Hi Michael, On 24/2/05 10:41 AM, "Michael Schmidt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello! > > I have a 7 year old G4/500mHZ with a 25GB HD. The amount of space > available is shrinking fast with music and image files - I have about 4G > left. > > I was wondering what solutions would be available to me. I will purchase > a G5 (probably an iMac) later this year, probably when there's a new > model. > If you are looking at getting a Powermac G5, then the ATA drive you would put into the current G4 would not work with the new machine *internally* - they use SATA drives, with a different connector. With an iMac, you will have to go external anyway. Big drive in a firewire case sounds like the ideal solution for you. > Until then, I guess I could buy an external HD. If I do that, do I > simply use the external drive as the main HD where I store all the > files/applications that are currently located under my home folder? In > other words, do I simply shift my Home folder to this external drive? No! OS X requires certain things to be in certain places, and your Home folder is one of them! You can shift the contents of the folder though, such as music, video and photos (unless they are in iPhoto libraries) to the new drive, and keep the essentials such as apps and documents required to be in your home folder. You just have to tell apps where they are now (such as iTunes). > > I sometimes see on forums, however, that shifting the Applications > folder can be a problem when it comes time to upgrade the OS. Yep, dramas :-) Best keep things where they are supposed to be. > > Also, if I get a massive HD, where can I backup such a large amount of > data to? I currently backup my HD contents to a first generation iPod > but once I go beyond the 20GB that iPod will obviously be too small. How much of the data is *currently* needed? If you have older projects that are no longer used (say, beyond 90 days), then it might be worthwhile putting them on a data DVD, tape or another external HD that is solely for archiving purposes. Good luck! Seeya Rod!
