moving aperture and iphoto libraries

My problem was a failing external drive which wouldn't allow me to copy the library to a safe drive. Using your suggestion I was able to import the library to another 'safe' Aperture library and then deal with the failed drive.

Thanks for your help.

If they are managed libraries, just drag copy them to a new drive in the Finder. Once you've confirmed they launch OK from the new location, you can make a backup somewhere else and then remove them from the original drive.

Another option is to leave the libraries on the MacBook internal drive and move just the Masters off to your external drive. This is called a "Referenced Library".

A good place to learn bout referenced libraries is here:

http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=3%26sec tion=1%26tasks=true

press option key while launching aperture and create a new aperture library. store this on external drive.

then import internal hd aperture library into this external library. same goes with the iphoto.

your iphoto editing will still being saved, including all your iphoto books saved.

this i think is the safest.

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto and/or Aperture

2. Copy the iPhoto Library / Aperture Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library. Repeat form Aperture.

4. Test the libraries and when you're sure all is well, trash the ones on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD

Both William Lloyd's and Shuttleworth's recommendations will work. Which of these will work best for you, will depend on how you are using your MacBook and on the speed of your external drive. The Aperture library needs to be on a fast drive, otherwise you will have performance problems. Usually the fastest drive will be your internal disk, so if your external drive is slow and not connected by fire wire or thunderbolt, I'd use referenced originals/masters, like shuttleworth suggested. This will enable you to browse and rate your images, even if the disk with with the originals should be offline. But if you have a fast firewire disk, you can put the whole library there as recommended by William Lloyd - that is much easier and safer.

Remember to check the formatting of your external drive. A new drive usually will be formatted MS-DOS FAT by default, and Aperture may not work with this. Use disk utility to reformat the drive, if it is not formatted MacOS X extended journaled, before you move your library there. And do not use a network volume for your Aperture library; that will result in very poor performance and you may corrupt your library this way,see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3252

Good Luck

Léonie