Mac OS X: How can I move the "Movies" folder to an external hard drive?

[mshan]

My dad's Core Duo iMac's internal hard drive is quickly filling up and I just added an external Fantom Titanium II 250 GB USB hard drive.

I would like to use this drive exclusively for iMovie and iDVD files, but still want these files to show up correctly in the Media Library in iMovie / iDVD and also in Front Row.

How do I move just his "Movies" file to the external hard drive so that Mac OS X still essentially "sees" it in it's correct spot?


Also, anyway in software to get this external hard drive to spin down appropriately when I put the iMac to sleep (right now, even if I eject the hard drive, once I put the iMac to sleep, it wakes up right away, I believe because the external hard drive is still on)


And how do I rename this external hard drive?

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mshan /img/forum/go_quote.gif My dad's Core Duo iMac's internal hard drive is quickly filling up and I just added an external Fantom Titanium II 250 GB USB hard drive. I would like to use this drive exclusively for iMovie and iDVD files, but still want these files to show up correctly in the Media Library in iMovie / iDVD and also in Front Row. How do I move just his "Movies" file to the external hard drive so that Mac OS X still essentially "sees" it in it's correct spot?

what you want to do is make an Alias or symbolic link to a movies folder on your external drive, and put this Alias in your Movies folder in the Home/Movies folder, which Front Row uses. here is a simple way to do that:
- on the external drive, make a new folder (name it whatever you want), where you will keep all your movies (assuming that they play in QT).
- right click on the folder and choose "Make Alias" you will now have a folder that has the same name as the original folder with "alias" on the end of it.
- copy (move) that alias folder over to your User/Movies folder. now, rename it to remove the "alias" part.
- voila. you're done. now, when you start front row and go to Movies, you will see that folder and can access all the movies in it.


Quote:

Also, anyway in software to get this external hard drive to spin down appropriately when I put the iMac to sleep (right now, even if I eject the hard drive, once I put the iMac to sleep, it wakes up right away, I believe because the external hard drive is still on)

this doesn't sound like a hard-drive spinning down problem. i don't spin down any of my hard drives, either internal or external, and i don't have a problem with sleeping. you'll have to give us more info on the problem before we can figure out the problem. as it is, if you go to the Energy tab in System Preferences, you can choose to spin down the hard drive.

Quote:

And how do I rename this external hard drive?

right click on the hard drive and choose "Get Info". in the Name and Extension, choose a different name. there are other ways to do this as well...

 

[mshan]

Can I simply drag and drop my dad's current Movies folder to the external hard drive and achieve the same thing? (he already has some iMovie and iDVD files in there, and I would like to move them all to the external hard drive, but without messing up the ability to load and play them right now). Ideally, what I am looking for is the equivalent of the Move Folder command in Windows under the My Documents folder.

Also, I opened the Energy Saver tab and don't see any options for the hard drive (right now, the external hard drive spins continuously, and if I put the iMac to sleep, it goes to sleep, but then reawakens immediately, I think because the external hard drive is still on).

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mshan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can I simply drag and drop my dad's current Movies folder to the external hard drive and achieve the same thing? (he already has some iMovie and iDVD files in there, and I would like to move them all to the external hard drive, but without messing up the ability to load and play them right now). Ideally, what I am looking for is the equivalent of the Move Folder command in Windows under the My Documents folder.

no. front row will look for the movies folder in your home folder and will not see it. just make the alias like i suggested above and copy all the stuff currently in your movies folder onto that folder on the external drive. very easy.

Also, I opened the Energy Saver tab and don't see any options for the hard drive (right now, the external hard drive spins continuously, and if I put the iMac to sleep, it goes to sleep, but then reawakens immediately, I think because the external hard drive is still on).[/quote]
it's right there on the bottom left of the energy saver panel - "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible". but i still don't think that's the problem...my external drives are connected and mounted to my imac 24/7 and i don't have any problems with sleeping...might be something else.

 

[mshan]

My dad doesn't use Front Row that much.

Can I drag and drop the Movies folder to the external hard drive and still have all current files in there still work properly.

I think the main thing is to keep things simple for him when he is using iMovie or iDVD.

EDIT: opened Energy Saver again and saw put hard drives to sleep selected, just as you said. I think maybe my external hard drive (Fantom Titanium II just doesn't allow that option

)

 

[Nospam]

Some external drives don't support proper sleep mode. I'm guessing it has to do with the interface chipset used.

I've got several external enclosures, all using Oxford chipset. Every single one of them goes to sleep and STAYS asleep, whenever my Mac goes to sleep. You may want to consider getting a different enclosure (good Firewire enclosures can be found for under $40). Stick with Oxford chipsets, to be on the safe side.