Can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?

can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?

Yes, if it has the GUID Partition Map Scheme, but only by erasing it and choosing a new format.
See #2 in Using Disk Utility.

Similar Messages

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

Can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine

can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine and then plug it back in and it work normals because i have a mac book and don't want to always be carrieing the external hard drive every where i go so can you ?

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups

I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

Setup of USB Hard Drive on Airport Extreme for Time Machine

Hi all,
I upgraded to Mountain Lion a while back and am running the latest Airport Utility. Here's the problem: I can't get Time Machine to work anymore with my USB Hard Drive attached to my Airport Extreme. Is this setup no longer possible under Mountain Lion? Do I have to buy a Time Capsule? For the last couple of years I've had two MacBooks backing up with no problem to the USB drive connected to the Airport Extreme. Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris

While you can do this as Kappy points out, there a few details that you might want to consider before you make the move.
1) Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple. While this does seem to work for some users, others (like me) have difficulty with corruption issues. The bottom line is that this is not a reliable method to back up your important data....and, no support or help from Apple if you do have difficulties.
Reference this Apple Support Document to confirm:
"Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme......"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
2) If you move the iPhoto library to the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme....your original or master library now resides on that disk.....and you have no backup for the library.....when, not if.....the drive has a problem.
3) You might want to post in the iPhoto forum to ask if it is still an iPhoto requirement that only one user at a time can have iPhoto open with the shared library arrangement.

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

When ever the power goes out or I restart my iMac the external hard drive that is used by Time Machine for backups is dismounted ?

When ever the power goes out or I restart my iMac the external hard drive that is used for backups by Time Machine is dismounted and all backups are gone. I can reselect it and it will start working again, but I am worried if the iMac hard drive should fail will I be left without a backup ?

fzgy wrote:
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk. You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can."
It's possible a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app can fix it, but they're expensive (DiskWarrior is about $100), and there's no guarantee it can do it.
Am prompted to reformat but I don't have a good understanding of what this means and how to do it.
That will erase it. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #5.
It sounds very much like the disk is beginning to fail, although it's possible there's a bad port, cable, connection or power supply (if it has its own).
I'd suggest getting a new one, and using it for your Time Machine backups; once you have a good backup there, reformat the old one (and select Security Options to write zeros to the whole drive -- if that fails, you know the drive is toast). Use it for secondary backups, per FAQ #27. If it has failed, get a second new one for secondary backups.

Now that i have a mac pro.how can i use a portable hard drive while i have the time machine working on my mac?

what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
the time machine also on there?

flora1917 wrote:
what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
the time machine also on there?
Do you mean you're already backing-up to a Time Capsule, and want to switch to using an external HD? If so, just format the drive and select it via Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk. See #21 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
If you mean something else, please clarify.

HT4718 I have an external hard drive that I used as Time Machine Backup. I have not used it for a while and now, when I plug it in computer says: This disc is not readable. I want to recover the backups and not erase and reformat the disc. Thank you in

I have an external hard drive that I have used as Time Machine backup, but not for a while. Now when I plug it in, computer says this disc is not readable.
I want to keep the backups on it and not erase and start over.
Thank you in advance.
Gregor

It sounds like something went wrong with the drive. Did you drop it? How long has it been sitting around unused?

Can i partition an external drive that im using for time machine? its not an actual apple TM....

I'd like to partition my drive to make a separate place just for itunes music , is this possible? if so, how ?
thanks!

tamckellar wrote:
im just trying to make a separate area on the ex drive that i use for tm, to store just my itunes library .
Not a good idea...If that drive fails (and they All do at some point in time) you will lose both your TM and iTunes Backups.
Invest in another EHD for iTunes.
Moving iTunes > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Also...
Have a look at these 2 Videos...
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

Adding external hard drive to airport extreme for time machine error

Hello,
I recently bought an airport extreme that I wanted to combine with an external hard drive in order to do wireless time machine backups. I hooked this up and the hard drive shows up in the devices menu.
However, when time machine starts to backup, I get the following error:
"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Blackmer External MyBook/Benjamin Crispell Blackmer’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1)."
When my computer is connected directly to the hard drive, it works fine.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.

It is important to understand that Apple does not support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme. So, that may be an issue here.
Despite this, users try it anyway. Some appear to be successful for a time, some partially successful, some can't get it to work at all.
Even if it does appear to work initially, corruption issues may occur down the line without warning. Having tried this myself as a test a few times, I can attest to that.
If you want to try this anyway, the two important things to check are.....
The drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Other formats will not work
You almost always need to use a powered USB hub...even if the hard drive has its own power supply....because the USB port is under powered on the AirPort Extreme
You might also want to consider a secondary backup plan to protect your important files

Hard drive to airport extreme for time machine and iPhoto library

Can I buy an external hard drive and connect to my airport extreme to be used to host my iPhoto library. Meaning that no mater what Mac I upload an image to iPhoto in, it is referencing the same library on an external drive.

While you can do this as Kappy points out, there a few details that you might want to consider before you make the move.
1) Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple. While this does seem to work for some users, others (like me) have difficulty with corruption issues. The bottom line is that this is not a reliable method to back up your important data....and, no support or help from Apple if you do have difficulties.
Reference this Apple Support Document to confirm:
"Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme......"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
2) If you move the iPhoto library to the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme....your original or master library now resides on that disk.....and you have no backup for the library.....when, not if.....the drive has a problem.
3) You might want to post in the iPhoto forum to ask if it is still an iPhoto requirement that only one user at a time can have iPhoto open with the shared library arrangement.

My mac mini quit recognizing the external hard drive i am using for time machine.

I have an IOMEGA external hard drive hooked up to my mini for Time Machine. It was working for about 4 months then quit. The PC will not recognize the hard drive and I have switched usb cables and tried different ports to no avail. Any help would be gladly appreciated!!

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

My external hard drive has been used for Time Machine, now it doesn't work on my TV?

I bought a new external HD 3TB, I used it as a back for Time machine and also wanted to use it for watching my movies etc on my TV. The TV won't recognise any video's on the HD. Is there some reason this would happen due to using it for Time Machine?

If you are talking about a drive that you connect directly to your TV, typically they will recognize only drives formatted in some specific way & only certain kinds of movie files. You can check your TV users manual or its manufacturer's web site for information about this, but in general they will not recognize drives using the format Time Machine requires.

Unlocking external hard drive that was locked with time machine

I use a MBP Retina (Mid 2012) with OSX 10.9.4. I left the MBP at Apple for repair and they changed the mother card and reformatted my HD (SSD). Since I had a backup on a WD My Passport external drive I was not too worried to restore. I had clicked the option "password protected" on TM and therefore the external HD was password protected. I also copied pasted many files on the same external hard drive, in case TM would fail one day to operate I thought that I would still have my files ...
But I was very surprised that when I plugged in my external HD into my MBP it didn't recognize it at all. The external HD did not appear on the screen anymore. Nor in Finder. It appeared in Disk Utility but it could not be mounted. Basically it was impossible to access my data. After a while and talking with Apple Support on the phone we could reach a point where a window appeared asking me the password for the access to the HD. Unfortunately it didn't work. The . password was not recognized. Even though we had selected the right country with the icon upper right on the screen to make sure that we used the correct keyboard.
So finally I reinstalled completely the OSX (coming rom Lion all the way to the last OSX) on the MBP and finally I could restore it with my TM. I spent three days on this since it only worked with one OSX - don't remember honestly which one - and not the last one. Don't know why.
Anyway.
Today I have my MPB working but I miss all the files that are still on my external HD because I cannot access to it anymore. As I said the recovery happened all of a sudden with TM with a former OSX and not the 10.9.4. With this current OSX my HD does not appear on the desktop nor on finder. Nothing. It is locked by TM and I cannot even key in the password to unlock it. Useless to say that I have the password.
Any idea how to sort this out please ? Thanks

This might work. Courtesty of V.K.:
run the following terminal commands (copy and paste, please)
sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*
sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal. this should unlock your drives.

Can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?

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