Is Time Machine the best way to backup two external drives?

I only have the most basic understanding of Time Machine. I hook up an external drive to my MacBook Pro, click "backup now" on Time Machine, wait a while, and forget about it because I've never had to use it to retrieve a file - thank heaven.
Now I also have two external 2TB portable drives that are close to full and which need to be backed up. I just bought a 4TB drive that I haven't taken out of the box yet. Is it a simple matter to create two Time Machine files on the 4TB drive ... one for each of the 2TB drives?
And is Time Machine the best way to do this? Or is there some other system that makes more sense for backing up on this scale and with two drives?
-JOHN

No Time Machine is not the only way.
You can use one of the drive cloning softeare programs to clone your internal drive to an external or you can use OS X Disk Utility to do basically the same thing, IE Clone/Copy your internal drive to an external.
But in your case it look as if the upgrading of the iPhoto database has wiped out alll your images. What you are actually asking about is "Can you now get back those photos without first doing any backup of any type".
And the answer to that is No you can not.

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What is the best way to backup my external drive?

Since it seems you cannot backup an external drive via Time Capsule (as far as I can tell) does anybody have a good solution for backing up an external drive? I keep all of my media (roughly 230GBs) on an external drive but I am not backing it up as of now for lack of a solution.
Thanks in advance

If the data is from your computer then you have a copy with your Time Machine. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the hard drive.

What is the best way off using two external harddrives with timemachine?

Hi,
I have already searched the board but I am still not sure what the best way is to backup to two harddisk.
Here is what I want to achieve:
I have two identical external firewire drives. One is always stored at my parents house. I swap drives once a week +(not perfect, should be everyday but much better than nothing).+
Before TimeMachine I have used SuperDuper which made incremental backups on both disks.
Due to my "method" I never have both drives at home. So it will not work to clone the external disks.
Can I now simply swap the drives and TimeMachine will backup again on disk 2, what it has already backupped to disk 1? Like "catching up" the now missing backups for the last week?
Should I give the disks the same names or should I choose "change disk" everytime?
I appreciate any suggestions and experiences.
Best Regards
Olaf

Hi Olaf,
Germany . . . hmmm, nice talking to you!
OK - We seem to have a lot in common. I used SuperDuper all the time too. Loved it. NEVER had a problem at all with it. Ever!
I use Carbon Copy Cloner now - it seems a bit erratic - sometimes fails, sometimes works, can't find the pattern.
But enough of that.
YES - Time Machine will do exactly what you want (or does for me, at least.)
I named the two drives the same name and bounced back and forth between them, Time Machining to each. Works PERFECTLY every time . . . BUT - you MUST go to TM preferences each time and click "change disk". Simply reclick the one it sees. This seems stupid - but it's worked every time for me so far. So this morning, I simple renamed one of the backup drives (from Finder). Simple renamed it.
Went directly to TM with the renamed disk - clicked "change disk" - he instantly "saw" the newly named disk - and it Time Machined perfectly to the "newly named" one. I didn't even have to re time machine the entire drive - it picked up perfectly and backed up only 50 meg, which is all I changed!
So Time Machine seems to work perfectly backing up to two hard drives, with either the same name, or different names - TM doesn't care. But you MUST simple click "change disk" each time.
Let me know how it works for you. It really does work for me!
Larry

How to stop Time Machine from creating entirely new backup of external drive?

I've included an external drive to be backed up into Time Machine. For a few days, the drive was disconnected, however, so only Macintosh HD was getting backed up. I recently re-added the external drive. However, now it appears that since the external wasn't included in the most recent backups, it's decided to re-backup the entire drive.
Is there any way to prevent it from backing up the entire external drive and instead just backup the changes made, or is that not possible because there is a gap in the backups made for the external?

First, the amount that TM says it's going to back up is not necessarily the amount it will back up. You'll only know that when the backup finishes.
I haven't tried this myself, but it may be that after you exclude a volume, TM loses continuity with the previous snapshot. In that case, future backups should be incremental, as long as you don't exclude the volume again.

What is the best way to use two external displays at the same time?

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Kappy is dead on correct about Bridge Mode as a requirement for the Time Capsule.
Do you know how to check to see if the Time Capsule is configured this way?
Next question.....you really should not try to have two wireless networks....one Arris and another Time Capsule.....unless it is absolutely necessary. Two wireless routers in close proximity can create wireless interference effects that can cause problems with either...or both...networks.
Best to turn off the wireless on one router to keep the chances of wireless interference between routers minimized.
Are both the Arris and Time Capsule providing wireless signals?

Best way to use an external drive

Hello all,
I have several photos.
I also have three computers that I regularly use: my Windows PC, my Macbook Pro, and a very new iMac.
Rather than place all my photos on each computer... I thought I could place them on a Western Digital Passport portable ext. drive. Then somehow use the drive from computer to computer to edit/play with my photos.
How do I best use iPhoto 08 to do that? I'm not sure... do the photos have to be on the computer in order to make albums, libraries, folders, etc? Or are those things more of thumbnails that POINT to certain files?
Please help a newbie understand the best way to use his external drive.
Thanks for any and all help!

Hello, and welcome, Theodore!
I must first say that I don't yet have iPhoto 8.
I do, however, have a lot of experience with external drives (I have two). I have a huge amount of music in iTunes, so I keep a copy of it on each external drive. Then, when I need to access my music , I turn on either external drive, up comes the External Drive symbol on my display, then I go over to my dock, and select iTunes. I must remember to first open up the External Drive BEFORE I open iTunes (or iPhoto). I then add or subtract music (or photos), edit, and work on my collection. When I'm finished, I just close the application, then select the Hard Drive symbol, and choose File/ Exit Hard Drive. Reach over and turn off my Hard Drive, and it's all good. I just always remember to open the Hard Drive FIRST, before opening the application.
The same would work for iPhoto. If you place iPhoto onto your external drive, you could probably use any of your computers to connect to it. I would suggest you think about backing up your external drive's contents with either another external drive (which was my choice), or other alternate storage methods.
I only have one PowerBook, not multiple computers, but, other than that, the situation's the same. You want to keep your iPhoto collection off your computers, and onto one external drive. I hope this information can be of some help to you.
All best wishes... Cea

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What is the best way to backup a 1 Terabyte external USB drive?

In order to keep my MacBook Air running speedily along and to free up space, I use this strategy to store my iTunes Library on an external USB drive.
I'm trying to think of the best way to backup a 1 Terabyte external USB drive. I'm told the hardware has a product life of about five years and some say to burn DVD-R discs of it as a backup, but that would require many discs.
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AB

For a simple clone use Disk Utility's Restore option:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Others will suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!.

What's the best way to backup DFS using DPM 2010?

We setup DFS on two Windows 2012 R2 and they are hosting files. What’s the best way to backup DFS using DPM 2010?
1. When doing data backup, do we backup both dfs01 and dfs02? Or just backup one of them?
2. Beside the data, what do we need to backup?
Bob Lin, MCSE & CNE Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net How to Install and Configure Windows, VMware, Virtualization and Cisco on http://www.HowToNetworking.com

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Backup files and BRM of dfs01 and dfs2 for minimaze traffic.
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What is the best way to backup my computer before upgrading from OSX 10.5.8 to 10.6?

What is the best way to backup my computer before upgrading from OSX 10.5.8 to 10.6? I just purchased a WD portable external hard drive.

Use Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/index.html or SuperDuper. http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html Both make a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive.

Time machine does not appear to backup an external HD. how do I get that included in the backup?

time machine does not appear to backup an external HD. how do I get that included in the backup?

In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-C, or select
Go ▹ Computer
from the menu bar. A window will open showing all mounted volumes. Select the one in question and open the Info window. What is shown as the Format in the General section? If it's not "Mac OS Extended," Time Machine can't back up the volume.

HT201250 how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.

how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.
I purchased a 1 TB WD passport drive, formatted for Mac. I set it up originally (mistakenly) to backup time machine. I went back and set it to "do not backup" It still backs up evey document I edit. If I add a document when the drive is disconnected, it automatically adds it to the external drive the next time connect to the passport drive. If I remove a document the same thing happens.
I need additional storage to free up space on my laptop hard drive. This is not working the way I want it to. Help!

Do not backup your startup volume to another partition on the same drive. If the drive fails you have nothing. Always backup to another drive or volume on another drive.
The I/O error usually means there's a problem with the drive. Clone ASAP, then repartition and reformat the main drive. Then restore the clone. Here's the basic process:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal 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.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

What's the best way to clone my boot drive?

I just bought a new 500GB drive for my G4. What's the best way to clone my boot drive?
Is there a way to put the new drive on the buss as a second drive and then copy everything from my boot drive to the new drive? How do I make the new drive bootable?
Or
Do I have to install OSX on the new drive, put the old boot drive on the buss as a second drive and migrate everything to the new drive with the Utilities Migration Assitant program?
Are there programs available to make this easier? Where & how much?
Thanks for any help I can get.

bamim2:
Dr. Smoke's FAQ Backup and Recovery has excellent advice on developing a backup strategy.
You already have a larger extrnal HDD (Hopefully it is firewire?) The next step is to format and partition the HDD. (see step-by-step below). And thirdly you will need a good cloning utility. Carbon Copy Cloner has already been suggested, and the latest version is excellent. I, personally, prefer SuperDuper for its ease of use and efficiency. Both are great tools and relatively simple to use.
I mentioned the hope that you have a firewire. One of the wonderful benefits of using an external firewire HDD for backing up is that you can make a bootable clone. This gives you an emergency boot drive in case of a problem. It also gives you an external device for running diagnostics and repairs from the extnernal to the computer and vice-versa.
Congratulations on taking the first step toward securing your computer and your data!
Formatting, Partitioning Zeroing a Hard Disk Drive
Warning! This procedure will destroy all data on your Hard Disk Drive. Be sure you have an up-to-date, tested backup of at least your Users folder and any third party applications you do not want to re-install before attempting this procedure.
Boot from the install CD holding down the "C" key.
Select language
Go to the Utilities menu (Tiger) Installer menu (Panther & earlier) and launch Disk Utility.
Option for formatting an External HDD
Connect external HDD to computer
Turn on external HDD
Start up computer and log in
Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and launch DU.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
Select Partition tab in main panel. (You are about to create a single partition volume.)
Select number of partition in pull-down menu above Volume diagram.
(Note 1: One partition is normally preferable for an internal HDD. External HDDs usually have more than one. See Dr. Smoke’s FAQ Backup and Recovery for tips on partitioning external HDD
Note 2: For more partitions than one, after you have selected the number of partitions you can adjust the size of the partition by selecting the top partition and typing in the size; then move down if more adjustments need to be made..)
Type in name in Name field (usually Macintosh HD)
Select Volume Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Click Partition button at bottom of panel.
Select Erase tab
Select the sub-volume (indented) under Manufacturer ID (usually Macintosh HD).
Check to be sure your Volume Name and Volume Format are correct.
Optional: Select on Security Options button (Tiger) Options button (Panther & earlier).
Select Zero all data. (This process will map out bad blocks on your HDD. However, it could take several hours. If you want a quicker method, don't go to Security Options and just click the Erase button.)
Click OK.
Click Erase button
Quit Disk Utility.
Good luck.
cornelius

Best way to backup to external HD

i know this topic has been extensively discussed previously, so my apologies as i couldn't find anything to specifically answer my question.
I’m wondering what the best way to backup my files would be. I just bought an external 80 gig WD hard drive, and I’d love to know if there’s any better way than to just drag & drop my music, movie, picture, and document folders onto this every so often…if it’s 3rd party software you recommend, I’m a starving student so I’d prefer to not spend a lot of money.
Also, should I partition the external hd so that I can boot from tiger in case of an emergency? And how would this be done?
thanks in advance for any information that can be provided. This forum is such a great resource to the apple community, so for all you problem solving posters, YOU’RE AWESOME.

There's really only the drag and drop method if there are programs for transfer it's undoubtedly a rip off. Also I wouldn't partition your drive so it'll be less cluttered.
But if you're concerned about speed here's a few ideas: you can put all your files into a folder and that may improve speed [similar to burning to disk it apportions file size correctly].
Also get a really good short FW/USB cord if you can. I use a 3ft M-Audio and it's very good.
Good Luck

Is Time Machine the best way to backup two external drives?

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