Mac Mini Hard Drive nearly full - How can I add an external drive with iTunes?

[Infiniteloop]

Hi.

I have a Mac Mini with an almost full Hard Drive. Can I use an external drive to add more storage and how do I get this to work with iTunes?

 

[MajorFubar]

Short answer is yes.

After you've bought your external drive, feel free to come back and I'll happily give you a longer answer regarding how to move everything across (you can move some bits and leave others but tbh you don't want to do that, it gets messy)

Or you can probably find that out yourself on Google.

 

[Overdose]

I would be inclined to upgrade the internal HDD in the Mac mini or get something like a 'my cloud' nas. This would give you a tidier and perhaps more flexible solution, keeping all of your music in one location.

I fitted a 1TB HDD to my mini and back this up to a nas.

Edit: Super Duper is a good piece of cloning software if you want to make a bootable backup drive.

 

[bigboss]

Agreed. It's better to upgrade the internal hard drive, and clone it using super duper.

 

[MajorFubar]

I might be wrong but I'm making an educated guess that the op probably lacks the confidence and/or knowledge to change the internal hdd in a Mac Mini. But if he can do it, it's a good idea. Another option would be a NAS. He must have one hell of a CD collection. I've ripped nearly 630 CDs, all lossless, and the whole lot's less than 250Gb.

Edit: just thinking, modern MMs have a space inside for a second hdd, which is another option. Though finding the right bits to fit a second drive without having your wallet raped in an Apple Store can be a challenge in the UK.

 

[bigboss]

There are many helpful videos online and it's actually very easy. Even I could do it, on my wife's previous MacBook (I don't normally do such things)!

Check this link:

http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/upgrade-or-replace-the-hard-drive-in-a-mac-mini/

 

[Infiniteloop]

Thanks Guys, :cheers:

It's taken me an age to rip only half of my CD's so far, (I use MAX and its slooooooww). All the files are ripped as AIFF files since I guessed these would be the most accurate as CD files are AIFF too - am I right?

FLAC wasn't an option as iTunes doesn't recognise them.

Because of the laborious endeavour so far I'd hate to screw it all up by not knowing how to transfer the existing files across. What I might do is back up the entire Mac Mini hard drive and then do the transfer, just in case!!

I guess the alternative is that I wait until Apple release a new Mac Mini (The Mini is overdue for a newer version) and get one with a much bigger hard drive.....

Any Hard drive recommendations?

 

[ela-ted]

There are many helpful videos online and it's actually very easy. Even I could do it, on my wife's previous MacBook (I don't normally do such things)!

Check this link:

http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/upgrade-or-replace-the-hard-drive-in-a-mac-mini/

I've used the ifixit site numerous times to mod my Mac Minis and friends MacBooks etc - fantastic guides.

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac

+1 for SuperDuper, it just works brilliantly.

 

[Overdose]

I rip to lossless ALAC files on the mini and have around 600GB, plenty more room for much more music. Always backup your data before making any drastic system changes and it's good practice to backup regularly anyway.

A lossless rip is not neccessary for best replay quality, but for archiving and potential transcoding in the future, it is essential. With space not being an issue, lossless is the way to go.

 

[valleycommando]

I can fully recommend Tunespan, enables you to move all your Itunes media to an external hard drive and recreates link to itunes, been using it for 6 months + and have almost filled 1 tb portable drive with my music and films.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Thanks Valleycommando.

Is Tunespan available in the App store?

 

[bigboss]

http://tunespan.com

 

[iMark]

It's actually very easy to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Best thing about it is the fact that you don't have to move anything when you change computers in future.

I recommend making a backups of the external drive though onto two extra external drives. I keep one backup in the garage and another in a relative's garage. The last thing you want to is ripping your CD collection again. (One backup is no backup).

A couple of years ago I had a hard drive failure with my MacBook and I was very happy that I had an almost complete back up at home when I came back from holiday.

Another very handy feature is the fact that I can take my iTunes library on holiday and use it with my old MacBook, rather than the MacMini at home.

Keeping the ripped CDs as AIFF is a complete waste of space, IMHO. I would convert everything to Apple Lossless (ALAC) and rip everything you haven't ripped as ALAC. It will save you halve the space on your hard drive.

I just looked and Tunespan is available in our App Store for €13.99. I would recommend though to keep your whole library on one disk if it's under 1TB.

 

[MajorFubar]

A lossless rip is not neccessary for best replay quality,

But with space being so cheap, hardly any point otherwise

 

[daveh75]

A lossless rip is not neccessary for best replay quality,

I see some people are still really struggling with the idea of lossless file compression. The clue really is in the name. There is NO difference. None. Nil. Keiner. Aucun. Zilch. As in: 'they are completely identical'. Honest.

I think your missing Overdoses point MF.

 

[JamesMellor]

Hi'

Superduper will cost you just under 22 quid in the UK and I'd say it's worth every penny , create an exact bootable copy with it to an external HDD , replace your internal HDD then boot from the external drive and copy the external to the new drive .

Post 2011 mac's are supposed to reinstall OXS to a blank HDD over wi-fi and then restore from a timemachine back up if you want to save the £22 , but you need the external HDD first , £35 buys you a500gb external drive at staples now , and 60 quid buys you a 1TB internal HDD from pc world . It's not a bad idea to back up every week anyway .

James

 

[MajorFubar]

I think your missing Overdoses point MF.

I did, and I am officially Prize Idiot Of The Day. I read it as "a lossless rip is not necessarily the best sound quality". Thought it was weird for OD to come out with that tripe. Sorry OD. :wall:

 

[Overdose]

A lossless rip is not neccessary for best replay quality,

But with space being so cheap, hardly any point otherwise

Granted, if you have the space, but in some cases, particularly if the main or only drive available is an SSD, then a certain level of lossy compression may be needed, particularly for large libraries.

I generally rip to ALAC for archiving on the 'mini', but use 192 AAC for Macbook and iPod. The iPod is actually running out of space, so I may have to come up with another solution soon.

 

[Overdose]

I think your missing Overdoses point MF.

I did, and I am officially Prize Idiot Of The Day. I read it as "a lossless rip is not necessarily the best sound quality". Thought it was weird for OD to come out with that tripe. Sorry OD. :wall:

No worries.