Can I back up 1 computer to 2 different disks with Time Machine/capsule

I have a work laptop that I back up using time machine to an external HD at my desk. I have a 1GB Time capsule at home that I use to back up my iMac. Is it possible to use the Time capsule to back up my laptop at home whilst still maintaining my Time Machine back up at work? Any suggestions??

Smokerz,
While it's true that you can't take an external drive (a single destination) and move it back and forth between your Mac and the TCs USB port and still expect TM to recognize the sparsebundle, I think the original question is slightly different. They are asking if TM will properly backup to 2 different destination drives at different times. I think it should be possible.

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HT203177 I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process ove

I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process over again.

Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then repair the backup/TM drive.

I am changing to a larger hard drive on my Mac. Can I copy the Aperture library from my backup disk running Time Machine without loosing anything?

I am installing a larger harddrive on my Mac. Can I copy the Aperture library from my backup disk running Time Machine without loosing anything? I am getting help migrating everything else on to the new harddrive, but since copying the 350Gb Aperture library takes a lot of time, I am planning to do that part myself.

I found the following information on Time Machine help about restoring Aperture library from TM
Restoring Your Aperture System
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
Restoring Your Aperture System
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
If you buy a new computer or use another system at a different location and want access to the Aperture library, you can install Aperture and then transfer the library from your vault (on your backup disk) to the other computer. If you experience equipment failure or other unexpected events, such as fire or weather-related damage to your equipment, you can easily restore the entire library to your new computer from a backup disk.
HideTo restore the entire library from an external backup disk
Connect the hard disk drive that contains the most up-to-date vault to your computer and open Aperture.
Choose File > Vault > Restore Library.The Restore Library dialog appears.
Choose the vault you want to use to restore your library from the Source Vault pop-up menu.If the vault doesn’t appear in the Source Vault pop-up menu, choose Select Source Vault from the Source Vault pop-up menu, navigate to the vaults location in the Select Source Vault dialog, then click Select.
Click Restore, then click Restore again.

Can I use the ipod classic as an external hardrive with time machine as well as an ipod for my mac book pro OS X?

Can I use the ipod classic as an external hardrive with time machine as well as an ipod for my mac book pro OS X?

No. Time Machine has been specifically written not to back up to an iPod.
(58364)

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 Up 2nd Data HD To Another HD with Time Machine

Hi, changed my start up disc to a SSD, and moved all data to another HD. I want to back that data drive up to another drive. I don't see how I can do it with Time Machine.
Can Time Machine back up a data only HDD to another HDD, neither have an O/S on it, or should I use Carbon Copy Cloner?
And is Time Machine only for backing up volumes with an O/S on it?
Thanks to anyone that can help!
Chris

All volumes on internal drives will be backed up, provided they're in Mac OS format. Volumes on an external drive will be backed up if you remove them from the excluded list in the Time Machine preference pane.

Can you really not use a windows-formatted hard drive with Time Machine?

I still have people in my household that think Windows is the way to go, and so they have used all the hard drives to back up their stuff.
There is still a reasonable amount of room on one of the hard drives for me to do a Time Machine backup, however it is obviously formatted to Windows.
Is there ANY way the hard drive can be used with both systems?
It's a bit of a bummer if I have to shell out for a new one just for my MacBook!
Thanks

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.)

Cannot back up with Time Machine/Capsule after new drive installed in MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.8.5.
I just had a larger hard drive installed by Tekserve. This is to be my first back up since installing the new drive. I have 2 back ups: one to my Time Capsule via WiFi, the other to an external Le Cie via USB.
Time Machine just gives me preparing to backup but goes no further, just stuck in that mode. I suspect that it can't find my old drive, which it backed up till now. But I cannot find a way to correct this possible snafu. I do not see an option in Preferences.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

Just so we are clear.. were your files all recovered from backup after the install of the disk?? Did you supply one of the backups to the company who did the installation so they could do the recovery?
You do want to be careful not to damage the old backup.. it might really be better to start over a clean new backup.
TM should be reset. It sounds like they did recover your settings.. Please check Pondini here.
A4 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Also use A1 to check what the log is saying about TM.. the old backup will need to be fully indexed and checked if you intend to keep using it.. and that will take several hours to the TC if you use wireless.. The problem people expect fast starts but that is not possible unless you are doing a new backup.
You can also check some of the other help files there eg D1 long preparing for why that happens.

Can I upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6.3 and recover the entire hard disk with time machine?

Dear apple users,
I am about to upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6.3, so I'm making a TM backup with an external drive. I want to format the HDD on my mac to get a fresh start with the new OS. However, I am a little worried that I might not be able to transfer all the files from my 10.5.8 system to my 10.6.3 (the same computer) I don't have that many programs that I am worried about, but I don't want to loose all the photos.
Will there be a problem if I try to recover the computer from my TM? Or is this just a problem that I have created in my own head?
best regards
Anton

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
I highly recommend you to upgrade first. An upgrade shouldn't give you problems, so you will save a lot of time if the upgrade goes well (it should).
If not, then make a clean install. You can restore the Time Machine backup without any problem after installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard, because Time Machine doesn't restore system files. However, you have to restore the Time Machine after installing Mac OS X, when your computer asks you to restore the backup

Can on use more than one hard drive to backup with time machine ?

Can one use more than one hard drivewith time machine ?

Yes, if you have the Mountain Lion operating system installed on the Macs that you want to back up.
I don't know what the maximum number of hard drives might be, but I have tested with 4 and it works fine. Time Machine automatically rotates the backups when you do this, so drive #1 will be backed up first, then #2, #3, etc. and then back to #1, etc.

Can you restore only the files that have recently changed with Time Machine?

Greetings,
Before i ask my question, i'll give a bit of background as to my issue.
I was editing my $PATH within the ~/.bash_profile file and accidently overwrote my $PATH. So now simple terminal commands such as open or 'ls' no longer work. In order to edit the file, I need to change the defaults to allow me to see hidden files, but I can't do that because the defaults command stopped working after I screwed up the $PATH. Also, I used the echo commadn to verify that the previous $PATH no longer exists. The environment variable now just points to an empty folder I accidently set it to in TextEdit.
So, I have Time Machine running, and it backs up to a Time Capsule. I have the hourly backups that I can restore to, but when I start the restore, it crawled up towards 200,000 files before I finally decided that wasn't right and decided to post a question (it's still "preparing to copy"). I had to select the OS X Volume to restore from my one hour old backup, since I can't restore the folder the bash_profile exists within (it is hidden) or so I assumed.\
Now my question, it seems that Time Machine is doing a full restore of every file in the backup and not just the files it incrementally changed between its hourly backups. Why does it do this? My restore process should have just been a couple of minutes, restoring a couple hundred or so files at most. Restoring several hundred thousand files seems stupid when the I select a backup that is one hour old. Is there anyway to set it up so I can restore incrementally?
Thanks,
Johnathon.
Message was edited by: Scionwest
A quick note, I performed the restore from within the Time Machine while booted into OS X; the restore did not take place in the special bootup tool available. Why it does not provide an option to simply restore the files changed over the last hour is mind boggling to me

You are making this way too complicated. In Terminal, choose Shell > New Command…. In the text box that opens, enter bash --noprofile . A Terminal window will open that does not use your .bash_profile, so the bad $PATH will not be an issue. Now you can remove, move, or edit .bash_profile.

Can I backup another external HD with Time Machine/Capsule?

I have two external 250GB hard drives hooked up to my mac via USB. One for Time Machine and one for files. Does anyone know if it’s possible to backup my external HD for files to the external HD for Time Machine?

using the usb connected to the TC the readme says its doable. Just try it , what can it hurt unless you have valuable files on it.

Can I back up the windows side of my Mac with Time Capsule too?

I use VMware to access the Windows side and have a couple of programs on it after I upgraded to Lion which does not support them. But now how to back up?

vois0011 wrote:
I have no idea what to do, I've tried multiple things and I still cant acess my wifi network when im on the windows side of my computer
You provided no information about your computer, your operating system, network, errors, or Windows version. But I'll take some guesses.
What did you try? What happens when you try? Any error messages? Did you download and install the Windows Support Software, or install it from your Snow Leopard Install Disk if you are using Snow Leopard? Did you look in the Windows Help menu to see how to set up wifi in Windows?

Can I back-up my computer with TM to multiple hard drives?

I have one internal hard drive I want to back-up using Time Machine. I also have two external hard drives. Can I use Time Machine to back-up my computer to both externals, or is Time Machine only capable of using one external HD for the back-ups?

TM can only have one backup drive at a time. you can switch TM drives in system preferences->TM and alternate backups between two drives. or you can use a different backup solution for your secondary backup. see this post for options
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315

When I back up on my exertnal HD drive with time machine can I erase what on my computer HD for more space?

When I back up files on my exertnal HD drive with time machine can I erase what's on my Mac HD for space without losing what's on external HD?

If the data is valuable to you, redundant backups are essential. Time Machine is an excellent vehicle when you have to restore data that no longer exists on your internal HDD.
Mende1's suggestion of using Carbon Copy Cloner is excellent because it gives yous a HDD that is 'ready to go' should your internal HDD fail (as all HDDs eventually will).
For example, I have 5 copies of my iTunes folder, one each on three MBPs, on a HDD devoted strictly to iTunes and Time Machine (this does not include the iPod). One may view this as excessive but since I have over 100 GB in this application, I am very comfortable with this.
I advocate that the best backup strategy is Time machine combined with a boot HDD and a third HDD for the most important user data. If there is non essential data, the you may certainly compromise and use just Time Machine.
Ciao.

Can I back up 1 computer to 2 different disks with Time Machine/capsule

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