Backup to external drive question

Alright, so I have been trying to partition my Macbook HD for a little while now (to install Bootcamp), but it is now telling me to backup all data and format my HD.
So, after looking around for a little while, I found a backup program on the Apple download site called "SmartBackup". It says that I should be able to backup my information to any external HD. I have a 250GB external HD that is in NTFS format (so I can use it on my Windows Desktop, too).
My question is, will I have to partition the external drive to be in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format to do a proper backup? I've been a Mac user for a while, and this is my first time doing a full backup to an external HD. Also, if I partition my external drive, do you know if it will erase the data currently on the external drive?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
may I suggest a setup for the external HD with two partitions, one for OSX and one for NTFS:
Open Disk Utility (found in Applications / System Applications) - choose your external drive from the left pane - go to the Partition Tab - from Volume Scheme choose two partitions - set the size of the partitions - click on Options to verify that GUID is set - click on the first partition and choose HFS+ as file format - click on the second partition and choose MS-DOS (is FAT32) as file system
Start the process by clicking on Partition.
To get NTFS (if wanted) for the second partition you have to reformat it while in Windows since Disk Utility can not do this.
Use SuperDuper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html to make a full bootable backup of your internal OSX system to the external HD (makes it easier to do what you need).
Caution: Using the a.m. procedure will delete all files that curently are on your external harddisk !
Regards
Stefan

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Time Machine backup on external drive no longer working after upgrade to Yosemite

Can anyone explain why, after upgrade to Yosemite, Time Machine is no loger working? Backup on external drive stops few seconds after it has started. What can I do?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Try running a DVD Lens Cleaner disc through it, a little bit of dust or dirt is all it takes to throw them out and it might just be co-incidental with the upgrade.

Using Time Machine to Backup an External Drive (RAID 1)

Is it possible to backup an external drive to another external drive using Time Machine in Mountain Lion?
The following diagram describes what I want to do. I am basically trying to use Time Machine as an external RAID 1 system. However, I don't want to buy a RAID 1 box. I want to have control of TWO OR MORE time machine setups. I don't want to backup my OS every time. I simply want to backup one external drive to another external drive. The drives are 2TB each, so the advice to buy a big hard drive to back everything up on won't work. Also, I am often swapping drives and would like to use this system for all of my projects and all of my drives. Any help would be great. Thanks for your time.
NOTE: I am on Lion and wanted to know if this was possible before upgrading.

To be clear, TM can back up your external drive perfectly well, provided it's in MacOS format. What it can't do is back up the external drive alone to one destination, and everything else to a different destination.
As for what you should use instead of TM, I don't really have an opinion. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are well regarded. You need to make some decisions about backup strategy before you choose a backup method. TM makes incremental backups, so you can revert to any of several earlier versions of a file. Those third-party products can do that too, though not as efficiently as TM. Also bear in my mind that a single backup is inadequate. You need more than one backup to be safe, and to be truly safe, at least one backup must be stored off-site at all times.

ITunes Error Code -36. Unable to BackUp to External Drive.

iTunes Error Code -36. Unable to BackUp to External Drive.
As of yesterday 9th Jan,2009, I am unable to backup up all
my 79Gb iTune tracks unto my external Iomega MiniMax Hard drive.
Which is very odd, as I never had a problem doing likewise
in the past.Each time it went smoothly and as planned.
Drag and drop procedures.
Here is the error message I keep getting every time I
try to execute the transfer:-
The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data
in"FBCIndex" could not be be read or written.
(Error code- 36)
Tried all previous soloutions including repairing and fixing
Mac Hard Drive using Disc utilities.
Should I do an Archive and Install or perhaps deleting the
iTunes preference files...all possible soloutions will be gladly
recieved.I'm in your hands.
My Music is my life... you probably
can relate to my level of anxiousness in this one?
CJ

*I should have been a Genius!*
Problem solved; I can now drap and drop to update
my itunes folder without any error messages etc,.
Memo to self and others.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS when updating your OS
install the COMBO update and not what Software Update selects
for your particular Mac in Software Update.
CJ

What is the best way to backup my external drive?

Since it seems you cannot backup an external drive via Time Capsule (as far as I can tell) does anybody have a good solution for backing up an external drive? I keep all of my media (roughly 230GBs) on an external drive but I am not backing it up as of now for lack of a solution.
Thanks in advance

If the data is from your computer then you have a copy with your Time Machine. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the hard drive.

Question about Time Machine backup on external drive containing photos

I have a Le Cie external hard drive with iPhoto '08 photos on it. I bought the drive when I started running out of room on my early 2008 iMac and moved a bunch of iphoto pictures and imovie movies onto it. Can I use this same external drive to run Time Machine backups? Or would that risk losing the photos that are already on the external drive?? Can an external drive be used for both photo storage and Time Machine backups?
Ultimately, my goal is to update to iPhoto '11, but I would like to have all my photos backed up first in case it doesn't go well.
Thanks!

Yes. You can back up your internal the external drives to the TM drive.
Here is a site that has probably all the info you will need for using and troubleshooting TM. Bookmark this to read and for future reference.
This was created by Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Another external drive question

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've partitioned my WD 500 GB firewire 800 external drive into three partitions. My intention was to obtain a bootable backup in the first partition (100 GB) and have the other two as supplemental strorage for future use (200 GB and the remaining approx. 165 GB). After performing an immediate backup of the Macintosh HD into the first partition, I read that a "duplicate", not "backup" was required for boot purposes.
I'd really appreciate some suggestions here from those with more experience in these matters. My internal 500 GB HD has approximately 28 GB of used capacity currently (this will grow, of course, over time). Should I have created a partition for a bootable start up and "duplicated" the internal HD? Then, should I use a second partition for normal backups? What size should these partitions be configured to allow for maximum future storage, without pushing the limits on the backup/startup partitions? And finally, what are the steps to re-configure the external to achieve my desired intentions?
This is a lot of question, but I certainly appreciate the guidance provided me thus far in my early days of Mac enjoyment. Thanks.
iMac 24 2.33/3G Ram/500G HD/7600GT/BT K/M /WD 500GB FWHD Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hello! Sounds like you have thought it out well. All you need now is to clone your main drive so it will be bootable. You can do that using CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or you can use the Apple Disk Utility you already have. A lot of people use SuperDuper and others swear by some of the others. Below are listed Kappy's steps to do it using the disk utility. I use several bootable backups just for peace of mind. I generally clone to one and then the other so if something happens during the cloning (such as a power outage) I'll still have a drive that works. I usually make a clone about once a month and then backup any important documents every day to a flash drive, cd/dvd, or another hard drive volume. Once you make a clone you should always boot from it to make sure it's booting ok. Sometimes a clone will fail to boot. I also HIGHLY recommend obtaining and using DISKWARRIOR. Diskwarrior is the "gold standard" for disk drive directory maintenance which is the leading cause of hard drive problems. Using DW about once a month or after any force shutdown, forced re-start, or power outage will head off most disk problems. Tom
Kappy's Steps to Produce a bootable clone
Prep external FW drive:
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
8. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Verify the settings for Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only. If they are not correct then reset them.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

Time Machine Backup on External Drive Invalid sibling link

I've used time machine to backup macbook air for several months. From Feb 2011 without any problems until about 2 months ago. I started to get the message that backups could not be started.
I realized that the disk would not mount right away. And after about 10 minutes or more I would get the message that my disk could not be mounted. The error said my data could be backed up and I should do it right away.
Okay, so I try to copy my backup files using finder and get an error saying I don't have permissions to copy data.
My research indicates my hard drive is failing, which is unfortunate, since I bought it within the last year :-(
Okay, so now I am trying to get my months worth of backups off the drive and this is proving to be quite difficult...actually, impossible.
Here are my latest attempts at resolving my issue:
1. Ran Repair Disk - reusts:
          error: Could not repair disk and something about backing up my data and reformating the disk
2. Ran fsck_hfs -f command in terminal
     The system indicated it was executing the command and about 2 or 3 minutes, I think the command prompt appeared. No other message
3. Run repair disk again - My results:
     Checking catalog file.
     INvalid sibling link
     rebuilding catalog B-Tree
     The volume My Passport could not be repaired
     Volume repair complete
     Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required
     Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore your backed up files
4. Created a new partition on another external drive and did a restore in Disk Utility from the broken drive to the new partition on the other drive. Took a few hours. Unfortunately, I just created the same problem on that partition (invalid sibling link)
Any other ideas on how I can rescue my backup data from the My Passport drive? I can see it in finder but I can't copy it do my other drive!
Research on forums and other sites have mentioned cloning the drive using "dd" command. Is this the same as the disk utility restore?
Is there some way I can change the permissions of the disk/partitition/files to enable me to copy the data to the new external drive?
Here is what the system looks like: Mac HD is my mac mini; My book is the WD 1TB external drive usb connected; My Passport is the broken external drive with the time machine backups that I can't get access to.
unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -ale
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 5 root    admin   170 Dec 4 09:40 .
0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit
drwxr-xr-x 29 root    wheel 1054 Dec 3 18:17 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    admin     1 Dec 3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj staff   578 Dec 3 20:46 My Book
drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj staff   544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -Orbitlake /Volumes
total 4
     2 drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj staff -       544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
335990 lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    admin -         1 Dec 3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
     2 drwxr-xr-x 29 root    wheel -      1054 Dec 3 18:17 ..
     2 drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj staff -       578 Dec 3 20:46 My Book
10710 drwxrwxrwt@ 5 root    admin hidden 170 Dec 4 09:40 .
0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit

***Update to ask question***
I would love to setup my new mini like my MBA. Is there anything wrong with restoring my entire drive, I think it starts at /User/ level, to my mini????
You know you never know when you will need the backups. This makes me angry especially since I can see the files but can't repair the disk.
OTOH, I attempted something I just now read about, option-click on time machine icon. Funny thing, I selected other disk and my passport (original broken drive) popped up with time machine backups on it.
I, quite timidly, selected the disk, opened the time machine and traversed my broken drive with backups from feb.
hmmm. I then, selected some random pdf file to restore and behold, It was restored to my mac mini right before my eyes.
I'm confused. But I think I will go with your suggestion and just put the drive away in a closet somewhere and hope to never really need it. It is quite interesting though that I am unable to repair this disk but I can restore files from it....Odd, I tell you, odd....
Thanks

Backup to external drive already used by Windows

Total Mac newbie who wants to back up a MacBook Pro.
I'd like to use one of the external drives I already own. The trouble is, they've been used for Windows storage already and so have that file system on them. They also have files and/or system backups I'd like to preserve.
Other posts here seem to say I can't even back up files from the Mac (let alone system images) unless I format the drives for OS X and use some kind of middleware on my PCs. I'd like to avoid that -- I still have 6 PCs running Windows and just the one MBP, so far.
Can someone help me understand what's really possible and/or recommended?
Thanks, in advance.

Drives used for Time Machine require GUID partition scheme.
These must have either the GUID or Apple Partition Map Partition Map Scheme, and either theMac OS Extended (Journaled) or Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled) Format. On Lion, you can encrypt them. See question #5 for details and formatting instructions.
--from: Time Machine - FAQ: 2. What can Time Machine back up, and where can it put it’s backups?
Windows requires that GUID partition scheme not be obviously present.
You can store other files on a Time Machine drive, but Windows will not write to GUID drives.
New drives are cheap. Or combine some of your Windows stuff to free up a drive.

Restore/Copy Time Capsule Backup to External Drive

My daughter is in college, and her hard drive crashed. She's only been gone a couple of weeks, and I have her latest Time Machine backup on my Time Capsule. I'd like to copy that backup to an external drive to send to her so she can restore to her new HD. An Apple Store Genius told me that it can be done with Migration Assistant, but I can't figure out how. Any suggestions badly needed and much appreciated!

cookmj wrote:
my question, can the time capsule be included in the backup of the mac mini to the external drive ?
no. @ least not with TM. see _*Time Machine 101*_ and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018#2.
however, there are options:
Carbon Copy Cloner
SuperDuper
ChronoSync
JGG

Time Machine restarts backup of external drive

I have two external hard-drives: a 4TBer I've been using for Time Machine, and a 1TBer I've been using to keep media. I'd like to be able to backup the 1TBer, as it has a about 500GB of data I don't have stored anywhere else, but I've found that if I disconnect it and a backup occurs while it is disconnected, the next backup will attempt to re-backup all 500GB. A similar problem was reported here: Time Machine restarts backup of removable drive and solved by a full reset procedure, but that doesn't seem to be helping in my case. Does anyone have suggestions to deal with this?

The problem can be caused by backing up a volume on a drive that doesn't have a GUID or CoreStorage partition table. Time Machine doesn't work reliably with other partition types.
To confirm, launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the drive in question—not any of the volume icons nested below it. At the bottom of the window, note the Type. If it's not GUID Partition Scheme or Logical Volume Group, see below.
This procedure will destroy all data on the drive. Afterwards, restore from a backup. To be safe, you must have at least two complete, independent, up-to-date backups. One is not enough.
Select the Partition tab. From the Partition Layout menu in the window, select
          One Partition
From the Format menu, select
          Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Click the Options button and select
          GUID Partition Table
in the sheet that appears.
Click the Apply button and confirm when prompted.
The next time you back up, you may be prompted to "inherit" the backup history. Confirm. Even so, TM may copy all or almost all the files. After that, only the files that have changed should be copied.

Time Machine backup of external drive

I just noted that Time Machine is not backing up my external hard drive. This drive contains my photos. Can I set up TM to back up this drive too?

Hi guys,
I have similar a similar question but am confused by the response.
Right now I have a 1 TB HDD in my IMac (about 200GB full), along with a number of external HDs == 911 GB (out of 1 TB) & 73 GB (out of 320 GB) used.
Currently I have a 1TB ext drive that I use to backup my main computer HD to Time Machine. I really want to back up the other drives too, but am worried about disc usage, and having a big enough external drive to have everything on.
Is it possible to have time machine split backups across multiple discs?
Ideally I would buy a 3 TB drive for TM backups and just select EVERYTHING that I want to do, but i don't know if USB ones exist, and they are probably expensive.
Let me know if you have ideas. Thanks!

How to stop Time Machine from creating entirely new backup of external drive?

I've included an external drive to be backed up into Time Machine. For a few days, the drive was disconnected, however, so only Macintosh HD was getting backed up. I recently re-added the external drive. However, now it appears that since the external wasn't included in the most recent backups, it's decided to re-backup the entire drive.
Is there any way to prevent it from backing up the entire external drive and instead just backup the changes made, or is that not possible because there is a gap in the backups made for the external?

First, the amount that TM says it's going to back up is not necessarily the amount it will back up. You'll only know that when the backup finishes.
I haven't tried this myself, but it may be that after you exclude a volume, TM loses continuity with the previous snapshot. In that case, future backups should be incremental, as long as you don't exclude the volume again.

Sharing Itunes library and backup on external drive

Would appreciate if anyone can offer help on their experiences of external / NAS drives. I've been looking for the best solution to move my entire Itunes library to an external drive that I can put on the network so can have access from PC's, Mac and Iphone. Just recently moved to new MBP but still have PC's in home.
Have looked at varying solutions and think I've got it narrowed down to going for either QNAP TS212 NAS or dedicated Iomega Network hard drive but seem to come over a lot of conflicting reports of these items not working well with MAC, particularily some comments on the use of Iomega which is the more cost effective solution.
A little background was planning on 2TB drives and partioning for Itunes library, Time Machine backups and PC backups. Have the S/W on MAC to read/write NTFS.
From my research the dedicated NAS would be appear to be the best answer but a lot more expensive than a network drive.
Can anyone advise of a network drive that they have experienced working well for this type of configuration?
Also is there any issues with syncing Iphone to an external networked library?
Any Advice Appreciated
Thanks

Trevnew wrote:
when looked in preferences the old location was still there, eventually changed in preferences
Trev,
changing iTunes media folder location via preferences > advanced tells iTunes where to put new additions to your library, not where the current content is.
also, with your library now on the NAS, you must make sure the NAS is mounted on your desktop before launching iTunes.
... still showed an issue with the file locations and the exclamation marks.
you may have done something wrong initially (during re-locating your library to the NAS) because the exclamation marks usually appear when media files were moved using the finder and iTunes lost track of their location.
you might be able to use this script:
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx)."

How do I use time machine to backup to external drive on other machine on network

I have 2 x McPros, 2 x iMacs and 2 x MacBook Pro all integrated in the same home network. I have a DroboPro Network which can only be recognised as a Shared device by one MacPro only. There are 2 DroboPro 8 Bay RAID devices attached via Firewire to one MacPro.
With Mavericks how can I ensure that
a. The networked Drobo can be seen by all computers as a shared device (it is connected via Ethernet to central Gigabit switch)
b. That, failing the networked Drobo sharing, how can I ensure all computers on network will always have access for Time Machine backups using the DroboPro attached via Firewire to the one MacPro.
Many thanks, it's probably right under my nose.
Darrin

Time Machine will only back up internal and directly connected external drives. It will not back up a network attached storage device. You'll have to use some other software to back up the NAS.

Backup to external drive question

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