Running Aperture using External HD

I was not able to create a new library on my external drive at all. Struggling here.

Is your external drive a new drive? Then it may still be formatted MS DOS-FAT. An Aperture library needs to be on a drive formatted MAC OS X Extended (Journaled). If your drive has the wrong formatting, reformat it with Disk Utility before you try to create the library on that drive,

see: Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

You should be able to create a library on an external drive or to copy your library there, if the formatting is correct. Aperture has been designed to work with large libraries on external drives. Simply use the command "File > Switch to Library > Other/New" and select a folder on your external drive.

If it is not the formatting, what is the error message you are getting, or in what way does it not work?

Regards

Léonie

Yes, this is easily accomplished. Simply create a new library on an external drive, and Aperture will import images to that library (if you are importing the images into the library as managed files). You can create a new library using either of these approaches:

IF APERTURE IS ALREADY OPEN:

1. Select File > Switch to Library > Other/New... The Library Select dialog appears.

2. Create New..., then select the external drive on which you wish to store the library. Name the library and click Create.

IF APERTURE IS NOT RUNNING:

1. Hold down the Option key when launching Aperture. The Library Select dialog appears.

2. Create New..., then select the external drive on which you wish to store the library. Name the library and click Create.

At this point Aperture will be using the library on the external drive. When you import images into this library they will be stored within the library on the external drive (unless you instruct Aperture to import the images as referenced files).

Is the external drive directly connected to your Mac? Aperture doesn't allow libraries to be stored on network drives (network-attached storage or NAS drives). If your drive is a network drive, try connecting it directly to your Mac using a USB/FireWire cable.

What does the disk "My Book" show, when you select it in the Finder and use "File > Get Info ⌘I"? The error message strongly suggests, that the file system has the wrong formatting.

All, This 1TB External HD already has 750GB in it. So I cannot reformat it and I am thinking of getting a new one with Firewire. And try to set up a library on it. Agree?

You could partition it, without deleting the present contents, and format the second partition, but if you can get a new, larger drive, it would certainly be preferable. A photo library needs space to grow.

You are welcome, glad to help. 🙂

It is only the latest Aperture release that is actually checking a dsk for compatibily. Previous versions actulally let you write your Aperture volume on disks with the wrong format, and you only would notice it when Aperture lost the reference to the original image files.

With some of the files you now are having on the drive you may eventually get reading errors, if the filenames contain national characters or you need to distonguish between upper- and lower case letters.

Regards

Léonie

It will be safer in the long run to get all your libraries onto correctly formatted drives; at least I would stop adding images to the libraries on the MS DOS-FAT drives. There maybe already some images be imported, that may give copying errors, when you try to move the libraries.

Or is that too big of a risk to put all in one single library?

You mean like all eggs in one basket? Aperture has been designed to work well with really large libraries, and managed libraries are easier; it is less likely that you will accidentally move or delete referenced files. On the other hand, really large libraries can become a bit unwieldy, and it takes along time to copy them to other drives, if need be; and to copy them using the network will require a very stable network. Creating a vault for backup will take a long time.

So it is really up to you, what you prefer. It might be a good idea to start with on big managed library, to consolidate everyting in one place, and if you notice, that you prefer a smaller library, turn it into a referenced library by relocating the originals.

But I'd go for only one Aperture library. It is much more useful to have all images in one database. You do not have to switch between libraries and can combine all images freely.

Regards

Léonie