I want to rip CDs on an iMac and copy to a backup. BUTTTTTTT

...the backup external drive is APFS to match a newer machine. The only iMac I have with a disc drive to do the ripping is a mid-2007 (amazing how such an old machine is still quite usable, take that Billy Gates, no wonder ya need a divorce lawyer! ). That will not support Mac OS High Sierra and hence can't mount APFS.

Paragon apparently has a software to let you SEE the drive but I interpret the blurb to say older machines can simply never write to APFS. OK I have another drive which is NTFS or something, I could rip to the iMac internal then copy to the NTFS drive then connect both externals to yet another machine to copy from one drive to the other


Any better ideas? The main point of this exercise is actually not to rip everything as I'm not ditching the discs, just moving to the garage to change some shelving. The point is to rip selected items that are not available in Apple Music in order to upload them. I guess I can do that from this machine (???) and keep a separate backup drive for it...sheeesh...

 

I'm not a Mac user, so I won't be able to answer this, but I'm interested in the question. Is there any way you could use cloud storage for your intermediate step?

 

Use any other media including home network to move the files between old and new machines. "I could rip to the iMac internal then copy to the NTFS drive" I don't think Mac can write onto NTFS volume unless you have something like a Paragon driver. I think exFAT should work.

 

mmm interesting. Google Drive, or Apple iCloud. Storage space I might run out. Maybe it's just as pragmatic to transfer via a second external. At the moment I'm ripping and waiting to see if this iTunes library will sync up to my Apple Music account.

 

Format the external drive to exFAT using Disk Utility. It’ll enable you to read and write on both Mac and PC. exFAT is supported in 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and up. Or you can also just format to HFS+ if you want max compatibility on Mac OSX.

 

Correct. Mac cannot natively write to NTFS. I previously went the exFAT route, which worked but ultimately resulted in problems for me with iTunes files. I wouldn't necessarily say to not use exFAT for this purpose, but I'd be a bit wary, having been burned once.

 

What kind of problems? Like, extended attributes not preserved?

 

The 2nd external is a good, solid bet, as you can format it as MacOS Extended Journaled for compatibility with Sierra or whatever MacOS you're running. The drive won't cost much and you'll be getting things going in no time with little fuss. My oldest Mac is 2010; my PC is 2009.
Also see File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

 

"Extended attributes not preserved" might be one way to describe it. iTunes lost track of exactly where/how 1000s of songs were supposed to start. (~40k songs total). I managed to propagate the problem until it became 100% ubiquitous on all drives (hangs head). Most common issue was that there'd be a stutter—best I can describe it—at the start of a track. At the very first. I thought I'd ripped a CD or two with issues. But others confirmed that the CDs were not problematic. Then I found out just how widespread the issue was. I've since fixed many of those files, mostly by re-entering data one way or another. Although I cannot point to exFAT as the villain in a technical manner, I can say that once I switched to MacOS Extended, the issue went away. I have Macs running Mojave, Big Sur, and High Sierra, and I feel fairly confident saying that the OS version had nothing to do with the problem.

 

You didn't say which computer you have "now" as a main computer, but I'm guessing it's an iMac (sans disc drive) newer than your 2007.

Just use this with your current iMac: https://www.amazon.com/External-Portable-High-Speed-Desktops-Compatible/dp/B07QNTWHZF
$25 and done!

 

I have 2 more iMacs and a MacBook Air (early 2015, still runs well but I wouldn't mind an upgrade, however I am waiting in hope the rumors are true of MagSafe coming back as I am sometimes forgetting to disconnect when I move the laptop. Somewhere I have an external drive but the MacBook Air does not have huge free space. It's really convenient to use the old iMac: insert and ignore until the disc pops back out. I guess my other external is MacOS Extended Journaled, not NTFS.

 

If I am seeing this clearly (never a sure thing), then I feel like you're good to go with the external, but I'm curious about your iMac situation. In your OP, you said you have the one iMac, from 2007, but here you say you have 2 more. But whatever...if you have a Mac-friendly external, there's your garage music. If it's NTFS and you don't need its data, just reformat the drive in Disk Utility.

I too have a 2015 MBA with limited disk space. As I got it late 2020, I'm not wanting an upgrade just yet. It's running Big Sur, iTunes, and Music. iTunes & Music are done over LAN from drive attached to router. It is a dandy machine for playing music wherever I want in the house, while still having the use of a computer, as opposed to a phone or tablet. That's a big deal for me.

 

Personally, I would get a decent quality external DVD drive to do the ripping on the newer machine, and only use the internal optical drive of the old iMac for CDs that won’t rip on the external one. I used an external LG DVD drive for the bulk of my ripping, but did find that my 2009 MacBook Pro’s internal drive occasionally read damaged CDs that generated errors on the LG.

The OP doesn’t say how many CDs are to to be ripped, or what software is being used for the ripping, but ripping CDs puts a fair amount of wear and tear on an optical drive. Replacing an optical drive on an older iMac may not be that easy. Replacing an external optical drive is very easy!

 

Have you got a NAS or could you use a USB drive as intermediate storage?

There is no reason you can't use a Windows PC from 2007 today, all that matters is that the hardware is built well. That depends on the make, not on the OS. Microsoft doesn't make PCs.

 

Several suggestions for external disc drive, seems so simple and effective.

 

True true, though that has not saved Billy G's marriage

 

Turns out not as many as I thought, since I realized I don't really need to rip streamable titles. Just oddball discs that aren't in Apple Music.