Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 10

194,791 points

Best disk format for Aperture volumes

Today my new MacBook Pro was delivered, and before I migrate my data I would like to have some advice from this community on how to format the disks for best use with Aperture.

Fresh out of the box the system drive (500 GB SSD) and the second internal disk (1 TB) are both formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled). Would there be any advantage in changing that to MacOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) while the disks are still empty?

I will use that MBP mainly for fun - maintaining my Aperture Library, making music with GarageBand, maintaining the iTunes Library, creating movies with iMovie, QuartzComposer and PovRay, and programming. Unfortunately all my hobbies need a lot of disk space and processing power, so additional advice would be appreciated on how to get the best profit out of my 500 GB SSD.

Regards

Léonie

MacBook Pro, 17", Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2.4 GHz I.Core i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, 1TB HardDisk

Aperture 3, Version 3.2.3

Posted on Mar 27, 2012 3:40 PM

Best reply

Allan Eckert

Level 9

79,512 points

Posted on Mar 27, 2012 3:44 PM

HFS+ of MacOS Extended (Journaled). You do not want case sensitive.

Allan

View in context

22 replies

Mar 28, 2012 7:17 PM in response to Keith Barkley

léonie Author

Level 10

194,791 points

Mar 28, 2012 7:49 PM in response to Keith Barkley

@Keith: Thank you for the link to "About Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Case-Sensitive) aka HFSX", most useful, i.e. the last two warning paragraphs.

@Franlk:

It's a real problem especially on a mixed format setup, that is some drives case sensitive and other case insensitive.

I have seen the results of that in some posts here; that made me ask the question in the first place. But I have to live in a "mixed" world already with all my volumes MacOS Extended (Journaled, not case sensitive) and my family's systems and students' systems case sensitive (Linux and Windows); I tried to change the world around me - did not work - so I started thinking about changing my platform's formatting, but now you all seem to confirm my doubts about that 😝.

if you are thinking of formatting as case sensitive don't. It will open up a can of worms

Then I certainly will not touch the lid of Pandora's box. Thank you all for your advice and warning.

Léonie

Mar 29, 2012 7:42 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

For example, if you have the file pandora and Pandora in different folders, the case insensitive OS still sees them as two separate files. I think what LeonieDF is doing is transferring files to his new computer. In that case, if he moves Pandora and pandora from a case insensitive linux server to the same folder on a case insensitve one, one or the other might be overwritten.

Man, this is confusing, isn't it!

Mar 29, 2012 9:01 AM in response to Keith Barkley

For example, if you have the file pandora and Pandora in different folders, the case insensitive OS still sees them as two separate files.

Right two seperate file but with the same name.

Man, this is confusing, isn't it!

Right why it is best to keep the system Case Insensitive unless there is an overwhelming reason not to.

And if you must go case sensitive either make all disks that or else segregate out the case sensitive disks and use those exclusively for whatever project made you set them up that way in the first place.

Copying from one to the other will make your life miserable, 😢

léonie Author

Level 10

194,791 points

Mar 29, 2012 10:57 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Right why it is best to keep the system Case Insensitive unless there is an overwhelming reason not to.

Would you consider to strive for matrimonial bliss and peace to be an overwhelming reason? My husband threatens to purge MacOS from all my Macs and to install Linux whenever I dare to mention some incompatibility problem when importing his pictures 😉

Mar 29, 2012 11:11 AM in response to léonie

Be careful here I might just side with your husband on this 😁

OK matrimonial peace is an overwhelming reason. Of course they do say that mixed marriages are difficult.

What you might do and this is just off the top of my head is set up one disk as case sensitive and use that as a staging area. Have the files you copy from the Unix box to to this drive. Write a script (Perl or ruby would be good for this) to go through the files and make sure there are no duplicate names if there are then rename them in some way.

Once that is done you'll be sure you have all the files with unique case insensitive names and you can then feel safe using them in the rest of the OS X system.

Or just make all the OS X disk case sensitive. Its the mix of both that is the major killer.

Or just bring *nix up on the Mac!

léonie Author

Level 10

194,791 points

Mar 29, 2012 11:54 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Be careful here I might just side with your husband on this 😁

No surprises here! 😀

What you might do and this is just off the top of my head is set up one disk as case sensitive and use that as a staging area.

That looks like a good plan - my study is cluttered with old external disks, that are too small for anything useful - they could be turned into a kind of buffering area between the two worlds. And the script to make filenames unique should not be too difficult. You like Ruby and Perl? You really do side with my husband - our book shelves are filled with camel books. I am more familiar with Python, Scheme/Racket, and Apple Script.

Or just make all the OS X disk case sensitive. Its the mix of both that is the major killer.

That was my original plan, for right now I only would have to reformat the drives and to reinstall Lion. But I am still not sure if the Apple Migration tools are up to it, if I migrate from a non case-senstive TM backup to a case sensitive volume.

Or just bring *nix up on the Mac!

Done that, been there - two years ago I got a set of Linux install DVDs as a wedding anniversary present. Also run linux (and windows) from Paralles. But I never used it much, for most purposes the Terminal.app and sometime XTerm is all I need.

Many, many thanks, Frank. 🙂

Regards

Best disk format for Aperture volumes