Can Time Machine combine two HDs into one big one?

I know Mountain Lion added the ability to use multiple HDs simultaneously (I have done this). As it stands, it just rotates among the different HDs each time it does a backup. Is there a way to have OSX combine two HDs to make a 'virtual' bigger HD?
The reason I ask this is because my existing iMac has a 1TB internal hard drive. I have two external LaCie drives of 2 TB each that I use for Time Machine. I'm planning on getting one of the new iMacs and custom-ordering it with a 3TB internal drive. Obviously a 2TB drive won't fit, but if OSX can combine the two HDs virtually, it'll end up with a 4TB volume, right? Can it do that?

A hardware RAID is as reliable as the hardware. I believe the LaCie product you mention is a hardware RAID. I have no opinion of its reliability, and I don't know whether you can configure it as a mirrored RAID.
Maybe I should clarify. I see no reason to use a RAID for backup unless you need the space. If you need a 6 TB Time Machine volume, you have to use a RAID -- striped, not mirrored. For the safety of your data, regardless of the amount, you need redundant backups, not RAID. That is, you should have at least two independent backups, at least one of which is off site at all times.

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  • Can Time Machine do two different backups for me?

    I've got Time Machine nicely backing up my main HD to a 1TB external ESATA drive. It does it's thing. That backup on the external drive shares space with my main iTunes library which is now about 280 GB and growing. Would Time Machine also be able to make a backup of that iTunes library to another HD that I would buy for the purpose?
    TM was so easy to set up and use I don't remember the choices. That wonderful bonus from Apple brings me here to ask this question.
    Thanks all.

    You could do it, but it would take some work. First, as I think you currently have things set up, TM backs the main HD to the 1TB drive.
    To perform an independent backup of the itunes folder on the 1Tb drive, you must exclude the main HD, and the TM folder that holds the main HD backup. Then "change disk" (TM preferences) to the new HD you will buy. Do a manual backup.
    When done, undo all these settings and go back to the setting of backing up the main HD to the 1TB disk (undo the excludes I mention earlier). Now you can go back to "normal" backups of the system drive.
    When you are ready to do another backup of the itunes folder, repeat my second paragraph. Like I said - it's a bit of work. You can't have TM do both sets of backups automatically, you must do the manual stuff each time.

  • Can Time Machine perform encrypted backups for more than one computer to the same external drive?

    I have two MBPs.  The older MBP, with 1TB of storage, now contains two other MBP clones, for a total of 3 user machines on 1 MBP).  I'd like to back up both my newest MBP, and the older MBP with the 2 clones, to my new 5TB drive (via wi-fi).  I want to encrypt these backups, but am unclear whether it is possible.  Does TM first encrypt the drive itself, or is each back up separately encrypted?  I understand that if I wanted to encrypt an existing Time Matters backup on a drive, the prior data would be erased and reformatted, but here I am working with a new backup drive, on which one encrypted backup has been performed.
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    You should have prepared the drive better..
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    See http://pondini.org/TM/4.html
    Since partitioning at this point would destroy the existing backup.. the best way is to setup a disk image for each of the other Macbook backups and then mount the disk image and use that for the TM backup..
    Encrypting the drive or the backup.. that is something I avoid.. backups to me are useless if I forget or lose the key.. apple have warned lose the key.. the backup is useless..
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  • HT201250 Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?

    Can I use Time Machine on two different Macs to back up to one external drive?
    I have one 1T Western Digital backup drive that works well with Time Machine and my MacBook Pro.  I now want to back up my wife's MacBook Air using Time Machine on her Mac and want to know if I can use the same WD external drive or if I need to get a 2nd back up drive?  If I can use one external drive for the two Macs do I need to do something special on the drive or will Time Machine do it automatically?

    Yes. You will need to configure Time Machine preferences on each computer to backup to the same drive. Note that you cannot connect the backup drive to both machines at the same time.

  • Can time machine be used to back up one external drive to another external drive?

    I use the photography program Lightroom to organize and develop digital photos.  All my photos are stored on my iMac internal drive.  The internal drive is almost full so I want to move my photos to a new external drive.  At present, I have an external drive devoted to backing up my iMac using time machine.  I have no need to change this arrangement.  I would like to use a new external drive to serve as the primary location for my pictures, which I will move from the internal drive.  Then I would like to backup that drive to a third external back up drive.  Can time machine be used to automatically back up the second drive to the third drive as well as for continuing to provide ongoing backups to my internal drive as it is currently doing?
    Thank you in advance for your assistance.

    Jeffery t wrote:
    Thanks for the links, but I don't see in the pondini links, the scenario I am asking about.
    Time Machine can easily back up multiple internal and/or directly-connected external drives and partitions simultaneously (but Time Machine cannotback up data that's on a network).
    From the first link.
    Jeffery t wrote:
    ... Please note that my iMac internal drive is backing up to external drive number 1 using time machine.  I want my pictures on external drive two and those backed up to external drive three.  So are you saying that if I have 500 GB of pictures on drive number 2, I will need a third drive that is at least 1 TB?
    the confusion starts in your above statement...
    There should be Only One Time Machine Drive.

  • If my backup HD is not large enough, can Time Machine use more than one destination HD?

    Hi, I have about 0,8 Tb on my Mac + 0,9 Tb in an external HD + 2,5 Tb in another external HD.
    I have plenty of other HDs with 1-2 Tb that I could use as backup. Can I use them in Time Machine? Can Time Machine split all the data from my Mac and source HDs in more than one destination HD? I would love it if I could avoid buying large 6-10Tb HDs; they are still expensive... I'll appreciate your kind inputs!

    Technically, you could store parts of your backup on different drives, but it would require you to be constantly changing the items excluded. It is designed to be a single backup, which you can do the entire backup to more than one drive.

  • How do I combine two regents into one in Logic Pro Arrange?

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  • Have 2 externals; one for time machine. can time machine back up the other?

    I have 2 externals, one for media and large files, and the other exclusively for time machine. I went into time machine options and removed the other external from the omit list. Time machine wouldn't back up the drive then; so i guessed maybe it was too big, so i went through and omitted all but one small file, less than a GB. Is it possible to use the time machine system to back up files on another external?

    From just looking in the Time Machine preferences, I think the problem is a little different than what your thinking. It looks as if you can indeed back up one external to another using TM.
    The issue seems to be that you cannot have TM backing up more than one hard drive to one other hard drive using only one computer. A.K.A. If you have TM backing up your internal hard disk, then, as far as I can see, you can't select your other external for back up with TM. And, if you select your other external, then your internal won't be backing up.
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  • HT4759 How do I combine two accounts into one

    How can I combine two accounts into one account

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  • Combining two messages into one

    Hello,
    I have a mapping issue, I have a business process in which I have to combine two messages into one.
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    When testing the message mapping in the IR, it works fine, but when I define and test an interface mapping with that same message mapping, I receive this error message:
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    Hi Elad,
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  • Can Time Machine back on one external hard drive (work files) to another external hard drive (back up)?

    Can Time Machine on a Mac Book Pro 10.5.8 back up an external hard drive (working files) to another external hard drive (WD dual backup)?

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  • Time Machine Combines all Backups?

    Hey,
    Why did my time machine combine all my old backups? I can no longer go past my last backup. It's like it merged them all into the most recent. This is the second time it has done this. Does anyone know why or how to stop it from doing it?
    I already checked out this page http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306928
    and I have an apostrophe in my name but it hasn't ever been a problem. It's like when I reach a certain number of backups it consolidates them into one and starts over?
    Message was edited by: amsgator

    This is normal time machine behavior. After 24 hours, the backups collapse into 1 day. After 37 days or so, the first seven days collapse into 1 week. At some point you will have the last 24 hours, the last 30 days and weekly backups going back in time until your disk is full. If you think about it, it is very unlikely you will need a file from a certain hour 1 week or 30 days ago. It makes sense to collapse the backups into snapshots as time goes on. The more recent backups are more important. I hope I understood your question...
    Message was edited by: Myron Jones

  • Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?

    I just inherited a Gen 1 Time Machine (500gb).  I have three Macs on my network.  In my current set up I have an external 500gb drive split into three equal partitions, one for each Mac. 
    I know I cannot partition the TC HD, but I also know I can create one or more Disk Images.
    Question:  Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?
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    MotionMan

    I know the backups will not mix.
    One of the Macs is a MacBook that only hooks up to the network every couple weeks.  Before I partitioned my existing TM backup disk, the TM backups of the other two Macs were filling the disk.  When the MacBook then tried to make a backup, the oldest backups of the MacBook would drop off.
    So, the other two Macs had backps for months, but the MacBook ended up with much less.  That is what lead me to the 3 partitions, so each Mac had an equal space for their backups.
    Odd that there there is no good solution for this.
    MotionMan

  • Can Time Machine restore to a new internal HDD?

    hi all, i've got a 1tb external drive that's exclusively used by Time Machine. the 1tb drive is connected to my 500gb mac mini. i've been running time machine for 6 months now daily, i just wanted to know if it was backing up everything on my 500gb drive or not. how can i check that it's working properly?
    also, does anyone know how i'd go about restoring my mac mini in case i had to replace the 500gb hdd? can time machine restore everything if i needed it to? if i bought a new HDD tomorrow for example, how could i get my system running back to where it was running today with all of the current settings and files etc?  is there any way for me to check that Time Machine will actually restore OS X, all my videos, music and my work should the HDD actually die?
    is there an apple link i can read?
    thanks for any help.

    To answer your question about replacing a hard drive and recovering what was on your old one ...
    Yes, Time Machine was designed for that. You may have one of two scenarios:
    (1) Your hard drive is replaced by the Apple Store or another Apple repair shop, in which case they usually restore it with the operating system you had before and configure it so it has a new system with no users set up; the first time it starts up it runs Setup Assistant. When Setup Assistant runs, you select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup. It will then automatically restore your entire hard drive to the newly installed one. Everything will be just as it was with the old drive. Exceptions: you MAY have to enter user keys for software like MS-Office and Adobe Photoshop. and you MAY have to reinstall your printers and scanners.
    (2) If the hard drive is replaced but no operating system or anything is put on it, you need to boot from your Install-OS-DVD and install a new operating system on the new drive. Then, on the first reboot, Setup Assistant runs and you can follow the instructions from (1) above.
    A good informational site about Time Machine is here: http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
    How do you know that your Time Machine backup is a good one? You can peruse through all the backups by running Time Machine and manually inspect that the files in those key folders (photos, music etc.) are all there and have the right sizes. You can "test recover" selected folders to a scratch location just to check that it works. I suggest you obtain another external drive and use it to make a "clone" of your internal drive using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This is like a second backup, a failsafe in case, say, your Time Machine drive were to fail. This is not unheard of, since a power failure could cause both your internal drive and Time Machine drives to crash at the same time. The "clone" should be unplugged and stored separately to avoid this issue. You can update the clone, say once a week or once a month.

  • Using Time Machine with two external hard drives

    Hi. I use Time Machine to back up the hard disk on my MacBook Pro onto a Western Digital external drive. For secure storage of family photos and things we don't want to lose, I would like to do the following:
    For a week or two, back up my MacBook Pro onto a Western Digital drive. Let's call this WD Drive 1. Then walk downstairs and put WD Drive 1 in a fireproof safe. For the next week or two, back up my MacBook Pro onto a different Western Digital drive. Let's call this WD Drive 2. Then put WD Drive 2 in the safe, take out WD Drive 1, and use WD Drive 1 as the back-up medium for the next week or two. Then keep alternating between WD Drive 1 and WD Drive 2 every couple weeks. This way, I will always have up an to date back-up on the WD drive that is connected to the MacBook Pro, and I also will have a two-week old back-up on the WD drive in the safe in case of a fire or something.
    Can Time Machine be used in this manner, alternating between two different external back-up disks? Will Time Machine "know" when I change external drives and manage all back-up files appropriately?
    Thank you!

    pomme4moi wrote:
    Can Time Machine be used in this manner, alternating between two different external back-up disks? Will Time Machine "know" when I change external drives and manage all back-up files appropriately?
    Yes. Each drive will have an independent set of backups; and each will be a complete "snapshot" of the way your system looked at the time of the backup.
    When you swap drives, the first backup will be somewhat longer, and may involve a "deep traversal," while Time Machine "catches up" with all the changes since the last backup to that drive.
    And try not to go too long between swaps; it's undocumented, so we don't know the exact parameters, but after at least 10 days (apparently), Time Machine may do a new, full backup instead of an incremental one of changes only.
    And you only need to worry about Time Machine deleting old backups if you've deleted the originals from your system; TM will never delete the backups of anything that's still there.
    But . . .
    As MusicWind says, thats' probably not the best strategy. One of the reasons you want dual backups is because no hardware is perfect -- it all fails, sooner or later, right? Similarly, no app is perfect, either. The "works" of Time Machine are more complex than most backup apps; it's pretty reliable, but if you're going to have dual backups, you're probably a bit safer with a different app for your secondary backups.
    I don't know about SuperDuper, but CarbonCopyCloner does have an "archive" feature, where it will keep copies of things you've deleted. I've never used it, so don't know just how it works.
    Also see Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.
    p.s.: Don't try copying Time Machine's dated folders; you'll get a complete copy of your entire system.

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