Can I use any external hard drive with Time Machine?

I have a 1TB external hard drive and also a 16GB flash drive. Is it possible to use either of these with Time Machine?

IMO Time Machine should be on its own Dedicated External Drive... one that is twice the size of the drive that it is backing up... the 16 GB Flash Drive is not appropiate for the task.
See Here
TM 101
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
You may also find this Link of Interest...
Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives

Similar Messages

  • Can I backup an external hard drive with time machine

    I have my IPhoto library on an external hard drive and want to include this in my time machine backups.

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    Of course, but only if your external drive is formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". You can check this by opening Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities) and choosing the partition of your external drive you want to choose. Then, look at "Format" at the bottom of the window.
    If you can make backups of the external drive, open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove your external drive from Excluded Items. The next backup will include the external drive

  • Can i use an external hard drive with time capsule via an airport extreme?

    i recently bought 750GB laCie hard drive... is it possible to use Time machine with the external HD plugged into my airport extreme?

    shanec805, wttdaWelcome to the discussion area!
    Remember that Time Capsule is a hardware device.
    Time Machine is a software feature of OS X 10.5.5.

  • Can I use an Internal Hard Drive with Time Machine?

    My Mac Pro has 4 internal bays for hard drives. Can I set-up one of those bays for a Time Machine hard drive?

    Yes, lots of Mac Pro users do that.
    It's still a good idea to make secondary backups, especially to a portable external HD, that you can take off-site, so you're protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.
    [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
    And/or, see Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

  • Can I use an external hard drive with my ipad 2

    can I use an external hard drive with my ipad 2

    There are WiFi enabled portable hard drives available that can stream media, such as music or video, to your iPad, but no external hard drive in the sense of how you would use one with a computer.

  • Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

    Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

    I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

  • Hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

    When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

  • Is there a way to backup my external hard drive with Time Machine?

    Most of the memory used on my MBP is mainly used for applications and miscellaneous things for Logic and Final Cut. I have two external HD's. To save space on the internal HD, all of my music, pictures, and videos are one my external hard drive, while Time Machine set as the other. Is there a way I can back up my external HD using Time Machine? What would even be better is if I could only select specific files (My Music, Videos, Pictures) and not everything on my one external HD to be backed up in Time Machine.

    TM can back up external HDs. If you have both of your external drives attached, go to the options in TM preferences. Be sure the data drive is not listed (this lists drives/folders to exclude from a backup). Then initiate a TM backup or wait for the hourly backup. That should back up the data drive.
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  • Why does my Mac ask for my password when I try to make a change on my external hard drive with Time Machine?

    I recently formatted the hard drive to do a fresh install of Mavericks on my Macbook Pro Retina. I then formatted my Western Digital 2 TB External Hard Drive for Time Machine. I then began storing others files and folders on the external hard drive along side the TIme Machine Backup folder. Everytime I added a folder or changed a foler name it asked for my password.
    This has never happened to me before using any other OSX.
    I apologize if this has been resolved before, I'm new to the communities and have yet to find a solution.

    It is not a good idea to be storing other Stuff on your Time Machine drive. You may need an additional separate hard drive for those things.
    Once you tell Time Machine to use a Drive, Time Machine owns the Drive. You (as a User) do not have permission to put things there. If you insist, it will do it, but wants your Admin password to do it.

  • My disk utility option to turn off encryption does not highlight so I can't turn off the encryption of my external hard drive with time machine back up

    I have an iMac and Retina MBP. I use Time Capsule for backup of iMac and I wanted to use an external hard drive attached to time capsule as time machine backup. The problem is that I encrypted previously that external hard drive and now Time Capsule does not recognize it.
    When I try to turn off encryption with Disk Utility, that option is not highlighted so I cannot use it.
    I tried with terminal but it answers The given UUID is a not a CoreStorage Logical Volume UUID

    Can you plug in the hard drive directly to your MBP and then decrypt the hard drive?  You should be able to do this by opening up Finder and then either right clicking the hard drive (holding down two fingers and clicking) or holding down ctrl and then clicking on the hard drive.

  • Backup External Hard Drive with Time Machine

    I have several external hard drives and am wondering if I can use Time Machine to backup External Hard Drive #1 on Hard Drive #2? Or is it only possible to backup your Main Machine on an External Hard Drive?
    Thanks

    These issues with non-apple format drives that you mention, would they concern the dedicated Time Machine external hard drive, the external hard drive one is looking to backup, or both?
    What are the issues raised? My current 500GB external hard drive is FAT-32 and I want to use an additional 500GB external hard drive [fresh out the box so I can determine whatever format it is fairly easily] as the dedicated Time Machine backup. Would you suggest reformatting my 500GB FAT-32 drive before initiating the new drive as the dedicated Time Machine backup? It's possible to do so, but would take quite some time. Also, this may move into a different subject, but I enjoy being able to share files with a PC with Windows XP using my external hard drive; would any of the formats you mentioned as being Time Machine-safe allow me to continue to do so?

  • Can I use any external hard drive to back up my Mac?

    Hello,
    I'm new to mac's but have seen Time Capsule. I'm a little confused...
    Can I go to any shop and buy an external hard drive of say 500GB and then plug it in via USB and back my mac up with the Time Machine?
    It doesn't have to be a 1TB Apple own product Time Capsule? Or, does it...?
    Thank you,
    David

    wild-weasel wrote:
    And time-maschine really doesn't care, what else is on that drive, (It is not a jealous maschine) aslong as you have enough space left.
    That's true, as far as it goes, but it's much, much better to partition the external HD, so Time Machine has it's own, exlusive space.  See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
    And just for clarity, Time Machine is the software built in to OSX that performs backups;  a Time Capsule is a bit of Apple hardware that combines a wireless router and hard drive.   Sometimes folks can get confused if you use the wrong term.

  • Can I use any SATA hard drive with an iMac?

    Hi, I'm a PC user from birth, and want to purchase an iMac, but the 500gb-1tb isn't enough storage for what I currently have on my PC (I have 4x 250gb hard drives, plus I'd need more room for the Mac OS). My question is, can I use any HD in the iMac, or does it have to be a "mac" hard drive? Also, can I hook up any external hd's? If this is the case, I'll buy 5-10 external enclosures for my hd's and build a custom box for them all. (Or put it in a slower PC I have, and run as a server, as I have to sell my good PC to afford a iMac)

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    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=305&language=en
    Google-around for photos of a disassembled Mid-2007 iMac. I ran across
    some pics the other day, but unfortunately, didn't bookmark them. The link
    below shows the insides of a slightly older model.
    http://home.comcast.net/~woojo/DFFA53A0-F23D-4541-9015-481FD3B6532E/iMac_Disasse mbly.html

  • How can i use an external hard drive with my ipad

    I just got a new ipad 2 I am trying to see it is possible to connect a external hard drive to take  my picture and documents with me.

    Basically you can't, though there are a few (fairly expensive) drives coming onto the market which are said to be compatible. There is no USB port on the iPad, and the optional camera connection kit is only for the transfer of photos/videos, so wouldn't recognise other file types - if you were able to connect a drive via it then the drive would need it's own power source, the photos would have to be in a specific format, and there is still no guarantee that it would work.
    There are apps available for the iPad which can use/access cloud services such as Dropbox.

  • How can I use my external hard drive with my new (firewire-less) MacBook?

    I read in another post that the available firewire adapters don't work for external hard drives. So how can I get my music, etc. off my external hard drive and onto my new computer?

    Like the second or third one in this picture?
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/USBtypes2.jpg
    They are USB ports - the smaller one is a mini-USB (like you might find on a digital camera) and the third is a USB-B port (such as on a printer). You can use a mini or standard USB cable (depending on the port) to connect it to your Macbook.
    Matt

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