Everytime I run Aperture, at some point it just stops and says "your start up disk is full". Do I need a bigger External Hard Drive? If so, what is the best way to do this? How much will I need if I do a lot of editing in Aperture?

The operating system and applications need temporary working storage. How much free space do you have on your start up disk? If you do not have at least 10 GB of free space, you need to free space asap, otherwise your system may be unnecessary slow.

How much will I need if I do a lot of editing in Aperture?

That will depend on the amount of photos you are taking, and on the size of the image files. Depending on the resolution and encoding of your image files a single image may need 3 MB to 60 MB or even more. If you are planning to store all your photos in Aperture for the years to come, get yourself a large external drive to store your photos , 1TB or so, and a second one to be able to make a backup of the photos. Drives will fail unexpectedly, and you will not want to lose your image files.

Regards

Léonie

Any suggestion on a specific external hard drive that does the work?

Cramitha, I hope somebody else will answer that. Pick a drive with a fast connection - I do not know, what your Mac will support - Firewire, USB 2 or 3, Thunderbolt.

Can Time Capsule be used as an external hard drive and a back up at the same time?

Better not -

• For one, TimeMachine will want to use the whole drive. If you do not partition the Time Capsule, eventually your backups will leave no space for your image files.
• Secondly, putting the image files on the same drive as your backup will defeat the purpose of a backup; when the drive fails, your pictures and the backup will be both gone.
• And third, network access is slower, and it will be no fun when editing your images.

I'd prefer a locally connected drive for the Aperture library.

Are the pictures in my Aperture Library in my Internal Hard Drive? So will adding an external hard drive just create space for applications to work or will overflow of Aperture Library go automatically into the external hard drive?

By default your image files should be in your Aperture library, and that is by default in your "Pictures" folder. If you add an external hard drive, you can move your Aperture library to that drive and so create space for your other documents.

Or you could keep the library on our internal drive and tell Aperture to move the original image files to your external drive. In the long run this will be preferrable, but I would not recommend it to an Aperture beginner. It is too easy to make mistakes this way. You can still go this route later, when you know Aperture better.

Regards

Léonie

I agree with Léonie, let the TM drive just be TM only and do its thing. All hard drives fail and hard drives are cheap, so buy several of 1 TB or larger size.

A common cause of erratic or slowing Aperture operation is the fact that hard drives slow as they fill, so make sure no hard drive is more than an arbitrary ~70% full; even less full is preferable for speed. Even though sometimes hard drives will function to almost 100% full I strongly disagree with the idea that just 10 GB space might be appropriate. Note that overfilling always slows operation and can also lead to instability.

An overfilled main drive is a serious issue, do not ignore it. Back up everything, put the backup drive aside and then A) remove data from the main drive to another drive to make more main drive unused overhead space and B) initiate a new workflow that ensures you will keep all hard drives underfilled.

I strongly recommend that all users primarily use a Referenced Originals ("Referenced Masters") work flow with originals/masters stored on external drives separate from the drive that holds the Aperture Library. Those expert both in large databases and in large mass storage solutions may choose to ignore that advice.

HTH

-Allen

Even though sometimes hard drives will function to almost 100% full I strongly disagree with the idea that just 10 GB space might be appropriate.

Allen, I did not say this is optimal - I meant it as the lowest limit, when immediate action is necessary to free more space, before the system will have massive problems. More will certainly be better.

I strongly recommend that all users primarily use a Referenced Originals ("Referenced Masters") work flow with originals/masters stored on external drives separate from the drive that holds the Aperture Library. Those expert both in large databases and in large mass storage solutions may choose to ignore that advice.

For a large Aperture library, referenced is the way to go, no doubt. But as long as the library is still small, only a few projects, and a user has learn how to get the most out of Aperture, I do not see the necessity to introduce the added complication of referenced originals from the start. Once the library grows, it is still possible to take the plunge and go referenced.

Carmitha: Here is a link to the manual page, explaining how to work with referenced original files, so you can make up your mind, if you already want to take this step:

Working with Referenced Images

Regards

Léonie

Where should I start on this one. I like having the aperture library in one space.

Back up everything. Try to delete some files, so that Aperture starts working again.

• Make sure, the new drive is formatted for Mac OS X (Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)). You can change the formatting with Disk Utility, if necessary.
• Then drag your Aperture Library as an entity to your new external drive.
• Double click the Aperture library in the new location to open it on the copied library and test it.
• Once you are satisfied, that the copied library works, you can delete it in the old location on your system drive.

I dont entirely understand what you are saying about refernced masters.

You can have the library in one place, and all original images in another; for example, the Aperture library on your system drive, but all original images on the external. This way, the Aperture library will be smaller, and Aperture will store most of its image files on the external drive; reference the images there. This is what Allen recommends and what you should do, once your Aperture library is so large, that it takes a long time to copy and backup.

Regards

Léonie