Backing up an external hard drive and internal drive to Time Machine

Hello! I have had my new iMac (21.5 inch, 10.6.6, 2.5 ghz Intel Core i5) for three days now. I am really nervous about losing my files. One thing I was really looking forward to on the Mac is Time Machine.
Here is my current setup. Time Machine is backing up my internal hard drive (500GB) to an external hard drive (500GB). Lets call the Time Machine backup drive "black" for simplicity. I have another external hard drive connected as well (500GB). Let's call it "silver." The silver drive has all the files I created on various PC's and Macs. It is formatted so that it can work on both PCs and Macs (MS-DOS FAT 32). There is 350GB on the silver drive, leaving 149 GB available. The black one is the Time Machine backup; it was formatted by Time Machine into Mac OS Extended journaled and is currently using 31 GB.
I would really love for Time Machine to back up the Silver drive (that has all of my files) and the internal Mac drive to the Time Machine black drive. In Time Machine's exclude list, it shows the Silver drive, but will not let me exclude it (it will not let me select it at all).
Is there something that I am missing? Why won't Time Machine include the Silver drive?
P.S. I am new to Time Machine, and most of System Preferences, so a little more explanation may be needed.
Thank you in advance!

Just curious, why is it a bad idea to share with Windows? The files I created on Windows that I want to use on the Mac are things like PDFs, JPGs, MP3s, Adobe Creative Suite files, etc. I don't know very much about cross platform files other than I haven't had issues over the last four years sharing files with a PC here and a Mac at school (and now this Mac that I own).

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I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things. And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad. Here's the info on my IMac:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac6,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          3 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM61.0093.B07
SMC Version (system):          1.10f2

I need to erase my hard drive and start anew
Why do you feel you need to do this? That is such a 'Windows thing' to do!
And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad
Very rarely, but nothing in life is guaranteed (except death and taxes)! If you purchased RAM from a reputable source like Crucial or OWC it will carry a lifetime warranty.

I just replaced my hard drive and restored everything from Time machine. However, I am unable to open iphoto and the following message appears Your photo library was not found. Do you want to find your iPhoto Library?

I just replaced my hard drive and restored everything from Time machine. However, I am unable to open iphoto and the following message appears Your photo library was not found. Do you want to find your iPhoto Library?
Where do I find this library?
thanks
Shak

Twas quite a hassle if I am honest which was eventually resolved but I don't feel qualified to help anyone through the process as it required a trip to my local apple store and a genius bar appointment.
Personally, I would do anything like moving pictures out of folders etc. Certainly not creating a new users. i don't think that is an elegant solution
Try the following which MAY just about rescue the situation for you but if they don't work you may have to do something more drastic.
(1) Holding down Cmd & Alt at the same time, start iPhoto by clicking on the iPhoto icon. From the resulting menu choose Rebuild photo library by selecting all available options given to you and then pressing REBUILD!
If that doesn't work
(2) Fire up Utilities. Go to migration assistant. Chose 'From another Time machine back-up'. Open the 'Users' option that comes up next and from there select Pictures, then uncheck everything else like Applications etc (you don't want to do a full migration of everything) and click go.
If that doesn't work, take a deep breath and this step is rather complicated but it worked for me. First of all close iPhoto! Then go to new Finder window.
From the Finder window choose Pictures, then iPhoto library, press CMD and the letter i. It brings up a new window. Go to Sharing & permissions. From there select the padlock to unlock settings. and then select User account, then press the 'cog' icon next to +/- abd choose Apply to enclosed items.
This may take a while. Once completed, re-open iPhoto.
And that should (I stress should) cure it.
Good luck.

I just replaced my hard drive and restored everything from Time machine. However, my itunes is empty. No music, movies etc are there. Please help thanks

I just replaced my hard drive and restored everything from Time machine. However, my itunes is empty. No music, movies etc are there. Please help thanks

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
Windows images, but you get the point. Depending on the age of your library the library file might not include the .itl extention. Make it match the file you are replacing.
See MusicFolder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
tt2

Can I switch external hard drives and still access old Time Machine backups?

I have a Mac Book Pro linked to 2 1TB external hard drives, one used as my Time Machine Back up, the other used as a manual ad hoc back up and to store even older files.
The TM back up drive is now full. If I just unplug it/switch it off and plug in and set up a new 2TB hard drive as my TM back up, will I still be able to access the back ups on the original TM drive if necessary, through TM?
Wil it be a start over situation with the new drive, performing a complete back up to begin with?
Or would you advise me to transfer the old back folder to the new drive, given that it will be larger?

Hi den.thed,
Thank you for this - I think the easy option by far appears to be to leave existing backups on disk 1, and plug in disk 2 and start over.

I am using Windows 8.1 i have an External Hard Disk and one drive is now inaccessible due to sudden power failure few days ago. Now it shows "Data error (Cyclic redundancy check)". I want all my important files and Pics. How ?

Hi,
I am using Windows 8.1
I have an External Hard Disk i have partitioned it to 4 parts.
One drive is now inaccessible due to sudden power failure while listening Music from that drive few days ago.
Now it shows "Data error (Cyclic redundancy check)".
I tried all the procedures provided here like
chkdsk /f, diskpart, rescan etc
but no result :( (i mean all processes failed. They could not detect the drive).
Please help me to get those data, pictures and project files.
thank you

Then why aren't you posting this in the Windows 8 forums found @
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/home?category=w8itpro
This is a Windows 7 forum for discussion about Windows 7.
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. ”

When you upgrade from Lion to ML, do you need to erase your external backup drive and start over in Time Machine, or does it just automatically pick up from where it stopped with Lion?

This is a 500 GB G-Drive mobile external hard drive that I've been using since I got my MacBook Pro in '09. So I've had it from Leopard through Lion. Should I have been erasing it each time a new operating system comes out and starting over?

No - just continue to use Time Machine as you have always been.
Not only is erasing it unnecessary, doing that would eliminate the only practicable way of undoing an OS X upgrade.

Can I install a 1 terabite hard drive and update it with time machine?

What would I need to do? I have a 250 gig hard drive now, I would like to install a 1 terabite. Would I need to install the os then update it with the time machine backup to have everything that I have now? I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch with OSX Snow leapord. I had gotten this notebook mid summer of 2010. Any comment would be appreicated.

Right now, I have a 320 gig hhd that I use for my time machine backup, I recently backed up my notebook, if I decide to upgrade the hhd to a 1 tera, I will get another 1 terahhd for time machine backup. I just wanted to know if I could change the hhd, install the os and instead of installing all the drivers, music, movies that I purchased, if time machine backup would do that for me. Thank you for your comment OGELTHORPE!

External Hard disk has space problem for Time Machine

Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in. I have a bout 300Gb to back up. Currently my mac can only see 260GB free, which means theres about 150GB that isnt explained. I have run Disk Inventory, which shows the dot files on the drive. There seem to be hardly any. Is there anything else that could be taking up such a large amount of disk space? Theres one movie file of 28GB that I cannot move off the drive.

Tim Whelan2 wrote:
Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in.
Let's see what Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) says. When it starts, click the top line for your drive in the sidebar (should have size and make), then the Partition tab. Towards the bottom is a *Total Capacity* line, followed by two different numbers: one in GB, the other in bytes. The first will be about 465 GB, the second roughly 500 billion. This is the different way of counting: decimal vs. binary.
There's also a *Partition Map Scheme* line. This should be followed by GUID or +Apple Partition Map.+ If your drive isn't one of those, you're going to have a problem using it with Time Machine. Report back what this says.
In the center part of the display is a diagram showing all the partitions currently on the disk. Each is represented by a box, with a name in the center, and the amount used represented by light blue shading.
If there's only one partition, it's total size and amount available will be in the center, shown in GB.
If there are 2 or more, click each one in turn to see it's sizes. The Total of the sizes should be almost the same as the total at the bottom (the Partition Map takes a bit of space).
It sounds like you may have 2 partitions, one for TM backups, one for your "other stuff". If so, each partition is treated separately for most purposes: there should be two icons on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar, for example.
Report back what you find, and whether it makes sense to you or not. Then we can figure out what's going on and what you need to do.
But note this: This drive is a bit small to use with Time Machine. TM works best if it has 2-3 times the space of what it's backing-up, so it can keep a few months of your backups. See item #1 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
Even if you could use the entire 465 GB or so, that's less than twice the 300 gb you want to back up. That would work, for a while, but depending on how you use your Mac, TM may not be able to keep your backups for very long.

How to back up an external hard drive using Time Machine

I have a Macbook. I have iTunes. I have my iTunes folder and contents stored on an external (Lacie) hard drive. I want to be able to back up that external (Lacie) hard drive and my mac using Time Machine to a separate external hard drive. At the moment it is only my mac that is backed up, and not the Lacie. How can I also back up the Lacie so that only the recently added iTunes content is added? Cheers.

You may consider reading the detail in what third-party clone utilities could
do in regard to a backup clone and then use their utility to update that clone.
Once the copy/clone is made (a bootable backup, btw) the same utility can
be used to update the clone. Not certain how it works, and am a bit behind
on making backup bootable clones of my several Macs as it is. I do a whole
backup clone, though a partial or update supposedly is possible.
SuperDuper or CarbonCopy, I don't remember if one of them or both, do this.
Good luck in any event!

Now that i have a mac pro.how can i use a portable hard drive while i have the time machine working on my mac?

what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
the time machine also on there?

flora1917 wrote:
what do i do if i want to use a portable hard drive for backing up, if i also see
the time machine also on there?
Do you mean you're already backing-up to a Time Capsule, and want to switch to using an external HD? If so, just format the drive and select it via Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk. See #21 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
If you mean something else, please clarify.

Can time capsule back up an external hard drive attached to my imac and the iMac internal Harddrive

Can time capsule back up an external hard drive attached to my imac and the iMac internal Harddrive

In addition to Kappy's comments, the external drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in order for Time Machine to be able to back it up.

Set up to save directly to external Hard Drive so cannot have separate 'back up'I now want to reverse i.e save to internal Hard Drive and 'back up' on external 'hard Drive'. Please advise me how to do this.

Macbook Air 13 inch purchased October 2013. set up to save [mainly photos] to external 'hard drive' i.e. not saved to internal hard drive. Cannot find easy way to create 'back up'. Please advise how I can reverse i.e save directly to internal 'hard drive' and 'back up on external 'hard drive'

For backing up your data I recommend that you use Time machine:
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
rob at the orchard wrote:
save directly to internal 'hard drive'
When you import images or create other data files, file them in the appropriate places on your internal drive, don't delete them and let Time machine back them up.
Ciao.

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down eliminate

I am trying to get space on an external hard drive which has some old time machine back up files that I do not need but can not eliminate, even by going into the time machine, clicking on the backup file to be eliminated and using the drop down menu with the gear box symbol to eliminate

I cannot find this 300GB "Backup" in the Finder, only in the Storage info when I check "About This Mac".
You are probably using Time Machine to backup your MacBook Pro, right? Then the additional 300 GB could be local Time Machine snapshots. Time Machine will write the hourly backups to the free space on your hard disk, if the backup drive is temporarily not connected. You do not see these local backups in the Finder, and MacOS will delete them, when you make a regular backup to Time Machine, or when you need the space for other data.
See Pondini's page for more explanation: What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I have restarted my computer, but the information remains the same. How do I reclaim the use of the 300GB? Why is it showing up as "Backups" when it used to indicate "Photos"? Are my photos safe on the external drive?
You have tested the library on the external drive, and so your photos are save there.
The local TimeMachine snapshot probably now contains a backup of the moved library. Try, if connecting your Time Machine drive will reduce the size of your local Time Machine snapshots.

Just baked up my macbook pro to an external hard drive. my computer died on me and i plugged it in and rebooted it ,started time machine and finished backing up but. just wondering if thats good or should i delete and restart

just baked up my macbook pro to an external hard drive. my computer died on me and i plugged it in and rebooted it ,started time machine and finished backing up but. just wondering if thats good or should i delete and restart

I wouldn't trust that backup.
Make sure the system is connected to AC and Do Over.

Backing up an external hard drive and internal drive to Time Machine

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