How do I back up one External Hard Drive to another?

I have two identical partitioned WD External Drives. Drive 1, Partition 1 is a Macbook Pro Time Machine backup. Drive 1, Partition 2 is for photo & video storage uploaded directly from the camera or disk (so I don't overload my internal storage). How do I backup Drive 1, Partition 1 & Partition 2 onto the partitioned External Drive 2?

I should back up my Internal Hard Drive directly to each of the 2 external Hard Drives, right?
Yes.
Since the External HD's are typically not plugged into the computer, should I not use Time Machine?
When the drives are connected, the backups will take place. If you rarely connect the drives, then you should also back up over the network to a Time Capsule, a hard drive connected to a current-model AirPort base station, or another Mac via File Sharing.
See also:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

Similar Messages

Backing up one external hard drive to another in time machine?

I have a 1 tb external hard drive I'd like to keep backed up to an identical external hard drive. Can I do this using time machine?
I'd like to do this separately from the standard time machine backup I'm doing of my internal hard drive, which backs up to another external one.
Not sure how clear this is but any help would be appreciated. I'm on a MacBook Pro.
Thanks!

I'd like something that'll only move over the files that are new. My guess is Disk Utility.app doesn't do that. Maybe Retrospect?
You're right - Disk Utility doesn't - it will do a full-disk copy, not just an incremental change.
I can't recommend :: shudder :: Retrospect, though. it used to be the bees-kness in Mac backup but it has seriously lost its way, with too many users complaining of it being a resource hog and not being able to restore data, which is kind of important for a backup utility.
Given your requirements, your best bet may be Carbon Copy Cloner. It will do full-disk as well as incremental backups to create a bootable clone of your system.

I transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another and added more music on the same day. How do I get rid of my duplicate files without going through them one by one which would take forever?

Please help. I have transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another plus added additional music now I have duplicates of the same music in many albums. How do I delete the duplicates without going through them one by one which would take forever? I understand how to get the "show exact duplicate" feature up on iTunes but, because they were added to the library on the exact day I can't seperate them I'm that manner. So each duplicate is right next to eachother in the exact duplicate screen.

My DeDuper script is designed to help clean up. See this thread for background.
tt2

How do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

how do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Drag it there in the Finder and then launch iPhoto with the Option key held down. Point it to the new instance of the library.
(58012)

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another

How do I move data on time machine from one external hard drive to another?

Although the documentation says you can copy Time Machine backups in the Finder, it's very slow and sometimes doesn't work at all.
Launch Disk Utility, open the built-in help, and search for the term "Duplicate." Follow the instructions. Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane while copying the volume.

How do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

how do you back up an external hard drive with time capsule?

Will time capsule back up the machine and the hard drive that is plugged into the machine?
Yes, if the hard drive with the video files is formatted correctly for Mac
On the Mac with the hard drive connected....click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the screen
Click Time Machine Preferences
Click Options
Here you will see a list of items that have been excluded from backups
Click the name of the hard drive to highlight it
Click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of excluded items
The hard drive will now be backed up with your Mac on the next pass that Time Machine makes

Cannot copy itunes from one external hard drive to another.

I have been using an external hard drive for storing my itunes and iphoto for a while now. I have never experienced any issue copying it to a larger drive for back up. My current drive is only 80 gigs (LaCie) and is almost out of space. I bought a new g-tech 500gig mini drive to replace it. Every time that I try to move the files from the old drive to the new one, I get the following error message 10 gigs into the transfer-
[You can’t copy “Music” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames.]
There is nothing on the new drive. I even took the iphoto folder off to make sure there was nothing on it to cause this message.
Is this an external drive issue or a Finder issue? I had no issue moving the iphoto library onto the new drive, fwiw...

I am getting exactly the same problem. It's just with the music folder. I dont get the problem copying other folders over. It gets about 22gb into copying 100gb from one external hard drive to another then I get the error message "You can’t copy “Music” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames." So I tried just copying the itunes folder and I still get the same message. Any advice welcome.

Can't get LR3 to import photos from one external hard drive to another?

I'm wanting to move thousands of raw photos from a folder in one external hard drive to another folder in a different external hard drive so all my photos are in one photo folder instead of two. I've gone through the importing routine inside of lightroom to move the folder over to the new hard drive. However, the photos don't move because they still show up on the old hard drive and not the new one. What's weird is when I try to import it again, the grid view shows all the photos I'm wanting to import and when I move my cursor over any of the photos they are faded out and it says the photos are already imported. However, if this is true why aren't they showing up in the new folder on my new external hard drive? I know the new external hard drive works fine because I've successfully been putting all my newer photos there since I started using LR about one year ago. The one's I'm trying to move over are older photos I shot try to using LR.
I'm stumped and need some help. Thanks in advance.

You wrote
"Are you saying while I'm in LR just grab the folder I want to move and drop it into the new hard drive"
Yes, that's the way to move photos & folders from within LR.
LR will then update its catalog with the new location and everything should be fine.
Importing is not a good way for moving photos / folders. Since the photos are already in the catalog you had to uncheck <Don't import suspected duplicates> or all the photos will be greyed-out in the import dialog. If you did that LR would import the photos from drive A and put it on drive B. But they would still be on drive A, so you'd have the photos on both drives and would have to delete them on drive A.
But more important: By default LR saves all edits in the catalog, they are not saved with the images themselves. That means by doing an import instead of a drag-and-drop move you'd lose your edits.
You can save your edits to xmp, a side-car file that is stored together with the image file, and the xmps would be imported. But LR does not store everything as xmp. For instance Virtual Copies, Collections, Stacking are saved only in the catalog, so by doing an import you'd lose these things.
Unless you know LR very well, it's best to use the Import Feature only for images that are NOT yet in LR.
And another thing: Before doing major operations like moving big amounts of photos, it's best to backup your catalog first.
WW

Can Time Machine back on one external hard drive (work files) to another external hard drive (back up)?

Can Time Machine on a Mac Book Pro 10.5.8 back up an external hard drive (working files) to another external hard drive (WD dual backup)?

I have Mountain Lion here ready to upgrade, but I'm scared of what will happen - there's always something when you upgrade, but I guess that's for a different post!
Yes, it's a different post, but let's make a comment any way.
Your power pc apps will not work when you upgrade to Mountain Lion. You will have to replace all the apps you use.

I get error 8062 when trying to copy files from one external hard drive to another. It starts out copying files, but after 10 minutes or so it stops and I get the error 8062. The hard drive tech support says the problem is in my Macbook Air.

I cannot copy my doc and photos and videos from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive -- both plugged in to my MacBook Air -- I get Error 8062 and the copying (which seemed to be going on for 10 minutes) stops and nothing gets copied.
As any Macbook Air owner knows, there is SO LITTLE storage capacity on the computer that you have to back up big files onto an external hard drive to avoid getting the other annoying error that says you have no more memory/storage capacity/whatever the proper term is, and you cannot use the computer.
Backstory: Before this error cropped up, I had backed up lots of files to an external drive and then removed them from my computer. But then the external hard drive got corrupted and I could not access my entire photo library. Had to pay $850 to Kroll Ontrack to recover those files. I have now bought 2 new external 1 Terrabyte hard drives as protection against another such disaster. BUT I cannot copy the files from the first hard drive where all my reovered files now sit, to another backup hard drive.
Feeling vulnerable. Please help.
SusaninNY

From the menu bar, 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 has more than one interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), try one of the other interfaces.
Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
Try a different cable.
If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
Start up in Safe Mode and test.
If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

How can I back up an IPhoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Hey Folks, WIth your help I have consolidated my IPhoto libraries using IPhoto Library Manager. I'm storing it on an external hard drive because I have run out of space on my Macbook Pro. Now I'd like to back it up. I have another large external hard drive that is set to perform Time Machine backups on my Macbook. Is there a way to ALSO use it to perform occasional backups of my IPhoto library which, as I mentioned, is not kept on the Macbook itself? Thanks in advance, David

I do not understand your question
The basic answer is that TM backes up everything that is not excluded - it backsup to the TM backup - it can not backup any files that are on the TM backup volume - only those on other volumes
To remove an item form the excluded list select the item and click the "-" button
See te FAQs for many more details - http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
Se the Apple article for basic set up and details - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
LN

How to back up my external hard drive to another hard drive?

So I dropped my external Iomega 1TB hard drive and now it wont allow me to back anything up however I can thankfully access everything in there. Basically I read that I need to back THAT up and format it and start from scratch. I sucked it up and finally bought a second External Hard drive a Seagate 1.5TB (great deal at costco BTW for $79). So now I connected both to my MacBook and tried to copy everything in my iomega to paste it to the seagate and I got the error message "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup." What does that mean? How do I do this efficiently?
I greatly appreciate any info! Thanks in advance!!!

I've not seen that error message but did you partition and format the new hard drive for use with Macs? It needs to be partitioned with the GUID scheme and formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled. If you have a lot of data on the original drive it's best to not try to copy it all at one time, of there are separate folders copy them one or two at a time. If your original drive is a Time Machine drive it's more complicated than simply copying and pasting http://pondini.org/TM/18.html

How do I transfer data from one external hard drive to another larger one?

I hope I am posting in the logical area for this topic. I have an external hard drive connected to my eMac. My iTunes library and some backup files reside on this hard drive. I am contemplating purchasing another, larger external hard drive so that I can archive more data--more music and some photos. How do I transfer my data from the first drive to the second one, and is this a risky move? (I have a lot of music!)

Hello,
Take a look at SuperDuper (link). This 'clones' any drive across to another; it should suit your needs just fine.
Firewire drives with an Oxford chipset are recommended for PowerPC Macs (like the eMac and iBook) as you can boot the Mac from one to recover the system if the internal drive suffers any issues.
mrtotes

How can I copy files from one external hard drive to another, without erasing anything?

Hi,
I have video and photo files on one hard drive. I'd like to keep that one intact but also copy all the files to a second external hard drive. When I try to do so, I can't figure out how to open both hard drives at once. (If I open one, it closes the other window.)
Thanks for your help!
CB

Open a finder window and open up one harddrive. Then go to file>new finder window. This way you can have two finders up and select a different harddrive in each one. Then just copy and paste the files.
Hope it helps!
Ryan

HT201250 can i back up my iTunes on one external hard drive to another external hard drive through time machine?

I have my itunes on an external hard drive which I use on my macbook. Can I back these files up through time machine onto a second external hard drive?

For TM yes, for another backup program running on the mac yes. You can avoid the NTFS issue by installing a NTFS driver in your mac: there are two proven ones: Paragon and NTFS-3G. These drivers make it possible for a mac to read and write NTFS formatted drives.
But it will not help TM (I am not 100% sure about that), but other backup apps it will help.

How do I back up one External Hard Drive to another?

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