Q: Can I move movies to my external drive?

You could just move them over there, but it is cleaner to create a folder for Movies, then point your software on the internal drive to that folder for the movies library.  Then it will know just where to look for the library.

First backup everything!!!!

You don't indicate how the movies are stored so giving you explicit direction is a little tough.  For example if you have been using iTunes to manage your movies then simply locate the iTunes library (iTunes - Preferences - Advanced) and then drag from the internal drive to the external drive. Then restart iTunes by clicking on the library in the external drive. Once you have done that then you can delete the library that still resides on the internal drive and empty the Trash.

If however you have been ripping your DVD collection to your internal HD then simply locate where the movies are and select one movie and then type Command + A to select all. The drag the movies to the EHD. Once you have verified all the movies have been moved to the EHD, you can delete the movies from the internal HD and empty the Trash.

queenie521 wrote:

 

i don't know who to tell if the bulk of storage issues is from the Movies I have on my iTunes or from the 1500 small videos I have of my kids on iPhoto. how do I figure that out?

Well you can move your iTunes, iMovie and iPhoto libraries to an EHD. This media is typically what takes up the most space on a HD. Locate those libraries using similar steps in the first paragraph of my last post and move the libraries to the EHD. It's really pretty simple.

What ever you do, DO NOT USE YOUR BACKUP HD TO STORE THIS MEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not using my Time Machine Drive, don't worry.  I just recently bought a larger backup drive so I am clearing my old backup drive that has 1tb of space and hoping to move most of my media to that.

OOnce I move them to the external drive though, when I open iPhoto, iTunes, etc, will it know where to find the data or do I have to somehow link it?

Chell1181 wrote:

 

OOnce I move them to the external drive though, when I open iPhoto, iTunes, etc, will it know where to find the data or do I have to somehow link it?

Once they are moved, double click on the library file in the new location, that will launch the app and also "teach" it where the new location is.

Apple explains that in OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac? - Apple Support

Are you sure you moved the data or did you copy it and move it?

If you copied and moved it then you have Trash the original data and empty the Trash.