Question about external hard drives

bhcoker · bhcoker #1 (**permalink**)

03-01-2009, 08:03 PM

I have a 24" iMac (for a week now) and I bought 2 1TB hard drives. I plugged them up, ran the disk utility to format them and partitioned each of them to 500GB each.

OK, storing stuff on them is working fine...I have one set up for photos another for a back up etc...

I only have the 320GB hard drive in the Mac and I want to install programs on one of the partitions on the external drives... when I go to install a program, it doesn't let me select one of the external drives because there is no OSX on the drives??? What am I doing wrong? Is it the way I erased the drives to begin with?

Thanks,

Heath+

chscag · chscag #2 (**permalink**)

03-01-2009, 08:58 PM

I don't think it has anything to do with the format of the drive(s). Most programs will only install to the startup volume. Your startup volume is probably "Macintosh HD", and that's where the program installer will look to for installation. Not all programs will insist on installing to the startup volume but most I'm familiar with do.

Regards.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Question about External Hard drives for Video/3d graphic editing	mabortdrummer	Movies and Video	2	03-21-2008 12:06 AM
External Hard drive question	Ninjab3ar	Other Hardware and Peripherals	2	07-17-2007 02:10 AM
sharing external hard drives	LokariX	Switcher Hangout	3	05-19-2007 04:36 PM
Issues with external hard drives: Help Please!	NJRonbo	Other Hardware and Peripherals	5	01-23-2007 03:14 PM
External Hard Drives	davetheblaze	Other Hardware and Peripherals	2	08-26-2006 07:15 PM

New To Mac-Forums?

Mac-Forums Brief

Question about external hard drives

Hosting and Cloud

Data Centers

Web Development

Performance Marketing

Consumer Tech

Interested In Great Deals on Apple Products? Or, Want to Keep up with the Latest Mac-Forums Discussions?

YES!
I want to receive:

bhcoker #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Feb 02, 2009 Location: SC Posts: 14 Mac Specs: 24" 2.8 GHz 4GB Ram, 320Gb, Internal HD; 2 x 1TB External HDs iPod: 16GB touch	03-01-2009, 08:03 PM I have a 24" iMac (for a week now) and I bought 2 1TB hard drives. I plugged them up, ran the disk utility to format them and partitioned each of them to 500GB each. OK, storing stuff on them is working fine...I have one set up for photos another for a back up etc... I only have the 320GB hard drive in the Mac and I want to install programs on one of the partitions on the external drives... when I go to install a program, it doesn't let me select one of the external drives because there is no OSX on the drives??? What am I doing wrong? Is it the way I erased the drives to begin with? Thanks, Heath+
	QUOTE Thanks

chscag #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 23, 2008 Location: Fort Worth, Texas Posts: 42,059 Mac Specs: 27" iMac i5, 3.2 GHz, iPad 3, iPhone 5c, 3 iPods, Yosemite	03-01-2009, 08:58 PM I don't think it has anything to do with the format of the drive(s). Most programs will only install to the startup volume. Your startup volume is probably "Macintosh HD", and that's where the program installer will look to for installation. Not all programs will insist on installing to the startup volume but most I'm familiar with do. Regards.
	QUOTE Thanks

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

New To Mac-Forums?

Mac-Forums Brief

Question about external hard drives

Hosting and Cloud

Data Centers

Web Development

Performance Marketing

Consumer Tech

Interested In Great Deals on Apple Products? Or, Want to Keep up with the Latest Mac-Forums Discussions?

YES!I want to receive:

YES!
I want to receive: