Backing up to two external drives at same time

I have two external drives, one for Time Machine and one using SuperDuper, both using USB. Can both be running at the same time or should one be disconnected before running a backup on the other? Thanks

Both can be used at the same time.
If the backups run at the same time, both will be trying to use USB at the same time, so both will be slowed down.
Unless TM is doing a large backup, though, the impact should not be great.
And it's best to leave them connected at all times, rather than connect and disconnect (unless you're taking one off-site).

Similar Messages

  • Backing up to two external drives simultaneously?

    I have an external 2TB drive that I use with my MacBook Pro. 
    Costco right now has 3TB Seagate drives for $99 and I plan to buy two ... one as my main external drive and another as a mirror backup. 
    I want to transfer the contents of the old 2TB drive to both 3TB drives at the same time, mainly because of the amount of time it takes to transfer that much data and to save those extra hours of running time on the old 2TB drive if it has to be done twice.
    Can this be done?  I've never copied files to more than one backup drive at a time and I don't find anything about it on google.  No idea what steps I would need to take to copy contents of one drive to two other drives at the same time.

    Well you got this problem.
    All hard drives come from the factory with a certain number of bad sectors on the drive.
    There is a automatic mapping off process in place to catch failing sectors, but it doesn't work on completely failed sectors with your data on it, thus people tend to lose files, especially if they are large.
    Sometimes those lost files are system or preference files, which we use do to spend a lot of time assisting people here to solve them.
    Now the odds of you having more bad sectors increases with larger drives, but there is a method to catch most of them before you lay your precious data on them and using it as guinea pig.
    Then there is a question of what file format to use on the external drive, because if you don't plan ahead your copying all the data off, then formatting, then copying all the data back onto the drive.
    There is a cross platform format called exFAT that works fine with Windows, Linux and Mac's that all can read and write, also use larger than 4GB sized files.
    Most drives come formatted FAT32, which has a 4GB file size limit.
    However, Mac's don't format the exFAT format so Windows can use it correctly, however Windows will format exFAT correctly and Mac's can use it no problem. Why is this? I don't know.
    Anyway this is what I propose you do since you abhor the lenghtly copying.
    1: Select each drive in Disk Utility and click Erase > Security Option > Zero All Data (or move the slider one spot to the right and click Erase.)  This is going to take a long time to finish because it's going to write Zeros to the entire drive, then read it back for verification. Do not use 3x-7x as it will take days to finish. If the drive fails the Zero, it's likely bad and needs replacement. Better found out now than later with your precious data on it.
    2: So once the Disk Utility > Zero (format irrelevant) is completed on both drives, take each to the oldest Windows version your going to use, XP is the big problem. If it doesn't have exFAT installed, there is a free install just search Microsofts site for it.
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19364
    Right click and format exFAT on Windows on each drive, it will apply the proper Partition Table for each depending, XP uses a MBR and Vista, Win7/8 and OS X use GUID.
    Again, do NOT format exFAT on a Mac if your ever going to use it with a PC as it can't read it.
    If your NEVER going to use the drives with a Windows machine, then when your Zeroing in Disk Uitlity, choose GUID and OS X Extended Journaled as the format.
    3: Once the two drives are formatted, your good to go copying files.
    Writes are usually slightly slower than reads, unless your drive your reading from is slow or suffers from bad secor issues.
    So if you copy from one drive to two, there might be some slight performance gain, but it's only the small difference between read and writes speeds of the parent and child drives. On a large copy if might trim off some minutes, but no way can it copy two drives in the time it takes to do one.
    You likely heard of "Mirrored RAID" or RAID 1, this is a more pernament solution for servers mostly that DOES write to two drives exactly at the same time. However the drives in a RAID setup are paired up and it's difficult to unpair them once the RAID is setup and use them like normal file drives like you intend to do.
    I always intended to write a User Tip how to resolve this unpairing RAID issue, but rarely does anyone use RAID on Mac's anymore.
    So your best solution is to set a lot of time aside and let the machine do the work (non-RAID) when your not using it.
    Having the max amount of RAM in the machine will assist greatly.

  • Is back-up to TWO external drives possible?

    Is there a trick anyone knows of to use two backup disks for time machine?
    Here's my situation:
    - two 150GB external drives (total of 300GB for backups)
    - need to back up ~240 GB from the computer to these drives
    - only one destination drive is allowed by time machine, so it won't even start the initial back up as the source files are greater than 150 GB (the size of one external drive).
    - I know file exclusion is an option, but I have over 150 GB that needs to be backed up! I can't exclude enough to make them fit....
    So, I have enough space for backups, but it's on two external disks! Is there any way to get time machine to accept or use both drives? Anyone know of any tricks?
    Thanks!
    Selena M.

    How big a drive depends on what you're really backing up. You noted you used to back up your system; you might be unaware that a "system backup" in TM is not the same thing as what you used to do (well, I'm assuming a bit here - that is, you wouldn't be able to "fix" a corrupted system just by dragging your TM backup stuff onto your main drive again).
    The size of the backup drive also depends on the kind of work you do. If you do video or heavy-duty Photoshop stuff, those files, and their incremental backups, take up a lot of room. If you surf, email, and use word processor, those are compact files whose incremental backups take up tiny amounts of space. Also consider that, although you currently have 240 gig on your drive, lots of that is System and Applications, and very little of that changes, so the initial backup is almost the only copy of that stuff that's going to go on your backup drive.
    In all, Apple's occasional recommendation of 2.5 times the size of your working drive for the size of your TM drive is, for many, or most, people, not necessary. In all likelihood, 500GB is going to be fine. In some of my experiments, I've used a 30GB (not a typo) backup drive for my laptop's 120GB drive, backing up only my User-folder stuff with no problem, using it for many weeks. While I don't do a lot of iPhoto stuff, and no movies, I do have tons of Word documents, and half-tons of large InDesign and Photoshop files. I had plenty of room for the initial backup, the current one, and 2-3 weeks of interval backups. (No system backup, no Applications folder backup, excluded things like the Trash, etc).
    When you get your new drive - don't discard the old ones - or, at least, keep one of the old ones. Make it your emergency startup drive, with a system on it in case your main system goes wonky; also, use it if you use something like Entourage, or a PC-emulation software - you don't want TM backing up those files, but you should be backing them up, and an occasional drag of those files to your "special backup" disk can be lifesaver.
    s.

  • HT201250 Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?

    Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?
    I have one 1T Western Digital backup drive that works well with Time Machine and my MacBook Pro.  I now want to back up my wife's MacBook Air using Time Machine on her Mac and want to know if I can use the same WD external drive or if I need to get a 2nd back up drive?  If I can use one external drive for the two Macs do I need to do something special on the drive or will Time Machine do it automatically?

    Yes. You will need to configure Time Machine preferences on each computer to backup to the same drive. Note that you cannot connect the backup drive to both machines at the same time.

  • One person, one iPhone, one laptop. Two homes in two states, two external drives, two identical copies of my music library.  Many headaches.

    I feel like this question is asked endlessly on these boards, but somehow I still can't find a relevant answer... So, apologies for rehashing a variant of the same question!
    I have one (ancient) MacBook Pro, and one (ancient) iPhone.  I carry both back and forth between two states: the state where I work and the state where I live the rest of the time.  My ancient MBP and my ancient iPhone are too small to carry my whole music collection (which is quite large—larger than a new phone or laptop would reasonably support, anyway).   My mobile apps and my podcasts live on my laptop, but my music library lives on an external drive.  I have two external drives now, one in each state where I live/work.  I also have a copy of everything on my desktop machine at work, but I've given up long ago trying to sync to multiple computers.  I'll settle for now for syncing to one computer (my MBP), which sometimes is connected to one copy of my library, and sometimes is connected to another copy of my library. 
    I know that I can make multiple iTunes libraries, with duplicate copies of my podcast subscriptions, my apps, and my playlists and music, and keep switching which one my phone is set to sync to (wiping it each time, and possibly losing some settings in the process?)   But that's a pain in the neck.  Plus, it's hard to keep my podcasts active in both libraries, because iTunes podcast subscriptions are like frail little tamagotchi critters that need constant love, nurturing, and encouragement, or else they wither and die. 
    Is there any way to have a single library, with my apps and podcasts on the laptop, which just happens to make use of the "local" copies of my music on whichever external drive happens to be attached?
    Or do I need the google cloud + android if I want to unify my listening and syncing life?
    Thanks!

    Hi,
    There are several reasons which may cause the backup to be full instead of incremental, such as source volume snapshot is deleted, from which the last backup was taken.
    For more detailed information, please refer to the thread below:
    control incremental vs full backup on W2k8 R2
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/7820edc7-18ef-4f6e-bb50-f87f4a728597/control-incremental-vs-full-backup-on-w2k8-r2?forum=windowsbackup
    There is a similar thread, please go through it to help troubleshoot this issue:
    Understanding Windows Small Business Server 2008 Backup - Full and Incremental with 2 Backup Destinations
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bdb3c5ae-81dc-4f54-a39e-4b888ee52476/understanding-windows-small-business-server-2008-backup-full-and-incremental-with-2-backup
    Regards,
    We
    are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
    interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
    Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

  • Is it possible to set up a backup between two external drives

    Is it possible to set up a backup between two external drives?
    i use time machine to back up my imac onto an external 2T.
    i also have two external 3T drives.  i am looking for redundancy of data, tried software RAID and it failed.  i also see some limitations with RAID that a backup would avoid.
    thanks for sharing your expertise.
    be well,
    tony

    so thanks to all of you, particularly rkaufmann87 i have decided to stop the plan of setting up a software RAID set.  instead i have downloaded ccc and am in the process of setting up the secone 3t external drive as a clone.  i will use time machine to back up the internal hard drive only and if possible see if i can clone that as well onto one of the 3t's.
    this gives me the peace of mind i sounght and avoids the problem of total corruption that exists with the raid solution i was exploring.
    thank you all for making this an enjoyable and informative experience.  what a powerful community.
    be well
    tony

  • My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Tim

    My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Time machine failed. I have two powered 12V USB
    routers that are plugged into a 550VA CyberPower surge protector. I often receive these insufficient USB power for devices messages a dozen times even when I do not have devices like camera, Ipad, Ipod, and Tascam digital audio recorder plugged in. Is there a way to troubleshoot these USB routers or should I consider that one of the routers may be defective and replace them?
    David

    My 2007 Macbook pro Intel Core 2 Duo   Processor Speed 2.33 GHz has power issues with one or some of my USB powered devices. Last night I could not back up my Lacie external drives with software SuperDuper, hard drive copier. I also had a message that Time machine failed. I have two powered 12V USB
    routers that are plugged into a 550VA CyberPower surge protector. I often receive these insufficient USB power for devices messages a dozen times even when I do not have devices like camera, Ipad, Ipod, and Tascam digital audio recorder plugged in. Is there a way to troubleshoot these USB routers or should I consider that one of the routers may be defective and replace them?
    David

  • , I-tunes can no longer 'locate' my library , after a botched cut & paste attempt to back-up onto an external drive. Still syncing with i-Pod but playlists lost , podcasts no longer syncing, Can't play music .. how to restore back to original state .

    I-tunes can no longer 'locate' my library , after a botched cut & paste attempt to back-up onto an external drive.Cant play any music as it "can't find" the library  Still syncing with i-Pod but playlists lost , podcasts no longer syncing.   How to restore back to original state . I have tried re-installing  - with no change

    I do the same thing as you do...
    My music is on an external drive as to not use up gigabytes of storage that need not be used for media.
    There are a couple basic principles to iTunes that I believe you should know.
    1. iTunes is not a media storage program. It does not store your media "in iTunes". It simply is an organization tool for your media already on a hard disk.
    2. As iTunes is not a storage mechanism, it has no way to "know" whether or not the media that is listed is actually there. This is where the "design" of iTunes comes into play.
    I like to think of iTunes as a bread-crumb trail. The "music" in iTunes, isn't actually there. The bread crumb is the location on the external hard drive.
    If that bread crumb trail disappears (in this case the external drive you use). If said external drive is not plugged in, that bread crumb trail is not able to be followed. iTunes is "lost" and unable to find the media. The only way to remedy this is to place the media on your local drive.
    To address your issue of the library. If you hold down shift, you can select your library on your external drive. It will be a file with an .itl extension. The folder name will be your external drive.
    I go into edit > preferences > advanced and set my library to the correct location. Make sure you check the box "Copy to iTunes Folder when importing" (or whatever it says).
    You can't fix the issue of iTunes not seeing the media if your drive is unplugged unless you physically move the content to your OS HDD...Or any other HDD you use.

  • Backing up to TWO portable drives, alternately --(keeping one off-site)

    Can Time Machine be used to alternately (say, one day -- or one week -- at a time) back-up to each of two separate portable USB drives, so that one can always be kept off-site (to ensure security)? If so, how?
    Beginning in the days of tape backups (and continuing to Iomega disks and then CDs) we've used a system of rotating backup media so as to always have a set off-premises that was no more than a few days to a week old. That way, in the event of a disaster, such as a fire, we'd still have a secured back up.
    Can the same be done by alternating two hard drives? And, can Time Machine be configured so that it can tell the difference and back up each one separately?
    In the alternative, can two drives be attached to the Mac (I'm using a MacBook Pro) at the same time, both receiving and storing backup data, so that one drive be removed nightly for secure, off-premises, storage?

    Rotating drives is no problem. When you attach a new drive you may have to go to System Preferences > Time Machine > Change drives. Time Machine will know which files need to be backed up for each drive.
    However, Time Machine will can only back up to a single drive at a time. You can request the capability you want for future Time Machine releases through Feedback.
    http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
    In the meantime you might want to use Carbon Copy cloner to do incremental backups to one drive and use Time Machine for the other. I would however be quite careful about making sure that CCC and TM aren't running at the same time. CCC has a built-in scheduler and Time Machine Scheduler can be used for TM.
    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26341/timemachinescheduler

  • Back-up to Lacie external drive

    I am monitoring a project using 2 cameras. Have been combining the rolls in iPhoto into 1 roll with dates. When I try to transfer the images to a folder created in the finder, repeatedly I'm told for example that jpg1 already exists and I cannot move another image also being a jpg1 into the folder.
    Sure hope there is a solution to this for I must get these image backed up on an external drive.
    Thanking you in advance.
    Jack

    Jack:
    The best way to fix your issue is to put the files into an album and name that album the way you would want the basic file name to be. Then export those photos from the album using the File->Export->File Export menu route and select the option to "Use album name". The exported files will be titled "album name-01.jpg", "album name-02.jpg", etc. This will maintain their order. if you export more than 99 at a time, the files will not be ordered properly in the list view as they don't have two zeros before numbers 1-9 and one zero before numbers 10-99.
    Do you Twango?
    MBP 2.16Ghz; G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM ea, 250G HD; G4 Dual 1Ghz, 1.5G RAM;   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   22" LCD, 710G FW HDs, Canon: SD700IS/i850/LIDE 50, Epson R200, 30G iPod, 2G Nano

  • How do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?

    how do I move a back up to another external drive and how does the Mac Book then find the new back up?
    I currently have the back up on a Time Capsule, I want to move it from the Time Capsule to another external hard drive.

    Did you read the link to the Pondidni website?  You will have to select the Time Machine HDD for the new MBP and the old one in System Preferences>Time Machine:
    Ciao.

  • Had to wipe my drive so I could do a clean install of snow leopard Now I look every where on how to move bookmarks, address book and I cal settings.  I have them back up on a external drive with Time machine but can not move, copy or restore my old sett d

    Had to wipe my drive so I could do a clean install of snow leopard.   Now I have look every where on how to move bookmarks, address book and I cal settings.  I have them back up on a external drive with Time machine but can not move, copy or restore my old settings.  The instructions I have found or no help or needs more clarafication on what to do.

    Use migration assistant to move your files.  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

  • If I delete a folder from my MacBook Air after backing my computer up with TimeMachine, will the folder and its contents stay on the external drive the next time I back up my computer?

    It's my understanding that TimeMachine intelligently backups computer system onto an external hard drive and keeps the backup up to date. Currently my MacBook Air is almost out of memory, so I was hoping to move all of my pictures and music to an external hard drive via TimeMachine and then delete the files from my laptop. As TimeMachine continues to backup my computer over the weeks and months after, will it see that the files are no longer on my computer and then delete them from my hard drive? I just don't want to lose the music and pictures I'm deleting in order to make more room.

    Time Machine won't delete them from the backup drive until it runs out of space, but other things can. Put them on a second external drive and set Time Machine to back it up as well.
    (110783)

  • Daisy chain two external drives via Firewire, then connect one via USB to the TC?

    Hi,
    I have two external drives that have both Firewire and USB ports. My 1st generation 500 gb Time Capsule (maybe all of them?) only has USB ports so up til now, I have connected one or the other drive via USB. (I've tried to connect both to a powered USB hub but one drive has problems showing up. At this point I only use the one drive that shows up and connect it directly with no hub to the Time Capsue.)
    My question is: Can I daisy chain the two drives via Firewire and then connect one of them (probably the one that has no problems connecting with USB) to the Time Capsule via USB?
    Second, somewhat-related problem...
    I don't know why one drive isn't connecting very well when directly connected to the Time Capsule. Both are Fantom drives. One is a 1TB, the one that has prblems connecting is a 250GB. I've tried connecting directly or through a powered hub. The 1B has no problems, the 250 gb won't show up most of the time and disconnects itself fairly quickly if it does connect. I've switched cables; that hasn't helped. The 1TB stays connected most of the time but sometimes it disconnects too. I suspect the Time Capsule just isn't able to deal with external drives so I don't puch it. It would be nice to be able to have both drives accessable through the TC though.
    Thanks for any help.
    Cheers,
    John

    Doing some experimentation, connecting the drives directly to the MBP:
    - Neither of the two drives Firewire daisy-chained and going through the powered USB hub connected to the MBP mount. I was using old aliases on desktop.*They don't show up on network otherwise. (Each drive self-mounts with both Firewire and USB direct connections.)
    *Even after making new aliases, neither drive will mount using their new aliases when directly connected (not through hub) with USB or Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter.) That's weird.
    - Both the 240 gb and the 1TB drives going through powered hub connected to MBP mount by themselves.
    - Two drives daisy-chained via Firewire and one drive connected to the MBP via Firewire (and Thunderbolt adapter) self-mount. No surprise there but that doesn't help me as I want to have the drives further away from the MBP and connected to the Time Capsule, which doesn't have a Firewire port anyway...
    - All of the USB and the Firewire cables work as does the Thunderbolt adapter. I tested them.
    I wonder.... I have a Firewire to what appears to be an Ethernet connector. I wonder if that would be any good. I'm afraid to try it though...

  • I am trying to move previous Time Machine back ups off an external drive to my new Time Capsule. How do I do that?

    I have my previous time machine back ups on an external drive and I want to move those to my new 2tb Time Capsule. How can I make this happen?

    You probably cannot do it..
    The backup is very different from a local drive to a network drive.
    Look through the Pondini KB.
    http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    You can move the backup from a local to another local disk or network to another network.. but there are issues even doing that.
    IMHO.. don't... just start a new backup and keep what you already have saved up.. if you don't need it in 6months time.. or a year.. then you can wipe it.

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