Back up files not showing in external hard drive

Looks like back up is performing although when I check the contents of my external hard drive nothing in there past 2012.
Do I need to select specific items from somewhere?

Open System Preferences > Time Machine
You should see the last time it was backed up.
Verify that you have the correct drive selected.
You should see something like this:

Similar Messages

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    Hope this may help
    Best regards
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    TechNet Community Support

  • Microsoft files not opening in external hard drive anymore

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    Open System Preferences > Time Machine
    You should see the last time it was backed up.
    Verify that you have the correct drive selected.
    You should see something like this:

  • How to open files (NOT copy) from external hard drive

    Hello there,
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    How are you selecting the music files? I have my entire music library on an external drive. If you go to preferences in iTunes, their is an option to select where your music library resides. I think it is under advance but I'm not sure since I don't have access to my mac.
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    After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files.  When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error.  What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive?? 

    Janet.b wrote:
    About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess.  Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
    For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
    Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
    I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
    Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
    The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
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    I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
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    With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
    For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

  • How do i back up my iphone to an external hard drive and not my computer

    How do I back up my iphone to an external hard drive attached to my pc and not my pc?  My disk on my pc is almost full and even though I selected the external hard drive it still seems to try to back it up to my computer, then says I don't have sufficient storage.  I cahnged my folder under preferences to the External Drive folder.

    This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
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    I run an itune 10.4 and would like to back up my entire library to a DVD, because I do not have an external hard drive to back it up to (as the "help" topic is suggesting). Is it possible?...and if so, can someone help me please.

    This is no longer done via iTunes.
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    Add the iTunes media folder to the list of files/folders to burn to disc.

  • I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac

    I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac. How do I do this? Where do I put these files on my Time Capsule? Will it affect the functioning of my Time Capsule?

    Mixing files with data is not always great idea.
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    Q3 http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
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    In windows load the airport utility for windows.. if you have not already as this will help you access the drive.
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  • I can not delete or copy new files to my Iomega external hard drive

    Hi,
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    I'm not the expert on this since I have never done it. It sounds like you may need a data rescue program like Data Rescue III. I believe you can download a demo and see if you can see the files. If you can, then you can buy the program and retrieve the files. I don't know if Disk Utility can restore them--I think they have to be visible but this is not something I have ever had to do.
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  • My time machine back up error and now it says it can not read my external hard drive

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    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.
    Use Disk Utility to repair the TM drive.  If that doesn't help, and you don't find help from the above, then erase the drive and start a new TM backup.

  • I have an eMac and am trying to copy/move movie files from eMac to external hard drive for backup. The eMac will not allow me to do this. Keeps reading error -61. Any suggestions are greatly appreciate. Thanks!

    Trying to backup movie files from eMac to external hard drive. Keep getting error -61. Any suggestions? Thanks

    Good advice from Keith.
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  • I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

    I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
    What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
    From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
    Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

    sydababy wrote:
    and then deleting them off of my computer.
    BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
    Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
    The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous.  One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
    Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
    follow here:
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
    The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
    Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
    Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
    Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
    Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

  • How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

    How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
    I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

    Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
    To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
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    Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
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    You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
    Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

  • I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now.

    I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now

    It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
    Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
    Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
    The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

  • Backing up imported photos to an external hard drive

    I've searched for an answer to my question, but came up blank. So, here goes. First I guess I should say that I'm using mac OS 10.5 Leopard and have Lightroom 1.4.1
    When I import photos, at the same time I also back them up to an external hard drive. So far so good. At import I select Organize: Into one folder, then check the box for Put into subfolder and give the folder a unique name. I then check the box to select a location to back up to, which is my external hard drive.
    The photos are now imported into a folder with it's unique name in my pictures folder on my hard drive, they also are now in a folder of the same name in the folder list in Lightroom, but the folder they are backed up to on my external hard drive is named, Imported on (date).
    I can't seem to find a way for the folder with the backups to have the same unique name as the folder I imported to. It seems to me that would be normal. The folder I imported to has it's own name pertaining to the contents and the file name dates are by choice, the date they were shot, but if I didn't import those photos for a week after shooting, the folder they are backed up into won't have anything in it's name to relate to if I need to search for a lost photo.
    Anyone have a solution that I'm missing? I've tried everything, but can't seem to get past this point.
    Thanks,
    Jack

    Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
    Thanks again,
    Jack

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