External backup drive - how big?

Is there a way of calculating how big a backup drive I need for my Time Machine backups?
My current one is now full and is deleting old backups.
My iMac is using only 500,000 GB out of an available 3T hard drive. (I know - it's a lot of hard drive but when I had the old drive replaced, that's what I got.)
Anyway, should I buy a 2T external or a 3?

2TB is about the biggest of the portable drives..
There are good ones from Toshiba.. and WD passport also work well for most.
Sadly there is always bad batches.. drives seem to often have a bad reputation when it just happens to be one drive..
Buy one and see how it goes.. you don't really have much choice.. but I would also ensure you backup to a different brand.. at least if they both die they tend to die on different days. Flawed drives tend to go all at the same time.. I have had NAS setups where 3 drives died within a week of each other. And replacement drives I bought for a business.. all died 12months later within a few days of each other.. So I learned my lesson.. buy different ones.. and never be without current backups.. preferably several of them.

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When I plug in my ipad it automatically tries to back up and download all the contents to the C drive - the PC is too full and I have iTunes on an external hard drive, how do I tell the system to do the backup to the hard drive please?

When I plug in my ipad it automatically tires to back up and download all the contents to the C drive - the PC is too full and I have iTunes on an external hard drive, how do I tell the system to do the backup to the hard drive please?

You can open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up.
To move the current backup folder from C: to D: type in this command and press <Enter>
Move "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"
Where <User> is your Windows user name.
To make iTunes look for the data in the new location type in this command and press <Enter>
MkLink /J "C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\Backup"
If your external drive has a different letter or you already have a folder called "Backup" then edit "D:\Backup" accordingly in both commands.
tt2

I did backup from my Imac to external hard drive, how can I unzip that backup to my mac

I did backup from my Imac to external hard drive, how can I unzip that backup to my mac again

It may be Time Machine, but Time Machine doesn't store backups in .zip folders. Open Finder and select your backup external disk in the Finder sidebar, under "Devices". If you are using Time Machine, you should see a folder called "Backups.backupdb".
If you are using Time Machine and you want to restore a full Time Machine backup, there are different methods depending on the Mac OS X version you are using. Open  > About this Mac, see Version and tell me what version you are using

How do I prevent OS X from opening apps on external backup drive?

I have an external backup drive connected to my iMac and powered on 24/7. I do a nightly clone of my boot drive to this backup. I've been having a problem lately where OS X will open an application that is on the external clone of my boot drive instead of the internal boot drive itself. One example of this is when I use Lightroom and choose "Edit in Photoshop", instead of opening Photoshop on my iMac boot drive it opens it on the external clone of the boot drive.
Is there some way I can prevent OS X from "seeing" the applications on the clone, and opening them? Thanks.

Hi,
In System Preferences > Start Up Disk is one device set as the Start Up Disk ?
It may not be clear just looking at the left to right scroll area (depending how many drives and Partitions) but selecting one can often help.
At Start Up the computer looks for a valid Boot Disk.
If it does not seem to be set it is supposed to go through some checks to find out which one to Boot from. Most occasions it will pick the last Drive/partition that it was Booted from. However the order in which the Internal Drives are connected to the system may also pay a part, particularly of the Current required Boot drive is not the original hard drive (Or at least in it's physical place, cable connection-wise).
Also Click on the desktop and open Mac Help (Help Menu in the Finder) and see what that has to say.
11:30 AM Thursday; August 26, 2010
Message was edited by: Ralph Johns (UK)

How do I delete a folder that I moved to Trash from my external backup drive when a virus was detected? Trash will not delete the folder.

I have tried unsuccessfully to remove a folder from Trash. My anti-virus program (Sophos) detected a virus which had to be manually removed. I tried (unsuccessfully) to find and remove the infected file. I moved the Folder from my external backup drive and placed it in Trash. Now I cannot get Trash to delete the folder. It asks me if I wish to delete "unlocked" or "all" items. Either selection does not delete the folder. I went to change the permissions to "read & write" and unlocked the folder, but it is still there. I tried to "move" the folder from Trash back to the external harddrive but it seems I can only "copy" it and not "move" it. I am afraid that by copying it, I will not have the folder in two locations (Trash & External HD).
Would appreciate any suggestions and guidance on this. I hope that I have explained the problem clearly!
Thank you!

Before deleting it we should know more about this folder and its contents.
If it is invected and is using other apps, or other apps are still using it, then it cannot be deleted in the normal manner.
You might contact Sophos and ask them about it.
If you are using TM or have a backup of your system before the infection occurred, then you can delete the item(s) in Trash, but there is the possiblity of system corruption and the need for a reinstall, if any of these files are necessary for the OS to work properly, even though they are infected.
Sophos may not have been able to remove the infection from inside a file which is why they suggested manual removal.
You might consider downloading and running ClamXav first and see if it can't do better than Sophos.
All that being said, you can always remove the contents of the Trash using the terminal. Usually as administrator, or in some cases as root (su). Unless you are very familiar with the terminal I do not suggest doing this without some study.

"Edit in Photoshop" opening Photoshop on external backup drive

When I use the "Edit in Photoshop CC" command in LR 5, it is opening Photoshop CC that is located on an external backup drive (a clone of my boot drive) connected to my computer via USB 3.0.
How do I force LR to open the Photoshop CC on my boot drive?
I'm running OS X Yosemite 10.10.1.

It didn't work because you told iTunes where to store media from this point on, not where the old media are located. Your "library" is more than media the way a city library is more than a pile of books in an empty lot somewhere.
Hopefully you copied the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. If you did, open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder. If you didn't then do so or you will have to rebuild the iTunes window structure from scratch.

Weird startup screen from (external) backup drive

Whenever I boot from my external backup drive it starts up with this screen:
http://mysite.verizon.net/oliverlu.lu/startup.png
I don't where it's coming from, it started doing it on its own, how do I get rid of it? tia

there have been a number of reports of such popups coming up after installing snow leopard. i got one myself one the first boot after SL install. but I haven't seen it again and the word from apple was that they are harmless and can be canceled out and then should not come up again. you may want to redo the cloning from scratch (erase the clone completely first). you might get it on the first boot from the clone but see if it goes away after that.

Reinstall All Aps from external backup drive

Hello all,
I tried to install Leopard on my G5 and came across an Error that did not let the installation finish. My issue is that all of my Applications and updates were moved to my backup disk. My external backup drive is bootable and does have all of my Applications and Documents. I would like to totally erase the original internal HD and then reinstall the Apps from the external backup drive. Can this be done?
Now when I about to try a reinstall of Leopard I will need to bring b ack my Applications from my backup disk, I hope with out the difficult of reinstalling all of the Apps and the various updates to the install.
How can I just get back all of my Applications from the backup disk.
Thanks for you thoughts.
DickB

Dick Barrett 2 wrote:
Hello all,
I tried to install Leopard on my G5 and came across an Error that did not let the installation finish. My issue is that all of my Applications and updates were moved to my backup disk. My external backup drive is bootable and does have all of my Applications and Documents. I would like to totally erase the original internal HD and then reinstall the Apps from the external backup drive. Can this be done?
Now when I about to try a reinstall of Leopard I will need to bring b ack my Applications from my backup disk, I hope with out the difficult of reinstalling all of the Apps and the various updates to the install.
How can I just get back all of my Applications from the backup disk.
Thanks for you thoughts.
DickB
If you backup is bootable, then you should be able to move everything properly by using the Leopard migration assistant.
Moving an app directly may cause file/app ownership problems which can be fixed, but it is best to use the migration assistant to move as many apps etc, as possible first.

Reformatting a WD external backup drive.

I have a 20" iMac and use a WD My Book 500GB external backup drive. This drive is now full and won't perform any more backups; I want to reformat the drive to clear everything out and start again but am having problems. I go into: Applications/Utilities/Disk Utilities and then select the external drive - only one icon is showing for this on the LH side of the screen - but instead of 4 or 5 tabs coming up that would allow me to format the drive, all I get showing is the contents of the ext drive, showing in two folders. Anybody any ideas as to how I can get round this problem?? Many thanks for any suggetions.

Hi Barry,
Many thanks for that but I actually found a way of doing it! Going into Applications/Utilities/Disk Utilities didn't bring up the info I needed but I started playing around and found that the way to do it was to hit CMD and the Spacebar which opened Spotlight and then type in: Disk Utility. This took me to a screen that DID contain the info I needed and it was then very simple to erase everything that was on the backup drive!!
Why I couldn't get to this using the former route I don't know but the latter route works!

External (Backup) Drive No Longer Recognized After Mavericks

Since installing Mavericks on my iMac (was running Snow Leopard) I can only see partial information from my WD My Book Live external backup drive. Finder lets me see the two partitions but only some of the files on that drive. However, the Disk Utility does not see the external drive at all. This is mostly impacting Time Machine which also does not seem to recognize the external drive at all. I cannot enter Time Machine to access my old backups and cannot create new ones.
I would prefer not to re-format the external drive since it has other files on it that I don't want to lose.
All helpful suggestions appreciated!

lettertosteve
PROBLEM SOLVED! It was as simple as going to the WD (Western Digital) site and downloading a few updates for the My Book Live.
You need to NOT connect any WD MyBook right now under Mavericks, you have a high likelihood of severe data corruption
WD is telling its customers to REMOVE WD SOFTWARE especially on WD MyBook
keep your WD MY BOOK unconnected right now until a resolution unless you have a backup of ALL DATA on your MyBook stored elsewhere
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/bd-p/passport_mac
Bill_S
Community Manager
External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS (10/30/13)
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications on their systems before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. WD has removed these software applications from our web site solely as a precaution as we investigate this issue.

My start up disk is full and I need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?

My start up disk is full and i need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?

Ensure that the external is correctly formatted
Drag and dropped the files
Test to be sure that the moved files work
Once the moved files work delete the originals
Allan

Bonjour to find my external backup drive?

I have a Western Digital My Book that is attached to my router. It regularly backs up items from my older Mac.
I want to do the same for my new MacBook Pro but don't know where to begin,
Do I use Bonjour to find my external backup drive?
Thanks.

Hey MMilesGray13
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. The external hard drive is it part of a networked attached storage; it would just show up on the side bar of Finder.
Mac Basics: The Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2470
It would show up in spot number 8
Regards,
-Norm G.

I want to keep my music on my macbook and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.?

I want to keep my music on my macbook pro and my movies on my external hard drive how do i get itunes to recogonise my external hard drive.? so i can drag more movies across later. i am able to plug my external into my Apple Express to stream to my apple Tv arent i..???

Post your question in the iTunes area:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_for_mac

External backup drive connected to airport router giving "... backup disk image ... /.../... is already in use" error.

I just added an external backup drive to my airport router for my desktop and my laptop to use. Initial backups worked, but now I'm getting "... backup disk image ... /.../...MacBook Pro.sparcsbundle is already in use." This message is on laptop even after stopping timemachine on the desktop. The initial backup worked for both machines. Is this a timing problem? It shows the last backup happened earlier this evening, but I'm concerned about the major amount of work I did after that time.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

You can't use that configuration for Time Machine backups, if that's what you're doing.
Mac 101: Time Machine

Ok here goes. I have so much music I don't want to store it all on my computer and would like to store on an external hard drive. So if all my music is on the external hard drive, how will iTunes see it in order to play the music. Thanks

ok here goes. I have so much music I don't want to store it all on my computer and would like to store on an external hard drive. So if all my music is on the external hard drive, how will iTunes see it in order to play the music. Thanks

This article might help you moving/relocating your library :
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Cheers AF

External backup drive - how big?

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