Backing up two computers to one hard drive

I've been backing up my iMac using Retrospect Express, onto an external hard drive.
We also have an iBook, which we have not been backing up.
Two questions:
1. Can I back up both computers onto the single external drive I already own? If so, do I need to partition the drive (something I know nothing about)?
2. If I do have to partition, does that mean I lose all the data on my external hard drive?
2. Since I've got Retrospect Express, not Desktop, on my iMac, I need to buy a new backup program. I could upgrade to Retrospect Desktop (quite expensive; and Retrospect seems to be a fading project); or I could buy Chronosync, SuperDuper, or Carbon Copy Cloner for the iBook. Which of these paths would any of you recommend?
imac 15 / ibook g3 12 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
imac 15 / ibook g3 12 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

You can backup both computers to the same drive, but you would need to partition the drive first. Partitioning will erase all the data on the drive. You will have to backup both computers anew.
I don't know why you would need to buy a second backup program. Retrospect Express can be used to backup both computers. However, if you wish to replace Retrospect there are some excellent alternatives:
Basic 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. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
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.
Use Disk Utility to partition the drive. Open DU (Utilities folder.) Select your hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Select the number of partitions from the drop down menu. Use the resizing gadget to size the partitions. You will need each partition to be large enough to store the contents of the drive it will backup. Set the format type to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait for the volumes to mount on your Desktop.

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I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 installed in two computers. The hard drive of my home computer crashed and I had no time to deactivate the software. The hard drive needed to be formatted. How can I activate the software CS5 again ? Thank you for an answer.

I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 installed in two computers. The hard drive of my home computer crashed and I had no time to deactivate the software. The hard drive needed to be formatted. How can I activate the software CS5 again ? Thank you for an answer.

If it's the same computer, same CPU and same HD, no de-activation or re-activation should be necessary.
Install from scratch and apply all updates manually.
Please do a forum search. I and others have repeatedly answered the question about failed updates of CS5 a whole bunch of times recently.
Bottom line: the Adobe auto updater is utterly useless in CS5 and prior versions. You need to download the updates and apply them manually yourself.
I and others have even supplied the links for Mac and Win, which you haven't even bothered to specify.

Create two partitions on one hard drive?

Hi
I have an external hard drive I want to use for both PC and Mac.
Can somebody please help me on how to create two partitions on the hard drive, one with Mac extended format and one with NTFS format.
Many thanks

pbmarcano wrote:
Alternatively (my usual approach): Format the Windows partition to FAT then when you bring it to a windows machine, format the partition to NTFS.
No need to format to NTFS, you can convert to NTFS with no destruction of data.
Just format to FAT in Disk Utility, then when accessing the FAT drive in WIndows:
*To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt*
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx
Open Command Prompt. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
*In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs*
For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

Can I backup two Apple computers to one hard drive with time machine?

I have a 2007-vintage MacBook Pro running iOSX 10.6.8 and an iMac running 10.5.8 -- Can I use a single external hard drive along with Time Machine to backup both of these computers without any problems? The hard drive has already been backing up the iMac for a few weeks now and the SeaGate drive had to be reformatted to do that. How will I be able to separate the information saved on the hard drive to know which computer is which? (i.e., how "smart" is Time Machine's file structuring when it makes a backup?)

Do you mean you want to connect a USB drive to the TC? If so, it will recognize a disk formatted in FAT32, but not ExFAT or NTFS.
If you mean you want a Windoze-like partition on the TC's internal HD, that's a bit trickier, since it can't be partitioned. But you could create a disk image on it via Disk Utility, formatted MS-DOS (FAT) aka FAT32, or ExFAT (I'm not entirely sure if ExFAT would work in a disk image there, but it might.)

Backing 2 MAcintosh Computers to One Eternal Drive

I have an IMAC and a MacBook at home and a IMAC at our church - all with Leopard. I want to back them all up to one external hard drive. I rad one of the comments to direct one to another (relatively new to MAC's).
So is there an easy way to do this - even if I need to partition the external hard drive?

The same Time Machine drive will back up both macintosh computers. The backups will be stored by computer name in the "Backups.backupd" directory. For example, I have two computers. The first is named "Topher" and the second is named "Zephyr". If I backup both machines to the same Time Machine drive, within the "Backups.backupd" directory will be two folders: the first will be "Topher" and the second will be "Zephyr", and each will be the location of the backups for the respectively named computers.

Backing up 2 computers on one external drive

I have a Toshiba Canvio Connect 1TB external drive and I want to back up both a macbook Pro and an iMac desktop to the drive. How do I put both computers on the same Toshiba drive?

While it is obviously possible, it is not recommended: all hard drives fail at some point and if you back up both of your machines to just one drive, you may lose both backups. So, the best thing would be to back up your backups.

Backing up two computers to one external disk

Can you use time machine on two different computer to backup each computer to the same external hard drive.

I have Time Machine set up with both an iMac and my MacBook using the same drive. But unlike what Canada Steve is doing I've set the MacBook to look at the hard disk as a network volume so backups can be done at the same time and restoring can be done wirelessly.

Sharing music on two computers with one external drive

I'm a Mac. My wife is a PC. If we both link to an external drive and put all of our music on there, can we both access it from our own separate iTunes accounts via file sharing? Will she be able to put music I've downloaded on her iPod? Will I be able to do the same? So far she hasn't downloaded any of her own music onto her computer so if she were to remove her current iTunes from her computer and reload it using my account name, would we both be able to have full access to music both imported and downloaded from both computers? Sorry for the questions on top of questions, but while there are a lot of other posts and articles similar to this one, I haven't found what I'm looking for. Thanks!

Yes, sorry for piling on. 1st question: Would having her remove iTunes on her PC and reload it under my account name to be able to access my iTunes library on an external drive work?

One Hard Drive Two Computers

Can you use one Hard drive to back up 2 computers with time machine?

yes but only across a network. you can connect the hard drive to one computer and back it up directly and if the second computer is on the same wireless or ethernet network as the first you can also back it up to that hard drive but across the network. it is also possible if you have an Airport Extreme Base Station. you can connect the drive to it and back up both computers to it via network.

I can not transfer date from one hard drive to another, I keep getting an error because I have two of the same file names and one file name is in caps and I cant change the file name

can not transfer date from one hard drive to another, I keep getting an error because I have two of the same file names and one file name is in caps and I cant change the file name. My original external has an error and needs to be reformatted but I dont want to lose this informations its my entire Itunes library.

Sounds like the source drive is formatted as case sensitive and the destination drive is not. The preferred format for OS X is case insensitive unless there is a compelling reason to go case sensitive.
Why can't you change the filename? Is it because the source drive is having problems? If so is this happening with only one or two or a few files? If so the best thing would be to copy those over individually and then rename them on the destination drive.
If it is more then you can do manually and you can't change the name on the source you will have to reformat the destination as case sensitive.
Btw this group is for discussion of the Support Communities itself, you;d do better posting to Lion group. I'll see if a host will move it.

HT201250 can I back up files from one hard drive to the other hd using time machine?

I would like to back up my files automatically from one hard drive to another skipping the computer backup. If anyone knows anything on how to set it up, I would like your help
Thanks!
Ruta

If you want to copy one external disk to another external disk, and you want an exact copy, then you might consider Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Either of which will make an exact duplicate of the disk.
If you wish to have Time Machine include an external disk as part of your normal Time Machine backups, that means just including the external disk as part of your Time Machine backups.
If you mean run a One-Off backup of the external drive to another external drive using Time Machine, I would go with CCC or SuperDuper.
If you could give some more details about what you are trying to do, how often you want to do this, what kind of information is on the drive being backed up, how often the data is being changed and thus how often you want to do this disk to disk backup, whether you want to have the incremental backups offered by Time Machine, or if you just want a copy, and anything else you can think to tell us about your situation and the problem you are trying to solve.

Can two computers share one iTunes library?

I am trying to map out a new plan for how we store and play music via iTunes at home. Currently, our music is stored on a windows PC and played via iTunes and an airport express. I recently bought a new macbook and am considering an airport extreme with the hope that I can store the music on a hard drive attached to the airport extreme and play music from either computer. Can the two computers share one library? I already have home sharing turned on and can access my library from the macbook, but if possible, I would prefer having the hard drive separate of the desktop. Any reason this won't work?
Thanks!
-JDJ

Ziatron wrote:
Yes, two computers can share the same library.
I periodically copy my iTunes library from my Mac Pro to the Mac Mini.
They aren't using a single library. Each computer is using its own copy and you have two sets of library files. It can certainly be done that way but if between copy sessions you edit a bit of each library then it is a bit of a muddle trying to make sure your versions are synchronized with each other. For example, ratings are stored only in the .itl file, so if you rate a song on your second computer it will get lost the next time you copy over from your first.

HT1449 how do you move all music from two computers into one itunes account?

How do you move all music from two computers into one itunes account?

An "iTunes account" is an online account you use for buying music, like a bank account. An iTunes collection is the media you see when you open iTunes. Which do you mean?
If it is two computers, it would also help to know where these are located. Are they on the same local network? If they are, try Home Sharing (and you have control of both and you aren't just trying to get music fro your computer to your friend's computer in another state). If they are not, you'll have to use an external hard drive or flash drive.
Is this on a PC? Your computer information says Windows but you posted this in the iTunes for Mac forum.

I keep my library on an external hard drive 4TB. It's full. Can I use more than one hard drive to keep my library on?

I keep my iTunes library on an external hard drive 4TB. It's full. Can I use more than one hard drive to keep my library on? Like two 4TB next to each other.

Create a concatenated disk set
Increase storage space with a concatenated RAID set (also called “Just a Bunch of Disks” or JBOD). If you need one large disk, but you have only several smaller disks, you can create a concatenated disk set to use several small disks as one large disk.
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.
Select one of the disks that you want in the set, and then click RAID.
Click Add (+), and type a name for the RAID set.
Choose a format from the Format pop-up menu. Usually you’ll choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Choose Concatenated Disk Set from the RAID Type pop-up menu.
Drag the disks you want to add to the set to the list on the right.
Click Create.
Exerpt from:
Disk Utility 12.x: Create a RAID set - Apple - Support
Note that the biggest CON to concatenated RAID configurations is vulnerability to volume failure. If either disk fails, the whole volume fails. If you choose this option, I would highly recommend backing up your music to a cloud service. There are very cheap per GB/storage, and some of the most reputable actually offer unlimited storage:
Five Best Cloud Storage Providers - Lifehacker

Can I have both Lion and Snow Leopard on One Hard Drive?

My problem is I need to run a PowerPC game on Lion which Lion no longer supports. So i thought i could download Snow Leopard back to my Mac and partiition my hard drive in the process as that is the only way i know of to have both Lion and Snow Leopard. I went through the Boot Camp Asistant process and it seems it will only partition Windows 7 to my Mac when i need Snow Leopard. If anyone has any idea how to help me have both Lion and Snow Leopard at the same time on just one hard drive or figure out how to run the PowerPC programs on my Mac (if there is a way around it). The help will be well appreciated!

How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac
This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.
What has to be done:
Create a new partition on the hard drive.
Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard system onto the new partition.
Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive
To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:
1.    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
       After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2.   You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3.    In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4.   Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:
You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:
Option One:
Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.
Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB flash drive.
Option Two:
If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's internal drive.
After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:
          Restore the clone using Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
          Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.
If the above seems too daunting then you might consider running Snow Leopard inside an emulator such as Parallels 7. You are permitted to install a single copy of Snow Leopard inside a virtual machine. You will need to first purchase a copy of Parallels 7 and install it on your new Mac. Create a new virtual machine configured for Mac OS X. You may then install Snow Leopard in the virtual machine then download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 and update to 10.6.8. Be sure to include Rosetta in your initial Snow Leopard installation. Rosetta is not installed by default rather it's an optional install.

Backing up two computers to one hard drive

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