Can Time Machine backup External Disk

Hi,
I have MacBook Air and have to use an external disk (Western Digital) to save my iPhoto Library and my iTunes Library (both libraries are approx 400GB). I am using a 3TB Time Capsule with Time Machine. Is it possible to backup the external WD disk with Time Machine? I would hate to loose the libraries if something happens to the external disk.
Any help or suggestion will be appreciated!
Thanks

Thank you! Sometimes you miss the obvious while thinking you have to look at something more complex

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Can Time Machine Backup a Disk that has OS 10.4.11 On it?

I have two startup disks on my computer. One starts up with OS X 10.5.2, and the other starts up with OS X 10.4.11. I also have a third disk that I use as the Time Machine backup disk.
If I have started up with OS X 10.5.2, can I backup the disk that has OS X 10.4.11 with Time Machine? Does Time Machine create a backup that can restore the OS X 10.4.11 disk, operating system and all?

I think you guys are right! One key is that I now understand can't restore a Tiger system from Time Machine. Thanks. I totally missed that.
My 10.4.11 "Tiger" system is on my MacBook internal drive, and my Leopard system is on an external drive. What I am going to do is:
Use Time Machine to back up "Leopard", but not "Tiger"
I'm going to back up "Tiger" using Retrospect. Then use Restore in Disk Utilities to make a copy of the "Tiger" disk on an external firewire drive. I believe that this disk can be a startup disk, if I so choose.
Next move the "Leopard" disk to the Mac Book internal drive. I can use either "Restore" or "Time Machine" to do this. I think "Restore" is the way to go, because I won't have to insert the "Leopard" install disk.
When I am finished, I will have "Leopard" on the MacBook, an external drive, and Time Machine. My old Leopard disk will be archived by Retrospect, and will also reside on a bootable firewire disk.
Whew!
What do you guys think about this?
Thanks for the help, and I think there is a possibility of screwing up when you have two operating systems on two different drives on the same computer. I especially follow your logic on Time Machine being designed for Leopard and not Tiger. Thanks for the clear thinking.
Long term I am going to have to devise a better method of safely upgrading operating systems while at the same time keep my old stuff available. Time Machine seems to be the perfect solution for that delima.

My newish MacBook Air was just lost to a coffee spill, and I need to migrate back to my MacBook Pro using a recent back-up (Time Machine to external disk). Can I do this?

My newish MacBook Air was just lost to a coffee spill, and I need to migrate back to my MacBook Pro using a recent back-up (Time Machine to external disk) for a few weeks. This same disk was used to back-up the Pro earlier, and to migrate from the Pro to the Air. Can I do this "back-migration" from the Air to the Pro? Is it maybe better just to migrate the specific folders (Outlook email, Office docs) I am sure I need?

Do not attempt to copy files/folders from a Time Machine backup. Only use the Time Machine application to restore from the backup.
Click on a Finder window and select Help from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "restore" and select "restore items backed up with time machine" from the hints list. You will find these two articles:
Recover items using Time Machine and Spotlight
If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can use Time Machine with Spotlight to recover lost or deleted items.
Note: You can retrieve earlier versions of TextEdit documents from within TextEdit. For more information, see:
View and restore past versions of documents
Open a Finder window and type a search word or phrase in the search field in the upper-right corner.
Select a location to search in the location bar.
Refine the results by specifying search criteria. Narrow down Spotlight search results
Open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, then choose Enter Time Machine.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the Time Machine backups. Your search is performed in every window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore.
The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it’s returned to the Documents folder.
Restore items backed up with Time Machine
If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, you can easily bring back lost items or recover older versions of files.
You can use Time Machine within many apps. If the iCloud Documents & Data feature is turned on, you can recover older versions of iCloud documents as well as regular documents.
Open a window for the item you want to restore.For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. To recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail. To recover an iCloud document, open the document’s app, choose File > Open, then click iCloud to view the iCloud documents for that app.If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
From the Time Machine menu in the menu bar, choose Enter Time Machine. A message may appear while your Mac connects to the backup disk.
Use the arrows and timeline to browse the snapshots and backups.White tick marks represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk. If a tick mark appears dimmed or grayed, there’s no backup available or the backup disk is not connected.
For more information about an item, double-click it.The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk.The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder.

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it

http://pondini.org/TM/21.html

How do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved from old computer and system

how do I access my iphoto library on time machine backup external drive using Lion, originally saved off old computer and system. It's not letting me open the folder???

Once again here's how to restore an iPhoto Library from Time Machine:

Can Time Machine backup Windows 2003 servers?

Hi,
Before anybody casts any stones, I'm Pro mac. I'm currently working at a company that only has Windows 2003 servers. We need a new DR & Backup system for our Windows servers. Can time machine backup and restore to Microsoft Windows 2003 servers?
Anybody have an experience on this topic?
Thanks,
Chris.

Time Machine can not back up remote drives of any kind. also, in can only back up directly attached drives if they are formatted mac os extended. that excludes any windows drives in any shape or form.
you should consider a different backup solution. You can try CCCloner. It might be able to backup a windows server.

Can time-machine backup the boot camp drive?

can time-machine backup the boot camp drive?

can time-machine backup the boot camp drive?
No. Use third-party software such as WinClone to do that.
Time Machine can backup a Windows image file used by an emulator such as Parallels Desktop.
(50538)

Can Time machine backup an aperture datatbase ?

Hi to all of you,
I am new to Mac and new to aperture 3.
Can Time machine backup an aperture datatbase ?
I have set up time machine to back up my mac an though I was out of trouble until I heard someone saying this is not the case.
So can TM backup the database ? When is it open?
If not what else can I do ?
Dag

Ailish Eklof wrote:
Inside the Aperture Library, there are a few large databases that are marked as changed anytime you do many common things inside Aperture. Even a very small change can cause several of these large files to be backed up, and it will consume a fair bit of space.
One of the big changes under the hood in Aperture 3 is that the main database file has been split into several smaller ones, but more importantly the thumbnail file that existed for each Project and was changed each time any adjustments were applied in that Project has been split into a number of smaller files.
Using TM to backup the Library is still going to use space relatively fast, but not as fast as it did with Aperture 1 & 2.
Ian

Time Machine Backups external drive developed problem which the disk repair utility cannot fix, so suggested reformat. I can't reformat because the "Resource Busy". How can I reformat this drive?

My Western Digital external hard drive which I use as a Time Machine Backup stopped working. I tried repairing the disk using the Disk Utility program,but got the message that the utility can't repair the disk and to erase and reformat the disk. When I try that, I get the message the operation can't be completed because "Resource Busy", even though Time Machine is turned off. Any suggestions for repairing the drive/disk?
Thank you.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Can I have two Time Machine backup external drives on one Mac?

I have been using Time Machine for over a year and like it very much. The thought occurred to me that I should buy a new external drive that I can backup to and store at a remote location. I plan on making a backup each week, then taking this new drive to my office. That way, if my house ever burns down, I have a backup at my office too that will be a fairly recent backup.
When I unplugged my older external drive and tried to launch a backup using the new one, my Mac said it couldn't find my Time Machine drive. Won't it let me backup to two different drives? Or does it always need to backup to the same one?
Thanks!

polishedstaple wrote:
Won't it let me backup to two different drives?
Yes. All you have to do is tell it you've changed destinations, via +Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk.+ (Use different names for the drives, so you know which one is which.)
Try not to go too long between "swaps," though. After several days, especially if there's been a large volume of changes, Time Machine might do a new, full backup, instead of an incremental one.
However, I've learned over the years (mostly the hard way, of course ), never to trust my backups to a single app or piece of hardware: no app is perfect, and all hardware fails, sooner or later.
Like many here, I keep both full Time Machine backups, plus a "bootable clone" on a separate external HD. I use CarbonCopyCloner, many use the similar SuperDuper. That gives me the best of both types of backups, plus of course a completely separate, independent backup.
CCC is donationware; SD has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling. Either is easily found via Google.
And/or, see Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.

Lacie 1TB external HDD recently stopped doing Time Machine backups. Disk Utility recommends that the disk needs to be repaired.

I've been using my Lacie 1TB external HDD for my Time Machine backups for quite sometime. Its never given me any problems until now.
It recently stopped doing the backups, so I checked Disk Utility and it recommended that I repair the disk. How long does it take for Disk Utility to repair a 1TB external HDD?
Other things to consider:
- Cant find the disk in the Finder, I used to be able to do that before.
- When I tried to go a Time Machine backup, it said the disk was not available.
Upon using disk utiliy, I successfully verified the disk. Then I initiated the disk repair process.
The current status:
- checking file system
- Volume repair complete
- Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
The progress bar says "Verify and Repair volume "LaCie"" - the progress bar does not indicate how much has been done or how long it will take.
Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,476,416 Bytes)
Mount Point: Not Mounted
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
All other status fields blank.
Any one know how long it will take for Disk Utility to repair the external HDD? Any other ideas as to how I can get the Lacie HDD to reconnect with the Macbook and resume normal operations? i.e. Time Machine backups, accessing contents through the Finder.

purduegrad_macguy wrote:
I've been using my Lacie 1TB external HDD for my Time Machine backups for quite sometime. Its never given me any problems until now.
Mine Failed after 3 years and 4 months of using it as a Dedicated TM Backup drive...
When I used Disk Utility for repairs... it went from 7 minutes to 4 hours and after about 10 minutes it was saying 40 hours...
So I just replace it with a New EHD...

Can time machine backups and data live on the same external drive?

I have a 1TB drive, more than enough for my data and backups. Question is, I already have it partitioned as Mac OSX extended (Journaled), and when I plugged it in my new mac with my old data, it said, do you want to use this as a backup drive. I selected yes, not thinking anything. But then I wondered, can I continue saving new data on this drive (music, videos, photos, etc) AND use it as a time machine backup drive, or is it either or? Hope this question makes sense. Thanks!

To expand on Lyssa's answer a bit, it really depends on what other data you want to put there.
If it's something like "scratch" space for editing video, etc., then no problem, except perhaps some contention for the drive while TM backups are running. Be sure to exclude the partition from TM, via TM Preferences > Options.
But if it's important data that's not backed-up elsewhere, then you can let TM back-up that other partition along with your internal HD. That's better than no backup of it at all, but not much.
So, consider backing it up separately, either to another external HD or (especially if it's something like photos or videos that don't change a lot) to DVDs (that you can take off-site for extra security).
But whatever you do, don't put other data in the TM partition. That will probably bite you sooner or later!

HT201250 Can Time Machine backup files stored on external hard drive

Can Time Machine back up files that are stored on external hard drive and save them on a different external hard drive?
I have my pictures stored on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. I want to make an exact copy of the pictures folder on a separate external hard drive. Can Time Machine do that?
If yes, how?
If no, what's a good way to create a mirror of the folder on External Hard Drive #1 (the original) on External Hard Drive #2 (the backup)?
I am not opposed to manually copying every couple weeks or month, but (1) it's less convenient and (2) I got an error message the first time I tried this saying the files couldn't be copied because some of the files being copied had the same name as each other (not exactly that, I'm at work and don't have the message in front of me right now, but that was the gist of it).
Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

Can Time Machine backups for more than one Mac be sent to the same external hard drive?

It's pretty straightforward, really. We have two Macs, both running Mountain Lion. Can we use the same external hard drive for Time Machine backups of both?

It would be best to partition the HDD - one volume for each Mac (you cannot partition a Time Capsule).
Note that by doing so, you will lose both backups should the drive fail.

Can Time Machine backup to external HD on Tiger?

I have a Tiger server that I use for mail/web... I also have a couple of external HD attached to my Leopard Mac that I use for time machine backups for several computers in my house. I would like to move these external drives to my server (running Tiger server) and continue to use TM for backups.
Is there any way to get TM to backup to drives mounted on a Tiger Server?
Thanks
RPR

Does not work. I tried moving the drive with a TM backup already on it (already configured as a backup drive). I then mounted it on the machine to do the backup but it was not available to select as a time machine backup.

Can Time Machine backup External Disk

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