HT201250 Time machine back up using a external hard drive connected to the Airport extreme

How can I setup a time machine back up using a external hard drive connected to the Airport extreme? Even better for time managment purposes I want to use the Eithernet Thunderbolt connection for the first back up and then through the wifi there after for daily routine Time Machine back ups.

You can attach a hard drive, but Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port at the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple, so it's not possible to say what your actual results might be.
If you decide to try this, it would be wise to have a secondary backup plan in place as well.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • HT201250 I have thousands of pictures on my Mac.  If something happens to my Mac I don't want them lost.  I do time machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week.  Is this good enough for making sure my pictures don't ever get lost?

    I have thousands of photos on my Mac.  If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos.  I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week.  Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?

    tgs6164 wrote:
    I have thousands of photos on my Mac.  If something happens to my Mac obviously, I don't want to lose the photos.  I do Time Machine back ups to an external hard drive once a week.  Is this good enough to make sure my pictures don't get lost?
    Purchase a couple of these when they go on sale.
    Start burning all the photos onto DVDs. 
    At least you'll have all your photos if your computer, time machine or any other backup you use goes bonkers.

  • If i have Time Machine backed up on an external hard drive, do i just plug the drive into another macbook pro and all my stuff is in the new computer?  also, does it matter if the new computer is running Lion when the backed up info came from Snow Leopard

    If i have Time Machine backed up on an external hard drive, do i just plug the drive into another macbook pro and all my stuff is in the new computer?  Also, does it matter if the new computer is running Lion when the backed up info came from Snow Leopard 10.6.8?

    No and Yes
    Don't use TM for this purpose, clone your drive to an external, plug the external into another MBP and reboot from it. Please note that booting a machine that came with Lion may not be possible from a drive with Snow Leopard.

  • 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.

  • External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware

    External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware on Extreme as well as both of my Airport Expresses. Hard drive is USB connected to Extreme.

    Reboot the USB drive.. assuming it is powered.. or unplug and replug a self-powered drive.. (you should not use self-powered drives on AE before the latest model.. always use a powered hub).
    Does the drive now appear in finder..
    If not reboot both drive and the AE.. it should now appear.
    If it doesn't work with direct connection try a powered hub.. that can help.

  • Time machine backing up a second external hard drive

    I currently have time machine backing up my imac to an external hard drive.I now want to back up a second external hard drive which contains all of my photographs to create some space on my imac.
    Can this be done and if it can how is this done?
    Thanks
    Peter

    First, be sure your TM drive is big enough for all your data (see item #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.)
    Second, make sure the new external is set up with the GUID (preferred for Intel Macs) or +Apple Partition Map+ (preferred for PPC Macs) *Partition Map Scheme* and the +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ Format.
    Then all you have to do is, go to TM Preferences > Options, select the drive in the +Do not back up+ box and click the minus sign at the bottom. That will change the +Estimated size of full backup+ under the box.
    Once the new drive with the moved photos has been backed-up, and the old ones on your internal HD deleted, you can, if you want, delete all the backups of the old ones to gain some space on your TM drive. See item #12 of the FAQ Tip.

  • HT201250 Time Machine backup of internal AND external hard drive

    I have an iMac with an internal hard drive for everything BUT photos and music and an external hard drive for only photos and music. If I hook up a second external hard drive will Time MAchine back up both my external (music/photos) hard drive AND my internal hard drive?

    You will be able to back up the external drive, but you will have to modify settings. Time Machine only makes backups of your OS X partition by default.
    Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and remove the external drive from excluded items, so it will be backed up. I recommend ot have your external drive formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

  • Why won't Time Machine back up onto this external hard drive?

    I re-formatted a SimpleTech 320gb hard drive so it would erase the music and videos on it and format it for use with Time Machine. I thought it all went smoothly but then the initial back up which is about 91gb stops after it backs up about 22gb and says an error occured. No matter how many times I restart everything and try to back up more, it doesn't work. I've even tried using disk utility to erase it and that didn't work either. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

    First, deselect the drive as your TM backup drive, then turn off TM. Now try this:
    Extended Hard Drive Preparation
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    Be sure to re-select the drive for the TM backup drive.

  • Time Machine backing up on two external hard drives.

    Hi guys!
    My question is if I can use two external HDs at the same time with Time Machine, backing up different content on each one?!
    Let's say:
    My Movies folder and My Music folder to external HD 1;
    My Documents folder and My Pictures folder to external HD 2.
    Is there a way of doing it? because my iMac has 250GB and my external HDs have 100GB and 80GB each one.
    Thanks!

    You might have a better chance of getting a solid answer to this question over in the Time Machine forum. In general since TM does incremental backups anything smaller than your current system drive is usually too small. However you can designate TM to only backup certain files and folders. I do not know if you can set it to back up to multiple drives/partitions as there is no user setting to do this.
    George

  • Time Machine Back ups on an external hard drive

    I have a western digital My Book Essentials 2Tbit external hard drive which is partitioned 1/2 formated for Mac 1/2 for PC. When the hard drive is directly connected to the Mac time machine and the backup work just fine. But once I connect the hard drive to my wireless hub (Netgear N600) Time Machine does not seem to want to use it for back ups.
    I can find the drive and folders with the mac. In fact time machine can tell there is a back up on but it still seems to not want to use it for the backup.
    Anyone know how to fix this?

    Time Machine will no longer use NAS drives for backup (apart from AEBS) they must be connected directly.
    You can 'hack' things to make them visible but at your own risk ... run Terminal and use the command
    defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

  • Can i use time machine with a hard drive connected to the airport extreme?

    Just wondering if there is any news on this since the last post was in 2008.
    The Apple website info regarding the Airport Extreme mentions attaching a hard drive to the Airport Extreme, but I can't see whether that could be used for a Mac using Time Machine.

    You can attach a hard drive, but Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port at the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple, so it's not possible to say what your actual results might be.
    If you decide to try this, it would be wise to have a secondary backup plan in place as well.
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html

  • HT1449 will it work if i have the external hard drive connected to an airport extreme?

    I recently purchased a Macbook Air 11.6" 128GB and I realized my itunes library is getting a bit bigger than expected. So I searched for ways to keep my MBA`s SSD with more space and I found this article.
    I do have an 1TB external HDD connected to my airport extreme, and ive been transferring files mannually. But this solution seems quite interesting! having my itunes library all stored up on it seem cool!
    so...will it work?

    You can do it.. it is often unreliable.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2736425?start=45&tstart=0
    Apple do not support or recommend it.. but you can turn it on.. there must be a million posts with the method.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
    Q2 for the setup..
    Good Luck!!

  • HT204057 Why does Time Machine no longer support external hard drives connected to an Airport Extreme base station?

    I'm pretty sure that upto a few months ago I had a hard disk connected via USB to my Airport Extreme and I was able to backup all the computers on my home network. However, somehow over the last few months this had stopped happening. I am not able to select my network disks for time machine backup.
    There is a very unhelpful sentence on Apple's website which simply says it does not allow backup to hard disks connected to Airport Extreme via USB. Does anyone know why this is? Is there a way around this? Can I connect a drive to my desktop computer and have other computers backup through the network to that?

    This was never an approved configuration: OS X Mountain Lion: Disks you can use with Time Machine
    Can I connect a drive to my desktop computer and have other computers backup through the network to that?
    The above KB article indicates you can, though I have not personally tried it.

  • Can i share my external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme across a web connection?

    I have a USB drive attached to my base station, and wanted to access the drive remotely. My ADSL connection comes through a Router, and is then delivered to the Airport Base Station.
    It's probably simple with the right boxes, and instructions. I'm not sure about either tho'
    I'm really only looking for a rough guide, and if it's even possible.
    Any help would be great.
    Ta.

    You might give Screen Sharing a try or Back To My Mac. VPN is also an alternative.
    Setting up and using Back to My Mac with an 802.11n-based AirPort base station, or Time Capsule
    Supported router devices for Back to My Mac
    Mac OS X 10.7 Help- Use Back to My Mac

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