HT201250 If I use Time Machine on my MacBook can I use the hard drive on the same MacBook as the back up drive ?

I want to use Time Machine but instead of using a hard drive outside of the MacBook, would I be able to use the hard drive that is in the computer? 
Would I be able to use a memory stick ?

It defeats the purpose of having a backup if you keep it on the same drive. That's your safety if your drive fails.
Also, you should allow about double the space of the volume you are backing up.
EDIT: Time Machine does keep local snapshots on your drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878
See this for more good TM tips...
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

Similar Messages

  • Just bought a Macbook Pro. I want a clean install so won't use a Time Machine backup but how can I install the software I bought from Apple Store? can I just delete it from the old machine that is going to someone else?

    Just bought a Macbook Pro. I want a clean install so won't use a Time Machine backup but how can I install the software I bought from Apple Store? can I just delete it from the old machine that is going to someone else?

    The ne
    The new machine has Mavericks which is fine. And I will leave it as is. I don’t want anything from my old machine other than 2 apps that I will need on the new one. I want to be able to install those apps that I bought from the App Store onto my new computer. I assume Apple doesn’t want me to have the apps installed on 2 machines at the same time so I wonder if just uninstalling them from my old machine will release them for re-install on the new one.

  • How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive.  I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed.  Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.

    How can I force Time Machine to make a complete backup of my Hard Drive.  I just installed a new external drive for Backup since my previous one failed.  Now when I back up, Time Machine only backs up my data folder and the Users folder.
    When I start a backup. Time Machine says "Oldest Backup: None; Latest Backup: None", so it seems like it should do a complete backup, but it only does a partial. 

    Hi I'd like to jump in here. Your app showed me this:
    Time Machine:
              Skip System Files: NO
              Mobile backups: OFF
              Auto backup: YES
              Volumes being backed up:
                        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 749.3 GB Disk used: 453.81 GB
              Destinations:
                        Plastic Wrapper [Local] (Last used)
                        Total size: 999.86 GB
                        Total number of backups: 64
                        Oldest backup: 2013-07-24 23:25:11 +0000
                        Last backup: 2013-11-17 01:40:47 +0000
                        Size of backup disk: Too small
                                  Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 453.81 GB X 3)
              Time Machine details may not be accurate.
              All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
              /sbin excluded from backup!
              /usr excluded from backup!
              /System excluded from backup!
              /bin excluded from backup!
              /private excluded from backup!
              /Library excluded from backup!
              /Applications excluded from backup!
    Aside from the size of my backup drive, which I will increase at some point, I'd really like to have time machine backing up all system folders, especially Applications. How to I reset this hidden exclusions?
    Thanks,
    Darcy

  • Can I have mavericks time machine on one partition of a WD  external hard drive and snow leopard data on another

    can I have mavericks time machine on one partition of a WD  external hard drive and snow leopard data on another

    If you want to and it is so large that it has room (350% is a good estimate for TimeMachine), then use a partition(s) to hold system restore images or bootable clones. Or VM images.
    Using SSDs most Mac Pro models can easily hold 6 or more storage devices inside, except the nMP cylinder 6,1's;  which do need external Thunderbolt and USB3.
    System drive / data / scratch / backup data / backups of system / ....
    I recommend a couple system backups, especially when faced with dual boot situations as well as an OS that is still undergoing updates and changes.

  • I manually deleted back-ups from Time Machine and now I can't empty the trash

    I manually deleted back-ups from Time Machine and now I can't empty the trash.

    Using Finder (deleting Time Machine backups) to manage Time Machine files is a mistake. The remedy is somewhat easy, but you will lose all the files on that TM drive.
    If there is nothing elese on the Time Machine drive, try reformatting the drive with Disk Utility. This will effectively remove the files from that drive from the trash. If you have files on this drive, temporarily copy the files to another drive, then reformat the TM drive.

  • Can i use time machine with a airport extreme and a external hard drive

    I have connected a hard drive to my airport extreme.
    Now i would like to use time machine to back up my computers, and would like to do this on the hard drive which is connected to my airport extreme.
    Next step is that i would like to be able to approach my external hard drive via the internet.
    Is this possible or not?

    Both are possible. However, Apple does NOT support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks attached to the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn). Doing so will potentially lead to data corruption and is highly not recommended. Please check out this excellent Pondini article for more details. This article also provides the Apple Support references that states Apple's position. Bottom line? If your backups are critical to you, then you may want to rethink your backup solution.
    As far as accessing the AirPort Disk from the Internet, the following is the basic steps to do so:
    Start the AirPort Utility > Select the AEBSn, and then, note the IP address shown.
    Select Manual Setup.
    Verify that Connection Sharing = Share a public IP address is selected on the Internet > Internet Connection tab.
    Select Disks, and then, select File Sharing.
    Verify that both the "Enable file sharing" and "Share disks over WAN" options are enabled.
    Verify that Secure Shared Disks = With a disk password. (Recommended)
    Verify that AirPort Disks Guest Access = Not allowed. (Recommended)
    Select Advanced, and then, select the Port Mapping tab.
    Click the plus sign to add a new port mapping.
    For Service, select the "Personal File Sharing" option. (Note: This option would only allow Mac clients to access the AirPort Disks. If you want both Macs and PCs to connect, you would need to leave this field at its default value and enter the appropriate SMB ports to the mix of ports to be opened.)
    In the Public UDP Port(s) and Public TCP Port(s) boxes, type in a 4-digit port number (e.g., 8888) that you choose. In the Private IP Address box, type the internal IP address of your AEBSn that you wrote down in step 1. In the Private UDP Port(s) and Private TCP Port(s) boxes, type 548. Click Continue.
    In the Description box, type a descriptive name like "AirPort Disk File Sharing," and then, click Done.
    Click on Update.
    To connect to the shared AirPort Disk from a remote location using a Mac:
    From the Finder > Go > Connect to Server.
    Enter the Pubic (WAN-side) IP address of the AEBSn, followed by a colon and the Public port number that you choose in step 11 of the previous procedure. For example: afp://www.mydyndnsdomain.com:8888 or afp://123.456.789.123:8888
    Click Connect.
    You should be prompted for your user name and password. The user name can be anything you like; the password should be the Disk password for the AEBSn that you created in step 6 previously.
    Click Connect.

  • How do I remove files from my Time Machine Backup and then how to exclude external hard drives from Time Machine?

    How can I remove external hard drives from the Time Machine and exclude them in the future?

    For deleting backups from Time Machine: http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
    For excluding things from backups: http://pondini.org/TM/10.html
    For general Time Machine advice (all courtesy of Pondini): http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

  • I am trying to restore my old Macbook Pro data using Time Machine on a new Mackbook Air from external hard drive, but when I install I get two different loggin accounts and I only want one loggin account

    I am trying to restore my old Macbook Pro data using Time Machine to a new Macbook Air from an external hard drive, but when I restore I get two diferrent loggin accounts and I only wnat one loggin account to access all my data/files?

    This web site might answer all of your Time machine questions:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
    Ciao.

  • I have backed up my disk using Time Machine.  Now I want to delete the backed-up files from my hard drive.  But when I do and reconnect the external hard drive, the files are also deleted on that.  What do I do?

    I have backed up my disk using Time Machine.  I then deleted the back-up files from my MacBook hard drive.
    I then reconnected my external hard drive and find the files I deleted from my hard drive are also deleted from
    my external hard drive.  Can someone tell my what what happened?  I'm confused.

    Hello,
    Time Machine is not a good way to do that, when it eventually needs more room it deletes old Backups to make room.
    If you really want to keep Files but remove them from the Internal Drive, then I'd get another external drive to copy or clone them to that is not used for TM.

  • External Hard Drive for Time Machine - 2 TB. Can I remove other external drives it was backing up?

    I have an external drive dedicated for Time Machine, it's 2 TB. Last year I started backing up computer (500 GB) and one external hard drive that has 500 GB. IAlso, I have another external drive that is 1 TB connected to my computer. I noticed last week that I was hearing that other external drive sounding funny, so I thought I would add it to Time Machine to back up. Now today my Time Machine failed. I tested the drive or verified the drive and all was well. My thought is because I added this drive to Time Machine it failed because of not enough room? Is there a way to remove that other external hard drive and go back to just the computer and the 500 GB?
    I did btw out of a panic mode buy the GDrive that has Thunderbolt with 3 TB, yet I can't use Thunderbolt because that plug is used for my monitor, bummer. But, maybe using this new external drive I can back up the 500, the computer and the 1TB. Any thoughts?

    aashton wrote:
    Now today my Time Machine failed. I tested the drive or verified the drive and all was well. My thought is because I added this drive to Time Machine it failed because of not enough room? Is there a way to remove that other external hard drive and go back to just the computer and the 500 GB?
    When you say the Time Machine failed, do you mean the drive containing the Time Machine backups failed, or what failed was trying to back up the new drive you added? If Time Machine was able to complete the first full backup of the new drive, then adding Time Machine didn't cause the problem, it was a coincidence. If Time Machine runs out of space it just starts deleting the oldest backup. I suppose it might fail on the first Time Machine run after the initial backup if it didn't have space to delete stuff. When you look at the Time Machine drive in the Finder, is it in fact full? If there's plenty of space left on it, it's not clear what the failure was about.
    Also, testing and verifying with Disk Utility will spot some problems but not all.
    aashton wrote:
    I did btw out of a panic mode buy the GDrive that has Thunderbolt with 3 TB, yet I can't use Thunderbolt because that plug is used for my monitor, bummer. But, maybe using this new external drive I can back up the 500, the computer and the 1TB. Any thoughts?
    Thunderbolt can be daisy-chained, so if it or other Thunderbolt devices have a pass-through port it might be possible to do all that. But it might be better to return the drive and get a USB 3 drive instead. It would be fast enough, cheaper, and more versatile. For a single hard drive (not a RAID or SSD), Thunderbolt is not really much faster than USB 3.

  • Time machine won't connect to my shared external hard drive connected to my airport utility

    I connected my hard drive directly to my iMac and have backed up my system. Ive since connected the external hard drive to my airport utility. I can save documents to my hard drive wirelessly however when I've tried to back it up again I'm unable to do so. The drive is visible when I go into utility settings I just can't back up to it. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

    Officially, like Bob said, it's not supported by Apple at all. Unofficially, it is really hit/miss for most people but may be worth a shot if you've got a spare afternoon to try it out.
    As an anecdote, I had a first-generation 802.11n AEBS and it did not work for me at all. However, a few years later, I upgraded to a 3rd Gen AEBS (Dual-Band), it has worked just fine. In fact, it recognizes the drive as a Time Capsule backup.
    My guess is it has or had something to do with converting Ethernet/Wi-Fi––>Router––>USB––>SATA (HDD) whereas the Time Capsule is simply Ethernet/Wi-Fi––>Router––>SATA (HDD). The Time Capsule is an ideal setup but if you've already got an AEBS and don't need two routers, it may be worth a shot.
    I'm using a Western Digital 2TB "green" drive with a cheapie Acomdata USB 2.0 enclosure between an iMac (ours) and a Macbook (hers). I still back my personal laptop up manually simply because of the tradeoff of speed vs. convenience. For instance, our iMac is wired via Gigabit Ethernet to the AEBS while my wife's Macbook is always wireless (via 802.11n). The difference in backup speed for either of them is rather indistinguishable but the initial backup takes more than a few hours depending on how many GB of data you have. Hooked up directly, the backup is a fraction of time in comparison. Therefore, the point is: If you regularly make LARGE backups (i.e. Virtual Machines, Videos, etc.), it's worth it to backup locally. Otherwise, if your backups are rather small (i.e. Text docs, a few songs, pictures, etc.), it's a wash.
    The idea of NAS for Time Machine backups is really nice but hardly ideal if you're routinely backing up large files (or equally large changes to them).

  • Time Machine Backups.backupdb with "Lacie Rugged 500GB External Hard Drive"

    So I bought a Macbook Pro Yesterday. I have a black Macbook from a few years ago and wanted to transfer my Hard Drive onto the new Macbook Pro. I have an external hard drive called "Lacie", made by rugged/neil poulton with 500GB of space. So yesterday I plugged it into my old Macbook and used time machine to store all of my data on the external hard drive. After it was done I plugged the external hard drive into my new Macbook. I ran Time machine and it took about an hour. Then I clicked on my "LACIE" hard drive icon on my desktop, and dragged the folder "Backups.backupdb" into my Hard Drive on my new laptop. Then a Copy window popped up and said "preparing to copy to Macintosh HD". After about 5-10 minutes the Copy Window displayed "Copying 489,020 items to Macintosh HD, Zero KB of 206.96 GB- Estimating time remaining..." I've left this window open for the past 2-3 hours and nothing has happened. It's still remaining at "Zero KB of 206.96 GB-Estimating time remaining...". Does anyone know how I can fix this problem? Did I skip a step? I feel like after 3 hours it would have at least transferred something or changed somehow. Should I rerun Time Machine?
    Thanks a lot.
    -Luke

    jpdemers wrote:
    Copying a Time Machine archive from one hard drive to another is a very slow process, especially over a USB connection.  You're talking about almost half a million separate files, and the drive not only has to write them all, it has to create a directory that lists and locates all of them.  I'm not sure why the Finder's "Copy" window sticks at zero KB., but if you're patient (we're  talking 15 hours or thereabouts, depending on the performance of the drive), it will all get transferred eventually.  You can see the dated folders popping up on the target disk, if you check on it from time to time.
    I've done it for archiving purposes, prior to getting Firewire drives, but this is entirely the wrong way to transfer files to a new system.  (For one thing, you're copying thousands of system files that aren't relevant to the new Mac, and thousands more that already exist.)  Why do things the hard way, or the wrong way, when Setup Assistant was created for this specific task?
    Amen.

  • Time Machine via Ethernet? Can't find the option.

    I have a MyBook Duo that I want to use as my Time Machine back up. I want to do that via Ethernet. However when I go to Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk it opens up Airport and fails to find an HD - there is no Ethernet option.
    Am I doing something wrong?

    Hi Eric
    Firstly, thanks for your patience with this. I very much appreciate you taking the time to answer.
    The difficultly is that System Prefs > Time Machine doesn't offer me those options. As you can see, it has the external drive where I've been saving my backups via wireless here.
    However, having now connected via Ethernet, if I go to Select Disk I get this:
    If I go to Set Up Time Capsule it goes to Airport and searchers for a wireless connection and offers no alternate options.
    I suspect I'm doing something very dim, but I can't see why I can't get this to work.

  • Time Machine/Airport Update 1.0, how to move hard drive?

    Just installed the update for Time Machine and AirPort Update 1.0 and want to switch my external hard drive from being USB attached to my imac TO being USB attached to my AEBS.
    Moved the external hard drive to the AEBS (USB attached), Time machine sees this attached to the AEBS but gives an error saying not enough space, need 119mb on drive to work and do not see any of my past time machine backups.
    Is it possible to switch, or will I have to wipe out all the old backups to free up enough space on the HD to start a new Time Machine backup?

    Is it possible to switch, or will I have to wipe out all the old backups to free up enough space on the HD to start a new Time Machine backup?
    I think you will have to start afresh. Time Machine uses sparsebundle image for Time Capsule and Airport Disk, so very different from your previous backups on the USB external connected to your Mac. Wireless first backup may be a little slow, might want to do it overnight.

  • Can I Have Time Machine Doing 2 Separate Backups on 2 External Hard Drives

    Hi  Using Lion 10.7.2.  I had been backing up with Time Machine to a 500 GB external drive.  I just purchased a 2TB external drive.
    I'd like to know if I can have a backup going to each drive simulatenously? 
    I'm not confident from the TimeMachine preferences if it will continue to backup to the old drive as well.  I'd prefer two backups, since there's nothing wrong with the older drive.
    AS

    Hi  Using Lion 10.7.2.  I had been backing up with Time Machine to a 500 GB external drive.  I just purchased a 2TB external drive.
    I'd like to know if I can have a backup going to each drive simulatenously? 
    I'm not confident from the TimeMachine preferences if it will continue to backup to the old drive as well.  I'd prefer two backups, since there's nothing wrong with the older drive.
    AS

  • Time Machine and AirPort Updates v1.0 - killed my hard drive

    I just "updated" my software, installing the Time Machine and AirPort Updates v 1.0
    and I instantly lost my Time Machine hard drive, my MBP now says it is not recognizable and will likely have to be formatted. Is this happening to other people? Please be careful installing this update!

    From Maxtor's website:
    Cannot Erase External Disk Drive Errors in Mac OS X (10.5) - Leopard
    Description
    When trying to Erase an external drive in Mac OS X (10.5) Leopard, I get the error, Cannot Erase as seen in this video. How can I resolve this problem?
    Answer
    *Leopard (Mac OS X - 10.5) seems to be having problems reformatting external drives. This seems to be a common issue on Leopard that is seen on most brands of drives.*
    Note: This is not a problem with the External Drive. Rather, it is an issue with the Disk Utility found with Leopard.
    Suggestions - If reformatting the drive in Disk Utility fails, there are two options:
    Note: If you got to the point where you attempted to use disk Utility to Erase the external drive and it, failed, you may have to take the drive back to a Windows System to repartition and reformat. Click here to launch a video showing how to prepare an external drive using Windows Vista.
    Reformat the drive on an older version of Mac OS X.
    Boot off of the MacOS 10.4 DVD, access its Utilities Menu and prepare the external drive using Disk Utility
    Backup any data first, take the external drive to another Mac, launch Disk Utility and reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    If another version of Mac OS X is not available:
    Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
    Select the external drive and click on the Partition tab
    Click on the Current Volume Scheme drop-down menu and divide the drive into 2 (or more) partitions
    Click Options. From the Partition Schemes provided, click on the GUID Partition Table radio button. Click OK.
    Click Apply. The Partition Disk screen opens.
    Click Partition. At this point, the volume dismounts from the desktop and the drive is partitioned and formatted into multiple drives with GUID Partition Table scheme.
    Note: When Volumes are created, Time Machine may open asking if you would like to use the volume for backups. Click Cancel to proceed.
    When finished, select the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu and choose Quit Disk Utility (recommended)
    Relaunch the Disk Utility, select the external drive
    and click on the Partition tab
    Click on the Current Volume Scheme drop-down menu and select One (1) partition.
    Click Options. From the Partition Schemes provided, click on the Apple Partition Map radio button. Click OK. Select other options as desired (e.g., Volume Name, Install Mac OS 9 Drivers, etc.).
    Click Apply. The Partition Disk screen opens.
    Click Partition. At this point, the volume dismounts from the desktop and the drive is partitioned and formatted into multiple drives with Apple Partition Map scheme.
    Note: When Volumes are created, Time Machine may open asking if you would like to use the volume for backups. Click Cancel to proceed.
    When finished, select the Disk Utility from the Apple Menu and choose Quit Disk Utility (recommended)

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