External HD for storage can backup on TC?

Hello,
I tried to search around an answer to my question, but I didn't found any clear one yet.
At the moment I have an iMac, with his internal hd, where I stored everything, and I let time machine make backups in the TC hard disk.
I need to free the internal hd space, 'cause it started to work slowly, and I wanted to buy an external hd to connect to one of the TC usb.
I'd like to make the external hd backup with time machine in the TC drive.
Is it possible?
Thanks in advance to anyone could give me a reply on this.

layil wrote:
I need to free the internal hd space, 'cause it started to work slowly, and I wanted to buy an external hd to connect to one of the TC usb.
I'd like to make the external hd backup with time machine in the TC drive.
Is it possible?
no.
see [this|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/it/15139.html] support article.
you can connect the external HD directly to you Mac, then use time machine to back it up to the TC's drive (provided the TC's drive has sufficient space).
JGG

Similar Messages

Looking at external HD for Time machine backup and for XP OS?

Bought a 24" iMac desktop with a 500 GB HD and am going to be running up to Best Buy to snag a Western Digital external My Book 750 GB HD. Mainly this external is for Time Machine backup, photos, iTunes library, etc. but I'd like to fire up boot camp and install Windows XP OS. Question is, can I install the XP OS on the external HD so I don't have to divide and possibly mess up my internal Mac HD? Also, when I do install XP OS, how much space for a partition? XP will be mainly for just a few PC games that are PC only like Company of Heroes.

Hi Saius,
yeah, the more the better...
BootCamp requires the use of XP with SP2. Without SP2 (SP1 or earlier) it either does not install or if installed can produce some odd errors.
If you have access to a Windows XP PC you can try these instructions to slipstream the SP2 together with your 'old' XP CD to a new XP SP2 CD.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxpsp2slipstream.asp
Before spending some unneccessary dollars might be worth trying.
It's not very difficult to do this (done it myself some years back).
Also it is a good idea to use your external HD and make a bootable clone of your OSX volume using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
That way in case something goes wrong, you can easily revert back.
Personally I would not use Time Machine for that task.
Have Fun and thanks for the star.
Stefan

I worked with files in LR that were originally on my C drive, then were moved to an external HD for storage. I now want to do some more work on those files (which have the same file name as on the C drive). I plugged the drive into my computer and it show

I worked with files in LR that were originally on my C drive, then were moved to an external HD for storage. I now want to do some more work on those files (which have the same file name as on the C drive). I plugged the drive into my computer and it shows in LR under folders as the F drive and the little green light is on, but LR is showing only the first 6 files and not the remaining 200 or so. How do I expand the F folder to expose all files?

I worked with files in LR that were originally on my C drive, then were moved to an external HD for storage. I now want to do some more work on those files (which have the same file name as on the C drive). I plugged the drive into my computer and it shows in LR under folders as the F drive and the little green light is on, but LR is showing only the first 6 files and not the remaining 200 or so. How do I expand the F folder to expose all files?

Been using an Avastor HDX-800 for storage and backup, also a SUPERDISK for smaller stuff; recently the SUPERDISK does not appear on the screen, and the light blinks while you hear it spin, also the Avastor has started to have the same problem, both USB

Been using an Avastor HDX-800 for storage and backup, also a SUPERDISK for smaller stuff; recently the SUPERDISK does not appear on the screen, and the light blinks while you hear it spin, also the Avastor has started to have the same problem, both USB conncected, both worked well before, but both now spinning, blinking, and not showing up on the screen as before,
Interestingly they both appear in the System Profiler, but just not working the same as before
I have tried other USB ports, but the same responce,

yes I did reset the PRAM, but no benefit, still the same problem
my usb devices are: keyboard, mouse, printer, SD-USB-M3, and LaCie d2 DVDRW:
the mouse and printed are plugged into the keyboard: i have tried to move, these around, and have even tried just the mouse, printer and SD-USB-M3, but still the same problem
here is a cut and paste of the current "System Profiler>Hardware>USB"   (usb device tree)
USB Bus:
Host Controller Location:          Built In USB
Host Controller Driver:          AppleUSBOHCI
PCI Device ID:          0x0026
PCI Revision ID:          0x0000
PCI Vendor ID:          0x106b
Bus Number:          0x18
Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard:
Version:          1.22
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Mitsumi Electric
Product ID:          0x1002
Vendor ID:          0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
HL-1270N series:
Version:          1.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Brother
Product ID:          0x0008
Serial Number:          L9J286292
Vendor ID:          0x04f9
Basic Optical Mouse:
Version:          0.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Microsoft
Product ID:          0x0084
Vendor ID:          0x045e
Apple Pro Keyboard:
Version:          1.22
Bus Power (mA):          250
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Mitsumi Electric
Product ID:          0x0204
Vendor ID:          0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
SuperDisk USB 120MB drive:
Version:          0.0e
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Imation
Product ID:          0x0002
Vendor ID:          0x0718
Hub in Apple Pro Keyboard:
Version:          1.22
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Mitsumi Electric
Product ID:          0x1002
Vendor ID:          0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
HL-1270N series:
Version:          1.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Brother
Product ID:          0x0008
Serial Number:          L9J286292
Vendor ID:          0x04f9
Basic Optical Mouse:
Version:          0.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Microsoft
Product ID:          0x0084
Vendor ID:          0x045e
Apple Pro Keyboard:
Version:          1.22
Bus Power (mA):          250
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Mitsumi Electric
Product ID:          0x0204
Vendor ID:          0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
HL-1270N series:
Version:          1.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Brother
Product ID:          0x0008
Serial Number:          L9J286292
Vendor ID:          0x04f9
Basic Optical Mouse:
Version:          0.00
Bus Power (mA):          100
Speed:          Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Microsoft
Product ID:          0x0084
Vendor ID:          0x045e
Apple Pro Keyboard:
Version:          1.22
Bus Power (mA):          250
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Mitsumi Electric
Product ID:          0x0204
Vendor ID:          0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
SuperDisk USB 120MB drive:
Version:          0.0e
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          Imation
Product ID:          0x0002
Vendor ID:          0x0718
USB Bus:
Host Controller Location:          Built In USB
Host Controller Driver:          AppleUSBOHCI
PCI Device ID:          0x0026
PCI Revision ID:          0x0000
PCI Vendor ID:          0x106b
Bus Number:          0x19
LaCie d2 DVDRW USB:
Capacity:          451.76 MB
Removable Media:          Yes
Detachable Drive:          Yes
BSD Name:          disk2
Version:          0.00
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          LaCie
OS9 Drivers:          No
Product ID:          0x1011
Serial Number:          FFFFFFFFFFFF
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Not Supported
Vendor ID:          0x059f
LaCie d2 DVDRW USB:
Capacity:          451.76 MB
Removable Media:          Yes
Detachable Drive:          Yes
BSD Name:          disk2
Version:          0.00
Bus Power (mA):          500
Speed:          Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:          LaCie
OS9 Drivers:          No
Product ID:          0x1011
Serial Number:          FFFFFFFFFFFF
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Not Supported
Vendor ID:          0x059f

Use external drive for Time Capsule backups AND file storage?

I have an external drive formatted by my MBP. I'm using it to store my iTunes music library and iPhoto pics. Can I use the drive for Time Capsule backups as well?

Yes, but that is not recommended. Storage and backup should be kept separate to reduce the chances of a disk failure. This is especially important because you cannot even partition a Time Capsule drive. Go get a separate drive for your storage needs. Get another drive for a second backup and use a different method of backup than Time Machine

Formatting external drive for storage/backup/video files

Hi,
I just purchased a 500mb My Book Pro external drive for use with my imac duo which runs Windows XP via bootcamp. This computer is shared by three family with very different skills and needs. My dilemma. I want to format the drive so that the imac can be backed up easily three users. It is formated Fat32 and is supplied with Restrospect Express 7.5 backup software. It would be nice to backup the modestly used windows sector, but that's a secondary consideration. My problem is that one user has a lot of larger than 4 gb video files which are too large the Fat 32 format. My notion is to segment the backup drive so that I leave 300 mb in fat 32 to facilitate backup with supplied software, and segment a second 200 gb drive using mac os extended so that the user can manually move her video files for storage/backup on the backup drive. Is there a simpler solution? For example, if I formatted the entire 500gb as mac os extended, could I still run the retrospect backup software? If not, is there a reasonably priced alternative software? And finally, with either Fat32 or Mac OS extended, can I move files from the Windows platform? Would I be better off just biting the bullet and telling my daughter to make her own arrangements to compress and backup her video files or get her own hard drive, thus leaving the backup drive to the simple factory supplied software solution?
G-4 and iMac core duo Mac OS X (10.4.9) use emacs and imacs at work location

Hi,
I just purchased a 500mb My Book Pro external drive
for use with my imac duo which runs Windows XP via
bootcamp. This computer is shared by three family
with very different skills and needs. My dilemma. I
want to format the drive so that the imac can be
backed up easily three users. It is formated Fat32
and is supplied with Restrospect Express 7.5 backup
software. It would be nice to backup the modestly
used windows sector, but that's a secondary
consideration. My problem is that one user has a lot
of larger than 4 gb video files which are too large
the Fat 32 format. My notion is to segment the backup
drive so that I leave 300 mb in fat 32 to facilitate
backup with supplied software, and segment a second
200 gb drive using mac os extended so that the user
can manually move her video files for storage/backup
on the backup drive. Is there a simpler solution? For
example, if I formatted the entire 500gb as mac os
extended, could I still run the retrospect backup
software? If not, is there a reasonably priced
alternative software? And finally, with either Fat32
or Mac OS extended, can I move files from the Windows
platform? Would I be better off just biting the
bullet and telling my daughter to make her own
arrangements to compress and backup her video files
or get her own hard drive, thus leaving the backup
drive to the simple factory supplied software
solution?
G-4 and iMac
core duo Mac OS X (10.4.9) use emacs
and imacs at work location
Hello,
You're indeed in a pickle. If you use Bootcamp and want the HD accessible via the Mac and WinXP, then you don't want to format it as Mac HFS because WInXP wouldn't be able to access it. If you go FAT32 then both WInXP and Mac OS can access it, but you face the dilemma of the 4GB threshold.
If you format as NTFS, then you eliminate the 4GB threshold but then Mac OS cannot access it.
I have a similar dilemma, which is why i use Parallels more than Bootcamp. I have 2 external FW HD's (160GB/250GB), both formatted to Mac HFS. The 160GB i have partitioned as 50GB and 100GB. I have a bootable backup of Mac OS residing on the 100GB partition (yay to SuperDuper!) and some other stuff on the remaining 50GB. The 250GB is exclusive for movies (cough..cough..bittorrent) and for streaming via Orb 2.0 to my Treo. I have WinXP running in Parallels, and Vista Ultimate via Bootcamp. In Parallels, i can access my external HD's via Parallel's Shared Folders but in Vista (Bootcamp) since the HD's are in a non-Windows recognised formatting, they're not accessible (which is a bummer, as i'm loving Win media center).
What you can do is partition the HD the way you're thinking and format (one part Mac HFS and the other NTFS), but my best recommendation is that with the falling prices of HD's nowadays, why not just get a seperate HD do what you want with it. I spied a WD MyBook 500GB USB HD at CompUSA for $129.99 (no mail-in rebate nonsense) and similar good prices at Bestbuy and Newegg.com.
iMac 17" 2GHZ C2Duo 2GB RAM 160GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.9)

External Drive for Storage/Backup?

Ok so I think I'm at the point where it would be a smart idea to back up all my valuable data (as if there was never a smart time to do this?)
Now my question is this: Can an external Hard Disk be used on both my G5 and relatives MacPro at the same time? As in I can dump some files on it from the G5, then plug in into the MacPro and do the same - having seperate storage folders on the Drive for each computers backup?
I've never attempted to do an external drive backup before. I've only ever done it with burning DVDs. So if I'm missing something or this sounds like a silly question please forgive!
Thank you in advance!

I am not too sure you can simultaneously connect one drive to two different machines, in fact I am quite sure you can't and I think that is what you were asking, vs. partitioning it with two partions (easy) and using it on one or the other mac at separate times.
Note by easy I mean it uses the mac partitioning scheme and thus it cannot boot an intel.
As pointed out, there are guides to formating one drive with 2 partitions so it can have two different bootup disks, on PPC and one intel. I would not bother. Seems daunting and if you are unsure of PATA vs. SATA then forget learning that very complex operation.
These drives of adequate (or even quite massive) size don't cost enough to bother. Buy two drives, firewire only and partition one GUID for the intel and the traditional mac format for the other.
And I think you should just buy two already made external (FIREWIRE) drives from LaCie or OWC and not get into buying raw drives, cases and the like and assembling them - you don't save a whole lot if anything, and a lot of these cases are rubbish pure and simple.
Judging by increasingly unhappy posts about the "PC brand" external drives (Maxtor, WD, Iomega) trying to mosey into the mac world I would avoid them like the plague.

Use of an external drive for itunes library - backup options?

Hi,
I have a dell laptop with 60GB of memory and I just purchased an 80GB ipod classic. I cannot upgrade the storage in this laptop. Originally I was thinking I would just buy a new laptop. But given that all laptops now come with Windows Vista and reading about all the issues that users have had with Vista and Itunes I do not think that would be a good idea. Do you agree that I should just stick with my Windows XP Machine?
So I was thinking I would change my music library so it resides on an external drive. My only concern with this - is how do I keep a backup of this external drive? From reading all the forum posts if this external drive failed it can be done moving the information from an ipod back to another drive using third party software but it sounds risky.
Any thoughts on how others are handling this would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Karen

Karen, most 3rd party software is pretty easy to use. The one thing I need to point out that relying on the iPod can be pretty risky, too. What if iPod is lost or stolen? What if you have an iPod problem that requires a restore? I would suggest that as a secondary backup for the EHD, you either burn data discs or possibly consider a 2nd EHD, since you can buy them pretty cheap these days. Right now, I backup to 2 different EHD's, then burn data discs as needed of my iTunes library, just in case I would be unlucky enough to lose everything.

MBA (Gen 1) USB External Drive for Boot and Backup? Recomendations?

I just ordered a 1st generation MBA with the SSD. I want to order an external USB drive that I can use to back up and boot the MBA. I have read that the USB port on the MBA does not provide enough power to support some external drives(?).
I like the G-Technology drives, looking at the G-Drive Mini. Will the USB port on the MBA provide enough power to run that drive?
Any recommendations?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TQ571ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTgzNTAwMg
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TR043ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw&mco=MTg5NDg1NA
I've used both of those drives on a MacBook Air for storage and a Time Machine backup without fail. The LaCie rugged is a personal favorite with the triple interface (as I use on a MacBook Pro with FW 800).
My experience with the G-Drive Mini that I had was a bit "unique." Whenever I'd plug the drive in, the backlight would not come on unless the unit was connected to power. I later found out it was my drive, drawing excessive bus power and G-Technology replaced it under warranty. But I did notice, when hooking the drive up to various port testers that it was drawing significantly more power across the USB port than my LaCie.
Ironically, a co-worker has been using his G-Drive Mini with his MacBook Air since March with nothing but praise.

What to delete on internal HD if using external HD for storage

Need to free up mac mini 2010 HD space of 200 GB of music. Currently have an EHD as a backup and may add another for backup. What gets deleted on the internal HD if I have my itunes backed up to the two EHDs. I deleted somethiong on my emac years ago and had to rebuilt my itunes collection , do no t what to mess it up again. Also, if I partition one EHD that is a clone of the mac min/itunesi can the other EHD be just an itunes backup?

What gets deleted on the internal HD if I have my itunes backed up to the two EHDs
Nothing as those are backups on the external drives.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from your internal to the external (not a backup).
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library and select the /iTunes/ folder you copied to the external.
Then you can delete /Music/iTunes/ folder from your internal.

Auto mount/eject external drive for time machine backup/restore

I have an Iomega ultramax drive connected via firewire 800 for my Time machine backups.
This drive will automatically spin down after a period of non-use. I like this as it means lower power usage and lower risk of data loss (head crashes etc..).
My problem is, when the drive spins down like this, some file open operations pause until the drive spins up again. I cannot remember exactly which applications I have had the problem with, but I assumed that this was part of the OS. This delay can be up to 5 seconds or so and is really annoying.
Assuming this is not just a specific third party application thing. My suggestion to Apple is to do one or both of the following:
1) Multi thread the file open dialog (process?) so that is comes up instantly, and then adds the drive when it has spun up.
2) Modify time machine so that it can automatically mount/eject the external drive just when doing backups and restores.
Currently I have a bit of a messy work around to this problem where I have a loadd scheduled shell script that runs every hour that mounts the drive, runs time machine to backup and the ejects the drive. It works, but is not perhaps as nice a solution as it could be.
Does anybody else suffer from this problem?

Yes that is correct, the drive spins down and remains mounted.
To be perhaps clearer. The problem is not essentially a time machine problem, it is to do with whatever implements the file open capability that other apps use. In the above sitation, there is always a delay for the drive to spin up when I go to open a file (perhaps five seconds) in other applications. I assume this delay is caused by the file open process waiting until some data is retrieved from the external drive before giving me the option of choosing a file. This delay is annoying, as I do not ever want to open a file from my external drive (this is dedicated to time machine backups) when I am using pages, or any other application other than a time machine restore.
This particular issue is similar (but I suspect nowhere near as bad) as one of my pet hates about windows XP. In windows it appears that the explorer will wait for a response on all its connected drives (hard disks, mounted cds, network drives), so any sort of network connectivity or hardware delay will cause explorer to freeze. As explorer seems to be embedded in most things you do with the OS, this can cause anything or everything to freeze (web browsing, you name it).
In my setup, as I have the external drive totally dedicated to time machine backups, another thing that would fix the problem for me is the suggestion number 2 I suggested where time machine auto mounts for the backup and then ejects after the backup. With the feature, then the external drrive will only ever be mounted for short periods of time (the above problem does not ocurr if the external drive is not mounted), and when it is mounted it will be spinning, so I will never have my file open delay. I would however have a short delay when doing a time machine restore for the mount of the drive, but this is a much rarer event the using file open in all my other apps.
Thanks for the info on the feedback link, I will post this to that.

Proven external disk for Time Machine backups?

I'm looking for a good, reasonably priced, external disk to temporarily use for Time Machine backups. My 10.9.4 install is messed up and Time Machine no longer works with my ReadyNAS NV+ system. I want to use the disk to backup my MBP and reinstall the OS. Can someone please suggest a proven external disk (2TB+) with a USB 2.0 (or Ethernet) interface?
Thanks,
Ira

Hello all,
I decided to give my 2007 MBP one last upgrade with a new 1TB internal disk that I will install with 10.9.4 from scratch and will (slowly) migrate all my digital hoarding over to it. I've been using the same OWC FW800/USB enclosure since upgrading the original 160GB disk way back when. If TM still doesn't work with the new install (which will narrow down the TM issue to the ReadyNAS NV+), then I will put the current 750GB disk into the enclosure, flash it, and retry TM.
For the record, I chose the HGST Travelstar 2.5-Inch 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache internal disk. It was just $75 from Amazon and I used Amazon Points to pay for half of it.
Regards,
Ira

Help with partitioning ext firewire drive to use for storage/image backups

I just ordered a 2tb external hard drive. Want to put at least 1tb of the space for normal access file storage and use between 500gb and 750gb (probably the latter if I upgrade internal drive) for image clones to use for emergency boots. Software maybe Super Duper? Anyway, will get pre-formatted drive tomorrow and need to make it happen quick.
Would I delete whatever partition comes on it and put 2 new ones on? One for file storage and one for clone images? Or can I even just use one big 2tb partition? Want to make regular clone images for emergency booting and expand my file storage at same time. Probably use something lIke Carbon Copy Cloner(?) or Super Duper for images and maybe do some Time Machine backups?

Yes, you can do it that way. Again, it is recommended that TM have its own partition.
It sounds like you have two 2TB HDs. Why not put three partitions on one, put the 750GB of data on one partition, and you have two more partitions to clone to (I would alternate each time).
Then you have the other 2TB HD for TM. It's recommended that you have a volume at least double the size of the amount of data you're backing up (3x or more would be even better), so that would be great.
Obviously you can do what you want, but starting out from the beginning like you are, why not do it "right?" It's the "foundation," and the better that is, the better luck you're likely to have with the structure built on top of it (your backups).

Using a Second External Drive For Time Machine Backup

I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive? If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Thank you!!!

bvasel900 wrote:
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
I have been using Time Machine for almost a year and the external drive I'm using is almost full. Can I switch to a second external drive?
Yes, if that's what you want to do (see below). If you start "fresh" on a new drive, your first backup will be a full one; everything on your system. Or, you can copy your current backups to it via the procedure in item #18 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum. TM will then continue making it's usual "incremental" backups, and you can erase the old disk and use it for other things.
If I decide to keep using the same drive is there a way to keep my original backup? Is there information that I need from that first backup that I did?
Probably not. As Mr. Peck noted, TM will automatically delete your oldest backups when it needs room for new ones (unless you have the +*Warn when old backups are deleted+* box checked in TM Preferences > Options).
But unless you've been deleting things from your internal HD, counting on TM to keep it's backup copies indefinitely, you won't lose anything you need.
That's because of the "magic" of Time Machine. Each backup is an "incremental" backup, copying only the items that have been added or changed since the last backup. But by using "multi-links" to the backups of items that did not change, each backup is, in effect, a full, complete copy of your entire system!
So when TM deletes your oldest backup, all it will be deleting are it's copies of things you changed or deleted long ago.

External HDD (for Time Machine backup) detected but won't mount on desktop

I have been using this external HDD as my Time Machine backup for many months now. No desktop display settings have been changed (I checked), but now it won't mount on my desktop. I suspect one of my kids was banging around on the keyboard, as they have done in the past, and renamed it. Unfortunately it appears they renamed it to NULL this time around. I didn't think that was possible, but I've plugged it into 3 different Windows and iMac machines, and in all cases the external drive gets detected, but then in all cases it doesn't mount. The Volume Label does appear blank in the device properties.
Is there a way to access my drive again to rename it? Will that allow it to mount again? Or is there a way to access it to just reformat the whole darn thing?
Thanks!
Tom

I don't think it's possible to have a null name for a drive so i suspect there is a problem with it. open disk utility. does it show the name of the drive? try repairing it (repair disk not permissions). if that doesn't help you can always reformat it with Disk Utility. select the whole drive ( model, not name) and use the partition tab.

External HD for storage can backup on TC?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for