Help w/ Time Machine and 2 External Drives + Main Drive
I need some help on the best possible setup with the tools on hand...
Currently I have the following:
iMac with 500GB Hardrive
My Book with 2 TB Hardrive
My Book with 1.5 TB Hardrive
What I want to do (in my head anyways) is have my main drive for my normal applications (ilife, iworks and everything else under the sun) and use the 1.5 TB for my iTunes as i have alot of movies and music and then use my 2 TB to back up the main drive and 1.5TB drive that way if my 1.5TB drive dies my iTunes are still in tack and likewise for my main drive with my applications.
before I go ahead and do this... is it best just to use time machine on my 2TB drive? or should I parition it say 1.5TB for Time machine and 500 GB for Carbon copy so I can boot off of that drive if need be?
I have done some research on the subject but just want to make sure I'm not missing a step or if there is a better set up I should do with my current gear (500MB main drive, external 1.5 TB and 2TB drives)
thanks!
Narayan9 wrote:
total data that needs to be backed up isnt that much... probably around 600-700 MB currently
I'm sure you mean 600-700GB
(but it is growing). I'm in the mitts of ripping my purchased DVD's to itunes so I can watch them VIA Apple TV.
The whole reason for me buying the 2 external drives was to ensure my itunes files wouldnt be lost in a hardrive failure as I have a very large DVD collect (around 300) and as you know its very time consuming to copy them to itunes in the first place and if my main drives dies Im not sure if I would have the patients to re-copy everything to my iMac.
you can use the 2TB drive to back up everything you have now via TM. but if it grows much more then I would suggest using a different backup solution as outlined in my first post. TM needs space for incremental backups and some overhead just to operate. most other backup tools don't.
Similar Messages
-
My iphoto library inexplicably disappeared! i am panicked but i do back up by time machine to an external drive and also to JustCloud. I am trying to restore my iphoto library from a back up on feb 28, 2014 and it says it's copying but then gives me a message that it can't do it because i "don't have authorization to access iphoto library"?! what does this mean? i really want to get my library back on my mac. Also if anyone knows why this happened or where my photos might be on my computer, i'd appreciate help with that, too.
Thank you Terence for your help. I was able to restore my backup from my time machine ext drive to a new 1tb seagate ext drive. so i felt sort of ok. but yesterday that older ext drive i used for time machine wouldn't open! i called applecare and they trouble shooted with me and said it's probably a goner and data is probably corrupted. it's only a few years old and i'm very careful with it. my husband accidentally dropped my new drive last night -- i know, unbelievable, i was SO upset, poor guy -- but I'm so stressed with all of this. i have 10 years of photos and videos. so now i only have the one newer drive with a backup. i have to buy another one today to backup again so i at least have two backups. i tried to delete a ton of files last night to free up the 30 gb of space i need to get my full library back on my mac. i have 90gb free and deleted 7 years worth of photos i had on picasa that were in my "pictures" folder and also a ton or random photos and videos i had in that same pictures folder and thought that would give me the 30 gb but it hardly freed up any space at all! do you know why that is? all of this stuff is really a pain and really stressful. thank god i did have a backup in the first place but now i am panicked the one i have left will somehow crash. especially after my husband dropped the drive lastnight! it didn't fall far and fell onto a wood floor and seems fine, but after my older ext drive crashed yesterday -- and i lost my entire iphoto library a fewweeks ago off my mac -- i feel cursed. any answers you have would be great. thank you.
-
i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard driveWelcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org -
I have my Time Machine on an external drive (not connected to Airport Extreme) and I have an external HD attached to airport extreme. Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme. How?
Is it possible to have Time Machine backUp computer HD AND external HD connected to Airport Extreme.
Sorry, but no.
Time Machine will backup your Mac, but not the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme.
Time Machine will back up a hard drive only if it is attached directly to your Mac via USB or FireWire. -
How to use Time Machine with an external drive?
Hi…I’m new to this, I hope someone can help me=)
I’m trying to back up my Macbook Pro 10.6.8 using Time Machine with an external drive Seagate Backplus Slim. I’ve tried several solutions that I’ve found through different forums but still wouldn’t work.
Every time I opened Time Machine, it has this appearance:
Then when I click “Select backup Disk”, it goes on like this:
And after I click “Set Up Time Capsule”, it has this:
It keeps saying that it couldn’t find AirPort wireless, even though I have good WIFI connection.
Anyone know what I should do? Please help….Thanks everyoneAyuphie ~ In your Time Machine Preferences panel, slide the OFF-ON switch to the ON position:
-
Copying Time Machine files to external drive for use with PC
Hello! Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
My MacBook Pro recently died. I have it backed up by Time Machine on an external drive. Now I'd like to copy my files from the backup to another external drive so that I can access them later from a PC computer running Windows (7 or 8). Is that possible? The Time Machine drive, I believe, is formatted specifically for Mac, but the external drive I'm trying to copy to is FAT32. Can I connect both to a friend's Mac, look for the files I need, and then copy them from the backup drive to the other external drive? Will a PC computer be able to read them?
Thanks!Usually that error indicates a drive malfunction; specifically, the drive is spinning down and not responding to bus signals. Some "Eco" or "green" drives are known for this behavior. The following steps may help:
Select ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
If the drive is connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port on the computer.
If a firmware update is available for the drive, apply it.
Contact the drive manufacturer to see whether there's a firmware setting you can change.
If you installed vendor software for the drive, uninstall it.
If none of the above steps resolves the issue, try another drive. -
External Drive with Time Machine, booting from external drive with utilitie
I'm using Time Machine now with
a LaCie 1TB external hard drive.
Everything works fine.
But, I've been wondering:
Can I place a program like TechTool
on the external drive (that Time Machine uses)
and boot from that external drive.
I would like to be able to do that,
because diagnostics and repair programs
only works properly and fully when they run from
external drives. Anything on the internal drive can be repaired
and examine. Impossible to do if Techtool is on the same
drive that's been examined.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Thanks
iMac, Leopard, Time Machine, Lacie Quadra 1TB drive.
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?pitou wrote:
P.S. Stupid question: If my computer crashes, and I reboot from Time Machine
(from the external drive) how does the computer know which backup to take ?!?
Isn't there many versions of the OS on the Time Machine backup taken at different times?
As V.K. says, you can't boot from TM backups.
But you can restore your entire system from any one of them, per the procedure in #14 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
You can also selectively restore from them, while running normally. See #15 in the FAQ Tip.
You might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the rest of the FAQ Tip. -
How do I convert a Time Capsule former Time Machine into an external drive?
I want to convert my 2TB Time Capsule (which I formerly used as a Time Machine) into an external drive. I now have a 3TB which I have set up as the Time Machine thus freeing the 2TB to hopefully work as an external drive. The 2TB now sits with the old Time Machine backup data intact but I no longer need that backup. I had it hooked up to my modem but not have hooked the ethernet up to my desktop (is that right?). Please advise how to prep the 2TB Time Capsule to be a normal external drive.
1) How do I turn the wireless on the TC on or off? Where do I go to change the settings.
Spend some time in the airport utility.. the easiest way is simply go through every screen until you are familiar with the controls.
Open airport utility.. click the TC.. click edit.
Click the wireless tab. Click on Network mode.. select Off..
2) I found the Touro 4TB and the price is quite inexpensive compared to other 3 and 4TB units. What's the reason for that? Am I missing something in the specs? They offer a Touro Deskpro and a Touro DX3. I can't tell from the description what the difference is - I can't see beyond 4TB. Is one preferable over the other?
They are competing with better known brands.. ask anybody hard disk brands they know.. and either Western Digital or Seagate come to mind. People easily forget there was hitachi (ex IBM). Although Hitachi sold their disk division but due to anti-trust laws it could not be sold entirely to WD who bought half of it.. Toshiba bought the other half. WD tries to hide the Hitachi drive name to bury it.. they bought to bury. But Toshiba keeps it alive.
I actually buy Hitachi drives (Toshiba now) in preference to the others. But everyone has their favourite. The Touro are just good value for money.. the case is not exactly the work of art.. buy LaCie for that. It is a bit over large and the plastic is plasticiky, if you get my drift. Silver plated plastic to make it look like metal is not my favourite.. but I am hardly concerned with the look..!! It looks like an external hide drive.. hide it if you find it ugly.
The difference between the Touro Pro and the Touro DX3 4TB drives is the speed of the drives, the pro is 7200rpm and the the DX3 should be 5400rpm.
I am not 100% sure of the above.. but it is likely to be different drives.. We have not seen DX3 in our market until recently.. they were all pro.
None with bigger than 4TB at this point..
3) OWC - never heard of this group - are the hard drives dependable in your experience?
Retailers who sell Touro and Toshiba and LaCie and every other brand.. sell online and to overseas.. good prices if not the cheapest.. have their own lines of shells, as well selling all the others.. have their own brand SSD but obviously bought in from elsewhere.. RAM, kits for all sorts of things.. huge catalog and very Apple orientated.
I am amazed if you have been on a Mac for more than 5min.. google ads have not flashed up OWC 20 times.. you must have good resistance to advertising.
Please google OWC.. if I post their actual URL the post will get deleted.
Look up say external drives.. they have one zillion of them. -
Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive
Hi all,
Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive?
I don't want to store much on my imac, I would like to store it on the time capsule.
If this is possible, how do I do it?
Thanks, Crankyhead.This is often asked.. and we always have the same answer. have you thought this through?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4830944?tstart=0 -
Time Machine and Networked external hard drive
My family has thee macs and one PC, all under the same roof. All the Macs are 2008 and later models (MacBooks and MacBook Pros, with Leopard or Snow Leopard).
I lost a load of data last weekend and my i-disk did not contain a backup of all the data, pics etc lost which came as a nasty shock. Bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted, I've bought a Western Digital 1TB external hard disk and connected it to the USB 2 port on my linksys Gigabit N+ router. This network device does appear in my list of shared devices and I can manually copy and paste data to it, but Time Machine doesn't seem able to see the device to enable me to automate the backup process.
I've looked for relevant posts on this forum but can't see quite the thing, can you help me please?
What if anything can I do to get Time Machine to do automated backups and can this be done via the network router to enable others in the family to do likewise?To expand a bit on one of the options Kappy mentions, if one of your Macs is stationary, you can back up over your local network to a shared drive connected directly to it. See #22 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
It's "iffy" and not supported by Apple, but some are able to back up to a USB drive connected to a recent-model Airport Extreme. See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. As mentioned there, don't depend on those 100%; also maintain some sort of secondary backups, in addition.
But that's something I learned (the hard way, of course) long ago: Airport or not, never trust your backups to a single app or piece of hardware. No app is perfect, and no hardware is trouble-free indefinitely.
Or, you may be able to find an alternative app that will back up to your setup. See Kappy's post on +Basic Backup,+ complete with links to the web sites of each product. -
Time Machine and Seagate External hard drive
I connected my Seagate External Hard Drive (300GB) to my MacBook pro for the first time. I got a prompt asking if I would like to use this as a backup disk with Time Machine. Absent-mindedly, I hit "NO".
Now the Hard drive is not showing up in the list of disks in Time Machine and I can't figure out a way to search for new disks or change the settings. I would like to use the hard drive to back up my Mac.
(Also, my Mac has a Windows partition) and I have used Norton to backup the Windows side on the same hard drive.)
Any suggestions?MG1373 wrote:
(Also, my Mac has a Windows partition) and I have used Norton to backup the Windows side on the same hard drive.)
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Do you mean there's already Windoze data on the external you want to use for Time Machine? If so, this probably isn't going to work. The external is almost certainly set up with the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition scheme, which will not work for TM backups. To check this, use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Click the top line of the drive (with the make and size), then look at the bottom of the display for *Partition Map Scheme.*
If it is MBR, the only way you can put a partition for Time Machine on this drive is to erase it completely and reformat it with the GUID partition map scheme (unless it's a PPC Mac, which needs the +Apple Partition Map+ scheme), then make 2 (or more) partitions, one formatted +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ for TM.
If you do that, you may not be able to set up a partition that you can use for the Windoze data. I don't do Windoze, so can't be sure about that. -
I am not a real tech type person. MAcBook white early 2008 running 10.7.3. I know I will need a boot disk to restart the computer after I have installed the new drive. I have purchased a Hitachi 500 G, 7200 RPM to install. The computer is backed up regularly using Time Machine to an external hard drive. I nned to know all the steps I need to do before physically changing the hardware.
Do you have your original drive backed up? Is it still working? If so I'd buy an external enclosure and boot from that. Then format your new drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to the new one.
If you don't have a backup, I'd buy an external drive, use carbon copy cloner to do a backup, then install the new drive and clone back to it. -
Time machine on one external drive, multiple MAC's
Dear all,
I have connected a external drive "LaCie" to my Imac. Time machine on this Imac works fine.
I am trying to get my Macbook's Time Machine to use the LaCie drive as well, but it just won't work. I know there are similar topics on this forum dealing with the same issue, but the solutions described just do not work. What is going wrong?
My Imac is called ImacHans. My personal account "Hans" is the same on the Imac as well as on the Macbook. Passwords are identical. On both machines I am administrator. My Macbook connects to the Imac wirelessly. From my MacBook I can see the ImacHans in the finder. I can browse it's contents. In the finder I can see the "eject button" behind the ImacHans, so I guess that means the ImacHans is mounted? Within the finder I can browse to the LaCie drive. I can add new folders and delete them. Which means I have read and write access rights.
In Time Machine's preferences (on the MacBook) I can select the LaCie. So far so good, but when I ask Time Machine to "back up now" it fails within seconds. The error message is "Time Machine Error, the backup volume could not be found".
What is going wrong?
Any help is much appreciated.
kind regards,
hans.This may do it from my original idea:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1329
Symptoms
If you back up to a Mac OS X 10.5 Server volume or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard computer using Personal File Sharing via Time Machine, and the password to access the network volume is changed, Time Machine will report "The backup volume could not be mounted" in Mac OS X 10.5.
Products Affected
Mail, Time Machine
Resolution
Mount the network based volume va the Finder's Connect to Server option. Go to Time Machine preferences in System Preferences, click "Change Disk" and reselect the mounted volume as the backup disk. -
New to Mac, Help with Time Machine! Partition External HDD or not?
Hey Guys I'm a new mac user
I need help with time machine
I wanted to know how time machine works and what all does it back up?
I have 2 hard drives one is of 1TB and one is of 320gb
In the 1TB hard drive i store all my music videos and work stuff it is windows formatted
The 320gb hard drive is mac formatted and I was thinking of making a partition on it one with 250gb for time machine and the remaining 70 gb for mac softwares and files. The ssd of my mac has a capacity of 256gb. I have read for time machine you need at least 2x the space of your ssd on your external hard drive but i don't understand if my ssd is only 256 and can store files worth 256gb why do i need double the space? Secondly if I choose to use the complete 320 gb for time machine will that be okay or even if i choose to partition it to 250gb for time machine will that be fine too? Or will I need to format my 1TB hard disk out of which currently only 300 gb is empty and partition that to 500 gb for time machine?
I'm really confused every tells me to use time machine but do I need it? And what does it exactly do?
Your input will be really appreciate thanksThe reason that you want a partition (or drive) of 2-3 times the size of your boot drive for Time Machine is so that you can keep backups further back than just the current boot drive state - for that you'd need to make a clone of the drive rather than using Time Machine (see -> http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html).
For more information for backups in general, see -> Most commonly used backup methods.
Note that you can't use Time Machine to backup a Windows partition.
Good luck,
Clinton
MacBook Pro (15” Late 2011), OS X 10.??, 16GB Crucial RAM, 960GB M500 Crucial SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display -
Time Machine Backup on External Drive Invalid sibling link
I've used time machine to backup macbook air for several months. From Feb 2011 without any problems until about 2 months ago. I started to get the message that backups could not be started.
I realized that the disk would not mount right away. And after about 10 minutes or more I would get the message that my disk could not be mounted. The error said my data could be backed up and I should do it right away.
Okay, so I try to copy my backup files using finder and get an error saying I don't have permissions to copy data.
My research indicates my hard drive is failing, which is unfortunate, since I bought it within the last year :-(
Okay, so now I am trying to get my months worth of backups off the drive and this is proving to be quite difficult...actually, impossible.
Here are my latest attempts at resolving my issue:
1. Ran Repair Disk - reusts:
error: Could not repair disk and something about backing up my data and reformating the disk
2. Ran fsck_hfs -f command in terminal
The system indicated it was executing the command and about 2 or 3 minutes, I think the command prompt appeared. No other message
3. Run repair disk again - My results:
Checking catalog file.
INvalid sibling link
rebuilding catalog B-Tree
The volume My Passport could not be repaired
Volume repair complete
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore your backed up files
4. Created a new partition on another external drive and did a restore in Disk Utility from the broken drive to the new partition on the other drive. Took a few hours. Unfortunately, I just created the same problem on that partition (invalid sibling link)
Any other ideas on how I can rescue my backup data from the My Passport drive? I can see it in finder but I can't copy it do my other drive!
Research on forums and other sites have mentioned cloning the drive using "dd" command. Is this the same as the disk utility restore?
Is there some way I can change the permissions of the disk/partitition/files to enable me to copy the data to the new external drive?
Here is what the system looks like: Mac HD is my mac mini; My book is the WD 1TB external drive usb connected; My Passport is the broken external drive with the time machine backups that I can't get access to.
unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -ale
total 8
drwxrwxrwt@ 5 root admin 170 Dec 4 09:40 .
0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit
drwxr-xr-x 29 root wheel 1054 Dec 3 18:17 ..
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 Dec 3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj staff 578 Dec 3 20:46 My Book
drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj staff 544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -Orbitlake /Volumes
total 4
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj staff - 544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
335990 lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin - 1 Dec 3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
2 drwxr-xr-x 29 root wheel - 1054 Dec 3 18:17 ..
2 drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj staff - 578 Dec 3 20:46 My Book
10710 drwxrwxrwt@ 5 root admin hidden 170 Dec 4 09:40 .
0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit***Update to ask question***
I would love to setup my new mini like my MBA. Is there anything wrong with restoring my entire drive, I think it starts at /User/ level, to my mini????
You know you never know when you will need the backups. This makes me angry especially since I can see the files but can't repair the disk.
OTOH, I attempted something I just now read about, option-click on time machine icon. Funny thing, I selected other disk and my passport (original broken drive) popped up with time machine backups on it.
I, quite timidly, selected the disk, opened the time machine and traversed my broken drive with backups from feb.
hmmm. I then, selected some random pdf file to restore and behold, It was restored to my mac mini right before my eyes.
I'm confused. But I think I will go with your suggestion and just put the drive away in a closet somewhere and hope to never really need it. It is quite interesting though that I am unable to repair this disk but I can restore files from it....Odd, I tell you, odd....
Thanks
Maybe you are looking for
-
I went to the full screen and don't like it and want to get back to what I had. Also, is there a way to set up bookmarks so that all show in a column on the left or right side?
-
How do I save my contacts to my iphone and not in outlook exchange
I just deleted the Exchange account from my previous employer and ALL of my contacts are gone. It seems that nothing was stored on the iPhone itself. How do I make sure that future contacts are saved to my iPhone? Thanks!
-
1) I went on firefox (ff) this morning and visited a few web sites 2) I logged off (ff) and quit using the I-net 3) later in the morning I logged back on to the I-net using (ff) and it opened the last web site I was looking at in my previous session
-
Recording to cassette with no rendering: how to?
Hi. I rendered my hdv holiday 33 minutes trip on Premiere selectecting "export to cassette" and it took about 6 hours to. Finally the camera started recording but suddenly it stopped (don't know why). I have the Premiere generated file, *.hdv on my h
-
Hi gurus, in which areas integrated MM with QM ? regards