HT201250 can I back up two different Macs using time machine to the same external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro and a Intel Power Mac Tower.  The Power Mac is backed up to a 4 TB external hard drive using Time Machine.  Can I also back up the MacBook Pro to the same 4TB hard drive using its time machine without altering any of the Power Macs backed up files on the 4TB hard drive?
Ed

Yes, as long as the backup drive is large enough.

Similar Messages

  • HT1284 Can I back up my Mac and my pc to the same external hard drive?  If so, could you explain how? Thanks.

    Can I back up my Mac and my pc to the same external hard drive?  If so, could you explain how? Thanks.  I am a new user with mountain lion.

    You could partition the drive into 2 partitions.  One formatted as HFS+ for Mac OS X back, and one formatted as NTFS for Windows backup.
    You would have to move the drive from system to system to do your backups.  If there are 2 systems, I would suggest just getting separate drives for each, unless they are both laptops, then you will be disconnecting the drives all the time anyway.
    Unless Windows is running in a virtual machine on your Mac.  Then a partitioned drive would be fine.

  • I got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does someone has a fix???

    i got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does anybody has a fix???

    Does your external hard drive have it's own power supply?  It should.
    Is your external hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system?  It won't work.
    It needs to be formatted either with Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
    (There are drivers available to add NTFS support to OS X but their quality is unknown, especially the "free" ones.)

  • Can both an intel and a PPC mac use time machine on the same TC?

    I just got a TC and have successfully used time machine with a MBP. I was about to install Leopard on my PPC eMac in order to use time machine on the TC but I wondered if they could both use the TC hard drive as it is currently formatted.
    As I recall, intel macs use journaled GUID and PPC machines use another format.
    Am I deluded?

    I don't think there is a problem, and I believe others have reported in these forums that they're doing it.
    There is a lot of confusion in this area compounded by a number of people who say that some of the Apple KB articles are wrong/misleading.
    But in this case it's more a case of it doesn't matter - here is why.....
    The Time Capsule disk comes formatted, you can erase the disk via the Airport Utility. That's the closest you can come to formatting and you don't have options - so it does whatever it needs to do to get it right.
    The machines being backed up don't access the Time Capsule's disk(s) directly as they do on a locally attached disk. They do it via AFP network disk protocol and the Time Capsule disk is in effect insulated from the machine being backed up.
    (As an aside, it's because of this - the differences in what can be done over AFP - that the Time Capsule stores the backups in a different file format)
    If you add a USB attached drive to the Time Capsule you can also erase it with the Airport Utility as above. In my case, I've attached a USB drive to my Time Capsule. I never had the Time Capsule erase it, but before attaching it I attached it locally and formatted it GUID and HFSJ and it work just fine when attached to the Time Capsule. Does it have to be formatted that way - I don't know - all I know is in this one case what I did works which doesn't prove it has to be that way.
    Message was edited by: Steve Holton

  • I'm currently backing up using Time Machine and a Seagate external hard drive, how to do I restore on a new computer?

    I hate to say it.. But I have never backed up!! I have thousands of pics of my son on this mac book, it got wet and NOW I'm backing up (as i type) to a Seagate external hard drive-  I plugged it in, and then Time MAchine launched automatically.  It looks like it's backing up my whole computer, is it backing up everything?  photos, address book, documents etc?  If my computer crashes tomorrow, how would I restore all of this information on a new computer?
    Help, I'm computer iliterate- hence the reason I got a Mac (so easy to use).  I need reasurance that it will back up!  How do I continue to back up?  Leave the external hard drive plugged in?  I'm telling you I'm below the knowledge of "Backing Up a Mac for Dummies"

    Time Machine makes a backup of the whole OS.X volume automatically, so you will have an exact copy of your hard disk in your Time Machine external disk. Also, Time Machine will make backups every hour, always that your Time Machine disk is connected. If you want more information, visit this site > http://pondini.org
    To restore this in a new Mac, you have to use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive into the new computer, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps. You will be able to select what you want to transfer.
    Also, if you have a brand-new Mac, you can do this during the initial setup. Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the Time Machine disk and follow the steps

  • Can I use Time Machine wirelessly to an external hard drive other than Time Capsule?

    Since I already have a wireless router, I don't want to get Time Capsule.  And since this is a laptop, I would prefer the external device *not* being physically connected to my MacBook Pro.  Any suggestions on external hard drives and methods to accomplish this would be appreciated.
    Chris

    You can, in some cases.
    If you have a desktop Mac, you can back up to a shared drive connected to it, over your network.  See  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #22 for setup instructions.
    Some NAS drives work with Time Machine, to one degree or another, but I don't recommend that -- there are too many possible downsides.  See the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #2.

  • HT201250 Backing up my Mac and my MacBook - can I do this on the same external hard drive?

    Can I use the same external hard drive to be the Time Machine for my iMac and for my MacBook Air?
    Thanks

    Yes, if it has enough space.

  • I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

    I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

    OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
    See #E3 in  Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
    And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of  Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • Can Time Machine backups for more than one Mac be sent to the same external hard drive?

    It's pretty straightforward, really.  We have two Macs, both running Mountain Lion.  Can we use the same external hard drive for Time Machine backups of both?

    It would be best to partition the HDD - one volume for each Mac (you cannot partition a Time Capsule).
    Note that by doing so, you will lose both backups should the drive fail.

  • HT201250 How can I migrate a Time Machine backup from an external hard drive to a new TimeCapsuls?

    I just got a 2TB Time Capsule.  I want to migrate my time machine backups on an external hard drive to the new Time Capsule.  I have about 430Gb of files to back up; I don't want to wait 7-8 days for the backup, unless I have to.  I am using OS 10.7.5 (forget which cat that is).  I have mounted the TC drive as 10.0.1.1; I tried to drag and drop from old to "data" on TC, but I get the error "The volume is the wrong format for a backup."  Any ideas how I can move my old files to the new, and bypass creating a brand new backup file?
    Thanks.

    Rather than do that, which means starting over from scratch, losing all your edits, organisation and so on, why not simply use iPhoto Library Manager to revert the Library to the older version? Easier, less destructive.
    The instructions on that are here
    If you really want to start over: you can access the Originals folder simply by going to your Pictures Folder and finding the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.

  • Can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

    can I move all my photo that I can see on iPhoto from my Mac hardrive and put them on an external hard drive and still be able to see them as thumbnails in iPhoto? Thanks! The reason, I need to know if I can do this is b/c I am running out of HD space!sp

    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    1. Quit iPhoto
    2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
    3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
    4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
    Regards
    TD

  • How do i copy photos still in their events folders from my macbook to my imac?  also can i back up my photos still in their events folders to an external hard drive?

    how do i copy photos still in their events folders from my macbook to my imac?  also can i back up my photos still in their events folders to an external hard drive?

    how do i copy photos still in their events folders from my macbook to my imac?  also can i back up my photos still in their events folders to an external hard drive?

  • Hallo ,why is it that when I delete a photo ,which is backed up by time machine and western digital external hard drive , that I am able to restore the photo okay but not the titles and descriptions . I have  a Macbook 4.1, mac osx 10.5.8 . Iphoto 7.1.5 ,

    QUESTION.
    Hallo , my question is ;whenever I delete a photo and restore it through Time machine and Western digital external hard drive , I am able to restore the photo but not the titles and descriptions . Western Digital inform me that it isn't their external hard drive problem and suggest that it is an Apple software problem ?
    I am using  a Macbook 4.1 , with Mac OSX 10.5.8 . I photo 7.1.5 , last modifie4d 01/05/2010 -universal . Should I be upgrading  Iphoto ?
    I hope that someone is able to help in this matter , as i have to restore 12000 photos !
    Thanking you in anticipation.
    Alan from Wigton

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

  • Can I use the same external hard drive for time machine and storing other files

    I have a 640GB external hard drive that I have been using for over a year for time machine backups.  My mac hard drive is now starting to fill up and I am looking to move audio, video and picture files to my external hard drive.  How do I do this without messing up my time machine backups?  Can I do both on the same external hard drive?  Do I just make new folders on the external hard drive to move the files I want?  Thanks for the help.

    If you move the files you will need to get another disk to back the files up to. You don't want to have only one copy of certain files (personal, professional etc.).

  • Re Time Machine I have an external  hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.   will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

    Re Time Machine
    I have an external  hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
    I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
    will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
    can I split it the drive in two partitions?
    Also
    as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
    OSX 10.68
    the other is
    OSX 10.75
    can I back them up separately?
    or even synch and merge files and folders etc? between the two?

    You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
    But do not delete Time Machines files with the Finder -- that can cause it to lose its place and lose everything.
    With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up.

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