HT201250 How do I use Time Machine to back up an External Drive to another External Drive?
Hello,
I have two 8TB Western Digital External Hard Drives with Thunderbolt ports. I have already set up a 500GB G-TECH Mini to use as the Time Machine backup for my MacBook Pro. Now, I would like to set up one of my 8TB drives to be the back up for my other 8TB drive, yet I seem to only be able to back up the MacBook Pro with Time Machine.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Connect both 8TB externals to the computer, then do the following:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the 8TB drive to which you will copy. Source means the 8TB drive you will copy.
Similar Messages
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I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html -
HOW CAN I USE TIME MACHINE TO BACKUP ONLY PART OF MY FILES ON EXTERNAL D?
Hi, I am using time machine to back up all my files at the moment. but I want to get rid of video and photo material from my laptop and keep it on the external hard drive to which the time machine backs up my stuff.
how can i do this without losing the video and photo files permamnently?
thank a lot!nefsi wrote:
doesn't time machine back up my files on the External hard disk?
By default, Time Machine backs-up almost everything on your internal HD to your External HD. It can also back up things on an external HD, if you want it to.
What I would like is, to find a way so that I could back up everything, but not have all the videos and photos I do not use often, on my laptop. instead I want to put them on the external hard drive and have time machine update all the other files.
Yes, you can do that, but there are two considerations:
You should partition the external HD so the TM backups are in one partition, and the other files are in the other partition. A partition (also called a volume), is treated like a separate disk for most purposes. See #3 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
You should find another way to back-up the videos and photos in that other partition, such as archiving them to CDs/DVDs.
In other words, can Time machine back up only some of my files?
Yes. You can exclude things from Time Machine. See #10 in the FAQ Tip. If you partition your TM drive, the other partition on it should be excluded automatically; but if it isn't, you can easily add it to the +Do not back up+ list in TM Preferences > Options.
For detailed instructions on making another partition on your external HD, see #6 in the FAQ Tip. It shows how to add a TM partition to a drive that already has other data on it, but the procedure is the same. -
I want to use Time Machine to back up my pictures because my hard drive is full but I'm wondering if once I back up the pictures then delete them will time machine delete them off the back up too?
Evetually yes.
If your pictures have been in the same location (same folder, same subfolder, ...) for more than a week, then copies if them will remain in your TM backups until it fills up. They are then vulnerable to being deleted.
If they've been there for less than a week, TM could delete them as early as a month from now. If they've been there for only a few hours, chances are TM will delete them tomorrow.
This is why TM is not the best tool to use to archive data that you will be deleting from your main hard drive. Copy them to a dedicated external drive, or burn DVDs. -
How do I Use Time Machine to back up external HD
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So, why is Spotlight not giving me results on my Time Machine BACKUP external drive??? -
How can I use time machine to back up and play media?
I just bought an external hard drive that I wanted to back up some media files onto (music and photos). I also want to stove videos/movies on the hard drive and play them from there. A few questions:
1. Is that the same as backing up with time machine or is it referred to as something else?
2. Can I use time machine to add new files, or should I do that manually?
3. Once the files are on my hard drive, can I remove them from my computer or should I keep them there?
I know that these questions may seem obvious, but I'm concerned about losing files because I don't understand what time machine actually does. Please feel free to ask me questions if you need to understand my question better. Thanks!Time Machine makes a backup of your hard drive, which you can restore from, but not use as a repository of data.
Time Machine automatically makes incremental backups as you change things on the Mac HD.
Time Machine is not an archive, meaning if you make a backup, and then delete the originals from your Mac, Time Machine will eventually delete the copies it has made.
However, if you copy the files directly to the external, then you can remove them from the computer. But, those will be your only copies. If that disk dies, they'll be gone. So, that's really not a backup. It's the only source.
You can back up to Time Machine and also store other files on the same disk. -
HT201250 how do I get Time Machine to back up files (e.g. iPhoto) stored on an external hard drive?
Installed a new 3TB external hard drive for Time Machine. I have 2 other external hard drives attached to my iMac that contain iTunes and iPhoto. How can I point Time Machine to those external drives to include in the backup?
What is listed in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options... > Exclude these items from backups:?
Any attached external disk not listed there should be backed up. -
HT201250 how to restore using time machine backup
What is the procedure to restore using time machine
Look at this page from the Pondini website:
http://pondini.org/TM/14.html
If you should have other questions about Time Machine they in all probability will be answered in other portions of this site.
Ciao. -
HT201250 How can I use Time Machine to reinstall Itunes 10.7? Itunes 11 is just horrible.
Itunes 11 was installed by accident. I hated it instantly and after two hours with it, hated it even more. I removed it but didn't know that this terrible software is a virus. It infects dozens of files in the OS and you can not go back to an earlier version.. Any version I install won't recognize either of my Ipods and gives me all kinds of errors. There must be a way to clean my system of this terrible malevolence and get me back to a good version of Itunes. I have talked with two technicians at Apple. One didn't know what to do at all and the other told me to erase my hard drive. In other words, they have no clue what this viral software does or how to deal with it. I know there are people out there who know more than Apple technicians. That wouldn't be too hard. Can anyone help me rid myself of this nightmare?
I'll tell you why. It is not only the library that is altered by 11. I was told by Apple support that it alters root files deep in the system making it virtually impossible to remove completely. What is a virus? It is unwanted software that buries itself in the system so you have to get special tools to remove it. And a virus often also alters other files to make them ureadable and causes strange sustem errors. I have all of these problems
I was updating other software that had nothing to do with itunes when this happened. A window came up saying my software needed updating. I thought the window came from the software i was trying to update but apparently it was the Apple Software Update. Why it came up I do not know. I went ahead with it and it installed 11. Itunes 11 is not a "needed" update at all. So, I have software that is not wanted or needed that buries itself in the system, causes sytem errors, alters files to make them unreadable and can not be removed. That's a virus.
I don't care about the library. I can replace that anytime. What I want is a detailed procedure from Apple developers listing what files were changed and how to safely remove and replace them to give me a working version of Itunes 10.4 that I was using before.
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Using time machine to back up additional external drives
My mac mini contains a 160 gb hard drive. Aiming to keep this free, I connected a 500 gb WD mac-specific hard drive. I also use this drive when attempting to access work files on my macbook pro. When using time machine, which backs up to a 1 TB WD hard drive (also attached to the mac mini), I cannot figure out how to use time machine to back up simultaneously the contents of the native (160 gb) drive in the mac mini and the contents of the portable external drive (500 gb). *Is there any way to set time machine to accomplish this?* Please help - I really need to continually back up the contents of the portable drive as well.
carbon copy cloner will do this. you set up a scheduled job (can be daily, weekly, etc. & even every hour!) & is free to use (donations accepted).
http://www.bombich.com/ccc_features.html -
Re Time Machine
I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
can I split it the drive in two partitions?
Also
as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
OSX 10.68
the other is
OSX 10.75
can I back them up separately?
or even synch and merge files and folders etc? between the two?You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
But do not delete Time Machines files with the Finder -- that can cause it to lose its place and lose everything.
With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up. -
I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?
This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive. -
I am currently in Zambia on missions work and my computer is constantly exposed to heat. I have just been trying to avoid using it during the hottest part of the day. Today though, I started it up and it was stuck on the grey page with the rotating circle for over an hour, then once the circle left, it remained frozen on the gray page. I used command + r at startup to go to the utilities page to analyze the disk. It found that there were problems with the disk, but then it could not fix those problems and told me to backup as much information as I could and reinstall or redo it all. I haven't ever used time machine to back up any of my information, but i have an external drive that I can use right now to backup my files. I can't get into my computer though to backup the files. How can I use this external drive to backup my files while the computer is currently messed up? Please help.
Emergency Backups (Data Recovery)
A) Format an external disk:
(This will erase all data on the external disk.)
Boot in recovery mode (power then Command-R).
Alternative: Network recovery boot (power then Command-Option-R keys)
To format (and erase) the destination recovery disk:
Plug in the drive you are about to erase.
Select the volume that is NOT your system disk.
Click on Partition.
Pull down under Partition Layout to 1 Partition.
Click on Options…
Select GUID Partition Table.
Name: Emergency Backup (or whatever you prefer)
Format: Select Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Click Apply.
Click Partition.
B) Try to boot in Safe Mode (power then Shift key).
(This will be a slow boot. Be patient.)
If it won’t boot in Safe Mode, jump to C.
If it boots in Safe Mode, try to boot in normal mode.
If that fixed your problem then start a Time Machine backup.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4055
If not, boot in Safe Mode again.
Go > Computer.
Double click on the system disk.
Drag the Users folder to the recovery disk.
C) To clone the disk:
Boot in recovery mode.
Select Disk Utility.
Try to repair the system disk twice.
Whether or not the repair succeeds:
Drag and drop the system disk to Source:
Drag an drop Emergency Backup to Destination:
(Take care not to reverse this order.)
Click Restore (the lower Restore button).
Once your system is healthy, maintain two reasonably current backups. (Time machine restores can fail.)
Create either two Time Machine backups (good) or one or more Time Machine backup(s) and one or more bootable-clone backup(s) (better).
Use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to create bootable-clone recovery disks.
See https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
and https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031 -
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.
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i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?
Thank you. I followed the faq#14 (using setup wizard from the osx install disk). Everything went just as planned until I woke up this morning and noticed there was no progress on the "transferring documents" meter. It stopped about 1/4 of the way. I can hear the computer working and the bar is somewhat animated like it is advancing but it's not.
Should I cancel and restart or should I wait it out? It already been about 13 hours since I started the process. Do you think it is my time machine or my iMac? Maybe the time machine file is corrupt or something.
Anyway, any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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