Can the MacBook Air be backed up using Clone softward and an external hard drive?

I want to find the best way for a new college student to back up her MacBook Air files. Can she use cloning software and an external hard drive? I'm unclear if the Air supports attaching an external hard drive.

The computer should be cloned using Disk Utility, so no additional software is required. However, it's preferable to incrementally update the clone using backup software. I would recommend using one of the following. They each have different capabilities and features. Each can be used for a free trial period. My personal preference is Carbon Copy Cloner. All of them can make and maintain bootable clones.
Suggested Backup Software
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
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.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
An excellent source of external drives is OWC.

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HT5097 I recently upgraded my macbook to Mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine and an external hard drive to back up my entire laptop. When we upgraded my computer came back like new. All pics, music, videos documents etc gone. How do I ge

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

I recently upgraded my macbook to mountain lion. Before doing so I used time machine to back up my entire laptop with an external hard drive.
When I got my computer back it was clean....all pics, music, documents, bookmarks etc. are gone. How do I get these files off the external hard drive and back onto my laptop with the new upgrade?

What is the best way to back up an iPhoto Library to an external hard drive?

I have a very large photo library, and I manage all of my photos with iPhoto. I want to back some of them up to an external hard drive, but still have them accessible from iPhoto (when the hard drive is plugged in). I thought it would be as easy as dragging the photos from iPhoto to the external hard drive, but I found out the photos are actually stored in the "package contents" of the iPhoto library. There are several folders in the package contents folders, and it is very confusing.
Should I use time machine to back up my iphoto library? If not, what should I use?

That's exporting photos, not splitting a library.
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

If i back up my mac using Time Machine and an external hard-drive, can that same hard-drive be used on another computer and on a PC?

Hi!
I hav just got a macbook pro and am used to using a HP pc and am a newbie! I have backed up my macbook with my elements external hardrive and was wondering if i can transfer the music i have purchased and is now on my external hard-drive back onto my other laptop purely because i use both laptops for different things and want to use my music on both. how do i do this? and do i need a particular software to do so?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
thanks
alex xxx

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can do it, but it's not recommended to use a Time Machine volume to store other files. In this case, you can create a second volume on the external drive, so you will be able to use it to store data and transfer it to other PCs.
As you are going to use the external drive with other PCs, you can make the volume and format it in "MS-DOS (FAT)" with Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html Finally, you will be able to copy files to the external drive.
If you copy files to a Time Machine disk, you may damage the Time Machine file structure, so you shouldn't do it. It may not happen, but it's better not to try that. Also, you won't be able to read the Time Machine drive in a PC

My MacBook Air is running out of storage. Will an external hard drive work for me?

Good afternoon, Apple support forums! I recently made a BootCamp partition, and now my MacBook Air is running out of storage (about 13 GB left), and I realize that I cannot expand the storage on my Macbook Air without some DIY technical work. I looked into alternatives and came onto external hard drives (I'm looking at the LaCie Porsche Design P'9223 USB 3.0 Mobile Hard Drive - 2 TB, but this question is for external hard drives in general). I was wondering, just in case, if I could use it not for backup (as I already have an Apple AirPort Time Capsule) but as added on storage for my Mac. Also, would I have to keep the external hard drive plugged into my Mac 24/7 to have access to the files stored on it? Thanks in advance for any help!!

1. Yes, you can.
2. You only need to have it plugged in when you're accessing data on it.
(119316)

USING IPOD, ITUNES AND AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE-URGENT

Greetings. All my songs are save in my extereal portable hard drive (Under the music folder). I DO NOT like saving song in the hard drive of my ibook because it eats up too much space. When I connect the external hard drive to my mac and open itunes, the songs do not come out in itunes. The songs only come out when i connect my ipod. My seeting for my ipod is manual. What I would like to do is- whenever i transfer songs to itunes, the song in my ipod are also automatically updated. the songs in the external hard drive should also be updated. In short, the songs that i should have in the ipod should be the songs in itunes and in the external drive. how do i do this? what settings should i do? I am afraid to click on automatically update songs because it might erase my whole ipod library. Please advise. thanks.

First I would use Finder and go verify that your songs are actually on your external hard drive. If they are, then make sure you specified iTunes directory is pointing to the correct directory on that external hard drive.
If both look ok, then go ahead and switch it on over to automatic. Otherwise, if the songs still arent showing up just re-add them all to your library.

My system information shows 232gb used as a "back up"on my internal hard drive even though I use time machines and a external hard drive.

Hi
I have had my mac book pro for almost 6 months. Whilst using a 500 gb portable hard drive with time machine, I was surprised to get a message saying there wasn't enough disk space to complete a back up.
I brought another but started to look into why I had used so much space. In system information I had this view. Can anyone help me find where to clear this back up which is taking up so much of my hard drive.
Thank you
Dan

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Local Snapshots on Portable Macs

HT1553 DO I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL INSTALLATION DISCS IF MY HARD DRIVE IS REPLACED BUT I MADE A BACK UP WITH TIME MACHINE TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ?

I have an imac from late 2009 and received an email saying the seagate hard drive may fail and apple is going to replace it free of charge. I will back up using time machine to an external hard drive but do I absolutely have to have the original installation CD's or is there a way around this to restore the computer once they replace the hard drive??

Yes, you can partition your 2TB drive that way. In fact, I have an external hard drive with 3 partitions: one for a SuperDuper! clone of my Snow Leopard partition, one to clone my Lion partition, and one larger partition for Time Machine (which only backs up the Lion partition).
I would expect the authorized reseller to have a complete set of OS X disks.

MacBook Pro 15.4 inch display 8gb memory and 750 gb hard drive?

I wanted to know if the MacBook Pro 15.4 inch display 8gb memory and 750 gb hard drive would be a good computer for ease of use, fast Internet connections, good graphics, good memory, and some gaming. Maybe one or two games

that works.......
as for the fast internet connection - that all depends on the service plan you have with your ISP.

How can I restore files from a time machine back-up of my iMac to an EXTERNAL hard drive connected to MacBook Pro. Using Migrat

I would like to restore files from a time machine back-up of my iMac to an EXTERNAL hard drive connected to MacBook Pro. When I tried using Migration Assistant it only gives me my internal hard drive as an option to restore to. The internal hard drive on my macbook isnt large enough to store the files.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
OS X can only restore data to the drive where Time Machine backed up files from.
If you want to restore files from the Time Machine backup onto an external drive, your only option is to access to the Time Machine drive manually (open a Finder window and choose your Time Machine drive in the Finder sidebar), navigate through its folders and copy the files you want to the external drive

Can the MacBook Air work with any other type of internet connection beside wifi?

Can the MacBook Air work with any other kind of internet connection besides Wifi?

Who? ITS VERY important when doing a restore, in fact you DO NOT want to do a wifi restore
The pros all have that Ethernet adapter,... that should tell you something. An Ethernet restore via that "thing" makes restoring the OSX about 8X faster.
Its called a Gigabit Ethernet adapter for a reason.
"who the heck" is anyone working with their Macbook Air at home and want a MUCH FASTER download / internet connection.
*Stockbrokers who pack their Macbook Air, arrive at work and plug that "hardwired" dongle to their Air........ because even seconds in the stock market can make the difference between losing a million $$, or making a million $$
So now you know WHY,.....before you didnt.

Can the MacBook Pro 13inch mid 2008 use 1333Mhz RAM?

Can the MacBook Pro 13inch mid 2008 use 1333Mhz RAM? I just bought another 4 GB of ram, but it isn't 1066Mhz like the other stick. Everything works and passes a memory test but the MacBook does not wake from sleep. It only does this when the new RAM is inserted. I have tried it on its own and with the old memory and it only does it with this faster memory installed. It says its at the same speed as any slower RAM installed.

So 1066Mhz is the only ram that works.? As in there isn't anything I need to change or the ram just isn't working correctly? I was always under the impression that ram always clocked it self down to the slowest module installed, which this one does, it just does let the Mac come out of sleep..
There may be some 1333MHz RAM that would work in your machine, but it's not what you bought, and the only way to find it would be to keep buying more and more modules until you found one that worked. It is always safest to buy RAM with the right specs for your machine from a known-reliable, Mac-savvy vendor that offers a lifetime warranty and no "restocking fee" if you get a module that seems to be bad or go bad.
RAM that is faster than spec will often clock itself down, not to the speed of the slowest module installed, but to the speed the machine's architecture is designed to use. But it doesn't always work — not even when it appears at first to work. And there's never any benefit to installing faster-than-spec RAM, because it never speeds up the machine's operation at all.

Does the macbook air get hot from use?

I am considering purchasing a Macbook Air. I have had problems with notebook PC's in the past getting very hot.
Does the Macbook Air get hot from use?

Yes, well, virtually every computer has a fan in it; many fail their mission.
Now that you mention it, I saw no grill or mesh anywhere when I looked at the MBA at the Apple Store. Is it where the lid meets the body? I didn't see speakers, either, although I heard music.

Can the macbook air do everything my pro does?

can the macbook air do everything my pro does?

Yes but slower, depending on how old your pro is. The cpu in the air models are slower then what is in the pro models. Slower cpu mean that everything works slower.
2192421281 wrote:
can the macbook air do everything my pro does?

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

Can i use my time capsule to wirelessly backup my macbook and its external hard drive, which up until now was it's time machine and storage? How?

The external drive must be connected to the Mac using either USB or FireWire
You must remove the external hard drive from the list of items that are "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Preferences.
Here's how:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Time Machine
Click Options
Look for the name of the hard drive in the list of "excluded" items and click on it to highlight it
Click the -- (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of "excluded" items....so it will now be backed up
Strongly recommend that you do the first backup using Ethenret from your computer to the Time Capsule since the entire contents of the external drive will be copied on the first pass. Ethernet will be 3-5 faster than wireless.
Once you have the first backup done, you can use wireless for subsequent backups since they will nornally be much smaller....unless you add large files to the external drive.

Can the MacBook Air be backed up using Clone softward and an external hard drive?

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