I need to learn about memory and backing up my pictures to an external hard drive

Can you point me to where I can find this info.  Thank you

RAM (memory) is what the brains of the machine (the processor) uses temporality to work on things, it's not permanent.
I think your referring to storage  space, which is on your permanent boot drive and holds your operating system, programs and files.
So you want to make a backup to a external drive, there are various options.
1: Entire drive backup of everything (TimeMachine or Carbon Copy Cloner)
2: Just users files (storage drive)
The easiest is just connecting a blank new external drive larger than the total space on your boot drive and when the pop up window asks to make a TimeMachine drive, say yes and allow it to work (for hours and hours)
Slightly more difficult is Carbon Copy Cloner, however it's faster and the drive is bootable (advanced) it's also payware thus not free. (also the disk must first be formatted GUID OS X Extended Journaled in Disk Utility)
If you want to backup just your pictures, you can drag and drop the Pictures folder onto a external storage drive (do not use TimeMachine if it asks) and it will make a copy. This is the fastest method as your avoiding everything else.
Most commonly used backup methods
Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's

Similar Messages

  • I have a macbook and I'm having trouble backing up my pictures on an external hard drive.  The Macbook won't install the backup drive soft ware? It is a new Sea Gate hard rive from costco.

    I have a macbook and I'm having trouble backing up my pictures on an external hard drive.  The Macbook won't install the backup drive soft ware? It is a new Sea Gate hard rive from costco.

    You don't want to install the software that came with the drive, you don't need it and it will be problematic. Connect the new drive, open Disk Utility, select the new drive and partition it using the GUID partition scheme, then format it as Mac OS extended journaled and it will be easy to use with your Mac.

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    Do you mean disk storage space or physical RAM? The latter is memory, not the former. If you mean the former:
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      1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
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  • Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented.  is it wise to do this or should i not??

    Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
    Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
    1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
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    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
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  • I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

    I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
    What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
    From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
    Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

    sydababy wrote:
    and then deleting them off of my computer.
    BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
    Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
    The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous.  One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
    Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
    follow here:
    Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
    Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
    The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
    Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
    Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
    Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
    Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

  • I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now.

    I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine.  It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride?  It's been going for about 7 hours now

    It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
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    The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
    http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

  • After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files.  When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error.  What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

    After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files.  When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error.  What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive?? 

    Janet.b wrote:
    About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess.  Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
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  • I need to delete a lot of duplicates on iPhoto. I just bought my MacBook Pro and was so excited I downloaded my external hard drive without thinking through the process. I now realize I had my photos doubled up. So I actually have the same library twice.

    Hello All!
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    Thanks,

    SweetThunder73 wrote:
    When you say to remove the photos out of the iPhoto folder, then import the clean single copies, I am understanding that the "original" file that the decloner was run against is now the "clean" single copies?
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    1: Right click on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package Contents"
    2: You will see a folder called Originals, these are all your original photo's, copy this folder to a external drive someplace, it's your backup.
    3: Select the Originals folder again and from the Finder Menu > File > Duplicate.
    4: Now you will have a OriginalsCopy folder, move that OriginalsCopy folder onto the desktop area out of the iPhoto Library folder. Close the iPhoto Library folder/window.
    5: Download the Decloner software and install it, use it to find all the "real" duplicates, via it's content on the OriginalsCopy folder.
    6: From the Finder menu > New Folder, now send the duplicate files to that folder, so all that is left in the OriginalsCopy folder is 1 copy of your pictures, minus all the duplicates which are now in New Folder.
    7: Open iPhoto and remove all your pictures in there. The iPhoto Library will update to become empty.
    8: Now import the pictures from the OriginalsCopy folder, these will now have only one copy of each picture.
    9: Open your New Folder, from the Edit menu > Select All and
    10 From the Finder > File Menu > Open With > Preview.
    Now you have one copy in your iPhoto Library and the duplicates in a New Folder opened with Preview which you can compare to make sure.
    Make as many backups of your pictures as you think you need during this prcess, but eventually you only want 1 picture of all you have in the iPhoto Library.
    Some pictures may be the same thing but a little smaller etc., these obviously are not duplicates, and you can weed those out by hand in iPhoto.
    Good Luck.

  • I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    If you move live files (files you don't want to lose) to an external drive, you need to back them up.  Any files not backed up are at risk of loss.  Hard drives and SSDs can fail at any time.  It is hard to backup a Time Capsule so a TC should be used only as a backup device.
    Do you have a Time Machine backup now?  If so, and if it is large enough, you can backup your internal and external disk to it using Time Machine.  If not, you all need to purchase an external drive or TC as your backup device.  (I recommend an external hard drive for backup instead of a TC.)  Ideally the backup drive should be twice the size of what you are backing up but 50% larger will work so if you have an external 1 TB disk and an internal 250 GB SSD then a 2 TB backup disk will work well.
    By default, Time Machine will not backup the external disk.  You need to remove it from the exclusions list:
    To have Time Machine backup your system disk and your external offload disk up onto your Time Machine disk:
     > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.

  • I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

    I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

    By default iWeb keeps its data in (user)/Library/Application Support/iWeb in a file named Domain. Without this file you cannot proceed (other than by recreating the site from scratch using the published version as a reference) so you need to locate it on the original disk.
    To confuse matters, Apple have hidden the user’s Library folder in Lion and Mountain Lion to casual viewers, in an attempt to stop new Mac users messing their machines up. To access it, in the Finder go to the ‘Go’ menu and hold down the Option (Alt) key; the Library folder will appear as a choice.

  • HT1351 I have just reformatted my hard drive and re-installed iTunes; how do I connect back to my library on an external hard drive?

    I have just refromatted my hard drive and reinstalled itunes; how do tie it back to my library on an external hard drive?

    If the whole library was on the external drive then press and hold down shift as you start iTunes, then use the Choose option to reconnect to it.
    If it was only the media folder, but you backed up the library folder then restore that to <User's Music> in your rebuilt machine and you're good to go.
    If you forgot to backup the library folder, but you don't care about ratings, play counts, playlists etc. then shift-start-iTunes, Create a new empty library at the root of the external drive, e.g. at X:\iTunes, move the media folder inside that as X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, then use File > Add Folder to Library to import the media.
    Otherwise see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    tt2

  • Hello, I have two questions on time capsule  I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac  I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

    Hello, I have two questions on time capsule  I can only have it on my external hd files and free up my internal memory to my mac  I can use an external hard drive, in my case a lacie rugged as shared memory for my two computers

    I have a mackbook pro and an iMac if I buy a time capsule 2tb airport, I can use it with time machine and what would be the best way to use it.
    There is no particular setup required for TM.. both computers will create their own backup sparsebundle which is like a virtual disk.. Pondini explains the whole thing if you read the reference I gave you.
    and how to use time capsule airport whit other external hd to use my old lacie airport with the new time capsule
    Up to you.. you can plug the external drive into the TC and enjoy really slow file transfers or you can plug it into your computer and use it as external drive.. which is faster than the TC.. and TM can include it in the backup.
    Again everything is explained in the reference.. you are not reading it.

  • How do i back up my iphone to an external hard drive and not my computer

    How do I back up my iphone to an external hard drive attached to my pc and not my pc?  My disk on my pc is almost full and even though I selected the external hard drive it still seems to try to back it up to my computer, then says I don't have sufficient storage.  I cahnged my folder under preferences to the External Drive folder.

    This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
    I do not use a Windows machine, have a Windows Vista Dell I rarely startup now.  But, from what I remember with Win boxes is, you will have to create on the external hard drive a file system like that one iTunes normally uses, and then in the iTunes preferences or control panel edit the location for the storage to specify the name of the external hard drive, or its letter code, with the name of that file system you created on the exernal drive.
    I would also move all of the files from the internal file system to the external since you have now told iTunes that is where they are...before deleting from the internal drive, test iTunes to see that it goes where you want it to go.

  • I have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

    i have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

    Formatting will erase the drive.
    You need to copy the photo's to either your old computer, the Mac Mini or to a new external drive and then decide what to do with your existing external drive.
    For example: You could use one External drive for Photo's and one external drive for Time Machine to backup both your Mac Mini and the Photo drive.

  • I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. I don't know what to do.

    I have the MacBook OS X 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB. I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive since I purchased it. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving? Don't replace/Stop/Replace". I don't know what to do.

    Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
    Thanks again,
    Jack

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