Backing up external drive to another external drive

Looking for best way to back up iMac internal HD and a 3 TB external drive to 2 other external drives (1.5 TB and 3 TB). Time machine doesnt seem to be able to back up the individual external drives or cant figure it out. thanks

Hi, what OS are you on?
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Similar Messages

  • Backing up iTunes from a NAS drive to another external drive (Software)?

    I am currently running my iTunes Library wirelessly from a NAS drive, so that I can access my media from any of my devices. My library is now reaching a 1TB, and am worried of data loss or drive failure. Does anyone know of any software or automator scripts to automate wirelessly backing one NAS drive to another NAS drive? Or any other suggestions or solutions to this...

    ChronoSync may be able to do what you want.

  • Copying files from one external drive to another external drive

    I have a powerbook G4 (Mac OS X 10.4.11) with an external drive (WD Element 500GB) for store music and pictures. I am trying to copy the files from this drive to another (backup) drive (a LaCie 250CB). I do not use a backup software; I simply copy the folders\file onto to LeCie drive. For smaller size items I successfully copy\backup the files. However; I have a large 104GB iTunes library that I am trying to copy\backup onto the LeCie. The copying commences and 37GB into the process the copying ceases and the Powerbook freezes. The LaCie was once partitioned, but I reformatted without partitions.
    Any ideas on what is wrong or what I can do to back up the 104GB iTune library.

    First, I must correct the statement about maximum file size. FAT32 supports files up to 4 GB, minus 1 byte.
    First, both drives do not need to be in MS DOS file format. WD Element is unintentionally in the MS DOS.
    Then you can ignore any part of my post about NTFS, which is Microsoft's standard drive format for XP, Vista and the upcoming Windows 7. You want to reformat the WD Element drive for Mac OS Extended (HFS+).
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    No, format it as HFS+ so it is in Mac format (which I assume is where it is already), and can handle any size file you throw at it. Once duplicated and verified there, you can then reformat the WD Element drive as HFS+ and duplicate the information back.
    In addition, why does my copy and paste work when I backup smaller folders (one is a iTune library of 17GB.
    To which drive? If it's going to the LaCie drive, then it works since it's currently formatted for the Mac. It would (should) be impossible to copy a 17 GB file to any FAT32 (MS DOS) drive.
    Also, would backup software help in backing up the WD Element? Someone suggested Carbon Copy Cloner.
    Carbon Copy Cloner would work just fine. As would the non paid version of SuperDuper! With either, the destination drive must first be formatted as Mac OS Extended. Neither will recognize an MS DOS formatted drive.

  • How to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ?

    Hello,
    i have an external hard drive which i store all my drum samples and sound library on and files are contantly changing, adding new sounds, deleting old ones etc ..
    So my method of back up as of now is to just copy all the edited files and click and drag to the back up disk.
    Now, my question is, how do i back up my external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ? I read somewhere that you can do this, i cant find the post however. It would be nice to automate the back up process rather than manually finding the files to copy over.
    Thanks in advance !

    The question you pose is conditional, in that you should have more than an exact
    capacity replacement for a clone, if the drive you are going from (or one going to)
    has insufficient free space and that has a bootable clone on the drive; any space
    tied up in a partition for Time Machine backup, takes away from the running space
    if you should need to run the computer from a clone on the external HDD's other
    partition.... Better to have a good capacity of additional reserve unused free space.
    Be sure any clone copy that you hope to use as a re-close, that each in turn is tested
    after a clone operation. Also consider using each running system's Disk utility and
    have First Aid 'repair disk permissions'. Preparation of a new drive or even an old
    drive that may have questionable artifacts or errors on it, should be reformatted. To
    even go as far as Secure Erase (overwrite) at least one-pass before reformatting it
    again, could help.
    However, I'm not sure if the drives and situation you are looking at would necessarily
    be a good match. It could work, but you'd need a reasonable size partition or hard
    disk drive for a system. Snow Leopard and all its associated applications, can do
    OK in a 100GB HDD. (My computers have more storage capacity than is used; so
    for mine to have 60% free space, is good.) Virtual Memory is drive space used by
    OS X, that can be a substantial amount for swap and temp files. Some applications
    make duplicates of works-in-progress, for each change in an open file; that adds up.
    {This question (& my reply) should've been in their own thread & not at the end
    of one that is nearly three months old, + marked 'solved' by the original poster.}
    So I guess I don't have a direct answer to your question; having just returned from
    a few hundred miles and automobile issues, too. I'm not really thinking on-topic...
    The clone should be on its own separate drive, and up to 3TB drive dedicated to
    Time Machine may be overkill, however that software will consume old backups first
    when it uses up all the space. Or usually that is what happens in TM backups. If
    that isn't happening, there may an issue in how Time Machine is set up.
    Good luck & happy computing!

  • Using Disk Utility to clone one FW Drive to another FW Drive

    can I use Disk Utility to clone one external firewire drive to another external firewire drive? How would I go about this? I am using a PowerBook G4, 1.67 Ghz, 17 in, 2 gig ram with Mac OS 10.3.9
    I have both firewire drives connected to the PowerBook.

    Yes, you can use Disk Utility for this purpose.
    1) Open Disk Utility.
    2) In the left hand column, click on one of your Volumes (if your disks are partitioned, this will be one of your named volumes).
    3) In the right hand box, you will now see three buttons: First Aid, Erase, Restore. Click on Restore.
    4) Drag the volume name of the partition that you want to copy to the "Source" box. Its name should appear in the box. Drag the volume name of the partition that you want to overwrite to the "Destination" box. Its name should appear.
    5) Click "Restore" in the lower right corner. You might want to also check the box "Erase destination".
    6) Wait patiently, if all goes well you should have a bootable clone. Be sure to test the clone for bootablity before relying on it. Also, do a "Get Info" in the Finder after cloning to make sure the "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" box is not checked, and then use Disk Utility to repair permissions on the volume.
    Good Luck!

  • Backing up iMac and photos stored on an external drive to another ext drive

    Hi
    I have been searching everywhere for a solution to my back-up procedure. But there are so many different options and scenarios and I am getting so confused. At the moment I have an iMac with a 1TB HD. Very little of it is used up as all my photos are stored on a 1 TB external HD and managed through Lightroom. At the moment I am backing up both drives using Time Machine to another 2TB ext drive. I don't really feel comfortable only using Time Machine to back up all my photos. And maybe that is only because I dont really understand how it works, especially when it comes to overwriting the data (which I have not had to do yet - even though I have had my iMac for over two years and I have about 400GB of photos on my 1TB external drive). What I would like to do (but am not sure how) is have two identical ext drives with my photos on that I can swap regularly and also use between my iMac and my new MacBook Pro which I am getting next week. I want to continue backing up my iMac HD with Time Machine and possibly even have a bootable clone. It would also be nice to be able to carbon the 1TB ext drive to my 2TB drive alongside my TM backups. So I will therefore have two exact copies of my drive with my photos on it. And a back up drive with TM backups and a copy of the photos (in a separate folder or something). But I am so confused about what is the best way to go about this.
    Thank you so much in advance for your help or taking the time to read this looong explanation.

    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to another one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
    Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
    http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
    This last one can do everything CCC, SD, & TM can do, and so much more.

  • Using TM to back up an external hard drive to another external hard drive

    My question/problem is as follows: I have two external hard drives--one a LaCie 500GB and a new Western Digital 750GB (which I bought because I thought that the LaCie had crashed but, as it turns out it was just the power supply that went out). I have set up Time machine to back up my internal hard drive on my Mac Mini to the Western Digital drive, but I also want to back up the LaCie drive(where I keep my iTunes library) to the Western Digital hard drive. I was recently on the phone with an Apple technical guy who said that it can be done but he told me that he couldn't help me because Apple does not "support" that set up. They only "support" backing up the internal to an external.
    Any guidance that someone may be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks.

    Simon,
    Time Machine uses a lot of internal tools within the system files, so it's never a good approach to begin to fool it with duplicates, renamings the exact same names etc such tricks.
    Better handle TM the "official" straight way:
    Plug both external drives, and tell Time Machine through its normal Preferences, that you are now moving your TM backup routine to the other external drive.
    Let it do the first backup then one next, and then only, unplug the first drive so you can send it for repairs.
    When you get it back, use TM Preferences again to tell it to backup now back on the first drive again.
    That's what I would do personally, or another simple solution:
    set Time Machine OFF temporarily while the first drive is being repaired, and use
    SuperDuper!
    to make daily clones of your Mac on the temporary second drive.

  • Back up external drive to ANOTHER external drive

    Is there a way to back up an external drive, automatically?   I'd like to keep my Aperture masters on an external (preferably NAS) drive, and then back it up to a separate external drive.   Haven't found a solution for this yet!
    Reason I need to do this is I have 1T of photo's and 500GB HD on my laptop!

    Youre endangering your valuable data by assuming its ever safe on ANY single place, especially the internal HD.
    Grab a 1TB HD for $65 and offload/copy your photos to another HD.
    You dont need superduper to copy ONE external HD to another......just connect both and drag and drop what or all to the new HD.
    Superduper will do the same with just 2 clicks if you want, its free.
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

  • Backing up iTunes located on external drive to another external drive

    Greetings,
    I'm on iTuens 11.3 and in preferences have chosen an external drive to keep all my music. I would like to back-up the contents of my iTunes to another external drive.
    I have NOT chosen: iTunes - File - Library - Organize Library
    Perhaps this is my problem…?
    The external hard drive that has my iTunes library does not have a single iTunes folder. Instead, each artist has a folder within which are multiple albums, single albums or songs.
    It seems there should be a single file folder somewhere that I can copy to another external hard rive in order to make a back up.
    Any help will be much appreciated.

    There will only be a single folder if you've told iTunes to organize your library. You need to either do this, or drag all of the individual folders to the second drive, or clone the first drive to the second.
    If desired, you can move the iTunes folder to the first drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and choose it before organizing the library.
    (123377)

  • Currently my internal drive is full due to Aperture. I want to work with Aperture from a external drive verses my internal drive. In addition, I want to back-up my work to another external drive. Is this easily done? Does this make sense? Pros / Cons...

    Currently my internal drive is out of space due to my Aperture files. I want to place Aperture on a external drive to work from verses in intnal drive. In addition, I want to back-up all my work to another external for safe keeping. Once I move aperture to the external, I want to delete it off my internal drive. Does this make sense to do? Pros / Cons....

    It is common for people to move their Aperture, iPhoto, iTunes etc. files to an external drive when those files become too large to conveniently keep on the internal drive.
    The best approach is probably to keep the applications (iPhoto, Aperture etc.) where they are now, but move the files (photos, music, videos etc.) to the external drive.
    You should set up a process to regularly backup all the files from both the internal drive as well as the external drive you'll be using. Here are two approaches:
    (1) Use Time Machine. You can configure Time Machine so that it backs up both the internal drive as well as the external drive, all to a third separate backup drive. This is done via the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane.
    (2) You can use a "cloning" program, such as SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, to make complete copies of files on your internal drive and that external drive. One way to do this is to use a very large disk for the backups, and to partition it into two backup drives, making one dedicated to the internal, the other dedicated to the external.
    Two separate types of backups are recommended. I use both (1) and (2) above, and I disconnect and shut down the clone type backups when not being used. That way a power failure or surge that might destroy the original disk(s) plus the Time Machine backup(s) would still not damage the backups made under (2).
    Don't delete your original Aperture files until you have verified that they are working properly from the external drive AND you have made a backup of them.

  • 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.

  • Is there any way to restore data from an external drive to another external drive without using the macbook pro you backed up?

    Is that I sold my macbook pro an the person who bought it needs it quickly so I have an external drive but it is not portable so I bought a portable external drive but it may take a while to arrive so I backed up my data with the external drive that I have in my house but I would like to know if I can restore my data to the new external drive without the macbook pro and just with the external drive of my house to the portable external drive.
    Thank you

    No, that's not possible. A computer is required in order to effect such a transfer. Connect both drives to your computer. You can use Disk Utility to clone one drive to the other. Be sure you first partition and format the new drive:
    Drive Partition and Format
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
    Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
      1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
      2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
      3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
      4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
           it to the Destination entry field.
      5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
          the Source entry field.
      6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the new external drive. Source means the old external drive.

  • Backing up two other drives to another external drive

    Hi,
    I use Time Machine to back up my iMac. I have two other external drives that have my audio files (I'm a full time musician and use Digital Performer, etc.). I just bought a separate hard drive to back up these two drives. Can I use Time Machine to do this? If so, how? Would other third part software be better for this?
    Thanks,
    Paul

    Can I use Time Machine to do this? If so, how?
    Set up Time Machine, connect the drive, and verify those drives aren't excluded in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences. Some drive formats can't be backed up by it.
    Would other third part software be better for this?
    To create a one-shot backup of those files, just drag them to the new drive. This is probably best when those drives don't contain a bootable OS and the files won't change over time.
    (56838)

  • Can I backup my external hard drive on another external hard drive?

    Hello,
    I have a 1tb external hard drive where I keep documents and programs but I also keep my time machine back up on there.
    I also have a mini 64gb sd card where I keep my iTunes library.
    I want to buy a 2tb hard drive so I can have a backup of
    .My built in SSD
    .All the data on my 1tb drive
    .All the data on my 64gb card.
    In essence, I want a back up of my back up (So I have every document in 3 places)

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    If you are using your 1 TB external drive to make Time Machine backups, I do not recommend you to back it up too or it will be a complete mess. Instead, what you can do is to add the 2 TB external drive as another Time Machine backup (you can do it in System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Select Disk).
    However, you can make a backup of  your internal hard drive in the 2 TB external drive by following the steps above too, as well as your 64 GB card (you only have to remove it from the "Excluded Items" list).
    Another option you have is to use a different backup application to make backups on your 2 TB external drive, so you do not have to do anything with Time Machine. There are apps like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper you can use for this purpose.

  • HT1589 iMac:  How do I move my iTunes folder from one external hard drive to another external drive?

    Due to file size reasons, I found myself several years ago with the need to move my iTunes Library from my desktop's internal drive to an external drive [which I also used via partition for a backup of my internal drive]  I now have to move to a different external hard drive -- again for more space.  I've copied the iTunes Library to the new drive, but can't seem to get iTunes to recognize and run it.
    What specifically do I need to do to get this done?

    You could plug the WD drive straight into the TC but it will be much faster to do it with the WD drive plugged into the computer.. and just mount the TC hard disk in Finder.
    To move itunes library you must follow the Apple instructions.. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
    You may need to reconnect itunes to the library before you try to move it.. !!

  • How can I back up a hard drive with another hard drive?

    I don't even know what community to post this question.
    I have a standard usb 3.0, 4TB hard drive that I store EVERYTHING on (pictures, music, movies, documents). I spent this past summer organizing all of my files from multiple old hard drives and compiling them onto this one. It's very nice and organized now however, after all of this work I don't want to lose my stuff if the hd fails or something happens. So I bought another exact hd to back it up.
    Before I do so, I was contemplating if there is any software or a better way than me doing this manually. I can easily copy the contents over and it will be backed up, but what happens if I make a change to my main hard drive i.e. add something or delete something. I would have to keep record of every change I make and do that exact same thing on the backup hard drive.
    I'm guessing there's probably a simpler option that I'm just not aware of so that's why I'm coming here. Is there any way to select a hard drive and designate it as a backup for another hard drive so it will do all of that process automatically? I know my iMac has time machine, but I don't really know how that works and that seems to want to backup my desktop computer, which I'm not really interested in doing since I don't really store much on it other than my main programs. I also don't know where it backs things up to. Does it just double up on your current hard drive or have cloud storage or what?
    Thanks for any advice.

    Time Machine will back up the internal drive by default and can be set to back up external ones formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It can put the data onto a drive formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or a network storage location, but not Apple's iCloud servers.
    (114109)

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