Can time machine be used to back up one external drive to another external drive?

I use the photography program Lightroom to organize and develop digital photos. All my photos are stored on my iMac internal drive. The internal drive is almost full so I want to move my photos to a new external drive. At present, I have an external drive devoted to backing up my iMac using time machine. I have no need to change this arrangement. I would like to use a new external drive to serve as the primary location for my pictures, which I will move from the internal drive. Then I would like to backup that drive to a third external back up drive. Can time machine be used to automatically back up the second drive to the third drive as well as for continuing to provide ongoing backups to my internal drive as it is currently doing?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Jeffery t wrote:
Thanks for the links, but I don't see in the pondini links, the scenario I am asking about.
Time Machine can easily back up multiple internal and/or directly-connected external drives and partitions simultaneously (but Time Machine cannotback up data that's on a network).
From the first link.
Jeffery t wrote:
... Please note that my iMac internal drive is backing up to external drive number 1 using time machine. I want my pictures on external drive two and those backed up to external drive three. So are you saying that if I have 500 GB of pictures on drive number 2, I will need a third drive that is at least 1 TB?
the confusion starts in your above statement...
There should be Only One Time Machine Drive.

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Can Time Machine Be Used to Back Up Files from An External Hard Drive?

Please let me provide a little more information to clarify the question.
The hard drive on my computer is not large enough for all my photo and video files so I am planning to purchase a new external hard drive and move my "Pictures" and "Movies" folders to the new external hard drive as a way of freeing up space on my computer. A different external hard drive is now used for backup of the computer's hard drive.
My question is about how backups will be handled if I upgrade to Snow Leopard.
I understand that Time Machine will take the place of the software now being used to back up the MacHD, but back up is still needed for the photo and video files which would be moved off of the MacHD. Will Time Machine back up those files too? That is, will Time Machine back up specified folders which are being stored on one external hard drive and place the backups on a different external hard drive? And, will Time Machine do that in addition to backing up the MacHD? If so, are separate partitions needed for the MacHD and the Photo/Video backups, or will Time Machine put everything in the same partition?
Any advice and/or suggestions for handling this in would be most appreciated.
Thanks for your help.

As captfred says, yes (as long as the drive is formatted for a Mac, not Windoze).
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

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Sorry my ignorance on this type of Apple's products.
My question is simple:
Can Time Machine be used as a router? I know it backs up files, but I'm not sure about this function.
Thanks in advance!

Yes, it does function as a "normal router".
In addition to its ability to function as a "normal router" (ie a device to share a cable/DSL internet connection) the Time Capsule will also:
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3. point of attachment of one or more USB printers, which can be shared with all computers on the network
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Matt
Message was edited by: Matt Clifton

After installing 10.5.2 can Time Machine be used to restore 10.5.0 ?

If I install 10.5.2 and then decide to go back to 10.5.0 - can I do a clean installation of Leopard from the DVD, and then use Time Machine to restore data onto the 10.5.0 clean instal. Or does Time Machine back up elements that are specific to the current Leopard update, i.e. 10.5.2 ?
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The reason why I'd possibly need to go back to 10.5.0 is that, according to macpolls survey, 8.39% of people who installed 10.5.2 either had major problems or worse. As I see it, 8.39% is pretty close to 10%. That's a whopping big number. You're probably among the 91.6% who had no problems. For me, I use my iMac for my business, and I literally cannot afford for things to go wrong. As I see it, a risk of 8.39% is pretty huge in terms of the entire business shutting down if all computer records cannot be accessed on a critical day, e.g. when there is a critical deadline for submitting documents. Hence, before I install 10.5.2, I need to know how to get back to 10.5.0.
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305Sebas wrote:
like to put a windows partition on time machine ..
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Adrian J Gordon wrote:
I am running a MacBook with a 160 gb hard drive. Approximately 90 gb of the drive is in use according to Macintosh HD Info. When I go to use Time Machine to do a backup, it indicates that it is going to back up abut 320 gb. Can anyone explain why?
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Thank you.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
I assume you're talking about your very first TM backup? If so, not to worry.
For some reason that nobody seems able to explain, TM's estimates of how much it's going to back up are always high, sometimes extraordinarily high.
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+Starting standard backup+
+Backing up to: /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb+
+No pre-backup thinning needed: 129.3 MB requested (including padding), 175.85 GB available+
+Copied 371 files (686 KB) from volume Macintosh HD.+
+No pre-backup thinning needed: 128.5 MB requested (including padding), 175.85 GB available+
+Copied 280 files (0 bytes) from volume Macintosh HD.+
+Starting post-backup thinning+
+Deleted backup /Volumes/TmBackups/Backups.backupdb/JPs.G5.iMac/2009-01-18-214518: 175.85 GB now available+
+Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed+
+Backup completed successfully.+
Notice it "requested" 129.3 mb, but ended up copying a grand total of 686 kb? Makes no sense, but causes no harm, either.
So by all means, remove your home folder from the exclusion list, let TM run (if the previous run completed ok, you don't have to erase it and start over), and then use, say, the finder > get info on your TM drive/partition to see how much is actually there.
By the way, the messages above can be found via the Console app (in Applications/Utilities) in your system.log, or via the +Time Machine Buddy+ widget.

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Can time machine be used to back up one external drive to another external drive?

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