Brian

Welcome to Mirrorless Cameras and LED Lights! As time goes on and LED becomes more common-place, you will be dealing with sort of thing. Surprise!! If you don't want to deal with this sort of thing, buy a DSLR while you still can. The better Mirrorless Bodies usually have a feature in the menus to combat this sort of thing. Basically, it will pick the SS that matches best with the LED lights, so if you do have this feature on, expect it to be a weird number. It may not be a 1/160th for example, but the number when you view the EXIF data might be 1/172 or some other weird number. Check your manual, or even google your make / model of body and anti-flicker LED lights.

You might want to give this article a read, too: All About Memory It's a bit long, but I tried to explain how memory works by using a Library as an example. When it comes to a computer's main HD, it's not just the Operating System, Programs and your files, there are other things that take up space. One in particular is the Photoshop Scratch Disk. This is an area on the HD that PS will tap into if it needs resources. Because you only have 8GB of RAM, which in 2022 is just not enough, PS will utilize it's Scratch Disk more and more. Keep in mind that the Scratch Disk isn't a "fixed" area; Photoshop will increase or reduce its size as it sees fit. So it's not out of the ordinary for you to go from 19GB Free to something like 7GB Free. In fact, if you ever duplicated the background layer, your .psd file doubles in size. That's right, you read that correctly. So if you are running PS Actions that Duplicates and Flattens a lot, your .psd file size can easily quadruple in file size. Combine that if you have a camera that is 24MP or more, you are already dealing with large Raw files. As time goes on, camera bodies will continually have larger and large sensors. In reality, you only "need" around 12MP. That's it. That's all you need to print any photographic print. Of course some will say they'd like more detail and I will say, "fine...16MP, tops." But the truth is, 12MP is plenty. But that doesn't sell cameras. Anyway, back to memory. The PS Scratch Disk isn't the only thing that occupies space on your HD, the Operating System has it's own as well. So if the OS is trying to make PS happy by giving it more resources and PS in turn is using the Scratch Disk to increase performance, it's very common to have your HD go from 19GB free to as little as 5GB free in the matter of a few seconds. See why I'm so passionate about having at least 1TB for your Main Hard Drive? 250GB is Microscopic by today's standards. Even a 500GB HD is pushing things. There is so much going on behind the scenes that you don't realize and if you don't "Buy it Right" you will be running into problems, especially as the years go on. As of right now, 1TB is just enough to keep the OS happy, Photoshop happy, enough room for the temporary cache files to be happy, and enough room for some programs and even data files to reside on your HD. A 1TB allows your computer to "Breathe" a little easier. Anything less, and you need to be hyper-anal on what is stored on your Main Macintosh HD. Speaking of Hard Drives, I think I mentioned this above, but it's worth repeating. You never want to go more than 80% full on ANY Mac HD, Internal or External. If you do, performance takes a huge hit. Combine that with storing files and folders on the Mac Desktop, and that's a recipe for disaster. Why? Because any file or folder on the Mac Desktop is treated as an "Open Window," regardless if you are using that file or not. In a Nutshell, the more crap you have on the Mac Desktop, the slower the damn thing runs. Right now you have 8GB of RAM and a Full HD. Since it's a Mac Laptop, there isn't anything you can do except delete things off of your HD or dare I say it...buy a new computer. Apple has made it impossible to do any type of upgrading after the initial purchase. It's even worse with the new M1 line of computers. You are kinda stuck. I'd start saving, because as the years go on, Photoshop gets bigger and bigger and more bloated. They have to keep coming up with fancy tools to keep it interesting and for people to buy. In reality, Photoshop CS6 is all a Photographer "Needs."

The funny part is, a power switch is no longer a "Power Switch," it's a "Request for Power." "Huh?" Your computers are always "On," it's for that instant-on capability. People are used to computers booting in 15 seconds or less, they don't want to wait. It's very much like TV's from 60 years ago. Back then when you turned it on, you had to wait for things to warm up. (This is when they used Vacuum Tubes instead of Transistors.) Eventually, TV's had more of a "Instant On" feature, same things go with computers/laptops these days. So yes, in order to have the drive not spin up and down, you will need to physically disconnect it after you power off your computer. Honestly? I feel that there will be more wear-and-tear on a drive that's constantly spinning up-and-down than if you pull the usb cable out after the computer is off.

At a minimum, you want AT LEAST a 1TB Internal HD. A computer/laptop that has 8GB of RAM and a 250GB HD, is meant for GENERAL COMPUTING ONLY! As soon as you throw "Editing Photos" into the mix, you are no longer a "General Computer User." Plus, if you do decide to stay with Macs, the M1 Line, soon to be the M2 line...there is no upgrading after the fact. You must purchase all of the over-priced "upgrades" at the time of purchase. Give this article a read, I go over specs: Buying a Mac in 2022 that's good for "Photo Editing." I will warn you...the price for a Mac Laptop that's "Good for Photo Editing" is more than $4000 and it's not going to get any cheaper anytime soon. I'd honestly expect the price to increase.

This is a common problem with modern computers. Powered Off doesn’t mean what it used to. If there is any power detected by the drive, via the USB Port, it will spin up and down constantly. Only way around it is to either turn off the power switch on the EHD if you have one or pull the USB cable. There might be some power management tweaks you can do. What external drive is this. Does it have a power switch?

Should you upgrade? Not with 8.92GB free. The reason you are having problems is the lack of HD space, plus only 8GB of RAM. I hate to say this, but your laptop is very underpowered. I’m sure you did this to save money, but it’s really crippled. Even 2 years ago it was crippled. I don’t think upgrading is going to “fix” anything, but nuking your laptop and starting over might be a possible solution. Since you have such a small HD, nothing but the MacOS and one or two programs can be installed on the main hard drive. You need to be living off of externals, preferably Thunderbolt 3 drives if you have a TB3 port. One more thing. How much crap do you have stored on your Mac Desktop? The more files and folders you have on the Mac Desktop, the slower it runs.

Another thing to try is adding Bridge to the "Accessibility" item in the Security & Privacy Section. I know if people update their MacOS, especially with Monterey, this setting sometimes gets defaulted and Bridge/Photoshop/Lightroom start giving you Permissions errors. Basically, you do the same thing as Full Disk Access, unlock the Padlock on the lower left, and then click Accessibility. Then click the + and go find Bridge. There is also a command line we can try to reset Permissions for your Profile, but lets jump off that Bridge when we get to it. (See what I did there? I kill me!! LOL!!!)

Automatically performing backups is a software thing. Unfortunately, Windows does not have a “Time Machine” like Macs do. Say what you want about Apple, but they have backups down to an Artform. Most, if not all, OEM software that comes with HDs is buggy and never really works that well. It’s been this way since the 1990’s. Partitioning… It’s not a huge deal. Takes no more than 5 min tops. Windows has all that you need built in to it. What is happening is that Macs are becoming more popular, so in order to cut support calls, they sell HDs with a Partition type called exFAT. Why? Because both a Windows computer and Mac can read/write that partition type. Sounds like a good thing right? Wrong. exFAT is not as bulletproof as it’s made out to be, and you could lose everything if it ever gets corrupted. Granted, the same thing can happen to a NTFS Windows Partition, but NTFS has been around for a LONG time and is mainstream. exFAT is more like Microsoft’s attempt at a new Partition Type that’s more of a side project; like a programmer was tinkering in their proverbial garage. I am not trusting my data on non-mainstream stuff. Fortunately, it’s easy to rectify this and like I said, takes less than 5 minutes. So when you say backup, what are you exactly meaning? Backing up important folders? Storing images and documents only on an external? Backing up your internal drive? In reality, I just store my documents and images on my main data drive and then copy any really important items to the cloud. If my computer crashes, reloading the OS and software is pretty straightforward; in reality it’s the data that is paramount. People put way too much faith in automatic backup software and never test it to see if it works. They just set it up, but never attempt to verify the data or ever attempt to do a restore. So how are you looking to backup things?

The MacOS is based on a operating system called Unix (pronounced you-nicks) that dates from the 1970’s. In order to do a file systems check on a HD, it needs to be unmounted first. A Mac computer does not differentiate between a internal hd or external one. That’s why you do not want to go more than 75%-80% full on any HD, internal or external. Before we get into running First Aid and why it couldn’t un-mount, why are you running First Aid? Second, how is this external HD partitioned? Is it the stupid exFAT or is it the MacOS Extended (Journaled). Let me know.

Cool Beans!! Here are the current versions of Photoshop CC & Lightroom CC. When it comes to Monterey, you really need to be on the latest version. So up at the top, near the clock is the Adobe Mothership CC Thingy. Click "Updates" in the left column and if you need to, click "Check for Updates" on the right. Get your LR/PS/Bridge/ACR up to date. Plus! I want you to do this: Setting up Photoshop Start from the top and work your way down.

Refer to the answer in this webpage. It’s the general “Gist” of the procedure that I’m talking about. https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/unable-to-open-lightroom-classic-after-upgrading-to-macos-monterey/td-p/12516798

I think I know what the problem is. It’s not a true “Permissions” issue per se; it has to do with the new built in Security with a modern MacOS. Basically, we need to tell your new MacOS that it’s ok for LR to read / write to folders. One thing to keep in mind, that when it comes to Monterey, you need to be using the very latest of Adobe’s software. So make sure things are completely updated before we go into your security settings. I’m on Catalina, but the steps should be similar. I will post screenshots when I get home tonight.

You have some serious permissions issues. I guess fill this form out and post the results in this thread. Are you using the absolute latest-and-greatest Photoshop, ACR and Lightroom CC? Adobe just released an update a few days ago. (At least for me.)

Good!

Yippee!!! I'm just glad we caught the exFAT thing when we did. NTFS is the way to go, and no permission errors either!!

Alright, I'm just going to save some time. After you select the exFAT Partition Block, then right-click and choose "Delete Volume," the EHD in Disk Management should be a solid black line all the way across. Here is an example of what I'm talking about. Please note! My HD is A LOT smaller than yours. Now for the fun part, creating a new NTFS Partition! Right click on the area that has a black stripe and select, "New Simple Volume." The Wizard should appear, click Next: Specify the Volume Size. For the majority and this example, we will leave it at the default, which is the maximum capacity of the drive. If you are going to create multiple partitions on this Hard Drive at different sizes, I'd use an online calculator tool to create the size you need. For example, if you wanted to create a 6TB partition, you would enter 6,291,456. But to keep things simple, again...leave it at the default and click next. Assign a Drive Letter. This is the spot that you can assign a drive letter if you choose. For example, if this EHD is one that will contain personal files. we could change the Drive Letter to P:\ for "Personal Drive." Again, this is completely up to you to decide. There is no right or wrong answer. If you'd like all of your EHDs to be the "E Drive" (i.e. E:\ ) then change the default to E by clicking the Down Arrow next to the Drive Letter and selecting E. After making your choice, click Next. We will leave it at "D" for this example. You could choose "E" or "H" or even "P," it only matters to you. The next screen is very important. It's the "Format Partition" selections. For today's modern Windows Computers' hard drives that are meant for permanent storage, you want to use NTFS. Some devices like Thumb Drives, you would want to use FAT32. Again, for this example we will leave it at the default of NTFS. The Allocation Size should be left at the default and it is highly recommended that you give your HD a name, to keep things organized. "Data," "Photos," "EHD #2," etc. are all examples. Keep is short and simple. Before clicking Next, be sure to click the check-box next to "Perform a quick format!" Otherwise it will take HOURS to format your HD! Leave the "Enable file and folder compression" UN-CHECKED. Click Next. A Summary Window should appear with your selections. Confirm them if you'd like and click Finish. The Hard Drive will begin the process and Windows will assign it a letter and name. This process should take less than 30 seconds, but this depends on the speed of your computer and Hard Drive. Some complete this task in as little as 5-7 seconds, others take longer. When completed, the Disk Manger should have the drive in the list, along with the name that you chose for the drive: Exit out of the Disk Manger and either use "This PC" or the "Windows Explorer" to use the new Drive. With any new Hard Drive, now is the time to think of a Directory Structure on how you want to organize your Hard Drive. This is completely up to you, but I would take the time and think of how you are going to store stuff, rather than it become a dumping ground for your files/images. Here is one example: You could also keep things very simple, and have folders that are just the year: The sky's the limit! So make your Directory Structure a good one!

Delete Volume Now, before you do this, you have everything on this HD backed up / located somewhere else? Because this will nuke everything on that drive. So if you are 100% sure you can delete everything without worry, go ahead and select Delete Volume. You then should have a black stripe all the way across. Post a screenshot when you are done.

Yippee!!! Now, if you are looking for an automated program to sync folders/hard drives from one to the other, I recommend Super Duper! Version 3.6.1. But before you get into that, let's just get you used to using a TM Drive and a Main Backup / Data Drive first. Keep things simple.

Yep. That one will work as well.

It's good that you have selected the correct drive, now you need to click on the correct area. Right Click on this area, where it says "Main Backup (E:)," then you should see "Delete Partition." Basically, when you right-click on this "Block" or "Section," you will see a list of choices of what do to with the exiting Partition.

Huh? 🤪 LOL!! Simplify!!! You like to over-think things, I do this as well, but when it comes to hard drives and your data, you need to take things one-step-at-a-time. First, we need to think about where your files are going and if that hard drive is setup correctly or not. Because rushing in a panic because another HD failed is going to set you up for a catastrophic failure at some point. Clearly with the way your "Main Backup" drive is set now, it's inevitable. So let's disconnect the camera or media card. (That's the EOS_Digital) I just want the new EHD hooked up to your new computer. As I suspected, you have exFAT Partitoned/Formatted HDs. This is what is causing you grief and will ROYALLY F*CK things up in the future. So let's begin... That "Main Backup E:\" which I'm reading should be the "New" EHD, WILL NEED TO BE NUKED AND YOU WILL HAVE TO START OVER! This is why I wanted to make sure of the Partition Type BEFORE you did anything on it. And why you should COPY/Paste things instead of "cut and paste" or move the files. This way we can do things again. Step one: The new "Main Backup," see where it says "exFAT?" This is BAD, but it is fixable. If there are ANY files on that drive and aren't somewhere else, you need to copy them over to a new location because the next step is... Right-Click on that Main Backup Block and select "Delete Partition." I want to see nothing but a black line all the way across, completely empty. When you get there, post another screen-shot. WARNING!! Make sure you are on the CORRECT DRIVE when you do this. This is a one-way proposition. We are deleting everything on that drive and starting over.

You need to un-install that damn cloning program!

Part 3 First select the EHD that you want to Format for use on the Mac in the left column: Then click the Erase Button at the top: Your Window should appear similar to this. At this point, give your new EHD its official name. Make it something Obvious, like WD 3TB or Client File EHD 3TB. Something recognizable and simple. You can only have so many characters for the name, so keep it short and simple: Then click the UP/DOWN arrows on the right, in the Format Section. If this was originally a Windows EHD, it will more than likely say, Windows NT File System (NTFS): A list will appear as follows: For a Traditional Spinning Hard Drive, ONLY SELECT THE MacOS Extended (Journaled.) DO NOT SELECT the "Encrypted / Case Sensitive" Options! For a Flash Based Hard Drive (i.e. SSD, m.2) choose APFS. DO NOT use APFS for a Traditional Hard Drive! DO NOT SELECT the "Encrypted / Case Sensitive" Options! Again, it's either the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" or the plain "APFS." Do not use any other option. For the people that do use those options, have reasons to do so. For the 99.9999% of us out there, including myself, we want to keep our Partition Types as simple as possible. For the majority of users doing this, your new External HD will most likely be the "Traditional / Spinning" type/kind, as SSD/m.2 Drives tend to be extremely expensive for capacities over 1TB. As time goes on, this will definitely change, but for now your Disk Utility Window should look something like this: Simply Click the Erase Button and let the MacOS do its thing: When finished, you might get a message from the MacOS asking if you want to use the EHD for Time Machine or not. If this is a Data Drive, tell it NO! Of course, if this EHD is meant for Time Machine, tell it Yes. If everything goes as expected, and followed all of my instructions, you should see your new EHD mounted on the Mac Desktop: You will also see it as follows in the Disk Utility Module of the MacOS: That's it! That is all it takes to make your Windows Hard Drive and convert it for use on your Mac. Keep in mind that with the MacOS and the way its designed, is it treats both Internal and External Drives the same. So don't go over 75% - 80% capacity on either drive, Internal or External. The more full your hard drive is, the slower your Macintosh runs.

The first thing I want you to do, if you haven't already, is turn on the feature that allows you to see HDs and other "Mounted Devices" on your Mac Desktop. Open the Finder. The easiest way is to click the Smiley Face on your DockBar: Then head to the Finder Menu and select Preferences: Once there put checks next to these items and change the bottom to "Macintosh HD" if you want: From there, just click the Red Circle in the upper left corner to apply the changes. After you make this change, things like the Macintosh HD, any External Drives, Memory Cards from Cameras that are in a Card Reader and even portable DVD Disks will all appear on the Mac Desktop. This makes accessing them a breeze and is one of the things that has always puzzled me on why this feature isn't turned on by default. For example: Part 2 First, as you saw in my example above, your new EHD should appear on the desktop, though it may not. Here is an example of currently Mounted Devices on my iMac. You should see something similar if you followed my steps above: Now the fun begins! Let's get that new Hard Drive prepped for use on the Macintosh!! Click your Applications Folder, then open Disk Utilities. Head to Applications Menu >> Utilities >> Disk Utilities. This is where your Disk Utilities might look slightly different. Anyway, here is mine: While in your Disk Utilities Module, please make note of any additional Hard Drives listed in the left column. Pay special attention to the Hard Drives listed under the "External" Section. For this process, it is much safer to only have one EHD Mounted / Listed! It is imperative that you Eject and Remove ANY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO ERASE!!! Your Disk Utilities Window should appear as follows, with only ONE External HD listed: You can Eject the EHD from Disk Utilities, just click the little up-arrow/line next to the drive you want to remove. Continue on to the next page in this thread >>>>>>>

Yeah, that usually happens when you copy a file that was on a NTFS Drive and moved to another format, like FAT. You will see this a lot if copying stuff to a thumbdrive. Nothing bad will happen per se, it's just that the file properties will be lost if copied back to a NTFS. So before putting anything on this new drive, we need to make sure WHAT partition type it has. If it's an external hard drive and you are using Windows, IT NEEDS TO BE NTFS and not FAT32 (Unlikely) or the stupid exFAT that Manufacturers are using. Worse yet, using Manufacturer's software that "Preps" the drive for you also screws you up. All you need is the Windows Disk Management App that is built into Windows. Right-Click on the Start Button, select Disk Management and with the new EHD installed, take a screenshot and post it here. I wanna see how that new drive is setup.