Best Means of Backing Up Photos/FIles (2 External HD's?)

I have Time Machine setup to my imac with a "Western Digital Elements 2TB Desktop External Hard Drive" it worked great when my new imac Internal hard drive crashed (recalled) and was replaced. But now I want a Third means of Backup that I can store out of my house just to be safe! (mainly for my 9,000 pictures and just a few word and excel files and maybe my music). I really dont want to use an online storage. I was wondering if I would be able to purchase the exact same External Hard Drive and just hook it up occasionally (maybe every 6 months) and just store it out of my house somewhere. IF SO would a problem occur in any way because I already have the 1st Ex HD hooked up? Or would I just need to disconnect my 1st Ex HD and hookup the new one and export a copy of everything over to it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, or problems that may arise if I do this or any advice on a good external hard drive as well. THANKS!!

Hello Zebber28.
I do exactly as you propose doing in terms of having a 500GB Western Digital elements portable external HD which I simply connect up every three months or so on a top up basis. I don't disconnect the primary external HD while I do this as I don't need to. I simply plug into the port in the keyboard.
Just make sure you properly eject the new HD each time you use it, otherwise it's all pretty basic.
Message was edited by: seventy one

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What is the best way to back up photos and videos to a dvd from iPhoto, not in iPhoto format but just in jpeg format to access on either windows or mac

what is the best way to back up photos and videos to a dvd from iPhoto, not in iPhoto format but just in jpeg format to access on either windows or mac

When you export the videos out of iPhoto be sure to select Kind = Original. Otherwise you'll just get an image file of the first frame of the video.
OT

What is the best way to back up iTunes on an external HD w/o getting numbers added to the title?

What is the best way to back up iTunes on an external HD w/o getting numbers & dashes or underscores added to the begenning of the title? ex: "10_Help"

orionsm42 wrote:
That is what I have been doing but when I simply highlight, then drag the files (songs) to the hard drive, numbers and a dash (or underscore) appears at the beginning of the song’s title. There may be as many as ten songs with “10_” (then the title) then there will be ten or so songs with “11_” and on and on. This includes the entire list, making it difficult to locate songs to restore to the library since the group of ‘10s’ will include songs with different “first letters” in the title. Each number-group will have a non-alphabetized group of songs. If the songs are dragged back to iTune library, the numbers and dash always follow and become part of the song’s title in iTunes making it impossible to sort by title.
1. In iTunes, slelct ALL songs in your Library - Get Info - check the box next to the track number - this will remove the track number for ALL music in your library.
or
2. Use a renamer like Renamer4Mac or ABetterFinderRename to remove the enumeration AFTER moving everything ot the external HD.
Personally I'd do the latter as the former will "pooch" album track order in yout iTunes.

Best Method of Backing Up Computer Files

Hi,
What is the best way of backing up your computer files (Almost like a clone of the MacIntosh HD with MAC OS X (Snow Leopard OS 10.6.2)) in case of a hard drive crash? I am new to Mac and I wanted to have a back up in case of a hard drive crash. So I could retrieve my files from whereever. Any and all ideas will be appreciated.
Thanks,
relaxed4102

There are three basic types of backup applications: *Bootable Clone, Archive, and Time Machine.*
This is a general explanation and comparison of the three types. Many variations exist, of course, and some combine features of others.
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_*BOOTABLE "CLONE"*_
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These make a complete, "bootable" copy of your entire system on an external disk/partition, a second internal disk/partition, or a partition of your internal disk.
Advantages
If your internal HD fails, you can boot and run from the clone immediately. Your Mac may run a bit slower, but it will run, and contain everything that was on your internal HD at the time the clone was made or last updated. (But of course, if something else critical fails, this won't work.)
You can test whether it will run, just by booting-up from it (but of course you can't be positive that everything is ok without actually running everything).
If it's on an external drive, you can easily take it off-site.
Disadvantages
Making an entire clone takes quite a while. Most of the cloning apps have an update feature, but even that takes a long time, as they must examine everything on your system to see what's changed and needs to be backed-up. Since this takes lots of time and CPU, it's usually not practical to do this more than once a day.
Normally, it only contains a copy of what was on your internal HD when the clone was made or last updated.
Some do have a feature that allows it to retain the previous copy of items that have been changed or deleted, in the fashion of an archive, but of course that has the same disadvantages as an archive.
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_*TRADITIONAL "ARCHIVE" BACKUPS*_
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These copy specific files and folders, or in some cases, your entire system. Usually, the first backup is a full copy of everything; subsequently, they're "incremental," copying only what's changed.
Most of these will copy to an external disk; some can go to a network locations, some to CDs/DVDs, or even tape.
Advantages
They're usually fairly simple and reliable. If the increments are on separate media, they can be taken off-site easily.
Disadvantages
Most have to examine everything to determine what's changed and needs to be backed-up. This takes considerable time and lots of CPU. If an entire system is being backed-up, it's usually not practical to do this more than once, or perhaps twice, a day.
Restoring an individual item means you have to find the media and/or file it's on. You may have to dig through many incremental backups to find what you're looking for.
Restoring an entire system (or large folder) usually means you have to restore the most recent Full backup, then each of the increments, in the proper order. This can get very tedious and error-prone.
You have to manage the backups yourself. If they're on an external disk, sooner or later it will get full, and you have to do something, like figure out what to delete. If they're on removable media, you have to store them somewhere appropriate and keep track of them. In some cases, if you lose one in the "string" (or it can't be read), you've lost most of the backup.
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_*TIME MACHINE*_
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Similar to an archive, TM keeps copies of everything currently on your system, plus changed/deleted items, on an external disk, Time Capsule (or USB drive connected to one), internal disk, or shared drive on another Mac on the same local network.
Advantages
Like many Archive apps, it first copies everything on your system, then does incremental backups of additions and changes. But TM's magic is, each backup appears to be a full one: a complete copy of everything on your system at the time of the backup.
It uses an internal OSX log of what's changed to quickly determine what to copy, so most users can let it do it's hourly incremental backups without much effect on system performance. This means you have a much better chance to recover an item that was changed or deleted in error, or corrupted.
Recovery of individual items is quite easy, via the TM interface. You can browse your backups just as your current data, and see "snapshots" of the entire contents at the time of each backup. You don't have to find and mount media, or dig through many files to find what you're looking for.
You can also recover your entire system (OSX, apps, settings, users, data, etc.) to the exact state it was in at the time of any backup, even it that's a previous version of OSX.
TM manages it's space for you, automatically. When your backup disk gets near full, TM will delete your oldest backup(s) to make room for new ones. But it will never delete it's copy of anything that's still on your internal HD, or was there at the time of any remaining backup. So all that's actually deleted are copies of items that were changed or deleted long ago.
TM examines each file it's backing-up; if it's incomplete or corrupted, TM may detect that and fail, with a message telling you what file it is. That way, you can fix it immediately, rather than days, weeks, or months later when you try to use it.
Disadvantages
It's not bootable. If your internal HD fails, you can't boot directly from your TM backups. You must restore them, either to your repaired/replaced internal HD or an external disk. This is a fairly simple, but of course lengthy, procedure.
TM doesn't keep it's copies of changed/deleted items forever, and you're usually not notified when it deletes them.
It is fairly complex, and somewhat new, so may be a bit less reliable than some others.
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RECOMMENDATION
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For most non-professional users, TM is simple, workable, and maintenance-free. But it does have it's disadvantages.
That's why many folks use both Time Machine and a bootable clone, to have two, independent backups, with the advantages of both. If one fails, the other remains. If there's room, these can be in separate partitions of the same external drive, but it's safer to have them on separate drives, so if either app or drive fails, you still have the other one.
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_*OFF-SITE BACKUPS*_
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As great as external drives are, they may not protect you from fire, flood, theft, or direct lightning strike on your power lines. So it's an excellent idea to get something off-site, to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc.
There are many ways to do that, depending on how much data you have, how often it changes, how valuable it is, and your level of paranoia.
One of the the best strategies is to follow the above recommendation, but with a pair of portable externals, each 4 or more times the size of your data. Each has one partition the same size as your internal HD for a "bootable clone" and another with the remainder for TM.
Use one drive for a week or so, then take it off-site and swap with the other. You do have to tell TM when you swap drives, via TM Preferences > Change Disk; and you shouldn't go more than about 10 days between swaps.
There are other options, instead of the dual drives, or in addition to them. Your off-site backups don't necessarily have to be full backups, but can be just copies of critical information.
If you have a MobileMe account, you can use Apple's Backup app to get relatively-small amounts of data (such as Address book, preferences, settings, etc.) off to iDisk daily. If not, you can use a 3rd-party service such as Mozy or Carbonite.
You can also copy data to CDs or DVDs and take them off-site. Re-copy them every year or two, as their longevity is questionable.
Backup strategies are not a "One Size Fits All" sort of thing. What's best varies by situation and preference.
Just as an example, I keep full Time Machine backups; plus a CarbonCopyCloner clone (updated daily, while I'm snoozing) locally; plus small daily Backups to iDisk; plus some other things to CDsDVDs in my safe deposit box. Probably overkill, but as many of us have learned over the years, backups are one area where +Paranoia is Prudent!+

The best practice when backing up your files

Hi,
I recently started using Carbon Copy Cloner after using only Time Machine as my back up solution. I do understand the purpose of each application TM and a cloner utility such as Super Duper or CCC but I was wondering what the best process is when using these two methods to backup you files.
For instance I use TM to back up my files as frequently as possible to keep all my recent changes updated, but I don’t see how I would keep my clone updated and make sure that when something happens I will have a workable boot disk and not something that contains corrupted files. In other words I think these cloner utilities have some sort of feature to keep your clone drive updated every time something changes but this got me wondering what if you update your clone drive and for some reason one of the updated file was corrupted, without you knowing it if course, now you have a backup that contains bad files and may affect your system (corrupted fonts files etc.) and when you realized that something is not working right in your system you may want to recover from your clone but you will basically end up with the same problem because the bad files were also backed up.
How do you ensure that your clone will always be ready and that it will not contain bad files?
What is your backup process? Be so kind and share your method.
Again, I’m ok with TM I just need to know how you guys are managing your clone drives using ether Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
Thanks a lot!

I use CCC exclusively and update my clones every couple of days or after installing updates. I have no use for TM, since I've never had to go back and get something I deleted or changed. I do, however, boot into those clones on a routine basis to ensure that they look and act like the originals. This has worked for over seven years, but YMMV.

What is the best way to back up iphoto "files"?

I use time machine but this backs up the "library". I want to back up the files.
I have about 40000 photos that I just want to put on an external drive. If I highlight too many photos or events in iphoto and drag them into a new folder, it crashes my system. If I do one event at a time its gonna take for ever...Any advice? I am running a pretty old OS...
One of the reasons I want to do this is when I upgrade the OS, its gonna erase the hard drive and I want to make sure that the files are stored in one other place besides the time machine, before I upgrate...
THANKS!
JB

File -> Export.
Select what you want to Export: Original, Jpeg or Tiff and then export to folders on the desktop. Drag those wherever you need them
Or, just drag the whole iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder to the External - that way you get everything, files included.
Regards
TD

Best way for backing up photos

My IMac is extremely slow and I would like to reformat the hard drive and start afresh. I need to know the best way to backup my photos and videoss.
Would appreciate any assistance you could offer

Get an external HD and use either Time Machine or create a bootable clone using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. To really have an effective backup plan you really should have redundant backups meaning it would be wise to get 2 separate EHD's, one for TM and the other for the clone. The reason you want 2 separate physical drives is HD's fail and if you suffer a HD failure you will lose ALL of the backup. Having 2 separate drives reduces risk, having no backup well that can be just plain disastrous!

Restoring backed up Windows files from external drive

Hi
I have just recently bought an iMac with OS Lion.This is the first Apple computer Ihave had and i've made the switch from Windows.I would like to know how I can restore my backed up Windows files (photos and music in my iTunes library) which ison an external hard drive to my Mac?
Also.Where the **** is the delete button?

MacBose wrote:
I have just recently bought an iMac with OS Lion.
Welcome!
how I can restore my backed up Windows files (photos and music in my iTunes library) which ison an external hard drive to my Mac?
This may help: OS X Lion: About Windows Migration Assistant (but it will make a new User Account on your Mac).
This might be better: Switch 101: Migrate your Windows files or system to your Mac
In general, see http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
This might be helpful: http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
And a bunch of video and text tutorials here: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
Where the **** is the delete button?
Should be at the upper-right, next to the + key, depending on your keyboard. In many cases, Cmd-X will work, too.

My Mac HD is full. what is the best way to move my photos onto an external harddrive

The Hard Drive on my iMac (OSX Mavericks 10.9.4, 21 1/2" Mid 2011) is full.
I want to transfer all my 22,000 photos onto an external HD.
However I would like to know if I can easily access them through iPhoto as I do now, by plugging in the external HD.
Is this likely to be more of a hassle than a solution?
What do others suggest I do to free up space?
Thanks

Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto or Aperture, both have its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you are an iMovie user, iMovie has its own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck!

What is the best method for backing up photos in IPhoto?

I have over 10,000 photos in IPhoto and am looking for the best method for doing a backup (or an archive?). I'm now using ICloud and it appears it's just photo streaming and does not have storage capability. External hard drive, copying to a DVD, other suggestions?

Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate
My Routine
My Library lives on my iMac. It’s Backed up to two external hard disks every day. These disks are permanently attached to the iMac. These back ups run automatically. One is done by Time Machine, one is a bootable back up done by SuperDuper
It’s also backed up to a portable hard disk when ever new photos are added. This hard disk lives in my car. For security, this disk is password protected.
I have a second off-site back up at a relative’s house across town. That’s updated every 3 or 4 months.
My Photos are backed up online. There are many options: Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug etc. However, check the terms of your account carefully. While most sites have free uploading, you will often find that these uploads are limited in terms of the file size or the bandwidth you can use per month. For access that allows you to upload full size pics with no restrictions you may need to pay.
Every couple of months I test the back ups to make sure they are working correctly. It’s very easy to mis-configure a back up application, and the only way to protect against that is to do a trial restore.

What's the best way to back up photos from iPhoto?

My AirBook is nearly full... of mostly photos, so I need to back them up -- but what's the best way? I have a 2TB external drive, but I'd like to keep my photos in the same format as they appear on iPhoto (that is, in folders, with event names, date created, etc.). The first time I attempted to export my photos (about 10,000) they all came in with ONLY numeric file names. UGH, that will make it impossible to find anything. ANY POINTERS, TIPS, OR BEST PRACTICES?

Why don't you simply make a duplicate of your iPhoto Library? Select the library file. CTRL- or RIGHT-click and select Duplicate from the context menu. Copy them to separate disk drives, then delete both from your startup drive.

How to view my back up photo files?

Hi, i just upgraded my software to 2.1 and i had to restore from scratch (could not use my back up because it was "corrupted") so now i don't have my old contacts, pictures, ect. how can i get this back without having to restore everything (something i can't do anyways, as mentioned before)
i don't want to loose my pictures or contacts!
thank you for the help

Right, but i was not able to do that, i HAD to restore from scratch, thats way i would like to know if there are any ways i can access my back up files to recover at least my camera roll pictures!
Anybody?

If I backed up my files on external portable drive using time machine - I bought a new I-Mac - can I upload my music and photos .

Can I install mympictures and music that were back up using time machine from my McBook into my new i-Mac - the back up is on a portable drive.

Hello:
There should be no problem - although I have never done what you describe. Attach the drive to your new computer. open Time Machine, and retrive what you wish.
Barry

What is the best way to back up my files (ai. , What is the best way to back up my files (ai.

I need to get my files oof my computer. They are very large and are bogging the system down. I have tried external harddrives & have had success for awhile with that but I have had 2 fry on me. Can I store them somewhere online? Does apple offer that?

TimeMachine
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4542
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4351
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html
My guess is your choices of backup drive, external case, and interface could be improved.
You should always have a set off line at all times as well as off site, volume cloning as well as TimeMachine.
And all your equipment on UPS.

Backing up certain files to external hard drive?

Is there anything I need to do besides drag & drop these over & then delete the files on my hard drive? I feel like I read somewhere that there was a special backup procedure.
I am almost out of space b/c of a ton of photos & videos, and I have a time machine but want something else so that I can access & use the files at any time in the future to make videos, photo albums, etc.
I found an old post on here (pasted below) but I don't really get the 'alias' thing- can't I just drag all the files to a new folder on the external hard drive & delete them from the old folder rather than having to worry about creating a new folder with the same name so programs can access it?
THANKS!
Reply to someone from last year:
It's safe to move any or all of the files that you have in the following folders:
/Home/Documents/
/Home/Downloads/
/Home/Movies/
/Home/Music/
/Home/Pictures/
/Home/Sites/
You can copy the entire folders to your external drive. Then delete them from your main hard drive to free up space. Next create an alias for each of the folders, place the aliases in the main /Home/ folder, and rename them to the exact same names. The aliases will enable all other software to access the real folders on the external drive while taking up far less space on the main drive.
Do not do the above with the /Home/Library/ folder because the alias trick does not work with that folder.
If you aren't able to free up enough space doing the above, then replace the main hard drive with a larger one. This is actually the preferable solution rather than using the external hard drive.

Steve, I think confused everyone by using the term 'backing up' in the title of my orig post. I'll try to use more correct terminology.
My problem arose when I attached my external drive device to my pc and 'copied' C: My Pictures' (which contains my images in a folder called All Images and my .lrcat) to external drive F:. I had two reasons in mind for doing this. I wanted to transfer my current .lrcat and All Images from my pc to my laptop via the external drive and I also wanted to have a (safe-keeping) 'back up' on the external drive.
When I opened F: and checked some files in All Images I discovered that all my .dng files were missing - no .dng icon - nothing. All my other images (jpegs, etc.) were fine. This was my first batch of .dngs in LR so it's a learning process. I thought I'd missed something that needed to be done in order to be able to 'copy' those .dngs to F:, but didn't know what to do.
Perhaps I should add that the .dng files in the C: All Images folder appear as .dng icons which, when double-clicked, open in CS3, so they are THERE.
Some of answers above, perhaps because I misled them with my terminology, seemed to indicate that I should have 'saved' the metadata. That was useful but didn't seem to quite answer why the files were completely missing from the All Images file (which is the folder into which the RAWs were 'copied' upon original Import and converting to .dngs).
Bottom line is: Why are the .dngs not being copied along with all the other images from C: to F:?
Sure hope this makes sense to you.

Best Means of Backing Up Photos/FIles (2 External HD's?)

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