

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Level 1

28 points

Best way to transfer 24gb of photos/videos to external hard drive?

My iMac is from Mid 2010 running on OS X Yosemite version 10.10.5 3.06gHz Intel Core i3, I only use the computer now for web searching but I would like to export all of my photos in the Photos App to a 1tb external hard drive and then factory reset the whole computer back to new.

The issue I am having is that after dragging the Photos Library folder into my backup drive, it says there is about 24gb to be transferred and still after a couple of hours, it still says zero bytes of 24gb remaining and is still loading an estimated time left.

Is it because I am trying to move too many files? Is there another way?

I've tried manually moving bit by bit but I would lose my spot and have to try to do it all over again and I would end up with a lot of duplicates.

Please help me out!

iMac 21.5″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Jul 18, 2021 12:58 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 18, 2021 10:44 PM in response to mnguyen95

Two possible causes. One is you have the drive formatted case sensitive. That can cause problems for photos libraries.

Or - you are moving quite a lot of individual files. On an old slow mac, that might just take a long time to run through the initial pass to estimate file sizes.

If you have nothing else on the drive, I would stop the copy and reformat it to not case sensitive and try again.

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

83,011 points

Jul 18, 2021 10:53 PM in response to mnguyen95

When you're moving that large and complex of a container, your computer is going to take some time to prepare the file. I recently moved a 100 GB photo library to an external drive on a 2019 MacBook Pro for a family member and it took hours -- I didn't really keep time as I was doing other things, but it was at least a half day move. And, then did it again to move the album back.

I'd probably enable iCloud photos, buy the space for a month, and let the pictures upload instead.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,619 points

Jul 18, 2021 10:59 PM in response to mnguyen95

ladydc2gsr wrote:

My iMac is from Mid 2010 running on OS X Yosemite version 10.10.5 3.06gHz Intel Core i3, I only use the computer now for web searching but I would like to export all of my photos in the Photos App to a 1tb external hard drive and then factory reset the whole computer back to new.

....

Why do you think a factory reset of the Mac is necessary? Are you planning to give it away? I am asking, because you need to be very careful and make sure you still have the installers for all applications you need, before you wipe the installed applications on a Mac with an older system version. After Apple introduced the AppStore, it may be impossible to get some of the Yosemite versions back from the AppStore, as this system is by ow six years old and the AppStore is catering to the most recent system versions. Many updaters for iLife software have been removed completely from Apple's downloads page.

If you are trying to trouble shoot an issue by restoring the Mac as new, try all other fixes first. If you really need to reset the Mac, keep at least two complete backups (and test them, if they are working) before you erase the Mac and any applications, that you may not be able to get back.

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Answer 4

mnguyen95 Author

Level 1

28 points

Jul 19, 2021 12:17 PM in response to léonie

I wanted to factory reset my iMac because I haven't used it in years and there are files that I don't need anymore (too much to delete manually I feel like). I was able to backup all the files I needed, including my photos and videos, but the computer is slow now and lags a bit. I also don't use any programs or software so I thought about resetting the computer to set it up as new again. Do you have any advice or other suggestions? I will mostly be using the iMac for email and browsing.

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Answer 5

mnguyen95 Author

Level 1

28 points

Jul 19, 2021 12:18 PM in response to TonyCollinet

I figured the issue and it was because my Photos app was still open while I was trying to transfer the photos over, as soon as I closed the application, everything went smoothly!

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