Use time machine to backup external hard drive (not main one)

Hi all,
I've searched for information on this and getting nowhere. Not sure if it's possible, but I have two USB hard drives now as I've run out of space on my laptop. So therefore I really use one of the hard drives for my main storage and drag files across to the other one to back that up.
It would be easier if I could just use time machine to back up the one external hard drive to the other. I don't want to just replicate what's on my laptop hard drive.
Does anyone know if this is possible? Would appreciate any help.
Cheers
Paul

Thanks for your reply V.K. much appreciated.
I have gone into the options and I can see my external drives there, but for some reason I can't remove them from the exclusion list. I can add and remove the Laptop HD from this list, but for some reason the "-" button becomes disabled whenever I select the external Hard Drives.
Is there a reason for this? I've been using both drives for a while, so they are both Mac formatted.
Thanks again.

Similar Messages

Using Time Machine to restore external hard drive data

I have been using a Mac Mini running 10.6.8 for years as a media server. I have always been very careful to maintain backups of everything, and the inevitable did happen - the hard drive containing all my media did fail.
To clarify my set up, my Mac Mini internal hard drive is insufficient to store all my media, so I have been using an external 2TB drive to store it. I then set up Time Machine to back up both the Mac Mini and the 2TB external drive to a second 3TB external drive. Now that the 2TB drive with my media has failed, I seem to be having problems restoring all the media from 3TB drive. This is because the Time Capsule interface is designed to display finder windows at various points in time so you can go back to when your missing files existed and restore them. The problem is that I need the entire contents of the dead 2TB drive restored to a new drive, but I can't open a Time Capsule window that shows the contents of the old drive. I have tried opening /Volumes in a finder window, then invoking Time Machine, but my dead hard drive does not show up in the list of volumes. When I open the 3TB drive in a Finder window I can clearly see that it has backups of the 2TB drive, but they are spread out among 83 different snapshots of various dates.
How can I use Time Machine to easily restore the entire contents of the dead 2TB external drive to a new external drive?

This web site might answer all of your Time machine questions:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Ciao.

Using Time machine with an external hard drive and AEBS???have a

I have a 500GB external hard drive that I have connected to my AEBS by USB. Recently upgraded to Leopard but cannot get time machine to see my hard drive.
The base station is 802.11n.
Is this possible?
Have read a few other threads and can't seem to get to the bottom of it.
Thanks,
T

In addition, when you get Time Machine to be able to see your external drive connected to AEBS, in TM prefs exclude all but one small folder from your hard drive (say, /User/Library) and allow TM to do its initial backup. This will create the sparsebundle (resizable disk image) that TM uses to back up to a network drive.
Then turn off Time Machine, unmount the USB drive and reconnect it directly to your Mac, mount it, set TM prefs to use the sparsebundle that newly-mounted drive, remove previously excluded items from TM's exclusion list, and turn TM back on. TM will then back up everything much more quickly than if connected wirelessly.
After that, you can return the USB drive to the AEBS. Incremental backups take much less time, so the slower connection won't matter as much.

Is it possible to use Time Machine with an external hard drive for two separate computers?

I'm looking to purchase an external hard drive to use as with time machine as a backup for two separate computers. I'm not sure if I should buy 2 EHDs and dedicate one to each computer, or if Time Machine has the capacity to back up both computers separately. Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks!

You can make two partitions on a single drive and dedicate one to each computer.
The pic is of a single external usb drive with three partitions( a Time Machine and two image backups) for two computers

Backing up iPhoto pics without using Time Machine or an external hard drive

I cannot figure out how to back up my photos on my one year old MBP. I haven't gotten around to buying an external hard drive (so many choices and there seems to be problems with every one I look at - advice?), but at this time the only important data on my MBP are my photos (approx 9 GB). I've searched the various forums, looked in The Missing Manual (Mac OS X Leopard), and read the help sections on the computer but cannot seem to find step-by-step directions for backing up to a flash drive or a few DVDs. Thanks for your help.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Unless you have an external storage source you can't backup your photos.
You could burn the image file to a DVD disc by selecting about 4GB of files in iPhoto and exporting the photos to a folder on the Desktop and burning that folder to a DVD with the Finder.
Or select about 4GB worth of files in iPhoto and use the Share->Burn menu option. That will give you a DVD disc with a mini iPhoto library on it that contains those 4GB of original files, their modified versions and all metadata associated with them.
Click to view full size
When you want to copy any of the file on the disc back into iPhoto mount the disk in your optical drive and it will show in iPhoto where you can select what you want and drag to the Library icon to copy them back into the library.
CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO
I'm sure you have other documents on your MBP that you need to backup. An external FW hard drive for use as a Time Machine backup drive is essential if you value your photos and other data on the hard drive. Consider for a moment what you would have to do to get back where you are right now if you lost the entire internal HD.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: The new rebuild option in iPhoto 09 (v. 8.0.2), Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" makes this tip obsolete.

Intermittently using Time Machine with an External Hard Drive

Ok, Kappy answered some questions I had about how Time Machine works with an external hard drive.
After doing more reading about Time Machine, I found out that a person can, for example, leave the drive powered-off for a couple of weeks and only periodically or intermittently use Time Machine for back up. However, in the online article I read dated 2009, the author suggested that he didn't know how well Time Machine would work making up for the two weeks, or however long, no files had been backed up.
Specific questions: I have 10.6.3 SL (I have not yet been brave enough to download 10.6.4) and a 4 month old iMac. 1) Have any of you had experience with only periodically using Time Machine for back up and 2) with my current system would you think I might run into some trouble if I only intermittently backed-up using Time Machine?
Thanks for reading this and thanks if you feel my questions warrant answering.
Note: I do have another external hard drive where I occasionally manually back-up photos, gifs, music, etc.

JohnHusk wrote:
Ok, Kappy answered some questions I had about how Time Machine works with an external hard drive.
After doing more reading about Time Machine, I found out that a person can, for example, leave the drive powered-off for a couple of weeks and only periodically or intermittently use Time Machine for back up.
If you go several days between backups, Time Machine may have to do a "deep traversal," comparing every folder on your system to the backups, to determine what's changed and needs to be backed-up. This depends on the volume of changes, so can happen after an OSX update, but in other circumstances might be after several days. This isn't a big problem, but it does take longer, and the more data you have, the longer it takes.
Worse, after an extended period, Time Machine may do a new, full backup of your entire system, rapidly filling-up your TM drive.
If that's the way you want to back up, Time Machine is not the backup app for you. One of it's main features is the way it can do quick hourly backups of what's changed, so you have an excellent chance of recovering a previous version (or versions) when you change or delete something in error, or a file comes up corrupted, or your Mac fails.
Why don't you want to just leave the drive connected and Time Machine running, to protect you best, as it was designed to do?
For alternatives designed to do less frequent backups, see Kappy's post on Basic Backup.

HT201250 Using Time Machine as an external hard drive

I backed up my iMac with an external hard drive using Time Machine; can I delete all the data from my iMac now? My real goal is to use the 1TB external hard drive I just got to store all my music, photos, and other files on. I want to clear all the space off of my iMac, and may by a new Macbook. I want to be able to access all the files from my original computer on either, while cleaning out the iMac. Was it pointless for me to use Time Machine? Thanks so much for the feedback!

You cannot use the files in the Time Machine backup and while it is possible to partition or otherwise use free space on the Time Machine drive as external storage Apple does not recommmend it. Your best solutions are either replace the existing hard drive in your MacBook Pro with a larger capacity drive or add a bus powered external HD. A 1TB USB 2 or 3 drive runs just a bit over $100 and the internal drive about $20 less. In either case remember the Time Machine drive should have two to three times the space of the drive(s) it is backing up.

Using Time Machine with two external hard drives

Hi. I use Time Machine to back up the hard disk on my MacBook Pro onto a Western Digital external drive. For secure storage of family photos and things we don't want to lose, I would like to do the following:
For a week or two, back up my MacBook Pro onto a Western Digital drive. Let's call this WD Drive 1. Then walk downstairs and put WD Drive 1 in a fireproof safe. For the next week or two, back up my MacBook Pro onto a different Western Digital drive. Let's call this WD Drive 2. Then put WD Drive 2 in the safe, take out WD Drive 1, and use WD Drive 1 as the back-up medium for the next week or two. Then keep alternating between WD Drive 1 and WD Drive 2 every couple weeks. This way, I will always have up an to date back-up on the WD drive that is connected to the MacBook Pro, and I also will have a two-week old back-up on the WD drive in the safe in case of a fire or something.
Can Time Machine be used in this manner, alternating between two different external back-up disks? Will Time Machine "know" when I change external drives and manage all back-up files appropriately?
Thank you!

pomme4moi wrote:
Can Time Machine be used in this manner, alternating between two different external back-up disks? Will Time Machine "know" when I change external drives and manage all back-up files appropriately?
Yes. Each drive will have an independent set of backups; and each will be a complete "snapshot" of the way your system looked at the time of the backup.
When you swap drives, the first backup will be somewhat longer, and may involve a "deep traversal," while Time Machine "catches up" with all the changes since the last backup to that drive.
And try not to go too long between swaps; it's undocumented, so we don't know the exact parameters, but after at least 10 days (apparently), Time Machine may do a new, full backup instead of an incremental one of changes only.
And you only need to worry about Time Machine deleting old backups if you've deleted the originals from your system; TM will never delete the backups of anything that's still there.
But . . .
As MusicWind says, thats' probably not the best strategy. One of the reasons you want dual backups is because no hardware is perfect -- it all fails, sooner or later, right? Similarly, no app is perfect, either. The "works" of Time Machine are more complex than most backup apps; it's pretty reliable, but if you're going to have dual backups, you're probably a bit safer with a different app for your secondary backups.
I don't know about SuperDuper, but CarbonCopyCloner does have an "archive" feature, where it will keep copies of things you've deleted. I've never used it, so don't know just how it works.
Also see Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.
p.s.: Don't try copying Time Machine's dated folders; you'll get a complete copy of your entire system.

If i back up my mac using Time Machine and an external hard-drive, can that same hard-drive be used on another computer and on a PC?

Hi!
I hav just got a macbook pro and am used to using a HP pc and am a newbie! I have backed up my macbook with my elements external hardrive and was wondering if i can transfer the music i have purchased and is now on my external hard-drive back onto my other laptop purely because i use both laptops for different things and want to use my music on both. how do i do this? and do i need a particular software to do so?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
thanks
alex xxx

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can do it, but it's not recommended to use a Time Machine volume to store other files. In this case, you can create a second volume on the external drive, so you will be able to use it to store data and transfer it to other PCs.
As you are going to use the external drive with other PCs, you can make the volume and format it in "MS-DOS (FAT)" with Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html Finally, you will be able to copy files to the external drive.
If you copy files to a Time Machine disk, you may damage the Time Machine file structure, so you shouldn't do it. It may not happen, but it's better not to try that. Also, you won't be able to read the Time Machine drive in a PC

HT5097 I recently upgraded my macbook to Mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine and an external hard drive to back up my entire laptop. When we upgraded my computer came back like new. All pics, music, videos documents etc gone. How do I ge

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

Using time machine with 2 external hard drives

I am setting up time machine for the first time on my iMac.I have two external HD's - one with all of my files saved onto (HD #1), and then one that is empty that I'm hoping to use as my backup drive (HD #2).
Is there a way to set up time machine so it backs up the content from one external HD (HD #1) to the other external HD (HD #2)? Or will time machine only back up the files on the actual computer's HD and not an external one?
Any advice is much appreciated!

Time Machine will backup all external HD's (that aren't a TM drive) connected to the computer. If you want to exclude those drives or files or folders you simply select them in the TM preferences.
For example I have an external HD connected to my iMac that has all my photos, movies and music. I have a second drive also connected that is my Time Machine Drive and I also have a third drive connected that is my Bootable Clone. I have excluded the Bootable Clone from my Time Machine backups for obvious reasons however allow the drive that has the photos, movies and music to be backed up on TM.
Kathryn I'd recommend reading Pondini's TM FAQ which is located in the Time Machine Forum. The URL for the FAQ is:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018
Roger

Using Time Capsule to backup external hard drives

Has anyone tried backing up external hard drive to TC? I've only been able to tell TC to NOT backup my drives, not TO back them up. Any help? Thanks

I have the same question - can you get the TC to backup any external drives mounted from the USB port? I've just installed the TC in my network with a USB hub connecting a printer and a WD external drive. All my MAC's and a windows PC can see them. I just haven't seen a way to get the TC to backup the WD drive.
Thanks,
Chick

Does time machine automatically backup external hard drives?

Hi
I have 4 external disks connected to my macPro and a 5th which I am using to backup too. In the TM prefs I have selected the drives & specific folders that I DON'T want backed up. Can I assume it will back EVERYTHING ELSE up, including the external drives?
I conducted an experiment - I unmounted one of the external drives (my main Logic projects disk), then entered TM. I COULDN'T FIND the Projects disk even though the BackUp disk was still mounted! So if there was a problem with the Projects drive HOW would I access my backed-up projects?
I don't have much faith in TM at the moment.
Cheers
Chris

Hi
Time Machine will back up the files for all users, as well as the system files.
best,
Matt

I am using Time machine with an external hard drive...

for the first 6 months it was working great no problem...now the time machine logo in the top right of the desktop just keeps spinning constently..i stop it manually and starts again and doesnt stop until i do. Botht eh hard drive and the iMac have been restarted. any thoughts? Thanks

Why would what matter?
You can look here for possible alternatives if you prefer:
A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

My system information shows 232gb used as a "back up"on my internal hard drive even though I use time machines and a external hard drive.

Hi
I have had my mac book pro for almost 6 months. Whilst using a 500 gb portable hard drive with time machine, I was surprised to get a message saying there wasn't enough disk space to complete a back up.
I brought another but started to look into why I had used so much space. In system information I had this view. Can anyone help me find where to clear this back up which is taking up so much of my hard drive.
Thank you
Dan

Local Snapshots - About
Local Snapshots on Portable Macs

Use time machine to backup external hard drive (not main one)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for