drag and drop from external HD to Mac (and vice versa)

Joined
Aug 4, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I just bought a new Macbook Pro. My old Macbook was holding all of my info, including a combined total of 300gb worth of music and videos. I want to put those items (music and video) on a separate hard drive because I don't use them daily. My plan is to have one hard drive for my time machine back ups and one hard drive for my music and videos.


Regarding the external HD with my music and videos: once everything is on there, say I wanted to just put my beatles discography onto my computer from that HD. I hook it up, drag and drop the songs into itunes, and eject the HD. My two questions are: will the music still be on the hard drive, or did it go from the hard drive to my computer? Secondly, is that safe for the HD? I was told today by someone at the apple store that things arent meant to be deleted from external hard drives and it can be damaging to the drive. I have no idea if this is an accurate statement, seeing as one person at the store will tell you one thing, and the other one will completely contradict that statement.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Regarding the external HD with my music and videos: once everything is on there, say I wanted to just put my beatles discography onto my computer from that HD. I hook it up, drag and drop the songs into itunes, and eject the HD. My two questions are: will the music still be on the hard drive, or did it go from the hard drive to my computer? Secondly, is that safe for the HD? I was told today by someone at the apple store that things arent meant to be deleted from external hard drives and it can be damaging to the drive. I have no idea if this is an accurate statement, seeing as one person at the store will tell you one thing, and the other one will completely contradict that statement.

The music and videos that you drag and drop to iTunes from the external hard drive will be copied not moved. (unless you choose to move them) And yes, it's safe for the hard drive just as it's safe to do the same with your Mac's internal hard drive. I don't know who told you that at the Apple store about damaging the drive, but it's false. Or perhaps you misunderstood what they told you?
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,595
Reaction score
1,071
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
If you copy the files from the external drive to the internal drive then the files will now be in both places. If you actually move the files they won't be on the external drive anymore. Here's an explanation of the difference.

Others may chime in with a better option but I think this gets the result you want:

1. Move your music to the external hard drive. Launch iTunes and point it to the music on the external drive.
2. Now copy any music you want on the Mac to the correct location (Username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music I think).
3. When done disconnect the external drive.

From now on if the external drive is connected when you launch iTunes it will load the library from the external drive. If the external drive is not connected it will load music from the internal drive.

I don't know why anyone at the Apple store would tell you that removing files from an external drive drive. People do that all the time. You do need to make sure that all read/write operations are complete before ejecting the drive. Be sure to select it and choose Eject before disconnecting the drive.
 
Joined
Aug 4, 2014
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Oklahoma
Your Mac's Specs
MacPro desktop, MacPro laptop
Because like most business these days they tend to hire people who know nothing about the products they are selling. Example: A so called geek squad master once told me that all ram is the same… so how come the slot on Mac ram is in a different place than ram for a PC ? A second example: Also a college professor who taught computers once made the statement that you can not have more than one operating system on the same computer… Idiots are idiots no matter how nice they smile.

Hi Sly good to see ya again…
 

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
15,734
Reaction score
2,059
Points
113
Location
MA
Your Mac's Specs
2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Because like most business these days they tend to hire people who know nothing about the products they are selling. Example: A so called geek squad master once told me that all ram is the same… so how come the slot on Mac ram is in a different place than ram for a PC ? A second example: Also a college professor who taught computers once made the statement that you can not have more than one operating system on the same computer… Idiots are idiots no matter how nice they smile.

Your first example: Technically RAM is RAM, the placement of it doesn't make it different. What changes is how much you have and how fast it works depending on the hardware (motherboard/logicboard) you have. However, from a more abstract (software/OS) perspective, its just RAM so the, Geek Squad guy was correct.

Your second example: You can indeed not RUN two OS' on the same computer at the same, but you can have many OS' installed at the same time. My guess is that's what the Professor meant when he used his shortcut explanation. He should've probably elaborated better to avoid confusion, but people who can't tell the difference certainly don't become Professors at ANY school.

So context really matters..
 
Joined
Aug 4, 2014
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Oklahoma
Your Mac's Specs
MacPro desktop, MacPro laptop
Ok i can see that you like to nit pick and i need to explain in full detail or spend all my time posting explanations.

First off, the Best Buy Geek Squad expert was not right in the context of our conversation. He sold me ram for my MacPro desktop. If i remember correctly it was a 2 gig stick. If i remember right it was a DDR2 FB-DIMM. I take it home, pop the lid and presto it will not fit into the slot because the slot is about a quarter inch off. So i take it back to get the right stuff. He gets mad as **** at me and yells in my face that all ram of that flavor is the same and it will fit in a Mac or a PC… No it won't, the slots are different… Now while you are right that the ram itself is the same, the slots are not. Therefore he sold me the wrong stuff and just didn't know the difference.

Secondly, you evidently have never heard of a program called Parallels…you can indeed have both Windows and OS X running at the same time and move between them freely as you wish. And no that is not what that professor meant, he meant you could not do what you agree can be done. **** at one time i had OS X, Windows XP, and Ubuntu Linux all installed and i just chose which to boot at boot time.

I will disagree with your last statement strongly, there are many so called professors in todays colleges and universities who should not be allowed to be teaching and proof of that is the sad state of the country. I know a lot of "college graduates" with degrees who can barely tie their shoes. They may know quite a bit about one thing but are functionally illiterate about life in general and hardly qualified for more than a burger flipping job, that is if they can even manage to fill out a job application.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top