Partition Time Machine

Is it safe to partition an external hard drive that is being used for Time Machine back up? What I need is too back up some files from another External HD(2TB) on to my Time Machine Drive(4TB) but it wont fit on my laptop so I need to transfer it directly from the 2nd External(2TB). I was gonna put the files on the root of my Time Machine Drive(4TB) next to the Time Machine Folder but I wasnt sure if that would screw anything up or if a partition would be safer.  A better question, is it necessary to partition the drive for I what I want to do or could I just store my files on the root?
This is my first time using Time Machine and it seems like it customized the hard drive, so I am not sure what I should and should do to it. 

As Eric Root pointed out there is no requirement to have separate partitions.  The reason most people do it is because Time Machine will take as much space as it can.  So if you have your iPhoto library and your time machine backup on the same partition you may find yourself running out of room for new pictures before you expect as Time Machine keeps gobbling up hard drive space.  HTH.
-NifflerX

Similar Messages

  • Can I wirelessly partition Time Machine if so how?

    I have the new Time Machine with the airport extreme built in.
    I want to create a partition on it to archive a few documents that I don't want Time Machine to erase when it is full. It is 500mb model and I would like to create a 200mb partition for archiving.
    I looked under Disk Utility in applications but it does not show the Time Machine disk.....
    Any ideas?? Thanks Guys and Gals

    Joe Batt wrote:
    I have the new Time Machine with the airport extreme built in.
    what do you men by that?? do you mean you has a USN drive attached to an Airport Extreme Base Station?
    I want to create a partition on it to archive a few documents that I don't want Time Machine to erase when it is full. It is 500mb model and I would like to create a 200mb partition for archiving.
    I looked under Disk Utility in applications but it does not show the Time Machine disk.....
    you can't partition remote drives. you have to move the drive to be directly attached to the computer and then you can partition it.
    Any ideas?? Thanks Guys and Gals

  • Imovie not seeing partitioned time machine drive. I partitioned my TM 2GB and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journalled). These drives in iMovie have a Yellow exclamation mark and I cant access events. Can access in Finder?

    Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

    Thank you for your response. I was able to successfully format the drives Extended journaled when they were out of the raid configuration. I was not able to format as Extended (not journaled) in the Raid configuration.

  • Cannot resize Time Machine partition

    Hello all,
    I currently have a hard drive split into 2 partitions (both Mac OS Extended (Journaled)). One of the Time Machine partitions is far too big (for the backups it contains) and I want to reclaim some space as a regular data partition (for my windows PC). Unfortunately I can find no way to resize the existing partitions. There is no "corner to drag" in my disk utility. 617GB are free in the 697GB partition.

    Time Machine likes to be the first partition, otherwise it will continually ask you where?
    http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/apple-in-the-enterprise/how-to-resize-a-live-pa rtition-in-snow-leopard-and-lion/#.
    http://osxdaily.com/2009/11/20/resize-partitions-in-mac-os-x-with-disk-utility/

  • How do I retrieve data from a 500 GB Time Machine used as external hard drive?

    I have a very particular situation. For several years I used a 500GB Time Machine as a wi-fi broadcaster, a back up, and also as external storage for iTunes - I 'partitioned' it to allow for it's use as an external drive.
    Fast forward, and I've replaced the Time Machine with a new 3 TB Time Machine, as well as purchased a separate external drive (3 TB Western Digital) to store my iTunes files (so I no longer need to partition). The new Time Machine is my wi-fu hub.
    The problem: I need to retrieve the 300 gb of audio files that are on my old partitioned Time Machine, and move them to my new WD external drive. I've already set up the new Time Machine as my wi-fi broadcaster, and de-activated the old Time Machine.
    (I had tried to move the files previous to setting up the new Time Machine, but I realized after de-activating it that I wasn't as thorough as I thought, so I need to go back and move them again.)
    I've tried to re-connect to the old Time Machine using an ethernet cable, but when I do, it recognizes it as my wi-fi hub, and it screws up my network - it suddenly allows me access to the old Time Machine, but blocks access to the new WD external drive.
    So in a nutshell - I need to be able to connect the old Time Machine to my laptop (a Macbook running OS X 10.7.5) and have my new network see it as just an external drive - so I can then move the 300 GB of audio files directly on to my new WD external drive.
    Any thoughts on how I can do this?

    Why not connect both drives to the computer, turn off the wi-fi, and then copy the files over. Or you can use Disk Utility/Restore to move the files. See the note - it will erase the WD drive.
    You can then set things back to the way you want them. You should have more than one back up as hard drives do fail. In this case, you could use a clone and keep it on the WD drive.
    Clone  - Carbon Copy Cloner          (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
    Clone – Data Backup
    Clone – Deja Vu
    Clone  - SuperDuper
    Clone - Synk
    Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
    Commonly Used Backup Methods

  • HT201250 Can I use Time Machine to backup a LaCie Hard Drive connected to an Airport Extreme onto a My Book that is connected directly to a Mac Mini?

    I have a LaCie 2TB hard drive connected to a Airport Extreme Base Station.  I also have a 1TB MyBook connected to a Mac Mini.  My question is can you backup selected files (photos) from the LaCie drive to the MyBook drive using Time Machine, or any other software?  If it will cost a fortune, I guess I can always just copy the newer files over.

    Thank you for such a lightning-fast response Niel :-)  Can I just double check with you the following ...?
    The external drive where my iPhoto library is located has three partitions - Time Machine Backup, Pictures (where the iPhoto library is located) and SuperDuper Bootable Clone.
    When you say 'Remove the external drive from the list of items set to be excluded from the backup, and then add everything else on it' - am I correct in thinking that I should remove Pictures partition from the items to be excluded but leave the Time Machine Backup and SuperDuper Bootable Clone as excluded items?
    On my 2TB external drive (the one I'm backing up to) there are 5 partitions - Time Machine Backup, SuperDuper Clone, Pictures, Photo Archive and Document Archive.  The Time Machine Backup is 700GB of which I still have 473GB available - when I include the Pictures folder that contains the iPhoto library that will use up another 148GB but I think there's still plenty of room to use it.
    When you say if the partition contain the iPhoto library isn't dedicated to it it may be easier to create one which is, the only item I have on the Pictures volume is the iPhoto library so I think that it's dedicated to it.  I was going to add images from the Pictures folder on my MacBook Pro but haven't done so at this stage so I won't do so.  It wouldn't matter though, would it, if I copied the images from the Pictures folder on my MBP to the 'Photo Archive' partition of the EHD?
    Thank you once more for your reply.
    Tricia

  • Time machine could not complete backup

    I am getting the following message "the backup disk image "volume/.....macbookpro.sparsebundle." culd not be accessed (error -1)"
    I am backing up to a NAS drobo FS
    have a partitioned time machine drive
    was able to make a complete backup just an hour ago
    but now even though I've restarted the drive and my laptop and I can access the drive and see it on my network, and I can see it when am in time machine but when I go to make a back up I get the same error message no matter what I do
    any thoughts?

    Did you check under More Like This to the right of the page? There are numerous solutions there, like the first one, for example:
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18051491#18051491

  • External HD Mayhem -- Time Machine + Permissions

    Hi there,
    I recently bought a Toshiba Canvio 1TB hard drive (USB 3.0). It's attached to my MacBook, running on Mac OS 10.5.8.
    2 partitions on the disk: one for Time Machine backups, the other for all the other stuff.
    It turns out both partitions have strange issues I can't manage to solve.
    - Time Machine partition:
    Time Machine is very unstable with this HD. It manages to save a few times per day, until the point when it suddenly tells me "Time Machine failed, unable to create backup directory."
    I followed the detailed instructions on http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html...
    Disk Utility repair: sometimes detects a "minor bitmap error": "Erroneous number of empty blocks on the volume." Repair successful; after an hour or so, the problem is back. But this time, Disk Utility doesn't detect the bitmap error anymore.
    Deleting com.apple.TimeMachine.plist : same thing, the problem comes back soon afterwards.
    Another interesting thing is that after the problem occurs, I'm unable to eject the disk, and have to reboot the laptop to do so.
    Disk Utility detects no problem with this partition, and neither does Techtool Pro (6.0.1).
    - Other Files partition:
    Most of the time, no problem. But then sometimes (once every 10-15 days during the last month or so) permission issues: impossible to copy files from/to this partition. Like tonight.
    Sometimes, the "minor bitmap error" ("Erroneous number of empty blocks on the volume") is also detected on this partition. I can repair the disk - but the permission issue still occurs
    TechTool Pro (6.0.1) HD tests fail to detect a hardware issue.
    AND THE MOST PUZZLING (worrying?) THING IS: all those issues happened more or less in the same way in the first few days after I bought the HD. Since then, I've had to format it for other reasons -- but the problems still occur.
    Have I been doing things wrong with my partitioning? Is this drive just rotten?
    Thanks in advance for all advice.
    Dorian

    Thanks for your kind reply, BDAqua!
    However, the USB ports on my MacBook are 2.0 compatible, and I'm connecting this external HD directly to one of these ports (not going through a hub). Are you sure such a hub would provide more power than my Mac does at the moment?
    A reason for skepticism on my side would be that I've actually been using another Toshiba Canvio 1TB for more than a year now, and I found it a really great piece of hardware (not a single issue in all this time). Therefore, I decided to buy a second one, in order to clone my Time Machine saves and all the Other (important) stuff.
    The problematic HD is actually the newer one I bought. Considering it hadn't been used at all yet, I decided to make it into my "default" TM drive, and use the first Canvio I bought to make clone copies of both TM and Other Stuff partitions (and it seems to be working pretty well through Carbon Copy Cloner).
    So given my first Canvio never had those issues, do you think Toshiba changed something in the manufacturing process, and my new Canvio should be using a special hub...?
    Cheers,
    D

  • Restore from Time Machine hung on "Looking for source"

    Had to buy a new Macbook Air to replace my old one which was water damaged.
    I have a full Time Machine backup on a portable USB hard drive which is divided into two partitions: Time Machine backup and a storage partition.
    Old Macbook air has the previous operating system, updated.
    New MA has mavericks of course.
    Setup assistant didn't see the Time Machine backup when attached.
    So I setup an account on the new computer, got to the main screen, started migration assistant to see if that would work.
    (With the new account, the portable USB drive is recognized and both partitions show in the finder.)
    Same problem. Migration assistant sits with spinning icon at "Looking for source".
    What can I do to show it where the Time Machine backup is?
    Thanks.

    mjmorris11733 wrote:
    I start TM, I can see the NAS drive as a TM-mount point, I select it
    Does that mean you selected it on the Time Machine Preferences window?  If not, do that.
    If that doesn't help, the preferences file may be damaged.  Try a "full reset" per #A4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    If still no help, the backups themselves may be damaged.  Try to repair them, per #A5 in the same link.

  • Cannot find old Time Machine backups

    Recently, I had to backup my iMac from my latest Carbon Copy Cloner copy. (I have an external HD with two partitions: Time Machine and CCC, both some 750 GB; for various reasons, I choose the CCC backup.)
    After that, Time Machine started to backup again. But after a while it stopped, claiming having too little space to complete: it needed 700 Gb but it found only 230 Gb.
    The old TM backups had disappeared!
    Yet, Disk Utility says the capacity of the TM drive is 750,82 GB, and that 232,89 GB is available.
    So, the older backups must still be there… but I cannot approach them. Also, when right-clicking the TM icon in the Dock in order to find another TM disk, it does not find the original backups.
    A hint, ayone?

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • Complicated corrupted main drive and lost Time Machine back-ups question

    Here's tough one I can't pin down answers to:  I have an iMac Early 2008 running Lion.  The main hard drive system (probably) corrupted over the course of 2-3 months until it became unusable.  I had Sophos on it, but removed it about a month ago and reliability improved but only for about a week.  Finally the hard drive crashed.  I used the Recovery partition while able to have Disk Utility add a second partition to my back-up drive, which contains Time Machine back-ups, my iPhoto folder and a few other files but no system.  I installed Snow Leopard from disk to the new partition, checked the first partition, which seemed fine, then upgraded the Snow Leopard partition to Lion and updated and ran under a temporary user.  Next I explored the main drive, which Disk Utility said was fine, but doesn't always show up.  While in Disk Utility, I noticed that the first partition on the back-up drive showed up as empty!  After some panicking, I've a second back-up drive on the way, but how do I access the TIme Machine back-ups, get my original user back and get access to over 15 years of files that are locked into that user?
    My (2nd) back-up drive arrives tomorrow, so I'll able to get to work soon.
    Thanks for any help.

    Ok so wahat you mean is I need to name a partition "Time machine" in order for TM to back up any volumes and TM will always start with the volume titled Timemachine ?
    so as I stated
    A. All my OS applications _________Rename this to time machine or can I ues the volume name it is now?
    B. All my files for those applications  ---------Once that is done TM will back this up?
    C. All My Itunes / Music etc---------Once that is done TM will back this u last?
    Also I did a test run and I geet the error msg that the backup disk of my OS needs 1.36 TB but only 1.34 exists. The orignal  OS  disk has only 232GB of data why is tome machine asking for all that space?
    I set the partition at 1.34 so there would be way more than enough space to copy.
    R

  • Time Machine Backup Includes entire HDD on Bootcamp instead of Mac OSX only

    I have put in a 500 GB HDD into my MBP 2008. I want to do my Time Machine backups on a 320GB Western Digital external HDD.
    I got 250GB assigned to Mac OSX/ Snow Leopard and 250 GB assigned to Win 7 - using two partitions.
    When I try to do a Time Machine Backup now, it always requires 500 GB (or 460GB to be exact) for that backup - so it wants to include the Win7 partition in the backup ?
    Is there any other solution than buying a new, bigger HDD to solving that problem, so that my Time Machine backup won´t be larger than 250 GB ?

    simon1973 wrote:
    I have put in a 500 GB HDD into my MBP 2008. I want to do my Time Machine backups on a 320GB Western Digital external HDD.
    I got 250GB assigned to Mac OSX/ Snow Leopard
    That 320 GB may be a bit small, depending on how much is actually on the 250 GB partition -- Time Machine usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
    When I try to do a Time Machine Backup now, it always requires 500 GB (or 460GB to be exact) for that backup - so it wants to include the Win7 partition in the backup ?
    Time Machine adds about 20% to the estimated size of the backup, for workspace on the backup volume, so it's trying to back up about 380 GB.
    Is there any other solution than buying a new, bigger HDD to solving that problem, so that my Time Machine backup won´t be larger than 250 GB ?
    If your Windoze partitions aren't formatted HFS+ (some variant of +Mac OS Extended),+ Time Machine can't back them up.
    Take a look at +Time Machine Preferences > Options.+ If the partitions aren't listed in the exclusions box, click the plus sign and select them for exclusion.
    While you're there, see what's shown for +Estimated size of full backup+ just below the exclusions box.

  • HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

    I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
    I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
    May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
    I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
    Any recommendation?

    As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your 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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

  • I recently purchase macbook air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my Seagate external backup plus hard drive for time machine back up. How to partition my 1TB Seagate back up plus hard drive for use with mac and windows pc?

    Hi All,
    I recently purchased 13" Macbook Air with OS 10.10.2. I want to use my 1TB Seagate backup plus external hard drive as time machine and my windows 7 pc. Please suggest a method. Thanks in advance for your reply.

    I strongly recommend having an external drive dedicated solely for TimeMachine. You could partition the drive but if something goes wrong you risk losing the data on both partitions. Should you decide to go ahead with splitting the drive for two different uses you’ll need to partition the drive either using the Mac’s built in Disk Utility program or Windows utility. I believe the built in Windows disk utility program will destroy the current partition and erase the data that’s on it - I use a third party Windows disk utility program for partitioning and it allows for non-destructive partitioning but warns to back up data first just in case. Apple’s Disk Utility can do non-destructive partitions but I don’t recall every trying to do a non-destructive partition on a disk originally formatted for Windows using it. Again - back up that data just in case.
    Finally, your TimeMachine drive should be at least 1.5 times (I prefer 2 times) the size of the data you expect to be backing up a year or two from now.  In other words, if you currently are using 50GB of your computer’s drive but expect to begin purchasing Mac software to replace software on your Windows computer and if you expect to be putting photos, music, and other data on it you might expect that two years from now you’ll have 100GB of stuff on the drive. So a 200GB partition is the smallest size you’d want.  TM’s backup scheme keeps multiple copies of data as it changes so the extra room is important for this scheme.

  • HT201250 Do I need to partition my external hard drive if I'm using Time Machine and other storage?

    I never used Time Machine before.  I was storing select files on my external hard drive as well as using my libraries (IPhoto, ITune, IMovies) directly off of the external hard drive.  That hard drive is giving me problems, so I bought a new one.  I want to set up Time Machine on this one, but I also want to keep my active libraries on it.  Do I need to partition the external hard drive?

    You can partition the new drive, just don't make one of the partitons a TimeMachine drive, save a TM for a entire drive with more space than the boot drive as it saves "states" thus requires more room than most people expect.
    I highly advise one drive to one drive for backups, and not placing too many backup eggs in one vulnerable hardware basket basically.
    Drives are cheap, data is not. Hardware can fail just as often as software, so you need a multiple backup and storage stragedy to protect even against theft and fire.
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