Backing up an external HD connected to time capsule

Hi- anyone know how to use Time Machine to backup an external hard drive that is connected to a Time Capsule? I have several imacs using the external as a shared drive, and I'd like to use Time Capsule to automatically backup the shared drive. Any help greatly appreciated.

birdsong9 wrote:
Hi- anyone know how to use Time Machine to backup an external hard drive that is connected to a Time Capsule? I have several imacs using the external as a shared drive, and I'd like to use Time Capsule to automatically backup the shared drive. Any help greatly appreciated.
hi birdsong and welcome to the discussion area.
unfortunately, TM will not backup networked drives.

Similar Messages

  • How do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

    how do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

    Will time capsule back up the machine and the hard drive that is plugged into the machine?
    Yes, if the hard drive with the video files is formatted correctly for Mac
    On the Mac with the hard drive connected....click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen
    Click Time Machine Preferences
    Click Options
    Here you will see a list of items that have been excluded from backups
    Click the name of the hard drive to highlight it
    Click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of excluded items
    The hard drive will now be backed up with your Mac on the next pass that Time Machine makes

  • Best practices with external drives connected to Time Capsule?

    I'm enjoying my new MBP but the storage limitations are a challenge with twenty+ years of data. I know it's not technically sanctioned by Apple but in another forum I found a discussion about successfully connecting an external drive to the Time Capsule. I tried this for a few months and had some problems, so I wonder if anyone here might have some insight into which of my drives would be best to use in this way and what, if anything, I must do to bless it for the task.
    The drive most highly recommended in the forums at the time is the WD My Book. After buying it I learned that is Windows users install a package and update the driver for use with Time Machine, which Mac users are not able to do. The driver is available on the web but it's said to cause problems with Mountain Lion, which I can confirm. It's USB 3.0 and powered, though, which my two alternatives are not. It's also 2 TB and presently in two partitions. I also have a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex 500 which gets extremely hot with any use and an Iomega eGo Helium 500 I've been using for backups. Both are USB 2.0.
    My goal is to put my iTunes Library and Time Capsule on the net (running  2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz, averages 50Mbs). When I did this for a few months with the WD both its shares frequently dropped off my Desktop, as if powered down or something. Also there were the issues with Time Machine many others are having. Right now our video collection sits on the Time Capsule. Would it make sense to move our video to the WD and run iTunes and Time Machine on it? If so, do you have any tips for formatting, petitioning, or drivers (or anything else) to help this run smoothly? The WD works fine when hard-wired and the TC, too is fine without the WD at the party.
    With apologies for the tome.

    kevlee64 wrote:
    Thanks, but the drive is connected directly to the back of the Time Capsule by an ethernet cable.
    Ah, that's a different colored horse.   
    You have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive, not a USB external drive connected to the USB port.
    Many of those need software/firmware updates to work with Lion.  Check with Iomega.

  • Time Capsule, Time Machine and external HD connected to time Capsule

    Hi. I am a new mac user and have an imac.
    I have a 1T Time capsule with an external hub connected to the time capsual. The Time caspsule creates a wireless home network which has the internet connected to it.
    To this external hub I have a printer connected along with 2 external WD 500 Hard Drives. I wanted to use one of these WD 500 HD to store my iphoto library and data. I then wanted the time machine to backup the WD 500 HD to the time capsule, which currently is where the time machine backups are stored.
    I can see all devices and they all work. I can only see the external HD's via the time capsule in finder.
    I can't seem to get the time machine to backup the external HD to the time capsule. In summary - the external HD is connected an external hub to the time capsule. The Imac accesses it via a wireless home network which is created by the Time capsule.
    Is this possible?

    Hello DazImac. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
    I can't seem to get the time machine to backup the external HD to the time capsule. In summary - the external HD is connected an external hub to the time capsule. The Imac accesses it via a wireless home network which is created by the Time capsule.
    Is this possible?
    Sorry, but no. Time Machine will not back up network drives ... which a USB drive attached to the TC's USB port would be treated as.

  • How to back up a external hard disk to time capsule?

    I have a external hard disk (WD passport Mac OS extended format)  connected to iMAC (OS X 10.9.3) through USB. How can I back up the hard disk to my time capsule (802.11ac 2TB)?

    By default, the name of the hard drive will appear on the list of Excluded items when you open System Preferences / Time Machine  / Options.
    Click on the name of the hard drive to highlight it, and then click on the - (minus) button at the bottom of the Exclusions list to remove the drive from the list of items that are Excluded on backups.
    Time Machine will back up both your Mac and the hard drive on the next pass.

  • External HD connected to Time Capsule via USB, how can I back up this drive to Time Capsule?

    I have my itunes media all on an external drive connected directly to Time Capsule via USB.
    I plan to share this external drive over the network to share my media, but how can I back up this drive to the Time Capsule?

    how can I back up this drive to the Time Capsule?
    You will have to do this manually using the Finder, or try a commercial application like Chronosync or Carbon Copy Cloner which might be able to backup a network drive to another network drive. Check with their support folks first before you buy.
    If you could connect the external drive directly to a Mac, Time Machine would backup both the Mac and the external hard drive (assuming that the external is formatted correcly to work with Time Machine).

  • Using External HD connected to Time Capsule

    I am posting this mainly as a success story, but if anyone sees a potential pitfall with my setup please speak up. I am a brand new Mac user as of two months ago. I purchased a new iMac (intel) with OS(X) Leopard and a 500GB Time Capsule. The learning curve has been significant but I am very happy so far. A couple of days ago I bought a 1TB external Hard Drive with the idea of connecting it via USB to the Time Capsule. With only a couple of surprises along the way it seems to be working fine even though I have it set up opposite the norm. That is I am using the External drive for the Time Machine back ups and the Time Capsule as extra storage. I also decided to partition the external drive into two parts so that Time Machine would not fill up the whole drive. The reason being I wanted to backup a few things manually rather than with Time Machine. One partition named TM Backups and the other Manual Backups.
    Now for the surprises. I made my first backup to the External Drive by connecting it directly to the computer since it is a faster connection. I did both a Time Machine and a manual backup that way. The first surprise was that Time Machine did not produce a sparsebundle file like I was used to seeing but rather a Backups.backupdb folder that I could explore using finder. When I unplugged the drive and reconnected it to the Time Capsule, the first thing I got was an error message claiming that the drive was not formated in Mac OS extended (journaled) as required. The best I remember, I clicked past that and opened Time Machine Preferences and reselected that drive to be used with Time Machine and had to enter the password for the Time Capsule. After that is seemed to connect fine. However Time Machine proceeded to back up the whole computer from scratch this time using a sparsebundle file which took about 4 hours. So basically it did not save any time to do the initial Time Machine backup directly connected to the computer, although the files I backed up manually that way did save time. The next surprise was that once connected through the Time Capsule I could no longer explore the Backups.backupdb folder with finder. I could see all the folders but none of the files in them. I briefly reconnected the drive to the computer and they were all still there but I could not see them through the Time Capsule USB connection. So Time Machine uses different methods of storing backups when connected through the Time Capsule versus a direct connection. I'm just going to leave it that way as it does not seem to be causing a problem. The last surprise is that when the Time Machine backup file is mounted (which I still don't fully understand what it means to be mounted) and I select it with finder and select "get info" it tells me the volume is formated in Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitve, Journaled). When the drive is connected directly to the computer it says it is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). What the **** how can that be???
    And is that normal? Well . . . it seems to be working perfectly. Does anybody think this will be a problem down the road?

    Da Soundman wrote:
    Now for the surprises. I made my first backup to the External Drive by connecting it directly to the computer since it is a faster connection. I did both a Time Machine and a manual backup that way. The first surprise was that Time Machine did not produce a sparsebundle file like I was used to seeing but rather a Backups.backupdb folder that I could explore using finder. When I unplugged the drive and reconnected it to the Time Capsule, the first thing I got was an error message claiming that the drive was not formated in Mac OS extended (journaled) as required. The best I remember, I clicked past that and opened Time Machine Preferences and reselected that drive to be used with Time Machine and had to enter the password for the Time Capsule. After that is seemed to connect fine. However Time Machine proceeded to back up the whole computer from scratch this time using a sparsebundle file which took about 4 hours.
    Yes, that's correct. Time Machine stores it's backups differently when they're done via a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme vs. directly attached via FireWire or USB. The two cannot be merged or combined.
    What you can do, however, is perform that first backup while connected via Ethernet; the backups will still be stored in a sparse bundle, so subsequent backups can be done wirelessly, but be done much faster than wireless.
    I'm just going to leave it that way as it does not seem to be causing a problem.
    Except for the space the first set takes up.
    The last surprise is that when the Time Machine backup file is mounted (which I still don't fully understand what it means to be mounted) and I select it with finder and select "get info" it tells me the volume is formated in Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitve, Journaled). When the drive is connected directly to the computer it says it is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    Yes, Time Machine does that, just why is not clear, as it can cause significant problems when restoring items when the capitalization of their names has been changed.
    And do be *very careful* when using the Finder on your backups, not to move, change, or delete anything. That can corrupt them. To browse or restore from them, use the Time Machine application (the "Star Wars" display).
    You might want to review these:
    Time Machine Tutorial
    Time Machine 101
    How to back up and restore your files
    Time Machine Features
    Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
    and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.

  • New External Drive connected to Time Capsule moving files problem

    I have a late 2009 13" unibody MacBook Pro, that I primarily use for video editing/converting. I use my Time Capsule as a network through which I can connect to my external hard drives via USB for videos and such. I've used at least two other external hard drives along with my Time Capsule for a year and a half with very few problems, aside from the inevitable crash of one. Before yesterday, I had a 1TB Western Digital MyBook (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=210) and a 2TB Verbatim Desktop HD (http://www.verbatim.com/prod/hard-drives/desktop/usb-2.0/) connected through my 1TB Time Capsule and aside from the Verbatim drive being rather sluggish most of the time, everything was working fine.
    Yesterday, I got a new external drive, an iOmega MiniMax 2TB (http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/external-hard-drive-desktop/ultramax-minimax /minimax800/?partner=4760). I spent yesterday and most of today moving files around and whatnot through a wired connection (iOmega via firewire 800, Verbatim via USB, MyBook via USB, and Time Capsule via Ethernet), and everything moved quickly and without any problems.
    I hooked my Time Capsule up to my modem, plugged in the iOmega and Verbatim drives via USB to the TC, and started my laptop. When I opened the drives, everything was working fine... And then I tried to move a file to the iOmega drive... I was moving an episode of The Killing. I dragged it into the folder and went to Safari to look something up and suddenly realized ten minutes later that I still hadn't heard the noise telling me that the file had finished. I looked at the move dialogue box and it said "156.8 MB of 323.8 MB - About 10 Seconds". I watched it for another ten minutes and it didn't move. So I clicked cancel move and the rainbow wheel of death came up and I had to force reboot my computer.
    When I restarted, I opened up finder to access the drives through my Time Capsule, and it "failed to connect" to my Time Capsule. So I went back into my office to flip the switch on the surge protector in order to restart the process. I turned on my computer and I had no problem accessing my hard drives... Until I tried to move an episode of United States of Tara into the iOmega hard drive. This time, it said, "192.5 MB of 202.6 MB - About 5 Seconds" and completely stopped moving again. And the same thing happened when I clicked the little grey "x" to cancel the move.
    I repeated the process several more times with no luck. Then I thought it might help to see if it does the same thing with documents. So I dragged just a random document to the iOmega and it took about 30 seconds, but it did it successfully. So I tried to move the episode of The Killing again and I let it go for, like, 25-30 minutes. After this time, I got a notification from finder saying, "Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "[the file]" can't be read or written. (Error Code -36)". Then when I went back into the "Shared" part of the sidebar to go back into my Time Capsule folder, it said "Connection Failed"
    So what exactly does this mean? Are the Time Capsule and iOmega not compatible? Can I only move the files through a wired connection [which would be unfortunate]? Do I need to rejigger the USB configuration? Is the error code just for these two episodes and it's just a random coincidence that it happened the day after I got a new drive?
    Thanks for any help anyone can give me!
    - Alex

    I have attached the macbook to the tc via ethernet cable. Should I turn off my wireless connection or will itunes recognize to go with the faster connection on it's own?
    You MBP will try to connect based on the order of the list of network devices on the System Preferences > Network window. If Ethernet is not at the top of the list, then go ahead and temporarily disable AirPort.
    After all this is done will the wireless connection be fast enough for normal itunes operation?
    For audio streaming it should be, but just be aware that your iTunes host will have to get the audio source wirelessly from the TC, which in turn will have to get the data from the USB hard drive. Finally, the iTunes host will have to wirelessly stream the iTunes audio via AirTunes to the AirPort Express.

  • Can I back-up an external hard drive to Time Capsule

    Hi,
    I'm looking at getting a new Macbook pro - mainly for photo editing. Am concerned that I may run out of storage and don't really want to pay over the odds to increase storage so was thinking of purcahsing the LaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Hard Drive to store my photos on. I was then looking at the time capsule for back-up. Can I back-up photos from theLaCie 1TB Rugged Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Hard Drive to the Time capsule?
    Many thanks

    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

  • Problems with printer and external HD connected via Time Capsule with Windo

    Hello everyone!
    In January I bought an iMac 27 "(OS version: OS X 10.6.2) and a week ago a Time Capsule 1TB.
    I connected the iMac and a laptop with Windows XP SP3 both via ethernet to the TC, and to the USB port of the TC a USB hub to which I connected a Canon iP4200 and a LACIE 500GB HARD DISK.
    I reformatted the hard disk file system to Lacie Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and installed MacDrive 8 in the laptop.
    Now (after formatting the HD), with the iMac everything works: internet connection via ethernet or wireless, printing via ethernet or wireless as well as hard disk connection via ethernet or wireless.
    Laptop, instead, is only able to connect to the internet via ethernet or wireless while it isn't able to see and use printer and external hard drive, even though I installed AirPort Utility for Windows!
    The laptop also detects the AirPort disk of the TC but if I enter the (correct) password I get an error message!..
    Please, somebody help me, I do not know what to do!
    Thanks

    Have you run Bonjour on the Win PC's? Do a search on the support page and there's a description on getting things up and running from a WinPC in a Mac environment.

  • Why can't I back up my external HD to a Time Capsule using Time Machine?

    I have 2 external Hard Drives attached to my Mac Air. I want to back them both up to my new 2G Time Machine, but here is the wierd thing. When I go to the time machine preferences both disks are shown in the exclude from back-up pane but only one can be removed (which i presume means it will be backed up)
    the external HD that can be removed from the "exclude items from back up" is an iomega
    the external HD that cannot be removed is a My Book.
    Any thoughts on why this might be and what I can do to rectify the situation
    Cheers

    Connect the drive directly to your Mac
    Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
    Click on the drive in the left panel. Info about the drive will be displayed at the bottom of the window.
    To format the drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)......
    First transfer the data that is currently on the drive to another drive for safekeeping as the new format will erase the drive.
    Once the data is transferred, then in Disk Utility, click the Erase tab
    Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format of choice
    Click Erase the drive will be reformatted.
    Transfer the data back onto the drive
    Try to backup using Time Machine

  • ITunes library on External drive connected to Time Capsule

    So i have all my data(HD home movies etc 1.5TB)on an external drive that is connected to TC via usb 2.0. I have told iTunes to include this data and it has moved over all the titles (music & movies)but itunes keeps getting hung up as it is trying to organize the files. It has been trying to do this for over 24 hours now and we are not even 5% done and it may not be updating anymore.
    All this is being done wirelessly thru TC. How do i speed this up or cancell it? If I use firewire between my macbook and the extrnal hd my library won't be available wirelessly? I also need to stream this data to apple tv but that's for another day.
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    You'll be more likely to get a quick and accurate answer if you ask in the Using iTunes for Mac forum. This forum is for users of iTunes on Windows systems and so probably not the best place for this question.
    Regards.

  • I want to backup an external hard drive connected with time capsule

    What to do? I want a macbook air but realise that the storage is limited. I want to have en external HDD connected through time capsule or similar to access storage "wirelessly". I want everything backed up automatically through time capsule. I understand time capsule does not back up connected external HDDs unfortunately. If it did my problem would be solved. How should I do? Can a two time capsule solution be possible where one is used för storage and the other for time machine also backing up time capsule nr 1?
    I do not want to loose all my photos! They won´t fit a macbook air... I have tried "crash plan" wich is one of many ckoud solutions to try and take care of all my hundreds of GBs but it doesn´t work well. Takes forever to backup and it keeps loosing contact with the external HDD i have connected through the time capsule.
    This must be a very common need but I find no good solutions?!
    Thanks!

    You are right.. there is no decent solution from Apple..
    You need a proper NAS.. not a backup target for TM.. which is what the TC is.
    Look at Synology and QNAP.. they are not cheap but will work fine with Macs, TM even although it can be messy setting up. But the real NAS will auto backup to a USB drive.. plus the raid system offers protection against a dead drive.
    Some people use a Mac Mini as a server.. (you don't need server version OS on it).. but the disk expansion is going to cost you as much as the true NAS.

  • Connecting and backing up external HDD to a Time Capsule

    Hi All,
    Running a Macbook pro Retina. I would like to do the following things with a Time Capsule:
    Physically connect an external HDD to the time capsule, put media on this external HDD and access it wirelessly on my macbook
    Use the time capsule to back up (via Time Machine) the data on both my macbook's HDD and the external HDD
    I would be grateful for help with the following queries:
    Will Time Machine allow me to back up both the internal HDD and external HDD that is connected to the time capsule?
    Does the external HDD I attach to the time capsule need its own power source, or will it take its power from the time capsule via USB?
    Does the time capsule need to be turned on 24/7? Or can it just be turned on when I need to perform a back up / access the information on the external HDD?
    Thanks for your help in advance. I know some of these questions may seem obvious, but having seen contradictory information online I'd like to make sure of my ground.

    Physically connect an external HDD to the time capsule, put media on this external HDD and access it wirelessly on my macbook
    Technically, you could do this. The question is whether you should do this.  The USB 2.0 port on the Time Capsule brings new meaning to word s-l-o-w, so copies and access are going to sluggish at best.  The port operates at about half the speed of a USB port on a computer.
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    I've learned the hard way that it is much better to locate media on a drive that is directly attached to the Mac. Access is much faster and more reliable, and Time Machine can back up both the Mac and the attached hard drive.
    Use the time capsule to back up (via Time Machine) the data on both my macbook's HDD and the external HDD
    That is not possible, since Time Machine can only back up data on a Mac, or a drive that is connected directly to a Mac.
    Will Time Machine allow me to back up both the internal HDD and external HDD that is connected to the time capsule?
    No, see answer above.
    Does the external HDD I attach to the time capsule need its own power source, or will it take its power from the time capsule via USB?
    Use a powered USB hub with the hard drive unless the drive has its own power supply. Sometimes though, you still have to use a powered USB hub with a drive, even when the drive has its own power supply.  You won't know if he drive will work until you try it out.
    Does the time capsule need to be turned on 24/7? Or can it just be turned on when I need to perform a back up / access the information on the external HDD?
    Apple designed the Time Capsule to be "always on" since there is not even an "Off" switch on the device.  Network connections will remain a lot more stable if you leave the TC on.  With Yosemite, the TC has a hard enough time not losing network connections. Forcing the TC to establish new connections every time that you power it off and back on is bound to create issues.

  • Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule for off site back up?

    I like having a copy of everything at another site in case of a house fire. Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule to make a duplicate of what is on Time Capsule? I would store that hard drive at work and bring it home monthly or something to back up Time Capsule. Thanks!

    Can I connect an external hard drive to Time Capsule to make a duplicate of what is on Time Capsule?
    That is exactly what the Archive function on the Time Capsule is for. Connect a USB drive and click Archive, and a mirror image of your Time Capsule will be copied over to the USB drive.  It's a slow process that will take 4-8 hours depending on how much data is on the Time Capsule, so best to start things late at night and let them run overnight.
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