Q: Large Aperture Library 250GB

Question - I dont think you can upgrade the retina drive to a normal drive ?

Mick, you will lose performance, if you substitute the SSD by a slower drive.

What I did was, to replace the CD/DVD drive by a second internal disk. I don't need a CD/DVD drive that often and can burn media on my older mac.

The second internal drive holds my iTunes library and my Aperture library.

But you could opt for an external drive - 1 TB drives are easy to carry around and no longer very expensive. Format the drive MacOS X Extended (Journaled) and simply drag your Aperture library to that disk using the Finder.

Léonie

how easy is it to replace the drive in the MB Pro chasis -

I let the Apple Retail Store do it, so I cannot really tell you, how easy it is. I did not want to forsake the warrenty by opening the Mac myself.

Hi Mick,

Swapping out an unused CD-ROM for a useful HDD is a good exchange.  OWC can likely help you determine what you can do and what parts you need.

I run a mixed Library on my personal machine (rMBP w. 500 GB SSD, no second drive bay).  People generally think that it's the Library that is either referenced or managed, but it is more properly each Image's Original that is referenced or managed.  I keep my Library on my laptop's SSD, import all new files into it with managed Originals, and once every month or so relocate the Originals of any Images that are older then 45 days.  So my Library functions as a kind of processing tube: files come in, they are indexed, they are adjusted to my needs, and then the files are moved to an external HD.  The index, and the Previews, stay with the Library, which stays on my laptop.  With some tweaking for portfolio Images and incomplete projects, this system works well for me.

Note, though, that bus speeds for external drives are no longer the bottleneck they used to be.  IME, you lose nothing perceptible if you put your entire Library on an external drive connected via USB-3 (or, I assume, Thunderbolt).

Having your system files on a large SSD, and your Library on a second internal drive, is almost ideal for a laptop.

In all cases I recommend leaving 100 GB unused on your SSD.  OS X and Aperture are good at using this "scratch" space.

HTH,

--Kirby.

if I go down the route of having the second drive to hold my Original files and the SSD to hold the thumbnaisl and previews - whats the best way or the process for me to move the files to an external drive with in Aperture ?

Mick, use the command "File > Relocate Originals" to move the original image files for selected images to a new folder outside the library. That folder can be on an external drive.

You may want to read this section of the Aperture user manual:

Aperture 3 User Manual: Working with Referenced Images

That explains, how referenced images will work.

Mick,

warypb1 wrote:

 

I guess my next question will be - if I go down the route of having the second drive to hold my Original files and the SSD to hold the thumbnails and previews - what's the best way or the process for me to move the files to an external drive with in Aperture ?

Sorry -- I've gotten confused.  Is your second drive going to be internal or external?

Léonie covered how to move your Originals.  Aperture makes it easy to move them; you can change any from managed to referenced, or vice versa, at any time.

--Kirby.

Don't even think about using a NAS with Aperture.

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

Put your Aperture library or referenced originals on a locally connected drive - pick one with a fast port; USB 3 or Thunderbolt.

It used to be possible to put the references original on a NAS; but recently (since Mavericks) we have seen so many issues with referenced originals on a NAS, that I would refrain from trying that. Photos are too precious to risk this way.