Backing up photos on iMac using external hard drive and time machine

How do i back up photos from my imac using an external hard drive and time machine
Thanks in advance

Apple explains how to use Time Machine in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427.
Setting up and using TM is very simple to do, connect any external HD (format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility ) and your computer shoudl ask if you want to use that EHD for a Time Machine backup. If you have any questions visit your local Apple Store or reseller and they can answer how to setup and use TM and also should be able to offer suggestions on EHDs. My personal preference is OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro due to the build quality and OWC's level of support.

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    Brandbasher wrote:
    Thanks Pondini but i have closed time machine, removed external hard drive.
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    That shouldn't be related to Time Machine (especially if the backups aren't mounted).
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    Have you tried a Restart?
    Does it happen in another user account?  (If you don't have one, create one via System Prefs > Users & Groups.)

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    When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

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    Format the new SSD in Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and that will solve question No. 1.
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    Question No. 2.  Erase the Time Machine HDD using Disk Utility and then install Time Machine.  See this excellent website regarding Time Machine.
    http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
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    Ciao.

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    If Disk Utility can't repair it, there are some expensive third party products that may be able to do so, strictly for the purpose of extracting whatever files remain intact. I have none in particular to recommend.
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    pulp3au wrote:
    1. leave it unejected even when I shut down the computer?
    What are you referring with "unejected"? You should know that LaCie drives have got three modes: "On" (permanently turned on), "Auto" (when you turn off your computer, your external disk turns off or you unmount it) and "Off". Choose the one you want.
    pulp3au wrote:
    2. Can I also leave the hard drive powered on even when I shut the computer down? It would be good if I could do this because then it would just always be on and ready for hourly time machine backups without my having to remember to turn it on and the eject it when it's finished for the day.
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    Just purchased WD My Book Essential external hard drive.  I would like to back up the files on my macbook pro, but I am unsure what to do with time machine. How should I go about backing up my files?

    Hi B,
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  • Two External Hard Drives and Time Machine

    Hi All
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    Sonia

    Hi Sonia
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  • External Hard Drives and Time Machine

    I have all my music stored on an external hard drive. The drive shows up on Time Machine Preferences as a "Do Not Back Up" and the minus button is grey so I don't seem to be able to take it off the list and back it up on Time Machine. Any suggestions as to why this might be? Might there be some reason why I can't back it up? It's a LaCie if that's relevant. Thanks.

    OK, well out of my depth now! It says the Partition Map Scheme is Master Boot Record. Not sure about the format - could MS-DOS (FAT) be a format?? Do I need to change these to back on TM? Can I do that without losing my data?

  • Itunes, external hard drive , and  Time machine

    Hello I am a college student at RIT with a problem
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    You may find more help in the TM forum, here.
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  • When using a Seagate 1T external hard drive and Time Machine to back up hourly, if I delete photo files from the Mac hard drive before the next back up, are these retained on the Seagate drive or will they be lost (overwritten) in the next backu in the ne

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  • Using external hard drives for Time Machine backups

    I would like to let everyone know about an important issue regarding what type of media to use, or better said not to use for Time Machine backups.
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    I tried to back up several more times, but the result was the same.  I called Apple Customer Support, they said there was nohing wrong using a RAID 0 array disk combination.
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    Then I used a different disk not part of any RAID array, and the Time Machine backup was able to successfull finish he task.
    I called Apple to tell them about this issue, and they finall confirmed I was right:
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    Is there anything else on the drive?  If not, just erase it with Disk Utility.
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  • External Hard Drive and Time Machine

    I recently installed a new 1TB HD in my MBP but am still using a 400GB external as my Time Machine back up. Not suprisingly, in a recent backup attempt, I got an error message that said there isn't enough room on the external to back up my MBP. My question is, is there any way to set TM to backup only selected folders and applications (e.g. email) rather than doing a backup of my entire MBP? If not, my only other option would be to purchase a bigger external.

    yes you can surely remove the items which you don't want to backup. Open Time Machine and click Options to exclude folders.

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