Backing up across multiple external HDs

I just installed a 500GB on my Macbook Pro. I plan to do backup weekly and have a 250GB and 320GB external drives. How do I backup across these hard drives? Is there a software I can use for this? Thanks!

250GB & 320 GB? That's more than 500 GB. Unless all you are backing up is user data and no applications, and no system, I think you need to go for a 1 TB hard drive, not a 500 GB drive. Different backup software allow you to tag specific software to be backed up, or you can where licensed to do so, make disk images of the application installers that you need, followed by the user data backup. You can daisy chain your hard drives, or just backup one at a time. If you daisy chain them, you can access all the hard drives at once. However, that often can lead to more unexpected disconnects of hard drives. My FAQ* shows several backup solutions out there:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Pick the one that meets your needs best.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Similar Messages

Time Machine to back up across multiple disks?

I've run out of space on my Time Machine disk because I have a lot of video stored on my system. (It's a 2TB drive and it's maxed out)
Is there a way to set up to share the Time Machine back up across multiple drives? If not, any recommendations for how to address this issue?
Thanks for any assistance!

No, Time Machine backups cannot span multiple volumes.
If you're doing a lot of video editing, and a lot of the backup space is taken up by intermediate versions, there are ways to minimize that.
If you just have too much video, your best bet may be to get an additional external HD, and use a different app to back up the video files to it, and exclude them from being backed-up by Time Machine.
Tell us a bit more about your setup -- how many drives/partitions, and how large, is Time Machine backing-up, and how much of that is video?

Best way to change Iphoto library referenced across multiple external drives

Hello,
I am relatively new to mac and I think I've gotten myself into trouble with my large collection of photos. I have a single iphoto library which references photos on multiple external drives. However, iphoto is now very slow to launch and I believe this is due to the number of photos (~160k+, I think) in the library. How should I reconfigure my iphoto library for better performance? I would still prefer to have a single library if possible, am willing to have multiple if necessary.
Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
From searching the forums I believe I have an approach but I am uncertain if it is the best way. Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
The library itself is on the main hard drive while the photos are spread across 3 external drives, with some on the main drive as well. I have been manually importing the photos through finder, then adding them to iphoto. I am using Iphoto 11.
Any tips, pointers, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1 - a referenced library is extremely problematic and is strongly not recommended - especially one spread accross several volumes
2 - iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - can convert to a managed library - check the option to copy imported items to the iPhoto library and rebuil using IPLM
3 - this is likely to cure the slowness too
4 - multiple libraries are not necessary or desireable
5 - the only protection against losing photos is a great backup scheme - I run Time Machine giving me hourly backups and do a daily bootable clone giving a second backup - plus do an occasional off site backup
LN

Time Machine Backup across multiple external drives

Hello all-
I have about 1.5 TB of data in my computer (video editing- fills things up fast)... I was wondering if it were possible to tell Time Machine to recognize multiple external drives as the backup volume? I'm not talking about creating cloned backups of my data on different drives, I'm talking about plugging in three 1TB external drives and having Time Machine use them as targets for the backup image.
Thanks

Yes, you can use Disk Utility to create a +Concatenated Raid Set,+ also known as a JBOD (Just a bunch of disks). See the Help for Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
This is kind of the opposite of partitioning: it combines 2 or more disks into a single volume. The three disks won't appear on your desktop or Finder sidebar individually, just the one volume.
I'm not sure that's necessarily the best solution, though. Is all that data on a single internal HD, or do you have, say, OSX, applications, and most of your data on one drive, and media on a second? If so, it might be better to use TM on your main OSX drive, and something else, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! on the media.
That would greatly reduce the time needed for a restore, as you'd only have to restore the drive that failed.
It could also reduce the amount of storage needed, as you might not need (or want) TM's hourly backups of the media files, and keeping all the previous versions. Using another app would allow you to back that data up somewhat less frequently, such as once or twice a day.
But, of course, it all depends on your situation and preferences. As usual, there are many options.

Using Multiple External HDs for your iTunes content with one Library

Hello everyone so I have used this little trick a lot in the last few months and I thought I would share it.
I am using two 250 GB external HDs for all my iTunes files. Plus the Music on my internal HD
In order to have iTunes manage my content and store it in separate locations i.e. some on the internal HD in my MacBook and some on the external HDs at home. I had to convince iTunes that it really was all in one spot. How do you do this you ask well it is simple. Symbolic Links.
Linux has a great feature that allows you to link any two directories. Since Linux is the core of OS X a simple drag and drop of files and one Terminal command and you are on your way to separate locations for all your files and iTunes thinking it is all in the "iTunes Music" folder.
The command is as follows
ls -s "the directory where the files are" ./
this command must be run in terminal from the original location of the files after you have moved them to the trash. DO NOT EMPTY THE TRASH until you have verified that the link works or your files are safe on the external.
Below is the system that I use.
The original location of my TV Shows is my external HD labeled "iTunes Media"
The New location for my TV Shows is my second external HD labeled "iTunes TV Shows"
1. Drag and Drop the folders to the new location.
2. Move the files from the original location to the Trash.
In the Terminal window
3. cd /Volumes/iTunes\ Media/TV\ Shows/ (this is the original location for my TV Show directories)
4. ln -s /Volumes/iTunes\ TV\ Shows/"name of the show" ./
5. in iTunes I play one of the files just to make sure the link worked. It is really just a test on the first one I do not do this often but you should test a few just to make sure.
If someone needs help please email me. [email protected]
If this in not clear enough let me know and I will try and explain it better.

No answer needed Just information for the masses.

Managing a large library across multiple external HDDs (advice needed)

Here's the rundown. I have an extensive media library, and I've found that satisfying my storage, editing, and convenience needs at the same time is difficult.
Setup:
Mac Mini - 120GB
Mini Stack - Partitioned 500GB (120 backing up main drive, 380 for iTunes Music and misc.)
FreeAgent - 320GB (backup for Music)
2x MyBook 1.5TB - iTunes Movies (1 backs up to the other)
2x MyBook 750 - iTunes TV Shows (1 backs up to the other)
I'm operating right now with about 160GBs of music, music videos, and podcasts, about 950GBs of Movies, and about 500GBs of TV Shows and other misc Video that I organize in the "TV Shows" section of iTunes.
I have all of my content nested within iTunes folders on each drive, and when adding or editing content I change the preferences to point to the appropriate folder.
The problems I'm running into are that iTunes keeps wanting to update my library each time, and if a edit a file that is not in the currently selected iTunes folder the edits are only reflected in iTunes (not to the file itself).
This comes up most frequently when I'm adding ripped TV Shows, as iTunes always adds them first as Movies, which I then change. I also rename the files and add artwork. If I'm pointing to the correct folder the files will move from a Movies folder to a TV Shows folder, reflect new names, and retain episode and other info. If not they don't update.
So I want to know if there is a way to set my itunes folder permanently to the music location, add movies and tv shows from locations without copying to main folder AND retain the same editing abilities that you have by selecting "keep iTunes folder organized."
Thanks for any suggestions.
-Ryan

iTunes hasn't really caught up with Apple's seeming trend towards devices that are smaller and smaller and the glut of media that requires large storage. I guess in the end it might be expected one goes to cloud storage of some sort.
I have never bought anything from iTunes Store but I guess it will still download to someplace indicated in preferences for your media folder location even if you have turned off copy to for other methods of adding media. Two options then. Either make that place your internal drive and move files to the external as you download them, or make it the external drive and work with special handling of music files on the internal. You can override iTunes copying items if you hold down the option key while dragging the item to itunes.

Using the same Referenced Masters across Multiple External Hard Drives?

I have a large (2TB) desktop external hard drive that I am now using as the source of my referenced masters for Aperture.
I would like to copy this reference library ("My Photo Library") to a small, mobile external hard drive to use "on-the-go". But, if possible, I'd like to continue using the desktop external when I'm at home.
What's the best way to do this? Should I just copy "My Photo Library" from the desktop external drive to the mobile external and Relocate Masters? But then, how do I switch back to using the desktop drive when I'm home without having to Relocate Masters every time (my library is quite large: 17K+ photos of 8-21MB each). Is there a way to "trick" Aperture into thinking that both drives are the same drive???

Computer:
5" Mac Book Pro OSX (10.4.11) 2.2
Drives:
1x WD Studio Edition - 750 GB (Firewire 800)
1x LaCie - 750GB (USB)
Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1
(My minimal memory allowance is set to 3000MB)
(No external editors set)
HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50
HDVFireWirePAL
Quicktime - 7.5
Camera - HVR-V1 connected with firewire
MiniDV Tapes, Mix of Sony & Panasonic (DVM60) - i know this is not advised, but i was in kenya, so getting the right tapes was not easy!
Is that everything? Is there any other information you need?
I have been working with Final Cut express while it has been installed on my WD hard Drive.
I have been capturing and editing my film through the WD hard drive very happily up until now, but now it is full with 10 of the tapes (and the application), and so I am now wanting to save the rest of my tapes on the LaCie.

Backing up to multiple external drives

Is it possible to set Time Machine to back up to more than one drive.
I'd like to back up my photos to two separate external drives.
I can't seem to devise a working scenario.
Thanks
AS

Back them up to one drive, then back them up again to the second drive. Time Machine will not do what you want until you upgrade to 10.8.2.

How do I back up file on external Portable Hard drive

I recently dropped my laptop on the floor doing damage to the screen. I took it to Apple store and they were able to back my hard drive onto an external hard drive. It has been a couple weeks since then and I would like to update all the files since the last back up. Does anyone know how to do this.

Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
10. MimMac (Shareware)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire 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, Western Digital, 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, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Verity search results across multiple pages

Hi, I am attempting to implement verity search on my website and am using the code below for the search, and search results page.
Currently the results are limited to 5 as specified by the maxrows command. How can I implement a forward and back feature across multiple pages? (like google search results)
Search:
<cfparam name="form.params" default="">
<cfparam name="target" default="searchVerity">
<cfoutput>
<form method="post" action="results1.cfm">
<p>
Enter your search term(s) using AND, OR, NOT and parens.
Surround an exact phrase with quotes.
</p>
<input type="text" name="params" size="75" value="#form.params#">
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>
</cfoutput>
Result Page:
<cfparam name="form.params" default="">
<cfparam name="target" default="searchVerity">
<cfsearch
name="foundResults"
collection="search"
criteria="#form.params#"
contextPassages = "1"
contextBytes = "300"
maxrows = "5">
<hr />
<h3>Search Results</h3>
This search returned a total of <cfoutput>#foundResults.recordCount#
    </cfoutput> results.
<cfoutput query="foundResults">
<hr />
<p>
File: <a href="#foundResults.URL#" target="_blank">#
    foundResults.title#</a> (score=#foundResults.score
    #)<br />
Highlighted Summary: #foundResults.context#
</p>
</cfoutput>

Hi All,
Has anyone tried to implement the jsptags in Servlets?
I am using Servlets and required a Search display like this. I have my results being retrieved from a class and I am trying to display these results in a table format.
i.e.
Customer c = new Customer();
c.retrieveCustomers();
then i iterate through the customers
while(c.next){

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I'm not really sure how to get those source files back

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I’m not really sure how to get those source files back and get rid of the extra long path to where the source files are now located. If I re-link files to their current catalog (many different paths to files in same catalog) can I merge (import catalogs) into one master catalog? Will the new (Master catalog) have the correct link to the source file? If not, how or can this be done?
I have tried to explain my situation as clearly as I can. Do you understand my situation?
This maybe something you don’t have time to help me with. If not can you suggest somewhere I can get an answer? I really need help. PLEEEZZZ HELP ME.
Bruce Schuerman
Norman, OK
405_514-4875 (call collect)
[email protected]

Is there any solution (other than buying
I really think 'buying' is the best solution on this one. Ideally, you would have at least five internal hard drives.
System
Projects
Cache/Scratch
Media
Exports
Use externals and network drive only for backup.

TS1412 My iPod shuffle periodically skips across multiple songs...playing a song or two and then jumping forward or back multiple songs after playing only moments of a song. Please tell me what I can do to fix this. Thanks

My iPod shuffle periodically skips across multiple songs...playing a song or two in full and then jumping forward or back multiple songs after playing only moments of a song. Please tell me what I can do to fix this situation. Thank you very much.

This is in regards to a 4th gen 40gb clickwheel ipod.
Hi, i've also been having a very similar problem with my ipod as well. I find that regardless of which windows-based pc i use (either my xp laptop @ home, or my win2000 desktop @ work) windows and itunes refuses to recognise my ipod. In windows explorer it will show it as a removable drive, but if i click on it, windows freezes. If I try to disconnect it, I cant because windows keeps reporting that 'the device is being used, try disconnecting later' and so then i shut down my laptop to disconnect it safely.
Lately, like you, i've also noticed that clicking sound it makes. It happens when i connect my ipod to my computer - like the drive inside it is constantly restarting or something, and i get it when i'm playing / charging it in my dock. I've also noticed that when it's playing whilst charging, it just freezes on a song, then skips a couple of songs.
I've just discovered the disgnostic tools on my ipod, so i think i'll run a couple of tests (ie HDD scan) and depending on the outcome, i'll go visit the apple store.

Sharing one iTunes library across multiple accounts on the same Mac

Hello, I've poked around at some of the posts dealing with sharing one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac but it seems like this can only be done if the libary is moved to a shared folder. I realize this can be done but I was trying to share it the way it is described in a post on Apple support (See link below.). That post seemed to imply that you don't have to move the library from its original location (owned by account A, e.g.), rather just make a couple preference changes in the accounts, use fast user switching and voila. That doesn't seem to work. So my question is this: Is the only way to share one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac to move it to a shared folder? I'm running 10.4.8 on an Intel iMac. Thanks in advance!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

After reading this and several other related threads, I am becoming thoroughly confused about all of this. I have a situation similar to the one that pokerpal described in the post dated January 7 at 8:06 pm, except that the music files on my system are located on an external hard drive. Everything else is pretty much the same though - I am the admin user (and the main iTunes user and maintainer) and my girlfriend is a standard user who has no music in her own iTunes library. She can see and listen to and make playlists from and sync her iPod with the music in this library from her account, and I can do the same thing, independent of her, from my account. And if I make a change to information within a song, she doesn't see it, and vice versa, and I understand that. What I don't understand is why when I add a song or an album to the music files by importing a CD or downloading something from the iTunes Music Store, she has no way of knowing that unless I tell her, and then she can add it to her library by using the "Add to Library" function. Is there no way of automatically updating her library files to add the new song(s)? We have almost 15,000 songs and videos in that library, and I don't even want to think about what might have to happen if the answer to my question is "no." Interestingly enough, if I put an update to a Word document in the same exact location (on the hard drive), we can update that and pass it back and forth all day - why is that such a difficult task for iTunes to accomplish?
Sorry I went on so long, but this has been building up for some time, and none of the solutions I've read about here have really been of any help, so I'm a bit frustrated and, as I said at the beginning, confused.
iMac G5, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Can Windows Server Backup spread a single backup job across multiple disks if they are not set up as a virtual disk?

This may be a dumb question, but I can't seem to find any definitive information after having done many, many searches. Short question is - can Windows Server Backup spread a single backup job across multiple disks if they are not in a storage
pool or some other RAID/JBOD structure?
Background:
I'm running Server 2012 Essentials with all Windows Updates installed. I have been backing up approx 2.8TB of data (Bare Metal Recovery, C:, S: (shared folders), and system reserved) for the past year+ onto a storage pool made up of two-2TB external
USB drives. Backup is slow (takes approx 1.5 days to complete), but generally works. Not surprisingly I was constantly getting capacity low messages so I decided to increase my backup storage pool by adding a 3TB drive and another spare 750GB drive
for a total of 7.75TB. Instead of having four separate external USB enclosures, I bot a 4-bay enclosure - Startech.com model #S3540BU33E to simplify this (or so I thought!).
The first problem I had was adding the two new drives to the existing storage pool. I think that is because the Startech uses a JMicron USB controller that reports identical uniqueid's for all drives so only one shows up in the GUI interface for creating storage
pools. After doing research on this, I set up a new storage pool and virtual disk using all four drives via Powershell and thought I was good. However, when the backup ran, it failed after filling the first drive, saying there was no remaining capacity. In
reality there were three remaining empty drives and there storage pool reported almost 5TB of avail capacity. I assumed this was due to the identical uniqueid issue so I decided to try a different tactic.
Instead of using a storage pool that combines all four disks into one virtual disk, I just added each of them to Windows Server Backup as individual drives thinking it would manage them collectively. I.e., when a drive filled up during a particular backup,
it would just start using the next drive and so on. Apparently this was a foolish assumption because the backup failed again as soon as the first disk filled up.
So now I don't know if this is still an issue with the identical uniqueid's or if Server Backup actually can't spread a single backup across multiple individual drives that aren't in a pool or other virtual disk implementation. Hence, my original question.
My guess is that it does *not* spread them across individual disks, but I just wanted to get confirmation.
Thanks

Mandy,
Thank you for following up on my question.
Unfortunately the article you referenced doesn't address what I am trying to accomplish.
The article focuses on saving the same backup job to multiple disks and rotating the disks between on and offsite for enhanced protection. However, it still requires that an individual backup job fits on a single disk.
What I am trying to determine is if a single backup job can span across more than one physical disk (during the backup process) without those physical disks being in some type of virtual disk implementation (e.g., storage pool, RAID, etc.).
Thanks,
Gerry

Backup across multiple DVD's (Deja Vu and Roxio Toast)

Can anyone suggest software in order to do this? I need to get some information off my internal and external drives to free up some room.
I'm running Deja Vu and they suggest "backing up to Roxio Toast" to do this but I'm not very familiar with this kind of thing and am hoping for a little hand holding.
I guess the deal is that I buy Roxio Toast, install it, select Roxio Toast as my backup volume and it will let me do "manual backups" of this source volume to a set of DVD's whenever I feel like it?
Thanks.

{quote}It is $50 and I am hoping to get advice as to whether this is a good investment or not. {quote}
I think it is a pretty good buy. I used the spanning feature several times and can't say I had any problems with it. It can even split a large file across multiple discs. The software has many other features and works so much better than burning discs in the Finder. Toast has been around for a long time and in my opinion it is still the king. My only gripe is that Roxio seems to be doing yearly upgrades and charging an arm and a leg for minimal new features.

Backing up across multiple external HDs

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