Mac Mini won't wake up

[Kenny Glasgow]

My Mac Mini has the slow flashing white light and I have to turn off and turn on again to get it to wake up.

It will then fall asleep again as soon as I turn my back!

I have a reserve Mac Mini that I want to put in place but I need to get my photos and iTunes directory off the old one.

My actual music is stored on an external HD however I would like to get the directory onto the new Mac Mini if possible

Many thanks in anticipation!

 

[Xeneye]

Kenny, what I suggest is to first off reset the SMC as follows:

1. Shut down the computer.

2. Unplug the computer's power cord.

3. Wait fifteen seconds.

4. Attach the computer's power cord.

5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

As soon as you log in, open up the System Preferences, and turn Computer & Display sleep to Never.

This should give you time to copy/backup your files, if this doesn’t work you could always connect via your other Mac mini using Target Disk Mode but you’ll need a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable for this.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kenny Glasgow]

Many thanks for your quick and helpful response!

I have around 56,000 tracks in iTunes and I don't fancy re-loading them into a new directory

 

[Kenny Glasgow]

Should have asked, what is the best way to move the directory to the new Mini?

 

[Xeneye]

Here is the Apple support guide for copying/backing up your iTunes folder.

If you don’t have an external drive to use, then it can be a little more complex getting it correctly copied to a new drive if it’s already running an OS, my advice would be a copy (not a move) to an external drive, so you have a backup should anything go wrong, and also it’s easier to just plug it into the new Mini and copy the data over.

 

[Kenny Glasgow]

Many thanks again f0wler!

Once last question, hopefully, where do I find the iTunes directory on the Mini?

When I have copied to the external HD, do I then just copy back into the new Mini Mac?

 

[Xeneye]

Unless you’ve moved your data to anywhere new, the standard folder is in in your home directory in the Music folder, there should be a folder called iTunes, this should contain all your iTunes data (including Music, TV Shows, Podcasts etc.) this is what you can drag and drop on the Ext HDD.
You can always double check where your music is stored by right clicking on any song and selecting 'Show in Finder’ this should point you to the exact song and the sub-directory it’s in.

Once you copy it to the new drive, make sure to fully test with the Ext HDD unplugged before deleting it from the old drive, as within the iTunes folder is an .xml file that contains all the information about your iTunes data, you’ll need this copied correctly making sure it’s selects the Music on your new machine rather than elsewhere.

It all sounds a little daunting, but once you’ve done it a few times it’s second nature, just remember to Backup.

 

[RickDastardly]

It's also worth using some of Doug's invaluable apple scripts once you've finished moving your iTunes to check for any issues (e.g. Tracks which are M.I.A. etc.). Can't recommend these enough...there's lots of useful scripts to keep on top of large libraries:

Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes ♫ - dougscripts.com

 

[Kenny Glasgow]

Thanks guys, much appreciated!

 

[Xeneye]

Yep, have to agree with RickDastardly, Doug’s AppleScripts are a superb addition to iTunes.