Hard drive specs for Time Machine backup

My LaCie external HD has died an ugly death. So I am in the market for a new drive to use as my Time Machine backup.
I am looking at two Western Digital drives. One has NTFS file system, the other HFS+. Does this make a difference in terms of compatibility with my iMac and Time Machine?
I am currently running OS X 10.8.5. but I may upgrade to Mavericks 10.9. Does that influence this?

Thank you for your quick answer to my question. One other question:
These hard drives all have usb 3.0 connections. My iMac has USB 2.0 which will work but is much slower. It also has a Thunderbolt port and a Firewire 800. Do you know if are there adapters that allow the usb3.0 to connect to either the Thunderbolt or Firewire ports?

Similar Messages

How do I password protect the external hard drive used for Time Machine backup

Can anyone help me to put password protection on the external hard drive I use to Time Machine backup my iMac internal hard drive? I use Snow Leopard 10.6

I think that was FileVault 1. Starting with Lion (10.7) Mac OS X uses FileVault 2, which is whole disk encryption.
Based on complaints seen in these forums, I would say FileVault 2's only complaint has been when people forget their password/encryption key (it seems an encrypted disk does prevent anyone without the password from accessing the data, including the real owner). Otherwise it does not seem to be causing any serious issues. Your Mileage may vary and objects are closer than they appear in your side view mirror (standard disclaimer). Of course this is all academic while you are using Snow Leopard (10.6).
There are other whole disk encryption packages available, such as PGP Whole Disk Encryption, HOWEVER, I would not advise it for your Mac OS X boot disk, as it has been known to be a problem when you try to install operating system updates or upgrade to a new version. NOTE: I have not seen PGP Whole Disk Encryption discussed much, ever since FileVault 2 came along.

If using 2 hard drives to for time machine backup is it possible to exclude files from one backup only??

Hi,
At work we have a network system that allows backup of everyones mac via time machine is there a way I can exclude certain files and directories from this backup without removing them from the private time machine backup that I have?
Many thanks,
Nick

Time Machine is one app on your Mac, thus it will exclude the files on all back-ups.

Accidentally converted my external hard drive to a time machine backup

Hi there, got a problem. I accidentally converted my external hard drive to a time machine backup and it re-formats my hard drive. What should i do to get back my data? It happened during my first time using a Mac book Air...
Please help. Thank you.

As Link pointed out in that thread, there's a lot excluded:
Dec 26 12:29:11 Branch-iMac com.apple.backupd[3876]: Backup content size: 340.7 GB excluded items size: 256.3 GB for volume Media Server
Thus there should be about 80 GB that's included.
And part of it WAS backed-up:
Dec 26 15:43:56 Branch-iMac com.apple.backupd[3876]: Copied 3986 files (13.6 GB) from volume Media Server.
He's also shown some things that aren't being backed-up, and suggested a couple of things to do, but you haven't responded to his last post.

HT4413 What if migration assistant isn't recognizing my external hard drive with my time machine backup on it.

Tech department updated my computer to Lion and wiped it clean. I'm trying to restore my documents/photos/etc from a Snow Leopard time machine backup. When trying to use Migration Manager, when it asks for me to "Select my system," my hard drive with the time machine backup doesn't appear.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

External hard drive setup for time machine reading as a virtual cd

Why is my MacBook Pro reading my external hard drive setup for time machine reading as a virtual cd?
Thanks

Hi Christian,
Is this something that has happened from the start? If so, I would reformat the disk and setup TM from scratch again.
Prepare the external HD by connecting to the Mac, open Disk Utility, select the manufacturer’s name of the external HD, select Partition and choose GUID Partition Table, format to Apple OS Extended (Journaled); quit Disk Utility.
Open System Preferences.
Click on Time Machine.
Click on “Select Disk.”
Click just to the left of "On" to turn TM on if it's not already on.
Click on the disk or partition you want to use.
Click on “Use for backup.”
Leave external HD connected, and TM will automatically do its thing.

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media? Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media?
Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media?
Yes.
Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?
Possibly by using an Airport Express, but depends on what type of port connection the printer requires.

External hard drive used for Time machine is full and having a hard time backing up. what should I do?

External hard drive used for Time Machine is full and having a hrad time backing up. What is my best option moving forward? NAS?

For All things Time Machine see Pondini's Excellent Infirmation here...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Start with FAQs and Troubleshooting.

Cleaning virus-infected files on external hard drive used for Time Machine

I am kinda reposting this with some extra explanation since I didn't really get any good respnses on my first post:
I am running McAfee VirusScan and it locates and cleans virus infected files just fine on my computer, but when it finds infected files on the external hard drive I use for Time Machine backups, it says "Repair Failed". Is there a way to clean infected files on my Time Machine backup drive?
I had found a virus in several documents on my Mac, which I cleaned, but it seemed to infect a bunch of the files located in Time Machine as well. I know these files shouldn't harm my Mac, but I still don't like having virus infected files. They seem to propagate and I don't want to give them to any of my Windows-using friends.

Hi,
Usually (but not always), virus-infected files aren't system-related, so if they cannot be repaired, there should be an option in VirusScan to delete them or quarantine them instead of repairing them. Assuming that you are archiving Mac-related files and not archives of Windows files, then it should certainly be safe to just have VirusScan delete or quarantine them. An alternative is that you could delete them manually. But before you do any of this, be sure to take a look at the filename and its location in the folder hierarchy to make sure that you aren't removing a file that's critical to the operation of some piece of software.
Hope this helps,
Ken

Can I select certain drives only for Time Machine backup?

I have several internal drives and several external drives connected to my MacPro desktop computer. If I backup everything in all of the drives using Time Machine, the capacity on my designated external drive for Time Machine backup will soon be filled. Is there any way to selectively backup via Time Machine from only designated drives, not all drives connected (internally or externally) to my computer? Is so, how can that be done? I assume that Time Machine will start deleting data when its capacity is exceeded. If that is so, and I remove the designated Time Machine drive at that point and replace it with a new drive, will the removed drive thereafter be able to be reinserted and the prior material read and transferred as needed? Is there any way to utilized Time Machine after I insert the replacement drive to only archive new material saved after the switch of drives?

Yes, mount the drive by opening a new Finder window and clicking on your base station's name in the left column that says 'Shared'. Then double click on the drive name to mount it on your desktop. From there, open Time Machine prefs and select that mounted drive as your backup disk. Time machine will then back up to it. Theoretically.
If you want that disk to automatically mount every time you login to your computer, go to Sys Prefs Panel and select 'Accounts'. Then click 'Startup Items'. From there, drag the mounted drive's icon from the desktop in to that startup items list. It will then auto-mount from there forward.
I have had many problems backing up this way with Time Machine. It will, 9 times out of 10, fail over a wireless backup with an Airport Extreme Gigabit base station and a 1TB Western Digital My Book. Nothing seems to fix, so I have given up. When TM is finally fixed - I will use it. Until then, it's junk software as far as I'm concerned.
But - best of luck. The instructions above are how it's 'supposed' to work..

External Hard Drive ejects during Time Machine Backup

I've read through all the troubleshooting pages that I thought had anything to do with this problem, but none of my error messages seemed to match. This is my first backup with Time Machine onto my external hard drive, and it never gets past about 60GB before deciding that the drive has improperly ejected itself and aborting the backup. The error message from my Time Machine Buddy is below:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb
Ownership is disabled on the backup destination volume. Enabling.
Backup content size: 147.2 GB excluded items size: 5.1 GB for volume Macintosh HD
No pre-backup thinning needed: 170.49 GB requested (including padding), 930.54 GB available
Waiting for index to be ready (101)
Copied 56.0 GB of 142.1 GB, 112101 of 886988 items
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/errors.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/http.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks4.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:*** -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-50) SrcErr:NO Copying /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/socks5.rb to /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Indexing a file failed. Returned 200 for: /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ge ms/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy, /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Eugenio Vargas Computer/2011-05-17-161101.inProgress/E6F5C3CB-75B8-41C4-B52E-138235EB4B34/Maci ntosh HD/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/ gems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy
Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
Other details:
My external drive is a WD 1TB drive. The partition for the Time Machine Backup is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), as is my Macintosh HD. The Partition Map Scheme on the external drive is GUID Partition Table.
I have tried reformatting the external drive for good measure, but this doesn't seem to solve any problems. I also tried searching for the file that the error message says NO Copying for (/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/g ems/net-ssh-1.1.4/lib/net/ssh/proxy/...) but I'm unable to find the files. I can get as far as /System/Library/Frameworks, but can find no folder in Frameworks titled Ruby.
Please help.

The Ruby folder is probably hidden. That is why you don't see it.
You may want to add System/Library/Frameworks to the exempted sync list until you can figure out which file is causing this. You can do this by opening Time Machine Preferences ( > System Preferences > Time Machine) and clicking on Options…
After that click the small + key and browse to the folder you want to exempt from the sync. In your case: Macintosh HD > System > Library > Frameworks
Next hit the exclude button with the Frameworks folder highlighted.
Try your backup again and see if it fails.

Attempting to include an external hard drive to my time machine backup

I have an Apple Time Capsule that I am using as my back-up destination using Time Capsule. I have another ext hard drive (WD) that I use as an 'everyday drive'. I want to include this drive into my time capsule backup - but for some reason, this hard drive is appearing in my 'exclude' list and I cannot remove it.
Any ideas?

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
If the drive is shown in gray instead of black, it's most likely because it's not formatted for a Mac, and Time Machine cannot back it up.
Check it via +Disk Utility+ (in your Applications/Utilities folder).
Select the main (top) line for the drive (with the make and size). At the bottom it will display the *Partition Map Scheme.* If that's +Master Boot Record,+ the drive was set up for use with Windoze.
Then select the line for the partition (indented). At the lower left it will show the Format. If the Format doesn't start with +Mac OS Extended,+ Time Machine cannot back it up.
The only way you can fix that is to copy the data somewhere temporarily, then reformat the drive.
Format it as you would a Time Machine drive -- see #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

How do I restore all of my data to a newly installed hard drive from my time machine backup? Thanks

I had to replace my hard drive, I am new to restoring the data from the time machine. Is there anywhere that the steps are clearly articulated as I am not that versed in this kind of stuff? Thanks for responding.

Here it is: http://www.apple.com/au/osx/recovery/
As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY way to do this is to connect your macbook to your time capsule via Ethernet and restart it holding down the COMMAND-R keys.
This will take you to a restore prompt which will boot from your time capsule. The restore will then be a complete and up to date version of your old hard disk.
Don't even bother with older boot disks. I wished I got this advice from the many enquiries I made over two days! Restore took 2.5 hours.
Only found out about command R by a random google search late at night. So anybody replacing their hard drive and restoring from a time machine backup - do this!

Need to reformat hard drive and restore Time Machine backup. What's the safest way to proceed?

I have a Mac desktop, purchased in 2007. We upgraded last year to Snow Leopard. It has been slow for a few days, and yesterday wouldn't go past the gray screen. Tried booting in recovery with no success, same for safe mode. Even tried fsck -fy. Eventually went to the Snow Leopard install disk and tried to repair disk, but got an "Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files" message. I've got Time Machine back ups on an external hard drive, but I want to make sure I do this right and don't make things worse. What steps do I need to take?

In most of the cases, that Disk Utility message means that the hard drive is damaged.
However, you can try to erase the disk and restore the Time Machine backup to see if it works. Follow these steps:
1. Insert the Snow Leopard DVD and press the C key while your Mac is starting.
2. Go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD on the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the disk. If there's an error during this step, take the Mac to an Apple Store to get a new hard drive.
3. Close Disk Utility, go to Utilities menu, choose the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow the steps.
If the computer is slow after doing this, take the Mac to an Apple Store as soon as you can

External Hard Drive only for Time Machine?

I just bought a 500GB external HD and just ordered Leopard. I'm wanting to use the hard drive for my iTunes library rather than keep it on the internal HD due to the size.
My question is, if I then use it for Time Machine, will it be only for TM or can I do both?
And if I can do both, will it erase what is currently on there while setting it up for TM?

Apple doesnt recommend it, but it shouldnt be any problem. Time Machine creates a backup directory in which it keeps all the backup info. As long as there's space you can use the drive for other items. I have an internal 500GB drive I use for backup, and I keep some large files on it. The problem will be sooner or later the drive will just fill up with backup info, and time machine at that point will dynamically erase the oldest backups but will not have space for storing other files. Basically dont rely on the drive to have space for storing extra stuff. Partitioning the thing will prevent this, but it will make your backup drive smaller.

Hard drive specs for Time Machine backup

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for