external hard rive

[Clawson]

I have a 2011 mac pro.
I have 1tb external harddrive i use for time machine
I just purchased a 2tb external hd so i can keep iTunes and iPhoto off my computer.
I've been reading ways to move iTunes and iPhoto, but any suggestions will be appreciated.
occasionally my iPhoto has to repair itself. Do I need to worry about that?…

thanks

 

[honestone]

First, by "so i can keep iTunes and iPhoto off my computer", do you mean those actual applications, or just the folders/files/documents, etc. associated with each of those applications?

Secondly, what exact Mac OS are you running?

Third, when you say "occasionally my iPhoto has to repair itself", how long has that been going on? Also, how exactly does it "repair itself"? And, at any time either before that started, or in between, did you upgrade the OS to a new version?

 

[Clawson]

From what I understand, I want to put the entire application onto an external hard drive. Because my photos are taking up most of the space on my computer. This is what my intentions are. Please tell me if that's not what I should do. And I was going to move iTunes because its a memory hog also but not as badly right now.

Mac OS X version 10.7.5
I previously had 4gb ddr3 but I installed an upgrade to 8gb (just for your information… if it matters)

I feel like my iPhoto has always had problems.
Occasionally, maybe once a year it tells me it needs to repair itself. And when it does, I dont think i lose pictures, but it switches my pictures around to previous folders. its weird. Now, I am currently using iPhoto library 2. I think I had to switch to the iPhoto 2 library on my computer bc I upgraded from snow leopard to lion (I think it was that order)

I honestly cannot remember if i had problems before i upgraded osx, but i think maybe

Ive tried to research problems with iPhoto. Should I or Can I uninstall and install a new one?…
any help would be great.

and my intentions are to put iTunes and iPhoto onto the 2tb.
and the 1tb i currently have is time machine and back up of iTunes and iPhoto.

 

[honestone]

You cannot just install the application only on the external drive. That will not work.

What you will need to do is use a program like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to backup/clone everything on your internal drive (the one with the OS and the applications). Once you do that, you should be able to launch whatever program you want from that external, bootable partition. I just tried it with my (normal) SuperDuper! backups that I make every Saturday, and I was able to launch Disk Warrior and iTunes from that external, bootable partition.

As for issues with iPhoto (and any other software), do you perform any regular maintenance on your internal drive? There are things you can do, and software you can use (both free and not free), that would be beneficial. And, it would be best if you stick to a plan as to how often you do that. Myself, I use the excellent freeware program Onyx, along with the excellent non-free disk maintenance/repair program TechTool Pro (I also have Disk Warrior, another good one) once a week to perform disk cleanup/maintenance/repair tasks (fortunately, I hardly ever need to repair any of my drives). I also constantly get rid of crap I no longer need, day in and day out.