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Mac Mini M1 (8g 250gb) - Transferring internal disk programmes to external Thunderbolt 3 1TB drive

Hello everyone!


My computer is a Mac M1 8GB with a 250GB hard disc. 


Before I get to my questions, I'm using Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro, however, my regular 250GB hard

drive is almost full.


Situation - Due to a lack of space on my hard drive, I was unable to download all of the current music

production software (Logic Pro library sounds) from the Apple website. So, to help with this, I've acquired a TEKQ Thunderbolt 3, 1TB SSD. 


According to the instructions, it works on all platforms and is exFAT compatible, therefore there is no 

need to format. However, I'm not sure what the following steps are.


My question is if, now that I have a Thunderbolt 3 1TB drive and my Logic Pro software is on the interna250GB disc, I can save the sound library that I couldn't fit on the internal drive to the external 1TB TEKQThunderbolt drive without any issues. Or would it be better if I could transfer my main programs, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro, along with all of their associated files, to this disc to make things easier and more straightforward?  If that's the case, how and what would be the best method to go about it? 

What process/procedure in steps would I need to follow in order to accomplish this?  I'm currently leaning towards the latter option, many thanks.


Regards

Kalim




Mac mini, macOS 11.5

Posted on Jan 23, 2022 9:34 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 23, 2022 10:42 AM

If I get your question correctly, and it's a bit hard cause the text is displayed in a weird way (at least in Safari on my machine), you want to move the non-essential data to external drive, right? And when it comes to Logic Pro X and its Sound Library, it's a way to go, I'd say. This way you'd free some 60+ GB of disk space on your built-in (system) HD.


To achieve this goal, you'll need to: 1) Format the external drive either as "APFS" (preferred for latest macOS, i.e. 11 and 12) or "MacOS Extended Journaled" (also known as "HFS+" file system), and 2) Use Sound Library Manager (Logic Pro X > Sound Library > Relocate Sound Library) to move Logic's sound library content to external drive.


Moving your other data is beyond the scope of this discussion board, I'd say. And it also depends on such factors as what other software is in use, what kind of data do you want to move from your system HD to external, and so on.


However, before making any non-reversible decisions regarding your data, please be advised that LPX Sound Library cannot be moved to the same external HD that is used for Time Machine backups. That's in case you're also planning to use Thunderbolt drive for TM backups. It's recommended to use a dedicated separate drive for Time Machine stuff.


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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 23, 2022 10:42 AM in response to KalimNas

If I get your question correctly, and it's a bit hard cause the text is displayed in a weird way (at least in Safari on my machine), you want to move the non-essential data to external drive, right? And when it comes to Logic Pro X and its Sound Library, it's a way to go, I'd say. This way you'd free some 60+ GB of disk space on your built-in (system) HD.


To achieve this goal, you'll need to: 1) Format the external drive either as "APFS" (preferred for latest macOS, i.e. 11 and 12) or "MacOS Extended Journaled" (also known as "HFS+" file system), and 2) Use Sound Library Manager (Logic Pro X > Sound Library > Relocate Sound Library) to move Logic's sound library content to external drive.


Moving your other data is beyond the scope of this discussion board, I'd say. And it also depends on such factors as what other software is in use, what kind of data do you want to move from your system HD to external, and so on.


However, before making any non-reversible decisions regarding your data, please be advised that LPX Sound Library cannot be moved to the same external HD that is used for Time Machine backups. That's in case you're also planning to use Thunderbolt drive for TM backups. It's recommended to use a dedicated separate drive for Time Machine stuff.


Jan 29, 2022 7:53 AM in response to KalimNas

macOS has a utility for disk management, i.e. Disk Utility: normally found in Applications > Utilities folder


Just connect your external HD, wait for it to be mounted (you'd see it on desktop and will be able to open and browse its contents) and launch that utility. When Disk Utility opens, you'll see a list of mounted drives on the left side of its window.


Your Thunderbolt drive should appear under "External". Select the drive (drive itself and not the exFAT partition on it) and then click on a button on top of Disk Utility window, which says "Erase".




This should open a drop-down dialogue where you'll be able to select the format type (APFS or MacOS Extended Journaled, etc etc), partition table (use GUID), and type in the new partition name. That's it in a nutshell.



Needless to say, formatting a drive can lead to data being lost, so the usual disclaimer applies: if you have any valuable data on the HD being formatted (or otherwise manipulated using Disk Utility), back up everything to another HD or USB drive first.

Jan 29, 2022 7:16 AM in response to Radarhus

Hi,


You mentioned, 'To achieve this goal, you'll need to format the external drive either as "APFS" (preferred for latest macOS, i.e. 11 and 12)' My Mac M1 has the latest Big Sur on it so please - what are the steps to achieve this formating as my Thunderbolt 3 external drive comes formatted with exFAT? Many thanks......still a lot to learn.


Regards

Kalim

Mac Mini M1 (8g 250gb) - Transferring internal disk programmes to external Thunderbolt 3 1TB drive

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