How should I back up? - Ethernet HD vs Time Machine

The rundown:
-I think it would be pointless to back up my whole computer since I just want certain files / folders to remain secured.
-I want to have access to these files remotely (do not want .mac account)
-Want the functionality of NAS drive to share media / files w/ others on my small home network.
With that said, I have so many options, but I have read nothing that leads me to get an NAS drive since Time Machine is hit or miss with it. Or I could use Carbon Copy Cloner (anyone used this?) w/ an NAS drive to back up the folders I want.
Any suggestions? I have reached an impasse in my research as to the best option. How should I back up my important files and folders?

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I am trying to download lion with the thumb drive how do i back up my files is time machine good enough or must i transfer everything to my hard drive

I am trying to download lion with the thumb drive how do i back up my files is time machine good enough or must i transfer everything to my hard drive

A erase of the drive or boot partition is not always necessary.
Flashing question mark at boot could be a easy fix, sometimes it's the firmware that simply forgot what bootable volume to boot from.
Try holding the Option key down while booting the machine, a choice of bootable options appears, select your OS X and boot up.
When you get in, head to System Preferences > Startup disk and set it again new. This will tell the firmware what to boot from. Test it to see.
Now if you don't have a selection of bootable options, it could be that the drive is dead, or OS X is erased or corrupted so it can't boot.
You'll have to run through this list of fixes to see what's going on, if you need a hardware fix or what, I've also included links if you can't fix it and need to recover your data etc.
(If it's not remmebering your boot selection then also run through the list to reset things.)
Step by Step to fix your Mac

How to connect a home Ethernet network and Time Machine?

My home is wired for Ethernet, but I cannot figure out how to make it active.
Currently I have my cable modem connected to a Time Machine. Then, the Time Machine is connected to the Ethernet lines that run through my house. If I try to connect my laptop to one of the Ethernet jacks in the house, it does not work. I can however connect the laptop to the Time Machine directly with no issues.
Any ideas on what I may be missing?
Thank you.

The Time Capsule is indeed a wireless router, also having three Ethernet ports. So it should be capable of handling up to three devices connecting via Ethernet and routing them to the Internet through your cable modem which should be connected to the WAN port on the Time Capsule.
Again, if you connect a computer directly to one of the Ethernet ports in the Time Capsule and it works to get you to the Internet, but you then connect one of the in-wall Ethernet lines to that same port in the Time Capsule and connect the same computer using the same patch cable to the other end of the in-wall Ethernet line and it doesn't work, then the in-wall cabling is bad.

How do I back up my files with Time Machine?

I have read the "frequently asked questions" regarding setting up my TM, but none address my specific problems which all began when I could no longer launch iPhoto.
Issues:
1. iPhoto. When I launch it there is a gray screen with a spinning white windmill in the middle. I have let it launch for over a half hour and there was zero change. I have tried several things suggested on this site, but nothing seems to help. I read that I should first back up my iPhoto files before I created a new photo library.
2. When I open Time Machine and slide it to ON, my only option is to CREATE A TIME CAPSULE and I have no idea how to do that???
All I want to do was upload some pictures from my camera!
I am a very new Mac user and would appreciate any help with these issues.

First off, in order to answer your question about how to set up Time Machine, you'll need to follow these steps:
1) Get some sort of backup drive to back your stuff up onto. Preferably you'll want it to be mac formatted already, however it is possible to erase a PC formatted drive to work on the mac.
2) Plug the drive into your Mac, and it will ask if you want to use it as a time machine volume, choose yes. If this message doesn't come up, go to time machine and choose to select drive, then choose your backup hard drive.
You'll want to get a external drive that can store more information than your computer can store. Portable USB drives are the most convenient since they don't need extra cables and are light and small. I would recommend a 320GB or 500GB+ external hard drive.
Your first time machine backup will occur within about 2 minutes of agreeing to use the drive as a time machine volume.
As for your major issue, please make sure you've done the time machine backup before continuing on to the next steps.
iPhoto issue troubleshooting:
1) Hold down command, option and click on iPhoto to launch it. It should give you some options to rebuild the iPhoto library. Begin by trying a few of those before continuing on to more serious solutions.
2) Hold down option and click on iPhoto to launch it, then choose to create a new iPhoto library. See if iPhoto launches okay from there.
To recover your old photos, you'll want to go to your Pictures folder (in your home folder), find the iPhoto Library -- the old one you originally used, not the new one you just created. Right click (or hold control and click) on the iPhoto Library file and choose "Show Package contents". Inside the new folder you'll want to look for a folder called Masters. You can drag that folder onto iPhoto and it will begin importing all your old photos.
Alternatively, a software called iPhoto Library Manager has a repair option that you can try:
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

My Macbookpro will not start up. At first it was showing a gray screen with a flashing folder and question mark. I went through the steps to repair with disc utility and this did not work. How do I back up my data, without time machine activated?

I need to back up my files and date before erasing my drive, but my time machine backup is not coming up. How do I access my hard drive to back up my files?

A erase of the drive or boot partition is not always necessary.
Flashing question mark at boot could be a easy fix, sometimes it's the firmware that simply forgot what bootable volume to boot from.
Try holding the Option key down while booting the machine, a choice of bootable options appears, select your OS X and boot up.
When you get in, head to System Preferences > Startup disk and set it again new. This will tell the firmware what to boot from. Test it to see.
Now if you don't have a selection of bootable options, it could be that the drive is dead, or OS X is erased or corrupted so it can't boot.
You'll have to run through this list of fixes to see what's going on, if you need a hardware fix or what, I've also included links if you can't fix it and need to recover your data etc.
(If it's not remmebering your boot selection then also run through the list to reset things.)
Step by Step to fix your Mac

How should I pick up and go with Time Machine running

I have noticed that since Time Machine backs up my computer often, programs hang up and don't close right away. I'm often on a short window to pack up my machine and go to a meeting. Can I just pull all the plugs out and go? Ejecting the disk seems to take a lot of time when a backup is occuring.
What's the best way to do an immediate disconnect from the external hard drive?

_*Can I just pull all the plugs out and go?*_
And the answer to this would be a resounding... NO !!
As a general rule, you should always eject your drive by dragging it to the trash... and waiting for it to dismount before you disconnect it. Just pulling the cable... especially when the system is in the middle of a back up, WILL result in damaging your backup... making the point of having a back up pretty useless. While it is nice to get back ups every 15 minutes... it can be a hog on resources. You may just want to connect your external drive when you know you'll be in one place for quite a while... or use something like Carbon Copy Cloner (SuperDuper is more popular, but does not yet make bootable backups for machines with Leopard installed) to make backups when you want them.

How do I back my computer up using Time Machine?

Hello,
I've been using the same external drive for a while now and recently went to back my computer up. The disk did not have enough room for my information so I had it set to "delete oldest backups." Thinking it would do that, I didn't think it would be much of a problem. It still gave me the error message that I didn't have enough room, even though I believe I wiped the drive clean. After I did that it told me I have about 380gb worth of information to back up but it still only had the available 102gb listed as available space. I know with the 380gb it wants to perform a completely new back up, but why is it still saying I only have 102gb left on my drive, even though I thought I wiped it clean? Can anybody help me? Thank you!

why is it still saying I only have 102gb left on my drive, even though I thought I wiped it clean?
Because it needs a reboot to regonize the new drive space.
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How should i back-up my PC to transfer my files to iMac and continue on iMac for back-up?

I'm upgrading to an iMac very soon. What/how should i back-up my PC, then migrate to my iMac, and then continue to use hard drive to continually back-up my iMac? I'm concerned about compatibility issues and formatting and so on...

Hi there BDempster,
You may find the information in the articles below helpful.
iOS: How to transfer or sync content to your computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1296
iTunes 11 for Windows: Sync contacts, calendars, and other info with iPod, iPhone, or iPad
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12317
You can use iTunes to sync the contacts, calendars, notes, Safari bookmarks, and email account information on your computer with your iPod, iPhone, or iPad. iTunes also syncs this information from your device to your computer—for example, if you add contacts on your iPad, syncing adds those contacts to Windows address book or Outlook Express on your computer.
-Griff W.

Difficulty scanning slides on my Epson V600 running Lion, Adobe Photoshop CS6, and can no longer use the Epson scan application or the plug in for Photoshop. Should I revert back to leopard in my time machine to finish scanning my family slides?

I am running Lion 10.7.5, Adobe Photoshop CS6, scanning slides on my Epson V600 and can no longer use the scan application or the plug in for Photoshop. Should I revert back to leopard in my time machine to finish scanning my family slides?
In 10.7 there is not a twain that works with Photoshop for importing with all the options needed to scan transparencies. I noticed that when I was scanning in October 2012 I was still using CS6 so somehow I was managing to be able to use all the scan features.
They sell 2nd party software (VieScan and Silverscript)which I found to be just mimially OK and very hard to use.
I just want to scan like I used to.
Can I use time machine to go back to an earlier operating sysytem LEOPARD, and then do my scans and then save the photos and them go back to the LION system?
I spent 7 hours trying crazy solutions - downloading Windows CS2 Photoshop and then using a program so I could run it on the apple. Then I couldn't figure out how to put a plug in for the scanner in the stupid windows Photoshop program. Googgling the computer like a mad woman trying to ask questions. I am not giving up...
Please help if you can...
Thanks...

I assume you've tried using Image Capture. Give VueScan a try.
http://www.hamrick.com

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just don not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete the them t

The memory on my MAC is full. It holds 4GB of RAM of which 79GB are photos. I would like to back up my photos to an external drive but just do not know how. I do not wish to use time machine. How do I back up my photo library, then delete them from my MAC to free up that 79GB? Thank you.

Hi
Just to clarify a couple of points in your post.
RAM (memory) is different from hard drive space. You have 4GB of RAM, but that has no bearing on the amount of drive space you have, of which we know that 79GB are photos.
If those photos are in iPhoto, you should be able to move the entire iPhoto Library, from the Pictures folder, to your external hard drive. You can just drag and drop. Do not have iPhoto open while you're doing this. Once it's done, you can double-click on the moved iPhoto Library file to associate it with iPhoto, so that the app remembers where the library is for next time.
One more thing. When you move a file to a different location, and then delete the original, you don't have a backup. You still only have one copy. So if that external drive dies, you will lose all your photos. Time Machine is a very good way to prevent this from happening. You should dedicate a different drive for Time Machine backups.
Matt

How to migrate my past user data via time machine (not the latest back up)

Does anyone know how do i migrate my past data from time machine. I read the step posted on http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413 but does it migrate the latest back up?
How can i migrate a older time stamp data?
Thanks.

If you want to restore the entire computer using a backup other than the most recent you'll need to use your computer's restore DVD (the grey one) or your commercial Leapard DVD to boot the computer. Then look under the utilities menu for Restore. Both Migrate and Setup Assistant automatically select the most recent TimeMachine backup.
Pondini's Time Machine site has everything you've always needed to know about TimeMachine but didn't know you should ask. You might want to take a look before you proceed.

I have three computers backing up onto the same Time Machine. The Hard drive of one has now failed, and I'd like to restore certain items (principally photographs) to one of the other two computers. How can I do this?

I have three computers backing up onto the same Time Machine. The Hard drive of one has now failed, and I'd like to restore certain items (principally photographs) to one of the other two computers. How can I do this?

"You can also browse the original backup disk for past backups by using "Browse other Time Machine Disks"--to see this choice, hold the Option key then click the Time Machine menu in the Finder (to see the menu, "Show Time Machine status in the menu bar" must be selected in Time Machine preferences."
Mac 101: Time Machine

How do I access my back up files from the time machine if my computer was stolen?

Hi, how do I access my back up files from the time machine if my mac book pro was stolen? I have a mac book air and mac too. But not sure how I can get back all the files from the stolen computer from my time capsule

On the Mac Book Air or other Mac that you have, use Migration Assistant to transfer files from the Time Machine backups of the Mac that was taken.
Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant

How do I access my encrypted User Account files from my Back Up hard drive? Time Machine was used to create the back up disk; File Vault was used to encrypt the files.

How do I access my encrypted User Account files from my Back Up hard drive? Time Machine was used to create the back up disk; File Vault was used to encrypt the files.

Thanks. I will try going through TM. Since my Simpletech is on the way out, I'll be plugging in a new external hard drive (other than the back-up drive) and trying to restore the library to the new drive. Any advice or warning if this is NOT the right thing to do?
Meanwhile, that is a great tip to do an alternate back-up using a different means. It's been tough to figure out how to "preserve access" to digital images and files for posterity, knowing the hardware will always fail/obsolesce sooner or later, and that "clouds" are only as good as their consistent and reliable accessibility. Upping the odds with redundancy will help dull the edge of my "access anxiety", though logically, it can never relieve it. Will look into
Carbon Copy Cloner.

How do I back up music on my time capsule?

How do I back up music on my time capsule? I want to remove it from my computer because I have too much music to store on the computer. I want to access the music to put on other devices too. What is the best way to do that? I just set up my airport time machine today and have never used one.

You can move the iTunes library to the TC.. but it has consequences..
Moving it is the easy part.. Apple have specific instructions.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - Apple Support
The problem is the TC is far from ideal place to move the library to.. a USB drive plugged into the computer (USB3 if you have it is very fast.. but even USB2 is faster than TC).
Once the library is there.. you will have a few issues.
1. You cannot back it up with Time Machine.. so you must take steps to back it up manually or using a third party utility.
2. Where are you going to back up to.. a USB plugged into the TC is the worst possible location as any file copy will be exceedingly slow.
3. The network drive will tend to continually drop out.. and Apple did not design the TC with media extensions.. so it is nothing but a dumb as a board HDD in a router.. it will give constant errors in iTunes that it has lost the library because of the time it takes for the disk to respond to requests.
4. The best way is to not put your Media library onto the TC at all.. but Good Luck..

How should I back up? - Ethernet HD vs Time Machine

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