Back ups to external drive

It is a long time since I have backed up my hard drive, 256GB used of 320GB drive and I'm getting edgy. I have never managed to get Time Machine working consistently and reliably so have no Time Machine back up either.
I have just purchased a 2TB Lacie drive and was intending to do the following partitions-
500 GB to back up a 5 year old Firewire Seagate drive I'm also getting concerned about and also for copying sundry files
500 GB to clone my drive
1 TB for Time Machine
Any input and/or thoughts on the above strategy would be welcome
regards OB

Sounds like a good plan.
If you want some alternatives to Time Machine:
Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
Silver Keeper
Retrospect
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
SuperDuper!
Synchronize Pro! X
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.

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Can time machine be used to back up one external drive to another external drive?

I use the photography program Lightroom to organize and develop digital photos. All my photos are stored on my iMac internal drive. The internal drive is almost full so I want to move my photos to a new external drive. At present, I have an external drive devoted to backing up my iMac using time machine. I have no need to change this arrangement. I would like to use a new external drive to serve as the primary location for my pictures, which I will move from the internal drive. Then I would like to backup that drive to a third external back up drive. Can time machine be used to automatically back up the second drive to the third drive as well as for continuing to provide ongoing backups to my internal drive as it is currently doing?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Jeffery t wrote:
Thanks for the links, but I don't see in the pondini links, the scenario I am asking about.
Time Machine can easily back up multiple internal and/or directly-connected external drives and partitions simultaneously (but Time Machine cannotback up data that's on a network).
From the first link.
Jeffery t wrote:
... Please note that my iMac internal drive is backing up to external drive number 1 using time machine. I want my pictures on external drive two and those backed up to external drive three. So are you saying that if I have 500 GB of pictures on drive number 2, I will need a third drive that is at least 1 TB?
the confusion starts in your above statement...
There should be Only One Time Machine Drive.

Can I back up an external drive and an airbook with a third drive

I would like to back up an external drive and an airbook with a third drive. This was the setup I used with my Imac. The third drive was linked to the external drive which was linked to the imac. I used time machine. Both the third drive and the external drive were visible on the desktop of the imac. Now I want to use this system to back up the airbook and the external drive, but the third drive doesn't appear on the airbook's desk top, in fact it is invisible and doesn't seem to be recognized in finder or anywhere else from the airbook. Is there some distinction that prevents the airbook from allowing this back up configuration, but that allowed the imac to work in this configuration.
Thanks,
Daviiiiiiid

Of course, always that the external drive is formatted in “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. Apart from that, you shouldn't have any issue,
Then, open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items. The next backup will include your external drive.
Note that you may not be able to back up the external drive if it's connected to your Time Capsule. If it doesn't work, connect the external drive to your computer

I have lost my Safari app and all the bookmarks that go with it. I have tried to download my back-up on external drive but cannot access it. Tried a start with C key held down but still no access to the back-up app.

I have lost my Safari app and all the bookmarks that go with it. I have tried to download my back-up on external drive but cannot access it. Tried a start with C key held down but still no access to the back up app.
Have used Superduper app. to back up and checked back-up occasionally to see if all files present and appeared OK.
I had previously started machine using original CD #1 to try and replace Eudora which was acting up. Did not knowingly touch Safari.
Running iMAC System 10.4.11
How can I successfully download from the Maxtor back-up?
Ivan

Further info.
I checked the content of my other back-up and found the bookmark Bookmarks.plist in the library under Safari
Dumped the existing copy in the computer and drag-dropped the back up. All bookmarks restored.
Solved the Stickies problem by using Spotlight to find file "stickiesdatabase" and did a drag- drop to replace file. All data restored.
Re Ical data loss. Used Spotlight to find iCal document in Library - Preferences where I found com.apple.iCal.plist in folder.
Got ready to make change but did not immediately remove file. When I returned to Preferences folder to grab above document,
the readable descriptors had been changed to code consisting of some upper case letters and/or single symbols!
So now I cannot tell which is the symbol iCal.plist
Thanks for leading me so far, but how do I find that plist for my calendar?

How do I configure my timecapsule to back up an external drive connected to macbook?

How do I configure my timecapsule to back up an external drive connected to macbook?

First, insure that the external drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended Journaled
If it's not, and you already have data on the drive, you will need to move that data to another temporary storage location....as the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) will erase everything on the drive. Once the drive has been formatted, move the data from the temporary storage location back to the external drive
Click the Time Machine clock icon at the top of the screen
Click Time Machine Preferences
Click Options
Click the name of the external drive to highlight it, and then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the drive from the list of "excluded" items for backup
The drive will now be backed up by Time Machine on the next and all subsequent backups

Cannot reinstate catalog after returning PC (Windows 7) to factory settings (because of worm infection). Catalog was backed up on external drive but not using PSE backup facility. Cannot find and *.tly file. Is this hopeless?

Cannot reinstate catalog after returning PC (Windows 7) to factory settings (because of worm infection). Catalog was backed up on external drive but not using PSE backup facility. Cannot find and *.tly file. Is this hopeless?

If you made backups of all of your photos and your catalog file using some third-party method (i.e. not using the PSE catalog backup command), then you should be able to restore everything.
Step 1. Put the photos in the EXACT SAME LOCATION as before. For example, if they were in subfolders of C:\Users\<username>\Documents, then they must go into the exact same subfolders of C:\Users\<username>\Documents.
Step 2. Move the catalog file to wherever you want it to be, and then double-click on it.

I have the 5.5 Lightroom software on my I-Mac with OS-X, 10.9.3. It seems I have lost 850 pictures I was developing. It all started when was adding a folder. A new screen came up with no photos. I went back to my external drive, trying to open the folder

I have the 5.5 Lightroom software on my I-Mac with OS-X, 10.9.3. It seems I have lost 850 pictures I was developing. It all started when was adding a folder. A new screen came up with no photos. I went back to my external drive, trying to open the folder (containing the pictures I was working on), an icon "Thumbs" came up. When I click on it, a message "can't find the application" came up, there is no picture to be found. Please help. Frustrated-George

Have you tried resetting the SMC ? > Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Time Machine won't back up OWC external drive

Mac Mini running 10.8.5. Time Machine will not back up brand new OWC MiniStack external HD. I've trashed TM prefs, reformatted the TM drive, verified that there are no exclusions, but it won't back up the external HD which contains only data files -- no system, no applications. TM does back up the internal HD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.
Recap: Time Machine would not back up an external data drive despite being correctly formatted and settings correctly applied.
Problem was either: a) the Mac, b) the external data drive, c) the Time Machine drive, or d) the data.
I replaced both the external data drive (cloned) and the Time Machine drive, but Time Machine would back up that external drive either.
Finally, instead of CLONING (SuperDuper) the external data drive, I COPIED the data to a new HD -- root folder-by-folder. Now Time Machine again backs up my external hard drive.
SOLUTION: Problem was not hard drives or Mac, but within the data itself. Cloning the data simply passed on the problem to the new hard drive. For this problem, the solution was copying the data rather than cloning.
Thanks all.

Backing up 1 external drive on to 2

Hi -- I have a 400 gb external hard drive that stores my Itunes library, with about 260 gb of music on it. I want to back it up on to a 250 gb drive and an 80 gb drive. Can anyone recommend software that handles this requirement well? (e.g., like pausing when the target disk is full) Do the Mac backup utilities do it?
Ideally, it would allow for an easy restore, if that is ever necessary. Thanks. -- David

You can't back up an external drive that is connected to a TC to the TC itself using Time Machine.

TM won't back up other external drive

I have a LaCie external drive which contains all my photos and music. I have TM backing up to Time Capsule--it works fine with my iMac, but if I add the LaCie it starts backing up but never finishes. I have watched the progress bar get as far as maybe 70 out of 150 GB and then start over from 0. It will cycle like this indefinitely--I've let it run for as much as a couple of days and it never gets anywhere, no evidence of even a partial backup of the LaCie. TM basically will work only when the LaCie is excluded (I've switched back and forth a few times to prove this). Very grateful for any ideas!

PROBLEM SOLVED.
Recap: Time Machine would not back up an external data drive despite being correctly formatted and settings correctly applied.
Problem was either: a) the Mac, b) the external data drive, c) the Time Machine drive, or d) the data.
I replaced both the external data drive (cloned) and the Time Machine drive, but Time Machine would back up that external drive either.
Finally, instead of CLONING (SuperDuper) the external data drive, I COPIED the data to a new HD -- root folder-by-folder. Now Time Machine again backs up my external hard drive.
SOLUTION: Problem was not hard drives or Mac, but within the data itself. Cloning the data simply passed on the problem to the new hard drive. For this problem, the solution was copying the data rather than cloning.
Thanks all.

When using Time Machine to back up to external drive, does Time Machine back up content in your Trash folder?

When using Time Machine to back up to external drive, does Time Machine back up content in your Trash folder?

Go to System Preferences (under the Apple menu) > Time Machine and click the Options button. Click the "+" button in the lower left. In the resulting dialog, check the Show invisible items checkbox. Go to your home folder and look for Trash. Click the Exclude button in the lower right.

Issues with time capsule back ups when external hard drive is connected/not connected

I have a 2TB Airport Time Capsule (ATC) (tall tower type) purchased a few weeks ago and initially wanted it to back up a Seagate FreeAgent 500Gb external drive (formatted extended journalled) as well as three Macbook Pros. The Seagate has a single partition called Lib and is not used for Timemachine backup; it just contains my iTunes library and lots of scanned and archived documents. I want the Lib folder to be accessible to all three Mac users in the house and I've set up all of the Macs to connect and back up to the ATT. They can all see the 'Lib' folder when it is connected to the ATC.
After a bit of searching on the discussion boards I realise that the ATC will not back up 'Lib' when the Seagate is connected by USB directly and that ATT will back it up if it is connect to my Mac and set not to exclude Lib BUT I am encountering some problems with this scenario when I activate time machine.
When I disconnect the Seagate by using 'disconnect' in the ATC viewer in Finder I shut down the drive before disconnecting the usb and reconnecting to the Macbook Pro just as a precaution. When i connect and then activate back up using Time Machine selecting the ATC data folder, it is showing no previous back ups and never backed up. When I had the Seagate connected to the ATT I was seeing back ups as far as 6th May when I bought the ATC. I know that the Time Machine backups are not on the Seagate as I had to reformat it a few days ago and use Data Rescue 3 when I lost the ability to see any files on it after disconnecting it from the ATC. I saw the 6th May backups in Time Machine before I disconnected the Seagate a few minutes ago so they must be on the ATC - just not showing after the Seagate was disconnected.
Can anyone talk me through what may be happening here and advise on the best way of managing this. I'm already planning to buy another external drive as the Seagate is getting a bit old now and I realise I should have secondary back up. I should just say that the reason for bothering with the shared external drive is so that we can all access the photos and household files over the wireless network using ATT. I would just like it to be backed up with minimal fuss if possible.
Many thanks in anticipation of some help with this
I

I would fix the problem by simply installing a more flexible backup software. Carbon Copy Cloner costs US40. And it is licensed so you can load it on all the computers in your house.
It can backup the external drive while connected to the TC, although if you are using wireless it will be sure slow.
Including the external drive in your backup with TM, is just messy. It will work.. and although you are not seeing the previous backups, they are there.. but TM cannot see them until it reconnects with the external drive in place. Once it reconnects it will need to deep scan the previous backup.. you are going to find a simple backup takes far longer than you want. It is also difficult to recover from.
See Q5 here http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
And several other comments in Pondini's KB will be helpful to understand. Sadly the guy who wrote it died before Mavericks came on the scene.. but it has more bugs than ever. TM has become less reliable for a lot of people.. and that is not doing any swapping of disks.
TM is honestly great for simple backups of your OS and particularly for incrementals but getting a clone of the disk like your external is far better for your setup.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html

Incremental back ups to external hard drive and importing to new computer

I need some clarification on precisely how to back up additional pictures on a PC to an external hard drive to keep all the pictures in the same catalog and folder structure.I have exported my existing catalog (exporting the negative files and including the previews) to an EHD to a folder I have created called My lightroom Photos.Within this folder there are three sub-folders:(1)My Lightroom Photos previews.irdata, (2) My Lightroom Photos.lrcat LRCAT file and (3) Pictures (which contain copies of all the subject folders I have created on import-the original pictures being retained on the computer hard drive). When LR opens you have the option of backing up the alterations to pictures in an EHD (but not the pictures themselves).So if some alterations in the develop module are made,these are backed up as a fourth sub- folder on the EHD with the date recorded.However,if certain pictures are added to Lightroom following the earlier catalog export, how can these pictures together with the alterations be added to that same exported catalog with pictures added to various established folder names -eg France, Italy etc? LR is currently set to back up to the parent folder-My Lightroom Photos.
Secondly, I believe that to import the catalog into LR on a second computer,all that is necessary is direct LR to open the last dated LRCAT file from My Lightroom Photos folder on the EHD.However,my last backed up "fourth" LR folder only imported two grayed out images with no previews visible.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I assume that what you really need is some form of keeping the photograph folders on your internal hard drive in sync with the folders on your external hard drive (the catalog itself can be backed up from within Lightroom). This downloadable little utility works for me when I want to keep my spreadsheets, letters, iTunes files ...etc... backed up;
http://www.goodsync.com/download/update
It's nothing to do with Lightroom. You first set up simple jobs within the utility, telling it which folders on your internal drive should be backed up to which folders on your external drive. It will then run, and copy to the ehd any items in the source folder that have changed since the last sync. Then, if your internal hard drive fails, you can copy these folders and catalogs from your ehd to the replacement hd, using the original folder structure.
In Lightroom, the catalog is the main organisational tool, rather than the folder. I let LR decide on it's own folder structure, because I never refer to my RAW files outside of LR. Hope this helps.

Back up to external drive

I just bought a new fire wire external hard drive and I need some help/advice with backing things up.
I am thinking of downloading the free super duper program to clone my hard drive and then using .Mac backup for regular/scheduled back ups. I have a .Mac account already and see no reason to purchase superduper.
Does anyone know if this will work? Does it sound like a good idea? Why/why not?
Any help appeciated.
Dave

I use SuperDuper to clone my internal hard drive and then use .Mac to back it up every second day, won't the .Mac program backup any and all files that have been changed?
I think to achieve this with "any and all" files you would need two backup sets, David. 1), a cloned SuperDuper copy and 2), a set created by Back-up of all files, which would then be 'incrementally" backed up. The "BackUp" created set will, indeed, be regularly updated, but the SuperDuper one won't if you use the approach you suggest.
My advice be to stick with one or the other for regular use unless you have plenty of space.
When it comes to choosing between the two it comes down to simplicity and reliability for me.
I have both .Mac's "BackUp" and SuperDuper (paid version). SuperDuper, in my experience , is both more reliable and easier to use. Setting up a daily "identical bootable clone" backup process to run at a time of your choosing is a doddle with the paid version of superduper. "Backup" is better than it was in the past, but its still not as good as SD for this sort of purpose IMHO.
SuperDuper is well worth the shareware price.
Backup has some positives too, though. THe incremental backup process it uses doesn't erase the old versions of the file from the original set. It simply adds a copy of the new version of the file. If you want to revert to an older version of a file this can be good. It increases the HD space required substantially, though, and makes restoring things to the "just brfore the crash" state more complex.
If space is no issue, of course, then using both doubles your insurance.
Cheers
Rod

How do I delete Time-Machine back-ups on external HD

Hello everybody, I would like to delete all the Time Machine back-ups on my external hard drive and create a new full back-up. This is because after several months my HDD is quickly filling up and I would like to clean out all the old back-ups. What is the best way to do this? Sould I simply delete the old back-ups through finder, or is there another and better way to do this? Many thanks for your help!

peiper1 wrote:
....... the suggestion to enter the TM "Star Wars" display only applies to back-ups residing on my internal SSD, right? ...
No.
peiper1 wrote:
...Also, if TM is backed up to an external HDD, why does it also keep back-ups on the MBA's internal SSD?
As far as I know it doesn't. You may be meaning this...
Time Machine Local Snapshots Laptops
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878
peiper1 wrote:
.. I would like to delete the back-ups on my external hard drive, do I still do it the same way? ...
Follow Pondinis Instructions for Deleting Backups on the TM external Drive.

Back ups to external drive

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