HT201250 Can time machine back up external drives to external drives?

I was wondering if I can use Time Machine to back up external drives. I know it backs up just my Mac, but need to know if
it will back up an external drive to an external drive.

Open your Time Machine drive. Open the Backups.backupdb folder therein. Open the Computer Name (e.g., Adam Smith's iMac) folder. Open any folder there whose name contains a date later than when you attached your (other) external drive. You should see a list of folders representing the drives that are being backed-up. One is typically Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive. There should be one for your other external drive.

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Can Time Machine back up to 2 separate external drives?

I have one 1TB drive in addition to a 2TB drive. The 2TB drive is used by Time Machine. I'd like to add the 1TB to Time Machine's space. So I need Time Machine to back up to both drives. Is that possible? So my total backup space for Time Machine will be 3TB.

Only one backup drive at a time can be used. You can switch backup drives by changing the backup drive in TM preferences.
You can try creating a striped RAID array using Disk Utility and using the array as the backup destination. A striped array will give you the 3 TBs you want but it will appear to TM as a single backup device.
RAID Basics
For basic definitions and discussion of what a RAID is and the different types of RAIDs see RAIDs. Additional discussions plus advantages and disadvantages of RAIDs and different RAID arrays see:
RAID Tutorial;
RAID Array and Server: Hardware and Service Comparison.
Hardware or Software RAID?
RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
RAID is a method of combining multiple disk drives into a single entity in order to improve the overall performance and reliability of your system. The different options for combining the disks are referred to as RAID levels. There are several different levels of RAID available depending on the needs of your system. One of the options available to you is whether you should use a Hardware RAID solution or a Software RAID solution.
RAID Hardware is always a disk controller to which you can cable up the disk drives. RAID Software is a set of kernel modules coupled together with management utilities that implement RAID in Software and require no additional hardware.
Pros and cons Software RAID is more flexible than Hardware RAID. Software RAID is also considerably less expensive. On the other hand, a Software RAID system requires more CPU cycles and power to run well than a comparable Hardware RAID System. Also, because Software RAID operates on a partition by partition basis where a number of individual disk partitions are grouped together as opposed to Hardware RAID systems which generally group together entire disk drives, Software RAID tends be slightly more complicated to run. This is because it has more available configurations and options. An added benefit to the slightly more expensive Hardware RAID solution is that many Hardware RAID systems incorporate features that are specialized for optimizing the performance of your system.
For more detailed information on the differences between Software RAID and Hardware RAID you may want to read: Hardware RAID vs. Software RAID: Which Implementation is Best for my Application?

Can Time Machine back up data found on external USB HD?

Can Time Machine (under SL) back up data stored on an external USB drive? And if so, how does one get along to set this up? I mean, the options (preferences) dialogues for TM are so meagre!

hani7up wrote:
Can Time Machine (under SL) back up data stored on an external USB drive?
yes, it can.
And if so, how does one get along to set this up? I mean, the options (preferences) dialogues for TM are so meagre!
that's to make things easier. TM will back up any directly attached drive (internal or external) provided it's formatted MAC os extended. just connect the drive and remove it from TM exclusion list in TM system preferences->options.

HT201250 Can time machine back up external hard drives too?

I'm new to Time Machine. Can I set it up to back up both my internal HD and an external HD?
Thanks,
Carol

Yes but it's poor advice by Apple for the reason hardware fails just as often as software, if you drop that drive, you have ruined all your backups at the same time.
If you get malware, you have just infected all your backups at the same time.
Apple created TimeMachine and didnt provide a Windows version, in my opinion it's to trap as much as your data as possible so you can't decide to later to switch to a Windows PC without a great deal of pain and effort.
So the more drives you backup with Apple's TimeMachine the more data is trapped in it when the hardware or software fails.
The best advice is to have a multiple backup system and match each piece of hardware with two of it's own seperate hardware backups.
So if you have a boot drive, you need two external backups of it.
If you have a storage drive for extra space, then you need two more drives as backup of that.
Drives are cheap, data is not.
If you drop the only backup, get a power surge, or a criminal breaks in or a fire and it's dead or gone, or get malware, you won't know until it's already infected the first backup restored that it's still on the loose and need ot take stronger measures, your going to wish you had the second backup safe and sound someplace.
Most commonly used backup methods

HT201250 can time machine back up to icloud

Can I back up information straight to icloud instead of an external hard drive.

iCloud on your mac is not a backup solution. It's for syncing between devices. It will contain certain information, for example, mail (from an icloud account), contacts and calendars, but you should continue to backup to an external drive.

Can Time Machine back up a second external hard drive that is attached via usb to a Time Capsule?

Can Time Machine back up a second external hard drive that is attached via usb to a Time Capsule?
I have a iMac with 10.7.4

I want to back up the data on the external Hard Drive that is attached to the Time Capsule to the Tim Capsule using Time Machine.
Thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately, that will not work. You will need to connect the drive directly to your Mac if you want Time Machine to backup the drive to the Time Capsule.

HT201250 Can Time Machine backup files stored on external hard drive

Can Time Machine back up files that are stored on external hard drive and save them on a different external hard drive?
I have my pictures stored on an external hard drive connected to my iMac. I want to make an exact copy of the pictures folder on a separate external hard drive. Can Time Machine do that?
If yes, how?
If no, what's a good way to create a mirror of the folder on External Hard Drive #1 (the original) on External Hard Drive #2 (the backup)?
I am not opposed to manually copying every couple weeks or month, but (1) it's less convenient and (2) I got an error message the first time I tried this saying the files couldn't be copied because some of the files being copied had the same name as each other (not exactly that, I'm at work and don't have the message in front of me right now, but that was the gist of it).
Thanks!

1. Yes, if both drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Reformat the drives if needed, open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and remove the drive with the pictures from the list of items set to be excluded.
(110331)

Can Time Machine back up data stored on a mounted external drive?

Can Time Machine back up the data that I have stored on an external drive? It's mounted on the desktop but I can't seem to add it to Time Machine.
Is it that Time Machine doesn't back up mounted External Hard Drives? If so, does anyone have a hack?

then the problem is not those external drives. As I said, I've never seen this particular error message.
Try using a different connection or a different port for your TM drive. If that doesn't help I'm afraid your options are very limited.
Unfortunately, TM is configured in such a way that when anything goes wrong, there is usually nothing a user can do short of reformatting the TM drive and starting backups anew. I'm very much afraid that's what you are looking at.
At least, I have no other advice to offer.

Can 'Time Machine' back-up other external hard drives

Can 'Time Machine' back-up other external hard drives connected to your mac as well as the mac memory itself?

As Neil says, yes, it can. But external HDs are excluded by default; you have to tell Time Machine when you do want to back one up.
See the exclusions box in Time Machine Prefs > Options.
If the drive is shown in black, just select it and click the minus sign at the bottom.
If it's shown in gray, though, it's not formatted for a Mac, and Time Machine can't back it up (and you can't remove it).

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive?

How to Delete a Time Machine Backup - YouTube
If you want to remove an entire Time Machine backup on a backup drive, then the easiest way to do that is to erase the backup drive using Disk Utility. However, this will delete everything on the disk:
Drive Erase Snow Leopard and Earlier
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

Can Time Machine back-up to an external ethernet Harddisk?

Can Time Machine back-up to an external ethernet Harddisk?
I think it is only possible when the external drive is directly attached via USB or FireWire.
I do see the ethernet disk in Finder and have access to it via ethernet, but it does not show up in Time Machine.
What if I connect it to an Airport Extreme ethernet port?
Time Capsule will work, but only with the internal harddisk?
My Ethernet disk is a LaCie Ethernet Mini Disk which supports Mac OS X.
Thanks,
Benny

backups to NAS devices are not officially supported. the only exception is Time Capsule. It also works with an Airport Extreme base Station. There are hacks to enable backups to NAS but you use them at your own risk. see this link
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137&query=time%2Bmach ine%2BNAS

Can Time machine back up to two hard drives?

I want to make a Time machine back up to two different external hard drives. I can't use RAID-0 because the size of my external drives is different.

http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

Can Time Machine back up both an iTune and iPhoto Libraries saved on a NAS disk?

Can Time Machine back up both an iTune and iPhoto Libraries saved on a NAS disk, as well as the host drive on a Mac Mini?
I would like to know if Time Machine could back up these Libraries from a NAS and the host/main drive of a Mac Mini onto an 3rd external drive attached by Firewire?
Thanks

Archtech wrote:
Can Time Machine back up both an iTune and iPhoto Libraries saved on a NAS disk, as well as the host drive on a Mac Mini?
no.
time machine cannot backup networked drives.
however, ChronoSync may be able to do what you want.

Can time machine back up on a wireless network

I would like to find a way to back up my Mac other than on an external drive. Besdides Time Capsule, can Time Machine back up onto other wireless networks? Also, is there a preferred, Mac-friendly online backup available (that may or may not use Time Machine)? I was considering using Carbonite.

Time Machine can backup to any device that has Time Machine Extensions.. eg some NAS have this.. or another Mac. Maybe some routers with USB drives.. I have heard of Netgear Mac compatible models.. but never forget.. apple change things around with every OS release and these companies will always be playing catchup.
You may also find it not easy at all to setup Time Machine.. I use a Zyxel NAS single disk model that does support Time Machine.. it has been fine.. but the setup is far more complicated than any TC.
Very few other devices will have TM available .. but if you use a third party software, then they will generally backup to any shared partition or drive in the network.
Buy a second hand TC and modify the power supply.. put in a big hard disk.. you can simply plug it into the existing network.. you will find it hard to get anything cheaper that works as well.. and none that will be as easy to setup.
Fine if you give up on TM.. then whatever external drive the software uses.. no issues.. but TM is designed to only work on HFS+ partition.

HT201250 Can time machine back up external drives to external drives?

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