Choosing best disk format

[Pcarfan]

I've set up my ReadyNAS Duo and it functions well as a backup for Time Machine and central storage for iTunes. I have run into two problems that I'm looking for advice on. The problems are the inability to save iMovie 08 files to the nas and the inability to retreive my iPhoto 08 library once I moved it from the Mac to the nas. I've read some articles suggesting that I should reformat the drive in the ext3 format, but I am not able to "see" the drive in Disk Utility to even consider reformatting it. I believe when I initially set the nas up I formatted it in the HFS plus format (my technical knowledge is only at a moderate level).

I'm using macosx 10.5.8 and have the nas connected to my Actiontec router. My nas has one Seagate 500gb drive installed. I've been viewing the photos and listening to the music through my PlayStation3 and want to make sure any future disk formats are compatible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[dbott67]

I believe when I initially set the nas up I formatted it in the HFS plus format (my technical knowledge is only at a moderate level).

The drives in the NAS are automatically formatted by the unit when they are installed as ext3. You don't get a choice or option to change this.

The ReadyNAS is basically a little Linux server running a customized version of Debian:

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Epsilon:~# df -T
Filesystem    Type   1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/md0      ext3     4177588    450708   3517168  12% /
tmpfs        tmpfs          16         0        16   0% /USB
/dev/c/c      ext3   2800064424 225141948 2574922476   9% /c


[mdgm]

The ReadyNAS is basically a little Linux server running a customized version of Debian:

Code: Select all

Epsilon:~# df -T
Filesystem    Type   1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/md0      ext3     4177588    450708   3517168  12% /
tmpfs        tmpfs          16         0        16   0% /USB
/dev/c/c      ext3   2800064424 225141948 2574922476   9% /c


Or a bit easier to understand you could type:

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MDGM-NAS:~# df -h -T
Filesystem    Type    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdc1     ext3    1.9G  359M  1.5G  19% /
tmpfs        tmpfs     16k     0   16k   0% /USB
/dev/c/c      ext3    4.1T  1.6T  2.4T  40% /c


That way you can see the sizes in a way that's easy to understand rather than looking at blocks.

[WhoCares?]

Guys, you're overlooking the obvious: You're talking to a Mac user (No pun intendend, I'm running an almost Mac only shop here myself)

Anyway, to get to the real question:
How did you access the drives when trying to save your iMove files and while moving your iPhoto library? E.g: Did you use SMB/CIFS or AFP to transfer the data or don't you know/remember? There's a difference in the way the Mac's extended attributes are stored depending on the network protocol used and that may well be the cause of the problems here.

-Stefan

[Pcarfan]

I access the drives using AFP. In the case of iMovie, you can see the drives, but there's a triangle with an exclamation point symbol in it which means the drive is unavailable. In iPhoto, once I moved the library from my local drive to the nas, I can no longer even open iPhoto because it says the library is locked. I don't have this problem in the Quicken 2007 for Mac app. I was able to move the data file to the nas and it works perfectly. I have no problem accessing the drives through the Finder either.

[mdgm]

I think I've read something about iPhoto before, but I can't remember where. There was an issue at some point.

I think using AFP should work fine, why you are having issues, I don't know.

[Blues]

OP, have you tried holding down the Option key and then clicking on the iPhoto app? That should give you a pop-up asking what library you want to open.

[sphardy]

Hi,

Regarding iMovie '08: Saving directly to the NAS over AFP simply does not work. This is a known limitation of iMovie. You have 3 options:

- Save to the NAS over CIFs - however this does not work in iMovie '09 so beware
- Save to a sparseimage mounted on your NAS (see http://www.readynas.com/?p=291)
- use symlinks to point your local iMovie folder to the NAS to 'fool' iMovie into thinking it is saving locally

Oh and just save locally and copy files to/from the NAS of course

Regarding iPhoto: Assuming you are using '08 also - you should be able to copy your library to your NAS just fine and then open it by holding the option key while starting iPhoto. I have done this successfully in the past but for performance reasons I now instead keep my physical photos on my NAS and point a local iPhoto library to them by disabling the preference Advanced -> Copy Items to iPhoto Library. You might wish to try this as an alternative option.

I have no direct experience if there are any limitations to iPhoto '09 but there have been some reports of users having problems

[Pcarfan]

Thanks for the tip on cifs sphardy, that worked well for imovie. I was able to save movies to the nas through imovie.

For iPhoto 08, I tried holding down the option key and clicking on iphoto. It asked me to choose a library, so I chose the one on my nas. The message I got was "The iPhoto library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have permissions to make changes to it." I clicked on info in the Finder and it appears that I do have both read and write permissions. The Playstation3 is also able to read the files from the nas and display on my tv, but iPhoto won't open now. Any suggestions? thanks.

[sphardy]

I have read somewhere that iPhoto has limited support for mulitple users accessing the same library, where it will state the library is open by another user - so one thought comes to mind:

Did you have the photo library open in iPhoto when you copied it to the NAS? There may be lock files or other data in the library that is being interpreted by iPhoto that the library is already open.

Try completely shutting iPhoto and copying again

[Blues]

Regarding iPhoto, I'm sorry you're still having problems. I did a quick search at the Apple site and found this topic: "iPhoto '08 doesn't open my library anymore" at this link:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10302796&#10302796

It discusses someone moving an iPhoto '08 database to an external drive. The OP gave one rather extensive response a "Solved" rating. I hope there's some information in there that helps you.

Good luck.

[Pcarfan]

I read the post you linked to and it was helpful. I was able to copy the nas version of my iphoto library back to my internal drive, then rebuild it with iPhoto Library Manager. This now enables me to open iPhoto again by accessing the local file. When I try and open the file version on the nas using iPhoto, it gives me the same error message. I am, however, able to open the nas version on my macbook pro notebook pc. It appears that when I selected the nas file on the notebook it copied all the photos to my local notebook drive. Perhaps it is not possible to have just one iphoto file on the nas to serve all computers and Playstation over my network, but I will continue to hunt around for a solution. Thanks very much for everyone's help.