HT4718 Is it possible to back up files onto an external hard drive while in internet recovery mode?
This morning, upon starting up my MacBook, I was greeted with the lovely gray screen. I'm in internet recovery mode and have attempted to repair my disk, but it's too damaged according to the disk utility. So, I'm going to have to reinstall OS X Lion. I'm worried about losing my files and bought a 500gb external hard drive in hopes that I can back up my files while in recovery mode and then erase and reinstall the operating system
Any help would be much appreciated!
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup; 10.7 or later), from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup; 10.7.2 or later), or from your installation disc (C key at startup; 10.6.8 or earlier.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Similar Messages
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I have moved old Back Up files from my external hard drive to the trash and as the Trash previews the files, i.e. counts them (over 850,000 files) it then begins to delete but then stops. Is it possible to move the files out of the Trash file and then only delete a small amount at one time?
See
Deleting backups via the Finder on Lion 10.7.x or later:
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
Hold option (alt) while emptying the Trash.
See also
http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html
Message was edited by: WZZZ -
I backed up files onto an external hard rive form my old PC. Now I want to retrieve the files to put on my mac but it is telling me to format it to Mac. How can I do this without erasing all of the data on my hard drive?
Your drive was used with a PC and formatted NTFS which is proprietary Microsoft format.
You need to install a third party program that will read the NTFS format.
There is various software from PARAGON, Tuxera and NTFS-3G
When you get the data off and have verified it to be good, reformat the drive either HFS+ for Mac use only, or for Mac and PC use then MSDOS (FAT32) for under 4GB files (best) or exFAT (for larger than 4GB files) is proprietary and Microsoft is appling for a patent, which would likely mean OS X won't be allowed to read it anymore without a licensing fee and you'l have to pay another third party software company to read the format, just like NTFS is.
The less you have to rely upon third party sources to read your drives the better, this way if you have a issue and need to read the drive on another machine you don't need the software, and a internet connection and a credit card and...and...and... -
how do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please
Ummals wrote:
...I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. ...
Did you follow all the steps as detailed here...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751 -
I upgraded to Maverick and now Time Machine will not connect to the external hard drive to back up files. The external hard drive is a Western Digital "My Book Live" 2 TB. How do I solve problem?
I also had problem accessing my WD MyBookLive after upgrading to Maverick.
To resolve the problem, I used Connect To Server (Cmd K) to specify the IP address.
Then I enter a user id and password I created in the MyBookLive.
You can also verify that you have admin access to the MyBookLive using Safari or Chrome.
Just enter the MyBookLive IP address as the URL. -
I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive and my trash won't empty. I get an error code -22. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?
JLCruz wrote:
I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive ...
If this is related to Time Machine Backups...
See here > Should I delete old backups? If so, How?
From Here > http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
If the TRASH still won’t Empty...
See Here > http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html -
Is there a possibility to recover erased files from an external hard drive that was reformatted by the Time Machine?
Basics of File Recovery
Files in Trash
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery. -
I was going to install Rosetta Stone Spanish onto my Macbook 10.6.7 but am concerned about it taking up space on my 2GB hard-drive. I have an external WD hard-drive, and I was wondering if it is possible to put the application onto the external hard-drive to save space on my Mac?
I think you're confused about how much hard drive space you have. You probably have 2 GB of RAM... there hasn't been a Mac shipped with only a 2 GB hard drive in a while. At the bottom of any Finder window, how much space is available?
If you're actually running low on space, you should move documents to the external drive, since many applications want to be on the system drive. -
Backing up selected files onto an external hard drive
Hi,
I have partitioned an external hard drive in order to use it for both Time Machine as well as selected files. Is there a way to move over all data/documents/libraries as a whole rather than document by document? I thought that if you clicked on the user in the side bar, and dragged it onto the hard drive that would back up everything, but I can't seem to do that. I am beginning to use a new MBP and I want to only bring over select files and leave the rest on the external hard drive.
Thanks for any help!Time Machine is a pretty sophisticated backup system - it will start by backing up your whole computer, and then it will do what is called an "incremental" backup every hour or so. That incremental backup will take a copy of every file that has changed since it previously backed up. So it will be fairly efficient with space usage, and it will allow you to recover files at many different points if you have a problem - for instance, you will be able to restore a document from earlier that day, from the day before, or even further back if it existed then.
Apart from an offsite backup, I rely on TimeMachine for all my backups, because the big advantage is that it works in the background and backs up often. The approach you seem to be considering is entirely manual, and therefore likely to be much less often.
You can definitely restore individual files with Time Machine. It has the benefit that you can also restore an entire computer if you need to, but that is not the only thing it does. You may wish to browse Pondini's excellent Time Machine website to acquaint yourself more with its features.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
In answer to your question, yes, your important files are generally in your home folder. However, if you only back up the home folder, and your MBP has a disk failure, you will have to reinstall it from scratch, add all your applications, download all the updates again, and then copy in files from your backup. There may be issues associated with preference files and application versions, because you will be copying back preference files from your home folder but possibly installing later versions of applications. If you already have the disk available, I don't recommend this approach. I don't understand why the Genius Bar has put you off but then I am not privy to the whole conversation.
Hope that helps.
Ivan -
Can Time Machine Be Used to Back Up Files from An External Hard Drive?
Please let me provide a little more information to clarify the question.
The hard drive on my computer is not large enough for all my photo and video files so I am planning to purchase a new external hard drive and move my "Pictures" and "Movies" folders to the new external hard drive as a way of freeing up space on my computer. A different external hard drive is now used for backup of the computer's hard drive.
My question is about how backups will be handled if I upgrade to Snow Leopard.
I understand that Time Machine will take the place of the software now being used to back up the MacHD, but back up is still needed for the photo and video files which would be moved off of the MacHD. Will Time Machine back up those files too? That is, will Time Machine back up specified folders which are being stored on one external hard drive and place the backups on a different external hard drive? And, will Time Machine do that in addition to backing up the MacHD? If so, are separate partitions needed for the MacHD and the Photo/Video backups, or will Time Machine put everything in the same partition?
Any advice and/or suggestions for handling this in would be most appreciated.
Thanks for your help.As captfred says, yes (as long as the drive is formatted for a Mac, not Windoze).
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). -
On the advice of the Chicago Mac Genius Bar, in order to get better performance on my few years old MBA, I copied my Home folders (but not Library) to an external hard drive, created a new user, deleted the old user, and tried to copy the Home folder contents from the external hard drive back to the MBA under the new user. However, I get an error message and can't open most of the folders on the external hard drive (e.g. "The folder “Desktop” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.") Help! Thanks.
As captfred says, yes (as long as the drive is formatted for a Mac, not Windoze).
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). -
How do I back my iPad onto an external hard drive?
How do I change the destination for the backups on iTunes? I can't use my primary HDD to save files because I'm running dangerously low on space on this computer. However, I do have a 2TB external hard drive. I'm trying to back up 10 GB of video, which will be refilled every week. Does anyone know how to back up my videos on to an external hard drive? Thanks!
itunes creats a "disk image" of your device and it is located in the harddrive itself - see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946 for location. you can copy the backup file and then put it on your external hd for the time being but you cannot direct itunes to immediately send your backup there - if you are importing videos and need the space i would just import ios photos/videos onto the computer via the camera import app on the computer (iphoto, autoplay, windows photo gallery) and then send those videos to the external. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
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After my brother transferred all my files from my old computer to an external hard drive, he then put them onto my new computer. It appears that 100 songs which I downloaded from Frostwire years ago have the exclamation mark next to them. I cannot find the files on my new computer, and cannot remember where they were saved to on my old computer as it was over 3 years ago. I have also tried to consolidate the files as I've found people suggested, but that is not working. I have also read that you should tell itunes that you are moving the music, but my old laptop cannot be read when it is on. Is there any other way tofix this issue? I don't want to have to buy over 100 songs which I already have.
After my brother transferred all my files from my old computer to an external hard drive, he then put them onto my new computer. It appears that 100 songs which I downloaded from Frostwire years ago have the exclamation mark next to them. I cannot find the files on my new computer, and cannot remember where they were saved to on my old computer as it was over 3 years ago. I have also tried to consolidate the files as I've found people suggested, but that is not working. I have also read that you should tell itunes that you are moving the music, but my old laptop cannot be read when it is on. Is there any other way tofix this issue? I don't want to have to buy over 100 songs which I already have.
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Macbook Pro Freezing, Can't back up files either to external hard drive either..
Hi,
I'm not entirely sure what happened but my Macbook Pro, (Lion/Mac OS X 10.7.5) just started to freeze a lot. I can hardly browse the web or sometimes browse folders. In some ocassions its even difficult to check the Activity monitor or go to Disk Utitlity. I always see the rainbow beach ball of death and in the force quit window I see the red "Not responding."
Because of this issue, I plan on taking my Macbook Pro to Apple but the problem is I can't even back up my files. I just started a time machine and it goes well until in the middle of the transfer it says:
"The backup was not performed because an error occured while copying files to the back up disk.
The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk."
so I tried a different ext. hard drive and still, it says the same message. Upon being fed up of the situation, I attempted to do the old school copy paste from drive to drive but again, in the middle of the transfer it stops and gives me a a differnet message:
"The finder can't complete the operation because some data in ____ can't be read or written."
I checked the file and its a .MOV a video file from my DSLR. I skipped this file and then again, it said the exact same message on a different video file. I can't just avoid these video files. I'm actually a film maker and all this clips are in desparately in need to be backed up.
Does anyone know how to fix this issue? Atleast backing up the files..
Thanks for the help.
p.s.
Not sure if this is related -- since my Macbook Pro has been running slow I deleted a couple of apps such as Things, DaVinci Resolve and FrameForge Previz.. Which to led to having my spolight indexing. I thought it was only the index thats making it run slow but the index done now and I can't back up my files!If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CSeq "I/O error" | tail | open -f -a TextEdit
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the window will be empty. If you get output like this:
kernel[0] <Debug>: disk0s2: I/O error
the boot drive is failing, or there's some other hardware fault in the storage subsystem. -
Backing up files to an external hard drive
I run a couple of websites.
In a long overdue move, I finally got an external drive for backup.
About seven hours into copying over the many folders, the automated process came to an abrupt halt and displayed an alert to the effect that one of the file names was too long. The only option was to acknowledge it (by hitting "OK"), at which point it just stopped completely! I have no idea what files have made it to each folder...so I basically have to begin all over again.
This happened twice.
Is there any way to...
1. Keep this from happening again?
2. Figure out easily which of the thousands of files did indeed make it, so as to pick up again from that point?
Thanks in advance, for your suggestions!
(By the way...the whole procedure is going to take about 85 hours. So I could conceivably end up taking my own life, if there's no way around this snag!)
PowerBook G4 17-inch Mac OS X (10.3.9)
PowerBook G4 17-inch Mac OS X (10.3.9)
PowerBook G4 17-inch Mac OS X (10.3.9)Is the external drive properly formatted? Do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
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