Question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.

Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.
I have a Mac Pro with a .75 TB and 1 TB drive. It also has a 1 TB 2nd internal drive. My current external drive is too small so I'll be getting a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive.
Obviously the new larger 2 TB drive will backup everything on the Mac Pro internal drive with Time Machine. But there will be 1 TB of space left over going to waste.
Should I partition the external drive so that the TM portion will be 1 TB and the use the remaining extra partition for additional file backups with Carbon Copy?
Thanks for any insights.
I tried searching around on the new Apple discussion forum, but I find it much harder to use than the old forum I used to use.

John,
I'm not sure why you posted in the iMac forum so I'm going to attempt to get you to the correct spot. I would recommend reposting in the Time Machine Forum, this is part of the OS X forums (Leopard or Snow Leopard) because you are using Snow Leopard (your profile indicates you are) please click Apple Support Communities and type Snow Leopard. Then you can narrow the search down by clicking Refine this List.
Roger

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Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.

Here's a very basic question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.
Ihave a Mac Pro with a .75 TB and 1 TB drive. It also has a 1 TB 2ndinternal drive. My current external drive is too small so I'll begetting a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive.
Obviouslythe new larger 2 TB drive will backup everything on the Mac Prointernal drive with Time Machine. But there will be 1 TB of space leftover going to waste.
ShouldI partition the external drive so that the TM portion will be 1 TB andthe use the remaining extra partition for additional file backups withCarbon Copy?
Thanks for any insights.
I tried searching around on the new Apple discussion forum, but I find it much harder to use than the old forum I used to use.

The problem with terabyte drives is that that a 3 TB is about as big as you can get without going into RAID territory. Ideally, a Time Machine drive should be 3 times as large as all the drives you are backing up. So, if you have 2.75 TB of internal storage, you should have 8 TB of Time Machine space.
Of course, that is "should". If your TB drives are mostly empty, then you can get away with something 3 times the size of your used disk space. Just remember that you are pushing it. Linc is right about Time Machine needing space to work.
It is unlikely that you have regular churn on 2.75 TB of disk. I suggest identifying which drives and folders have the most activity and excluding those drives and directories that don't change much. It would be better to archive the data that doesn't change often and keep it out of Time Machine. Then you may be able to get away with a 2 TB Time Machine drive.

External drive and time machine

Dear all,
Quick question. I am planning to finally get an external HDD for time machine.
1) Does the external HDD have to be on all the time when the mac is on? (some external HDD's are rather noisy...)
2) Does it back up continuously every hour?
3) Does it (TM) use a lot of RAM or slow down normal functioning at all?
4) Can I restore another mac from TM? For example, if I back-up my imac and then my macbook "crashes"... Can I simply restore the imac content from the external HDD onto my macbook?
5) Any recommendations for a decent 500GB HDD?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: Fireball Dragon

1. No the external drive doesn't have to be on all the time however if you buy a higher quality HD such as a OWC Mercury or Lacie Quadra D2 these are very quiet and can barely be heard.
2. Yes TM does back up hourly however you can get a free utility such as Time Machine Editor (Google it) so you can customize how frequently it backs up.
3. No TM does not use much RAM and does not slow down your machine.
4. As far as I know machine TM will only restore to is the machine that did the back up. I would suggest getting a separate TM drive for you Macbook if that is a concern.
5. As mentioned Lacie Quadra D2 or OWC Mercury's are both popular and I believe most would agree recommended.
Regards,
Roger

Question about Ext Hard Drive with Time Machine

Hello
Here is the case
I have a macbook upgraded to leopard
Since Tiger, i use and external hard drive (maxtor 320gb) to storage all my 80 gbs of music and photos.
Now i want to use this same external device with Time Machine. but without having to delet my music.
What should i do?
Partition it?
or just opening Time Machine preferences, and selecting it as my back up drive will do?

Hello ADAMB
When i open up TM preferences, it allows me to set it as my back up drive, but i havent let it do a back up yet for the same reason that i dont want to lose any data.
In the other hand, i opened disk utility and this is the info i got
Disk Description : Maxtor 3200 Media Total Capacity : 298,1 GB (320.072.933.376 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 2CAHD13Z *Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record*
I do have Intel macbook
Thanks for the help

External drive and time machine question

I am new to Mac, and just bought a 24 in 2.4 imac after they didn't update them at Macworld. I have a question about the my external hd that i am using for time machine. Can i partition that somehow to use part of it for file storage and the other part for time machine backup? Also, if I have already performed the time machine backup, can i still do it if possible.
Thank you for your help

Hi indycolt
Yes I agree with Kappy!
I just added a partition to my External Time Machine backup last week, without losing any of the backups. I had about 220GB of free space on a single partition TM backup and felt like that was a waste of space. So I went to disk utility selected the "External HD / Partition" then the "+" box, moved the partition divider to where I wanted it and then "Apply". I now have 120GB left for future TM back-ups and a 100GB partition of now usable space.
Dennis

External drive and time machine failures

Morning all!
I have an external JBOD drive enclosure holding to 1TB drives. I have one setup as a storage device and the other as a Time Machine backup drive, I've noticed that when first mounted the system performs backups fine, but when the system awakes from sleeping it can't seem to backup anymore. Wehen this happens I have to force a umount of the drive and remount it. Has anyone seen this before and if so do you know how to stop this from happening?

Sunadmn,
I'm not sure what is going on however I would recommend reposting your question in the *Time Machine* forum. You can find it by click the Discussions link in the upper left of this page, then click *Snow Leopard* and you will find the TM forum. Before posting though read the:
Time Machine FAQ and Troubleshooting Time Machine articles, you may find your answers there.
Roger

Question about HP MediaSmart Server and Time Machine

I just got an EX490 MediaSmart server to use for backups and as a media server. I set up the server to serve as a Time Machine backup device, and it seems to work fine. However, when the server is connected and appears as a Share in the Finder, if I use the Finder to navigate to the "Mac" folder on the server, I don't see any files inside. Actually I searched through all visible files on the server and didn't see any files that might be a backup file. I tried turning on Invisible file viewing but that didn't make any difference. I'm assuming that the Time Machine backup file on the server is somehow hidden from viewing.
Does anyone know why the backup file isn't appearing?
Thanks.

I have been looking at similiar HP NAS model, which now appears to have beome a prior model -
HP EX485 MediaSmart Home Server
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OI2ZG4/
The prices have gone up slightly, too. The reviews on the above EX485 were almost like a mini review and informative. I assume you've created accounts and perhaps have (need?) a PC to configure Windows Home Server R2 fully? I was waiting for full Windows 7 support which is still in beta.
From what I read, one of the "Missing Bible" for WHS or something helps to get the most out of it and help with setup (though generally that just takes 15 minutes if you know how).

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.

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

Using the same external drive with Time Machine on new mac?

I recently got a new mac because my old one broke. Thankfully, I had a fresh backup on Time Machine ready to restore onto my new computer. But when I try to use Time Machine with my new computer, it keeps wanting to do a whole new backup. It won't recognize the latest backup to only add new or changed files.
Here's a breakdown of my events:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
want to continue using the external drive with Time Machine from where I left off (only adding new files since the last backup) on my new computer
Time Machine wants to do a whole new backup
Question: How can I continue to use my existing external hard drive with Time Machine on my new computer, picking up where I left off (not a new, complete backup)?
My old computer was Snow Lepoard, my new one is Lion.

Bergers wrote:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
That should have left a "trail" in your SystemMigration log, so Time Machine can figure out what happened and automatically "inherit" the old backups. But sometimes, obviously, that doesn't work.
Since it didn't, there's a chance you can do it manually. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie

I'm using Time Machine now with
a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
Everything works fine.
But, I've been wondering:
Can I place a program like TechTool
on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
and boot from that external drive.
I would like to be able to do that,
because diagnostics and repair programs
only works properly and fully when they run from
external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
drive that's been examined.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Thanks
iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?

pitou wrote:
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip.

HT3275 New macbook, old external drive for time machine

I got a new macbook pro a few weeks ago and set it up using my last backup from time machine. I want to use the same external drive for backups but there is no room. Can I delete all of the old files from the old computer or do I need to keep them?

kat.hayes wrote:
I want to use a 3 TB external drive for Time Machine to backup multiple 500GB hard drives in my Macpro. I have lots of large video files from HD cameras.
1. Will Time Machine backup all of the hard drives in the Macpro?
As long as they're formatted HFS+, yes. Be sure there's enough room, though -- Time Machine needs considerably more room than the data it's backing-up. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Adding a Dedicated External Drive for Time Machine

Hello,
I want to use a dedicated external drive for Time Machine backup and another drive for a SuperDuper backup. Before even adding another drive, I'm already pulling and replacing usb connections from the back of my computer.
Can anyone tell me if a splitter is a workable solution? Something like this:
7-Port USB High-speed Hub with Splitter Cable -- http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=8997&r=183 -- or perhaps other recommendations ..
Thanks.

...I recall reading that USB 2 was faster ... but I think they said faster than FW 400, but the drive I have is FW 800.
USB2 is 480mbps and Firewire400 is 400mbps. On paper, this would appear that USB2 is faster than Firewire400. But USB2 cannot handle large data transfers very effectively. I can't explain the technicals, but suffice to say that the figures I gave of 40min-versus-2-hours-for-25GB is typical of Firewire400 versus USB2.
Firewire800 is 800mbps, so would potentially be even faster. However the physical hard drive that's installed in the Firewire enclosure would be the bottleneck as a normal "platter" hard drive is much slower than Firewire400 or 800. If it were an SSD drive, then you'd likely see a very significant difference.
But regardless, USB2 cannot keep up with a large data stream like Firewire can. Potentially USB3, which is up to 5Gbps, would be faster than either Firewire 400 or 800, although I suspect would be on par with Firewire3200 in the real world. However since there are no adapters for either USB3 or Firewire3200 for the Mac, it's a moot point for now. (Your drive is not USB3, there are only a few USB3 drives available, and you'd need a Mac Pro to add the adapter in anyway, if they existed.)
So are you saying that FW 800 is faster than USB 2.0 -- and that I should be using the FW connection to get better throughput? And that I can resume daisy-chaining multiple external drives through the one port?
Definitely Firewire would be faster than USB. And I have 5 external hard drives daisy-chained through a single Firewire800 port on my Mac. So daisy-chained Firewire is the way to go.
Like I said, for the small, incremental, hourly Time Machine backups, the speed difference is insignificant. But when the day comes that you have to restore your hard drive, (i.e.: hard drive dead so you buy new blank hard drive. Or you just want to replace with a larger drive,) if say your Time Machine backup is 80GB, that restore would probably take several hours over USB2. On my Firewire400 drive, my 100GB Time Machine restore of my Macbook Pro took about an hour and a half. (The data transfer was about an hour, but OSX took awhile after that to finish up the restore.) YMMV, of course, but IMHO, use Firewire over USB2 as much as possible. If you're lucky enough to have a Mac Pro or iMac and can use multiple internal hard drives or eSATA, then that would be even faster than Firewire800. Only owners of a Macbook Air or non-Firewire Macbook should resign themselves to USB2.

My 320GB external drive for Time Machine now only has enough capacity to keep a backup of one day. All my other backups are gone. What can I do to fix this situation?

I've been using a 320GB external drive for time machine for the last several years. The backups always worked fine and when necessary I was able to look at & restore older data from the time capsule. Recently, I keep getting the message that a backup cannot be completed and an older backup will be deleted. Usually this wasn't an issue because I still had several months of information on disk. Now a one-time backup takes up 315GB and therefore I only have a backup of the previous day. I don't understand this because I thought that the backup only saves information that has changed and doesn't copy everything everytime. What do I need to do to get my backups to a reasonable size so that I can keep at least 1 month data stored on it.? Please don't tell me I need a larger drive ... that would be too easy.

Get a larger drive for your TM backups.
The recommended size is 3 times what you are backup. So if 315 GB is a backup then you need a 1 TB drive.
Allan

Using LaCie 1Tb Network drive and Time MAchine

I have read a number of thread here about issues with LaCie and Time Machine but cannot find the help I am looking for. I have a the Lacie device connected to my network and I have access through the Browser Administration utility to the drive, I believe I have set up the users and the shares correctly, and can connect to the share, but when i try to set up Time Machine it fails to recognize that the NAS drive is available, I am doing something wrong and it's probably very simple.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
John

Here's Apple's public statement at http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html for what devices work with TM.
[You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices.]

Question about 2 TB external drives and Time Machine.

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