Hi,
apologies if this has been asked again and again!
I’m looking to buy a new macbook and the new SSD drives are much more expensive. A large part of my existing HDD is my aperture library. I’d like to move some of it off to somewhere else, but I have no idea how.
I have a Netgear ReadyNAS, but I’ve heard that Aperture doesn’t like using NAS. Is there any way to archive photos off to my NAS? I wouldn’t necessarily need to view them and work with them, but have them stored and available should I wish to view them in the future.
Also, is there any way to search for duplicate master photos in my library?
Thank you all in advance for your time!
So if your lib is managed you could set up an external HD for those images. Then use your Nas as a back up of the ext HD. You need an extra Backup of the reference files and AP will still think they are Directly attached.
Buy as big of SSD as you can and never fear they will be bigger and cheaper after you buy yours. Cheers
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Thanks David, I don’t quite follow all that, but essentially it can be done, but I’d need to buy an external HDD. So I’d need to make the whole library managed and then I can move some of it to an external drive? If I’m away can I still open and use the photos that are stored locally even if the external drive isn’t attached?
To be honest I’m not sure about the retina macbook, there’s not much that can be upgraded and I’m still not clear if the SDD can be or not. I could just about stretch to the retina macbook with a 500GB SSD, but that’s not exactly massive once you add movies and music as well as home videos and photos…
I’m wondering if a mac mini would be better and then just a macbook air to work from.
Thanks again!
Well lets start at the beginning again. Are you now managed or Referenced? It doesn’t matter whether its either or both I just need to know. How big is your lib? what percentage will it grow next year? With a referenced lib you will be able to see all your images you just cant make adjustment to the tonal structure without the external HD attached.
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
I’m not sure if my library is reference or managed, but it’s all store on my mac. The current used size on my mac is over 256GB, so I’d have to buy the 512GB macbook, but this is quite a bit more expensive. I don’t really use Aperture for adjustments much, just for storing my photos and home videos. I have to say I’m not overly impressed that it doesn’t support NAS, that’s quite disappointing, but irrelevant. Ideally, I’d like to move them to the NAS to store and view, but nothing else. If Aperture can’t do that, I might be better of exporting them to a folder on the NAS.
What about Vaults, is that an option?
The MacBook Air isn’t a good system for doing post processing work with Aperture. In my view, a Mac Pro (of course), iMac or Mac Mini is much better suited for this purpose, unless you really need to do this “on the go”. In that case, a MacBook Pro would be more appropriate. First of all, you need RAM. A lot of RAM. This is more important than a super fast HD. The MBA can only be configured to 8 GB of RAM. Secondly, SSDs, despite being very fast, have some drawbacks. They are now very expensive and limited in capacity. And they cannot be completely “wiped clean” when you want to get rid of it (securely erase all data; this is more of a security/privacy issue).
Many people use external HDDs to hold their Aperture libraries. I am now putting my photo library on an external thunderbolt HDD, which is connected to an iMac with a 1TB Fusion Drive and 16 GB of RAM.
Kodora,
thanks, I was thinking of putting Aperture on the mac mini and just using the Air for other tasks. It looks that mac rumours thinks that there may be a new mac mini on the horizon and possibly a retina macbook air towards the end of the year so I may just wait.
Thanks for all your advice!
I think Apple just answered my question for me by deciding not to continue development of Aperture or iPhoto!
Thanks for all your help guys!