HD for time machine
I got a new 24" imac recently and would like to add an external drive for time machine. I already have a router which the imac is wired to and my kids are wirelessly connected to with their PCs elsewhere in the house. I am trying to decide between a g-technology drive with firewire 800 and time capsule. My questions are as follows:
1. I only want to use the new drive for time machine for my imac. If I get the time capsule will I be able to keep the kids off of it?
2. Will the time capsule communicate with the imac faster than the g-technology drive with firewire 800?
Bob,
A drive connected via FireWire 800 will be much faster than one connected wirelessly (via 802.11n).
G-Tech is what I have and it works well.
I would recommend that you use both:
1. Time Machine - to take care of those accidental deletions.
2. SuperDuper! - to create a bootable clone in case of a disaster with your internal drive.
I would also recommend (based upon my experience) that your external drive be 3x your internal one. Time Machine eats up storage as if were infinite and free.
You may want to consider 1 TB drive from MacSales. I have one of these and it works well.
,dave
Similar Messages
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I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. -
Can I use my time capsule for time machine back ups and as an external storage device?
I have a time capsule and have set it up so that my time machine back ups are saved on it, but I would also like to use it as an external hard drive. Is this possible?
I know nothing about computers so please tell me in very basic terms. thankyou!By external hard disk we usually mean one plugged into the computer by USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt.
None of those works on the TC.. it is plugged in by ethernet or use wireless connection.. that means it is a network drive.. not an external drive. The difference might not mean much to you.. but it is totally different to the computer. In the former case the computer has full control of the disk. In the case of the network drive, the disk is controlled by the TC firmware and the files are stored and accessed by network. This has large implications.
So here is my standard response.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html -
My new LaCie external hard drive is 'seen' by my iMac and I can go into the Finder and open files and folders. I am using the hard drive for Time Machine back up. However Time Machine says it can't find the drive.
The same thing happened recently between Final Cut Express and my other LaCie external hard drive used as the Scratch disk. It fixed itself.
I've run out of ideas. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.have you done some searches on FCPx and time machine? Is there a known issue with using a TM drive with FCPx? dunno but ...wait...I'll take 60 sec for you cause I'm just that kind of guy.... google...." fcpx time machine problem" Frist page link
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/fcpx-bug-best-practices-for-using-external-hard- drives-and-final-cut-pro-x/
You cannot have time machine backups on your hard drive if you intend to use it in FCPX.
booya! -
Can I use the same external hd for time machine and storage without partitioning it?
Hello,
I have been using an external hard drive for my Time Machine that was only used for this purpose.
I downloaded some files in it that I want to use, and I haven't backed up using Time Machine since.
Can I download the files on my MacBook from the HD without running into any problems, or is there anything else I should do?
I prefer not to partition the hd, since I will be deleting these files, or transferring them to a different HD, and using this HD only for Time Machine back ups, as I did previously.
** I am not sure if this changes anything, but I just updated from Snow Leopard to Lion.
Thank you so muchcarolsm wrote:
Thanks Kappy, I will do that.
I just really needed these files and had no other hard drive to store them.
Do you think that it will be okay just this one time if I download the files on my MacBook without compromising my backups?
I will transfer them to a new hard drive, and erase them from my Time Machine external hard drive.
For the time being it will be fine. There is always a chance of a disc crashing and therefore not advisable practice. Some here run seperate drives with Time Machine, Cloned backup and file backup. I have a portable drive I keep Time Machine backups and file backups on. I am running that at my own risk, but no problems over the last couple of years. Just make sure I get it to my normal TM Backup disk as soon as I get home. Backing up those other files will not compromise your Time Machine backups as you asked.
Cheers
Pete -
I've been using a 320GB external drive for time machine for the last several years. The backups always worked fine and when necessary I was able to look at & restore older data from the time capsule. Recently, I keep getting the message that a backup cannot be completed and an older backup will be deleted. Usually this wasn't an issue because I still had several months of information on disk. Now a one-time backup takes up 315GB and therefore I only have a backup of the previous day. I don't understand this because I thought that the backup only saves information that has changed and doesn't copy everything everytime. What do I need to do to get my backups to a reasonable size so that I can keep at least 1 month data stored on it.? Please don't tell me I need a larger drive ... that would be too easy.
Get a larger drive for your TM backups.
The recommended size is 3 times what you are backup. So if 315 GB is a backup then you need a 1 TB drive.
Allan -
2012 Macbk air, with OSX 10.8.5. See my question above. Mavericks won't install on my Air's HD, says that both the HD - AND - the external HD (which has a different name from the laptop HD) are used for time machine backups. I've deleted my time machine plists, restarted, repaired permissions, turned time machine off, repeatedly selected the external drive in time machine preferences. HELP. (Install went perfectly on my desktop Mac, which also has an external HD for time machine).
I need to add that the only place I have the "Backups.backupdb" folder is on my backup external disk, and it's not on my HD :-( . If it were, I'd delete it!
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Can I use one HD for 2 computer for time machine?
I have an imac and macbook. I bought a new 500G external harddisk for time machine.. can I share the harddisk between 2 computer?
Or I have to get 2 HD for 2 computer?happygal wrote:
and can I put my other data on the external harddisk apart from the backup from time machine?
Absolutely. Yes. You will be limiting the space available for Time Machine though. The more space available, the further back your Time Machine backup trail can go.
Kryten -
Can I use a network hard drive for time machine
Can I use a network drive for my time machine back up. I currently have a 1TB WD AND its full with mostly videos and other back ups?
Such a configuration is not supported. This does not mean it will not work, but it is not guaranteed to work reliably.
Considering the "mission profile" for a backup strategy, you should consider this an unacceptable application for Time Machine.
Read Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ discussion regarding this subject here:
http://pondini.org/TM/2.html
Scroll down to the pink box.
There are other, significant concerns regarding sharing a Time Machine volume with other content. Time Machine needs to have control of the whole volume.
More info here: Mac Basics: Time Machine -
Use portable hard drive for Time Machine & other things
I recently purchased a 1 TB portable hard drive. I'd like to use it for my Time Machine backups, as well as moving my iTunes library there. Is this an easy change? I'm not super familiar with hard drive set ups. Will I have to create any partitions on the drive?
Thanks!You're welcome. Make sure your drive is formated as Mac OS Extended (journaled), GUID partition table.
Here's a nice link to use for Time Machine information.
You can partition the drive if you want to organize your various backups. For example you might create a Time Machine partition and Other Files partition. When Time Machine is working, it creates a folder (Backups.backupdb) and places the Time Machine backups in that folder. The rest of the partition is open to add whatever you want. I have multiple partitions on my USB external drive with Time Machine backups separated from other backups. -
Can use old macbook for Time Machine Backup?
Have an old macbook running snow leopard. Can I use it for Time Machine Back-up for my current macbook pro?
Boot your old into Target Disk mode, then plug a FireWire cable from your old to your pro. Presto! Your old's internal HD will appear in your pro's Finder as a disk on your pro. Time machine running on your pro can use it for backup. Time machine won't disturb its contents, except to add a potentially huge folder there, which will grow to fill the disk with copies of your backups. (Backing up, then) partitioning (and then restoring from backup) your old's internal hard drive will keep your pro's Time Machine from consuming all free space.
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Can I use my 2TB Time Capsule ONLY as an external hard drive for Time Machine backups?
Hi...wondering if somebody could help me out there.
I currently have an older Apple 2TB Time Capsule (previous generation) which I'm using as both my WiFi access point, as well as my Time Machine backup location for both my iMac and my MacBook Pro.
We've been having slow WiFi issues in our home, and seeing as how this Time Capsule is a number of years old, were thinking of upgrading to the faster WiFi routers with 802.11ac capability. I'll be honest when I say we were considering other options, beyond the newest Time Capsule.
My question is, can we somehow use the 2TB of storage on our current Time Capsule for the purpose of backing up our computers with Time Machine, but NOT use the WiFi functionality of the Time Capsule itself?
I'm assuming if I manually plugged either my iMac or MacBook Pro (wired ethernet) into the Time Capsule, I could likely get that computer to recognize and use it for Time Machine purposes, but I'd like to use it to backup both computers, ideally wirelessly on the MacBook Pro.
Any help would be great.
Right now I'm running a DSL line into a DSL modem, which then runs ethernet into my Time Capsule. From there, I have a 4 port switch connected for wired devices (we wired our home with ethernet jacks in almost every room). We also have an Airport Express to extend the range of the network.
Thanks,
JasonYou can bridge the TC and plug it into whatever wireless router you buy.
There is no need to turn off the wireless in the TC.. but you can set it up as a secondary wireless network. That is totally up to you. I find the Gen4 TC very fast on 5ghz.. but you need it to be close to the computers.. in your case that should be dead easy.. simply plug it in by ethernet in the same room as the iMac say.. and set it up with bridge and the imac plugged into it by ethernet.. one computer then can access the internet and backup via ethernet with huge speed improvements.. the laptop can then use whatever your new router wireless network.. or the TC one if it is close enough..
So there are plenty of variations and your setup is easy to handle with the large amount of ethernet you have.
Just post again if you need specifics.. but I need specifics to give them!! -
Can I use an empty (NFTS)partition on my 1tb WD drive for Time Machine
I have a 1TB WD external hard drive formatted NTFS into 6 partitons. Can I use one of the partitions for Time Machine? or will it try to destroy all the partitions I have on the NTFS drive? I have Macbook Pro (early 2011 with OXS 10.7 Lion) and am running Parallels with Windows Vista on the Mac. And I have a Toshiba satellite running Vista. I just want to be able to read and write to my USB drive, from both and transfer files from the windows machine to the Mac and vice versa. Any Suggestions?
TimeMachine backups should be at least 2x the size of the HD. Assuming you hve a 500 GB drive, all of the 1 TB will be needed, not just 1 partition.
Even if you decided to run below specs, you still need a disk with the GUID partition mapping scheme and HFS+ partition for TimeMachine.
I just purchased a new/self-powered LaCie 1 TB fro my 500 GB MBP. "New" being the operative word.
As to reading/writing NTFS ... Mac can read read NTFS but not write it without special software. -
Can I use the same external hard drive for time machine and storing other files
I have a 640GB external hard drive that I have been using for over a year for time machine backups. My mac hard drive is now starting to fill up and I am looking to move audio, video and picture files to my external hard drive. How do I do this without messing up my time machine backups? Can I do both on the same external hard drive? Do I just make new folders on the external hard drive to move the files I want? Thanks for the help.
If you move the files you will need to get another disk to back the files up to. You don't want to have only one copy of certain files (personal, professional etc.).
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I have an external HD that I've been using exclusively for Time Machine backups. I need to clear space on my hard drive, so I was thinking to move music & photos to an external drive. Wondering if I can use the same one I have (which I'll aslo keep using for Time Machine) or if I need to get another drive.
Hi Jossydtaylor,
Time Machine can use either an entire external disk or a partition of that disk:
OS X Mountain Lion: Disks you can use with Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11171
You can use Time Machine with a Time Capsule, and with USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt disks. The backup disk can be directly connected to your computer or be on a network. If the backup disk has been divided into partitions, you can use one of the partitions.
If the disk is partitioned using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition type, some partitions may not be available for use with Time Machine. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition type is recommended.
For more info on partitioning, see this article:
Disk Utility 12.x: Partition a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5845
Cheers!
- Ari -
Can I use a usb thumb drive for Time Machine?
Can I use a usb thumb drive for Time Machine backups?
Hello,
Yes you can use a (large) thumb drive. The most common format for a Time Machine backup drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Hope this will help.
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