Trying to move iPhoto library to an external hard drive, but it says it will take 18 hours.

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Level 1

8 points

Trying to move iPhoto library to an external hard drive, but it says it will take 18 hours.

Hi everyone!

I have a Macbook Pro OS X Version 10.9.5, and the amount of pictures I have on the hard drive is taking up a lot of space. All my photos are taking up 99.27 GB o this computer, so I purchased a 1TB external hard drive to import them to in order to free up space. When I attempted to copy the library onto the disk, it said it would take 18 hours to do so. I'm not tech savvy at all, so I don't understand a lot of the solutions I've seen in other discussions about how to speed up the process or how to do it in a way that preserves all the data from my photos. If someone could explain how to reformat my external hard drive and how to safely and efficiently export my photos to it, it would be very much appreciated!

Thank you (:

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on May 9, 2016 8:17 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 9, 2016 8:24 AM in response to annahodges

It lies - just leave it alone and let it go - it will take what it takes and you can not change it - probably less than an hour

What format is the EHD and how is it connected? Select it in the finder and get info - the format is part of the info window - for your Photos library it must be Mac OS extended (journaled) and connected using a fast wired connection like FireWire, ThunderBolt or USB - and make sure your backup program is backing up your EHD - by default TimeMachine does not and you have to remove the EHD from the excluded drive in the TM preferences ==> options

LN

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