Time Machine Compatible External Hard Drive

I went to Best Buy and asked the sales rep. about the Western Digital My Book for Mac vs. the Western Digital My Book Essential external hard drives. He said with the My Book Essential, which is not pre-formatted for Mac, I could format it for Mac myself, but it will not work with Time Machine.
Is that correct? Even after I format the hard drive for Mac, I still would not be able to use it with Time Machine?
The smallest Western Digital hard drive pre-formatted for Mac is 1TB. I want something a little less, but it only comes in the non-Mac formatted version.

WD products have a sketchy history of compatibility with Macs. The MyBook can be partitioned and formatted for the Mac and will work with Time Machine, however, it cannot be used to boot the Mac. Most WD packaged drive systems simply won't boot a Mac.
Personally I'd suggest getting a drive system from MacSales.com and steering clear of WD. You can purchase a hard drive separately and an enclosure separately and install the drive yourself in five minutes. See the following:
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire or USB drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, the n re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.
If your computer supports Firewire that would be my recommendation for speed.

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Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it

http://pondini.org/TM/21.html

Using Mac Mini, Time Machine and External Hard Drives as a Backup Server

Hello...
I own a graphic design studio and have been looking for a long time to create/buy a no-thinker backup system for my macs. I have 4 workstations that I would like to backup to one central "server".
So what I was thinking was buying a Mac Mini, 3-4 external USB 2.0 Hard drives, external Blu-Ray burner and upgrade all our systems to OS 10.5. What I need to know is, will each work station with Time Machine on it back up across the network to a specific drive on the Mac Mini? If I have each workstation automatically mount one external across the network onto the desktop, will Time Machine recognize that hard drive as a legitimate drive to backup to?
Having the external Blu-Ray disc burner will give me the ability to burn data to a disc so I will have a way to take some of my information off-site. Since we are a graphic design studio, we use large amounts of disc space and regular DVD-R (4.6 gigs) is just not enough to back up some projects.
Can someone enlighten me, and tell me if this would work or not. It's the only way I can see me creating something that has enough space, will back up automatically across the network and allow me to make off-site copies of my data without spending $5,000.00.
Thanks for any comments you might have on this topic.
-SoupGFX

I'm a member of a freelance graphic artist team and have been scraping by with my MacMini and CS3. I recently obtained a used iMac (approx. 2 years old) and, instead of painstakingly transferring everything left on the Mini to the iMac, I wanted to know if it's possible to turn the MacMini into a pseudo external hard drive using the FW800 port.
I already had an external attached to the Mini and plan on using that as well, but I tend to hoarde information and run out of space really quickly. So keeping the mini around, preferably in a way that I can access it as an external through my iMac, would be perfect. I have very little experience with networking and don't have a wireless connection (yay modem cables!) so I don't quite know how to figure this out.
Has anyone done this? Would a FireWire 800 work? Would I need to set up a network between the two and use them as independently connected computers?

Time Machine Damaged External Hard Drive?

hi,
okay, So I've had Leopard for about a week with no problems at all. I used my G-Tech G-drive (external 500gig) and it showed up on my desktop and worked perfectly fine with time machine. Yesterday, I went into time machine and the hard drive went from its resting state to into its high volume spinning, but time machine woudn't function at all, the stars moved but nothing could be clicked on, or exited from. after 15 minutes of trying to force quite (you can't get to it), i had to use the power button to shut off my mac. I turned it back on and there wasn't any problems, except now when my hard drive is plugged in it still spins normally, but the mac isn't recognizing it. Does anyone know what happened to my hard drive?

So it randomly started working again.
I restarted my computer for the 15th time, and turned it on once everything was up and running and it was recognized after about 5 minutes, so we shall see if it lasts.

Back up using time machine and external hard drive

Hello,
I am having a difficult time deciding the best way to back up important documents.
I have:
1TB internal hard drive
3 TB external hard drive and
1TB external hard drive
I currently have about 1TB worth of data to be stored, but that will increase to about 1.5TB once I get a bunch of stuff off the HD camera's hard drive. I would like to keep my internal hard drive somewhat free to keep the computer running fast, but also want to make sure I am properly backed up.
Should I put ALL (or nearly all) of the files on the 3 TB external hard drive, and have time machine back that up and not worry about the rest? I'm a little weary about putting all of the files on one device even if it is backed up by TM.
If I do this, do I need to back up the 3 TB external drive in addition to using TM?
Thanks!

iMac11,2
OS X 10.6.8

If you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also remove it from time machine on external hard drive

if you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also delete it from time machine on the external hard drive ?

As the others say, no, the backup copy won't be deleted immediately, but it will eventually.
If you want to delete all backups of a selected item, such as for space or security reasons, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Using Time Machine w/external hard drive connected to airport extreme

I hooked up an external hard drive on my airport extreme. I see it in sharing, however, Time Machine doesn't recognize it as a back-up drive unless I have it directly connected to my MacBook Pro. How do I get Time Machine to recognize the external drive when it's connected to the airport?

FWIW, the AEBS has known problems sharing a directly connected HD. Take a look over in the AEBS forums, and you'll see that this is a very common problem. Perhaps Apple will update the firmware and rectify this problem.
Cheers,
Andreas

Using a G Drive Slim as time machine AND external hard drive?

Hi! I have a G Drive Slim that I've been using as my time machine backup drive for a few years. Now I'm in need of an external hard drive, bigger than a flash drive but really not that big, and I was wondering if the G Drive Slim could be used for both purposes at the same time. If I start putting files from my computer directly on to the G Drive Slim, will it erase my time machine backup files? Not sure what to do here. Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
I would recommend you to get a second external drive to put your files there. In case you want to put the files in the same external drive which you have your backups in, you need to make a second partition. This has to be done in order not to damage Time Machine structure.
You can create a partition through Disk Utility -> http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html

Using Time Machine with External Hard Drive

Hey everyone,
I had a few questions about Time Machine that I hope someone could answer for me.
I bought my first external hard drive in August, the 1 TB WD My Book for Mac and when I set it up, I configured it to Time Machine, and not the WD software.
I have an extensive music collection, which was my main reason for buying the external hard drive in the first place.
Anyway, when I plug in the hard drive and let Time Machine do the back up, I've noticed that it's backing up the same files every single time, and is eating up a lot of space on the hard drive.
Since I am mainly using this drive to store my music, I was wondering if there was an easier way to do things:
-Is there a way to not back up my documents, photos, applications, etc, every single time I plug in my HD?
-Is there an easy way to find my music on the drive? For example, some Time Machine back-ups have different files on them... i.e. my back up from August 10th has certain music files that do not exist on my backup from November 10th, as I deleted them from my computer after they were backed up to the external HD. I'd love to be able to see all of my music in one place, rather different versions of my music folder on different days.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

Hi,
1. Your Time Machine should should do the full backup of your computer just once and then only diffrences between backups - whenever you plug in the drive.
If that's not the case something is misconfigured.
2. You can exclude folders (documents, pictures etc) from being backed up. This is in in Time Machine Options (right bottom corner.
3. The drive is (most likely) indexed by Spotlight. However, provided those are backup files I would advise against browsing and searching them directly. This can damage the backup itself.
4. I cannot work out the exact scenario you are using - but the ideal (proper one) would be to have all your music library on your computer and only backup on your external drive. This you should not have to browse and use until you need to restore files.
5. If you keep your music library solely on the external drive - it should be not in the backup files.
Also such practice is risky as all drives crash sooner or later and you will lose your music.
Best would be to keep all music on the computer and backup onto your external drive.
Or
if the music library is too big for your computer you may keep it externally - but Isuggest you get one of the external hard dirves with RAID1 or higher. This will keep your music safer lest one of the drives packs up.
Let me know if you want me to elaborate on any of the aforementioned.
TZ

Backing up w/Time Machine to external hard drive

I have 3 users on my Mac Book. When backing up my system with time machine to an external hard drive ... do I need to back up each user seprataly?

Thanks!!

After backing up through time machine on external hard drive, how do you access that data?

I backed up my MacBook to an external hard drive through Time Machine. After it was all done and I reconnected the external hard drive to make sure that I could access everything that was backed up, I couldn't get into the data on the external hard drive because it said that it was backed up through Time Machine.
What does this mean? How to I access the data that is on my external hard drive?

There are 2 options.
1) (The Suggested way) With the TM external drive connected Open The Time Machine App in Applications and you can browse what has been backed up.
2) Open Finder and select the drive name on the left then the Backups.backupsdb folder and in there is all your files from the backups you have made listed under your Machine Name and in that folder under the dates/times they were created

Time Machine and External Hard Drive wireless backup over airport extreme

Ok can this be done? I have an external HD that I used a firewire to connect to my macbook pro and it backed up my movies,photo's etc without a problem.
When I realized I could plug the HD into the back of the extreme I tried that and I can see the shared HD in my finder but I cannot get time machine to backup wirelessly now and I can't see my previous back up in Time machine but I can see it when I look on the HD.
Can I continue to do my backups over the extreme wirelessly? How do i do this? Or do I have to plug the firewire and mac into the HD each time I want to back up using time machine?
Thanks,

I hope that support is added to the airport extreme. I would be disappointed in apple to learn that they have disabled it for the airport extreme and connected hard drive in order to only sell another piece of hardware (time capsule) that is simply the airport extreme with a hard drive built in.
There are reported work arounds for getting the airport extreme and external hard drive to work with time machine. A couple google search results outlined the process, it didn't look too complicated. I would prefer it was a feature and not a work around though.

Time machine and External Hard Drive backup problems

Ok I have an external hard drive that I don't leave connected to my mac. Time machine made an intial backup when I first connected it to the mac. How do i get it to backup again as I now have new movies and photo's i want to protect. It is plugged into the external HD and nothing is taking place and i cant find a command in time machine to tell it to perform another backup?
Thanks for any help in advance.

Try clicking and holding the TM icon in your Dock, then choose "BackUp Now".
Be sure in System Preferences >> Time Machine that it is turned "On".
-mj
[email protected]

Time Machine and External Hard Drives

I am running Mountain Lion 10.8.1 on my iMac. I have 2 external 2TB drives that I have configued in Time Machine for backups. I have a LaCie ruggedized external hard drive I use on both my iMac and MacBook Pro for my pictures. My Lightroom library is on this LaCie drive and depending on what I'm doing or where I'm doing it, I might have the drive connected to my iMac via firewire or to my MacBook Pro via USB3.
I want to know if I configure Time Machine to backup up my Lightroom folder, what will happen if when I eject it and disconnect it from my iMac? Will Time Machine just skip over it because it's not connected? Will it just pick up where it left off when I reconnect it? I want an automatic way to back up this folder.
Suggestions/comments?

On Snow Leopard & I would assume in the newer OS versions even though it won't automatically back up until the next scheduled time, you can click on the little time machine icon or otherwise access Time Machine Controls & click Back Up Now.
I do that w my laptop when I've been using it elsewhere & then I want to back up before shutting down for the night.

Time Machine Compatible External Hard Drive

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