How do I tell Time Machine to add a new external drive to be backed up?

How do I tell Time Machine to add a new external drive to be backed up? I have an external drive with data I need to add to my overall back up with what's on my mac. I have a separate drive already active as the Time Machine backup disk. I can see how to EXCLUDE disks, but how do I ADD that new external drive to regular backups?
I have 10.8.5 system on my Mac laptop.

Remove the drive from the list of items set to be excluded. It needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for this to be possible.
(110504)

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How do I set Time Machine to backup a new startup drive?

The HD in my iMac is getting ready to bite the dust - it's hung up on me a few times recently and is making clicking noises intermittently. AppleCare has expired and I don't want to open the iMac to change the drive myself, nor do I want to pay Apple approx $400 to replace the old drive. I used Carbon Copy to clone the iMac's HD to an external firewire drive, and now I boot from the external drive.
I think Time Machine is still looking at the internal drive as the source drive, because it is having some problems now. How can I make sure that Time Machine is backing up the external drive?
Thanks,
Doug

Go to Time Machine Preferences > Options.
If the external drive is listed in the exclusions box, it is not getting backed up. Select it and click the minus sign at the bottom. Time Machine will do a full backup of it on the next run. That will, of course, require a lot of time and space on your TM drive.
If the internal HD isn't listed in the exclusions box, click the plus sign at the bottom, select it on the next window and click Exclude so Time Machine will quit trying to back it up.
And while running from the external, to view the backups of the internal HD, you'll need the procedure in #E3 of [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

How do I get time machine to see my Seagate external drive? I

I continue to have trouble getting the machine to ID an external drive for time machine. I bought a new external, Seagate, installed it and things were fine, until I had to move my computer due to home repairs. I ejected the Seagate as part of the shut down for the move, and when I reconnected everything OS now no longer sees the Seagate.
I have a 2008 Imac with 10.8.4
Current support info does not seem to do the trick. Thanks,

Hello [email protected],
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing with your external hard drive. I found an article with steps you can take when an external device is not being recognized.
I recommend following the steps in the section titled "Top troubleshooting tips" in the following article:
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

How do I use time machine to backup to an external hard drive plugged into my airport extreme

How do I use time machine to backup to an external hard drive plugged into my airport extreme? I used to be able to but now time machine will not recognize my hard drive to select as a backup when plugged into my airport extreme. I'm not sure what happened or changed. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

First thing to do is go to the Pondini tips page, then follow the link to his full TM site for all the details.

How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?

I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.

ivan wrote:
How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?
I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.
Hi iVain
Fire up *Disk Utility*, click the Restore tab, then drag your old and new TM drives into the Source and Destination fields. Click Restore, and a complete copy of your old TM files will be made on the new drive. Go to TM preferences and select the new drive, and it will continue backing up just as it left off.
Hope this answers your question. See:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2595485&tstart=0

HT201250 Time machine does not recognize WD external drive

Time machine and back-ups worked fine on my MacBookPro. It stopped working, no I believe it is still working but the MackBookPro does not recognize it and when clicking "Back up" I receive the message that the external drive is not available. Thanks to Bootcamp the computer also has a Windows side which I use mainly to run a soaring flight simulator called Condor. When I turn on the MacBookPro and click on "Choice" the window I receive shows the Mac and Windows operating systems, the Back-up and "My Passport." When I click on "My passport" it actually opens...When I turn the computer off and reboot it again there is no sign of "My Passport."
Now, I have a second WD My Passport which I bought for the Windows side of the computer. When I attach it before turning on the computer, I shows up on Finder, however, when I click "Back up" here it seems like it is starting back-up but only for a few seconds and then I get the message that the drive is a Windows formatted drive and that a back-up cannot be completed.
Why does the Windows formatted drive show up in Finder and also when I run the Windows side, however, the driver for the Mac does not show up on Finder?
I now have only the Mac formatted external drive attached and I just received the following messages: Can't back up. Reformat the disk. Files can still be read but the drive can no longer be used for back-ups. Get a new external drive. Run back-ups as soon as possible.
Can anyone help?
Thank you.

OK, so it sounds like you have a Mac formatted drive that you have used previously for Time Machine, and disconnected it for a few weeks, and you can now see files on it OK from your Mac. However, when the system tries to run a Time Machine backup, you get an error message "Can't backup. Reformat the disk. Files can still be read but the drive can no longer be used for back-ups. Get a new external drive. Run back-ups as soon as possible."
I have not seen this problem before, and would recommend that you look through the Time Machine troubleshooting information at http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
For instance, http://pondini.org/TM/B1.html or http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html could help in your situation. I'm assuming (but probably shouldn't) that you've verified that your hard drive doesn't need repair (another Disk Utility function) and that there is still a Time Machine backup on that drive - look for the directory Backups.backupdb.
I hope that helps. If not, perhaps someone with more Time Machine knowledge will pop along soon to help you further.

Can I use Time Machine to archive like an external drive?

I've backed up my computer to Time Machine and everything from my computer is there, but I have a new project which needs me to archive 21 pieces of artowrk that have multiple photo images for aech, and they are large size originals. Can I upload these files to a folder in Time Machine or directly on my external drive, so I don't have to have all of these files taking up space on my main computer?

You can, but it is not recommended.
Apparently you cannot partition an existing Time Capsule volume if that is what you are using.
Excerpt from ASC contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
3. Can I use my TM disk for other stuff?
Yes. Time Machine will not delete anything you put there.
But it's much, much better to partition an external drive into 2 (or more) parts, also called volumes. Assign one to Time Machine, for its exclusive use for backups; use the other partition(s) however you want.
(Unfortunately, though, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal disk. See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some alternatives)

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the b.u. stops

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the backup stops. The system preferences are set to "Never" for Computer sleep and Display sleep. The computer does not ordinarily log off automatically, but it has done this twice since I started the Time Machine backup.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Can i resume a Time Machine backup of an attached external drive (no system, just data) on a different laptop?

I am trying to find out if I can use a Time Machine (specifically on a 2013 Time Capsule) backup of an external drive (only data, no system) attached to a laptop, and then connect that same external drive to another laptop and resume the backup? Or is the Time Machine backup of an attached external drive a laptop "dependant" backup?
Additional info: The laptops in question are 15" MacBook Pro and a 17" MacBook Pro from 2011 running OSX 10.9 (Mavericks)

You are welcome.
I don't think there is a need to start a new discussion unless you want to.
You should have more than one backup of each computer. Hard drives do fail. Time Machine can alternate drives or have a Time Machine and a clone.
The concern arises because i was told that when a wireless Time Machine backup is interrupted the sparsebundle gets sort of "locked" or "damaged", and although the backups can be accessed, no further Time Machine backup is possible. One must that a brand new backup.
Apple support article. Don't let the title bother you. Look at Additional Information, which explains what happens when a backup gets interrupted. I also am including a link for troubleshooting. C3 explains what you can try if the backup is interrupted.
Time Machine First Backup Interrupted
Time Machine Troubleshooting

How do I tell Time Machine to do a backup now?

I thought there was a way to tell Time Machine to make a backup now. However, I can't find a place to tell it to make a backup. Any suggestions?

Hey Eric,
Aah, there it is!
Thanks for helping me find that again,
Charlie

How can Time Machine be configured to backup external drives?

I was running out of space on my Mac internal hard drive. I bought an external drive and moved all of the iTunes data to the external. It freed up 100 MB on my internal drive. However, Time Machine isn't backing up the data that I moved to the external drive.
I still want to back up that data. How do I configure Time Machine to backup both my internal Mac drive as well as the external drive, which is seperate from my backup drive?
Thanks.

External drives are automatically added to the list of items excluded from Time Machine backups. To remove the exclusion, open the Time Machine preference pane, click the lock icon to unlock it if necessary, and then click Options.

How do i move time machine backup to a new, bigger external drive in lion?

i did some research and cma across severla different ways to transfer my time mashine backup from an old hd to a bigger one. i dont want to lose my backup and i just want to make sure im doing the right thing. also there were different ways of doing it in leopard and snow leopard so now im wonderign if there is another way of doing it in lion, which im usung.
any help is appreciated.
thank you

I would suggest you partition your new external drive and create a 2nd partition that's large enough to hold files you want to off load so you can free up space.
Or if you're using Time Machine, each backup is suppose to allow you to go back in time and restore files that have been deleted or modified since the last backup. So, if you were to start using your new external drive and performed an initial full backup in Time Machine; then delete your iPhoto file and do another backup, you should be able to go into Time Machine and restore your iPhoto file from your first backup. I would still off load the files to a 2nd partition just to be on the safe side and if Time Machine backups were to somehow become corrupted. Any important files, in my opinion, should be backed up in more than one place... just in case.

My Fantom backup drive is failing. I want to copy the time machine contents to a new backup drive and continue on as if nothing has happened. Can I do this and if so how? I have intel iMac running Mountain Lion. Fantom Drive via Firewire 800.

My Fantom backup drive is failing and I have to send it in for warranty repair. Before I do that I want to copy the time machine contents to a new drive and then use it for the backup, continuing on as if nothing had gone wrong with the first drive. Can I do this? Is it as simple as duplicating the first drive and replacing it with the second? New drive arrives Tuesday PM and both drives have dual firewire 800 ports.

I have used the Disk Utility to verify the contents of the backup drive so I don't think I have any corrupt files. The drive just takes a minute or so to spin up to speed. If I turn it off and then back on, it beeps at me for a few seconds and then starts it's slow process of trying to spin. I think it's a power problem not a data problem. I have my fingers crossed that it holds on until Tuesday PM when the new drive arrives. I'm thinking that my two options are to duplicate the bad drive or partition the new drive and put the old backups on one partition and start afresh on the second partition. Any input?
And thanks to both of you for the valuable information so far!

Time machine data transfer to an external drive.

Hello,
I have been using time machine to backup to a 500 gig Internal hard drive. Now I want to use that Hard drive for a Windows partition. To that end, I recently purchased a Buffalo 2-500 gigs external hard drive. Now how do I transfer the full data from the internal time machine'd hard drive to the external, and continue to use the external hard drives for time machine? Also, should I somehow "link" the two externals to backup across both when one gets full?
Message was edited by: HandbellRingr
Message was edited by: HandbellRingr

HandbellRingr,
I'm going to add some clarification to V.K.'s excellent instructions...
Before attempting to "restore" your TM backup volume to another drive, use Disk Utility to create a new partition map on the new drive:
First, eject and disconnect your Time Machine backup drive, then connect and mount the new drive. In Disk Utility, select the new drive (the drive, not the named volume that will appear indented below the drive) in the list on the left, and switch to the "Erase" tab. Choose "Mac OS Extended (journaled)" from the pull-down menu, then click "Erase." Provided you have the drive selected when you do this, it will write a new partition map, compatible with OS X and Time Machine, on the new drive, thus insuring that you don't run into problems when restoring.
Once you have erased the drive, switch to the "Restore" pane. Turn off Time Machine, then connect your Time Machine backup drive. When it mounts and shows up in Disk Utility, drag the named volume on which your Time Machine backup is stored from the list on the left to the "Source" field in the body of the Disk Utility window (do not attempt to drag it from the Finder into the window). Next, drag the named volume on your new external drive from the list on the left into the "Destination" field. Check the box labeled "Erase destination," then click "Restore." It'll take a while.
Scott

Can Time Machine restore files to an external drive?

I normally keep my iTunes folder on an external USB drive because it does not fit on my 80gig internal drive. I was able to successfully use Time Machine to back up my iTunes folder to a dedicated external Time Machine drive (great!). I now want to restore my iTunes folder to a new bigger external drive that I purchased to replace my exiting USB drive which is beginning to have some problems.
Here is my challenge: When I try to restore my iTunes folder (60gig) I am not prompted for a destination. I believe Time Machine is attempting to restore to my desktop? Since my internal drive doesn't have capacity how can I restore my iTunes folder directly to an external drive?

Axel,
Yes, I'm certain. I store my own iPhoto and iTunes libraries on a secondary partition of my internal hard drive, so I am familiar with this usage. As it turns out, I also have a partition created on my external drive, the same one being used for TM, that has the same name as my secondary internal partition.
When I open the mounted partition that has the same name as the internal secondary, then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, I am taken to the backup of the secondary internal partition. If I select my iPhoto library (for example), then click the "Restore" button, I am returned to the "current" Finder, where the library is being copied to the same-named external partition.
A potentially confusing explanation , but it affirms that Time Machine is looking at the volume's name.
Scott

How do I tell Time Machine to add a new external drive to be backed up?

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