I am using a WD external hard drive for backing up my laptop with Time Machine, but I have to do it manually. How do I know when it has finished the back up? How long should it take?

I am using an external WD hard drive for backing up my laptop. I have to do it manually, so I can't set Time Machine to just do it for me. How do I know when it is done backing up? How long should this take?

Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
tmutil compare -E
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 will take at least a few minutes to run. Eventually some lines of output will appear below what you entered.
Each line that begins with a plus sign (“+”) represents a file that has been added to the source volume since the last snapshot was taken. These files have not been backed up yet.
Each line that begins with an exclamation point (“!”) represents a file that has changed on the source volume. These files have been backed up, but not in their present state.
Each line that begins with a minus sign (“-“) represents a file that has been removed from the source volume.
At the end of the output, you’ll get some lines like the following:
Added:
Removed:
Changed:
These lines show the total amount of data added, removed, or changed on the source(s) since the last snapshot.

Similar Messages

  • HT201250 I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

    I've just used an external drive to back up my Mac with Time Machine. I have Lion, but didn't click and check the "Encrypt Backup Disc". What should I do? Can I delete the external drive and start again, or can I encrypt later?

    I guess if stolen or lost it would protect my "stuff", and if I'm travelling would protect my privacy.
    You must understand the purpose and implications of encryption before deciding whether to use it.
    Encryption locks your data with a password. If you forget that password, the data is lost beyond any chance of recovery. Neither Apple nor anyone else will be able to help you recover that data if you don't know the password.
    By the same token, the password must be strong enough to provide the security you want. For example, if you're the potential target of industrial espionage by a government or large corporation, you need the strongest possible password. To create and manage such a password safely is a task in itself, not to be undertaken lightly.
    If you're only concerned about casual snooping by someone with no special skill, a weak, easily-remembered password is appropriate.
    But regardless of the strength of the password, if you lose it, the data is gone forever.
    Another point to remember is that if you encrypt your data on one storage device, you must also encrypt it on all other storage devices that would be accessible to the same attacker. Otherwise the data isn't protected. For example, if you keep your computer and your backup drive in the same room, and the internal drive of the computer is not encrypted, then there's no point in encrypting the backup drive.

  • I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

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  • I have used a Seagate external hard drive for my Mac desktop. It is malfunctioning. Can I disconnect and depend on iCloud to keep my documents, music, and photos backed up safe and secure? I use the Cloud for phone, pad and desktop.

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  • I have been using an external hard drive for my itunes media folder.  Today, I opened itunes on my PC and all of my playlists were missing, as well as the majority of my hundreds of hours of files.  How do I restore?

    How do I restore/reconnect my lost USB external hard drive connection to itunes on my PC?

    You're welcome.
    See also Make a split library portable and Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.
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  • I just replaced the hard drive on my macbook pro, reformatted new hard drive and copied over a backup from time machine now I have a kernel panic message (you must restart) - what do I do now?

    i just replaced the hard drive on my macbook pro, reformatted new hard drive, installed a back up from time machine and now have kernel panic ( you must restart your computer) what do I need to do?

    If you're able to boot, launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
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    If you can't boot in the usual way, try a safe boot. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
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    Press the power button.
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  • Is it not recommended to use a partitioned external hard drive for time machine?

    1. i hv a 1 tb seagate  back up plus hard disc ..,,i want to make partitions for  using it for time machine, mac, and window repectively . is it not recommended to use a partitioned drive for time machine? some where i have red that time machine wont be able to restore data from external partioned hard drive  in case internal hard drive crashes.
    2. if i use the seagate back up plus 1tb for mac only and use time machine to take backup (roughly 250 GB) , then the rest space i cant use to transfer movies, pictures from a PC
    3. how should i best use the seagate back up plus hard drive (not seagate back up plus for mac) in a way that i use it for back up , and to work with both mac and PC?

    I use a partitioned external drive for Time Machine as well as other things.
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  • Is FCE 3.5 able to use a 2TB external hard drive for capture?

    Having strange problems capturing on my newest (& biggest) external drive, a 2 TB G-raid.  Even if I set the G-raid as the only scratch drive, FCE captures to the Mac hard drive.  I am now getting past the midpoint of this drive's capacity, that is there's already about a terabyte of footage on it.  Is there an upper limit of drive size FCE will handle?
    I've tried moving the newly-captured footage over to the G-raid in Finder and deleting it from the Mac HD but then get into difficulty with what seem to be spurious and intractable "media offline" messages. 
    Not sure if this is inherent in the software or if I maybe have a bad external drive (it's only about 9 months old.)  Or other possibilities?
    I'm thinking about reformatting the big drive into 2 volumes - the footage is backed up on other drives - but that's a long run to reload all the data unless there's some likelihood it will work...
    Any ideas?
    Thanks,
    ss

    Thanks for input, Dick.  Connection has been via 800FW only.  It's been a frustrating 3 days, but I'm beginning to think drive/volume size was a red herring.  Not only is FCE 3.5 unable to deal with this drive, but Finder on the OS X 4.11 has been unwilling to do a simple transfer of its files to another drive. A 3-month-old clone of my boot drive worked exactly the same as the current version on these tasks, that is, not very well.
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    Sharron

  • Can I use one 2tb external hard drive for time capsule and file storage?

    I would like to use time capsule, but also keep the hard drive on my desktop for file storage. Can I do this?

    Apple advises against doing that.
    Any data stored on the disk that Time Machine is backing up to can not be backed up.
    Plus the data outside of the Time Machine backup database cause problems when Time Machine starts cleaned up old backups to recover space for new backups.
    For these reason it is advised that the Time Capsule disk be used for one or the other but not both.
    Allan

  • Trying to use new 500GB external hard drive for backup for first time

    I'm doing our normal Clonezilla Backup procedure and ran out of disk space for the first time.  The normal person who does this is on vacation.  I put the new hard drive in for the backup, but when I ran Clonezilla it didn't recognize it. 
    I looked in Server Manger and it shows it as Unknown with a red arrow and not initialized.  It's shown as unallocated.  What do I need to do at this point?  Do you have instructions or a link to instructions?  I'm new to working with servers,
    etc.  I probably need to format the new external drive but I'm not sure how.  This is a simple server, without VM's, etc.
    Thanks!

    Thank you for the updating.
    If there is still anything we can help please just let us know. 
    If you have any feedback on our support, please send to [email protected]

  • Can I use the hard drive for other stuff once I've Time Machined it?

    Firstly, apologies if these questions have been answered elsewhere. I have searched but feel I need a post in its own right.
    I've bought a new 1TB Western Digital 'My Passport' hard drive. I've plugged it in and it is busy creating a time machine back up right now. It is going to use about 60GB once done.
    Will I be able to use the remaining 940GB when it's finished backing up?
    Will my HD behave just like a regular USB storage device after this?
    Will it work with my windows PC as well?
    I have an older, smaller HD drive with backups of all my pictures/docs/music on. Can I easily transfer those onto my new hard drive?
    Many thanks in advance for any answers that may be forthcoming.

    dughall wrote:
    Will I be able to use the remaining 940GB when it's finished backing up?
    Yes. However, this is not recommended. Time Machine makes duplicates of your entire system. Each identical file is only on disk once, but there can be many, many file and directory pointers. If you ever want to blow away your Time Machine drive and start a fresh one, it will take forever and then some to delete all those files. It is far easier to just erase the partition. If you have other files on there, you have to remember to move them elsewhere before erasing the partition.
    I suggest giving Time Machine a 500 GB partition and using 500 GB for yourself.
    Will my HD behave just like a regular USB storage device after this?
    Yep
    Will it work with my windows PC as well?
    Only if you format the other partition as FAT or NTFS. There may be software you can get to make Windows understand the Mac HFS+ format, but I wouldn't want Windows near my Time Machine drive. Be aware that if you format as FAT, you may have trouble writing some Mac files to the volume.
    I have an older, smaller HD drive with backups of all my pictures/docs/music on. Can I easily transfer those onto my new hard drive?
    Time Machine backups? In theory you probably could, but it wouldn't be worth the effort. Just copy those to your other partition.

  • Can time capsule be used as an external hard drive for storing media

    Can you use it in such a way that you put movies and music and home vidoes on there to be accessed on when on the network along with using it for backing up data.  Could it be used in such a way that you  can access your files when on wifi from anywhere?

    TC is not designed to be a NAS.. principally it is lacking any means to back itself up. And TM cannot backup a network drive.
    If you put data on it like your movies and music in raw format that is fine.. if you put your itunes or iphoto etc library on it.. you will find it is slow to start, quick to stop, stutters and has issues. Also wireless frankly is just not that good.
    I am not sure how far away is anywhere?? Do you mean remote access? That is possible via btmm using icloud.
    The problem is, TC is not a media player.. it is a dumb as a board hard disk in a router.
    How are you going to play your videos or music unless you move itunes library onto the TC??

  • If I buy an external hard drive for my new MacBook Pro with the retina display, can I play The Sims 3 on it?

    Hi!
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    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
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    If they are not in iTunes, copy your songs to the external drive. Then, connect it to your new iMac, open iTunes and drag the songs into it

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    I tried to repair it through Disk Utility and this error message appeared
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