Possible to retrieve all contents of Time Machine external HD?

I am thinking of using a new external HD to back up my present files/folders.  2 questions -
1] To do this on my early 2008 i Mac with it's limited usb ports [limited as I have almost all in use at present], I think I would have to disconnect my external Time Machine and then connect the HD I want to use as storage.  My thought is that I could then put the new HD in safe storage as a backup for a catastrophic event.  Would it cause any problem to disconnect and then reconnect my external Time Machine HD as far as being able to use my present Tim Machine's function again when I reconnect it?  Would want it to carry on as though it had not been interrupted.
2] Could I leave my present Time Machine HD Connected to a usb port and then at the same time connect the new HD I want to use to transfer stuff to the usb port on my keyboard?  Don't know if that would overload the computer.  I also have an independently powered [from plug into wall] unit with additional ports that I have connected to one of the ports on the back of the computer.  Have one unused port left on that.  If I could have both HD's connected at the same time, which port would be the best one to use for the second one?

I also have an independently powered [from plug into wall] unit with additional ports that I have connected to one of the ports on the back of the computer.  Have one unused port left on that.  If I could have both HD's connected at the same time, which port would be the best one to use for the second one?
I assume you mean a self powered external hard drive with additional USB ports for daisy chaining drives, right?  You could plug the second EHD into that unit to have them both connected at the same time.
You can't use the keyboard port as it doesn't provide enough power to drive a EHD.  Those are basically only for mice or graphic tablets. 
There's also the option of using a self powered USB hub and connect the drives to it.

Similar Messages

  • How do I know if time machine is backing up my apple mail? I need to have copies of all of my emails, so there I have a lot of mail files. I was told that if I change computers, that the mail files will all be on time machine. Is this true? Thanks, Dave

    Is there a way to verify  if time machine is backing up my apple mail?  I was told that if I change computers, that the mail files will all be on time machine and can be easily be put on a new computer using my time machine backups.  Is this true? Thanks, Dave

    Having deleted some Mail messages by mistake, I have had to recover them from TM. I can tell you that the recovery of mail messages will be done at the mailbox level. In my case it was half of the messages in a mailbox. So I recovered the complete mailbox from TM. Then I copied the messages from the recovered mailbox back into the mailbox I use in Mail. I hope that helps.
    Please be aware that TM is a backup application and not an archival application. What that means is that if your TM drive gets full, it will get rid of older files which could be mail messages to make space for newer backups. You might want to consider archiving your mail instead of using TM if you need to maintain your mail messages for extended periods of time.
    Allan

  • I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things

    I need to erase my hard drive and start anew, will time Machine(external drive) and all the discs I got with my computer be enough to restart things.  And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad.  Here's the info on my IMac:
    Model Name:          iMac
      Model Identifier:          iMac6,1
      Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
      Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
      Number Of Processors:          1
      Total Number Of Cores:          2
      L2 Cache:          4 MB
      Memory:          3 GB
      Bus Speed:          667 MHz
      Boot ROM Version:          IM61.0093.B07
      SMC Version (system):          1.10f2

    I need to erase my hard drive and start anew
    Why do you feel you need to do this? That is such a 'Windows thing' to do!
    And secondly does RAM memory cards go bad
    Very rarely, but nothing in life is guaranteed (except death and taxes)! If you purchased RAM from a reputable source like Crucial or OWC it will carry a lifetime warranty.

  • I want to move the location of my iTunes library music files. At present they are all on my time machine . I want to move them all to my imac. Can I do that and keep all my playlists and play counts? Thanks in advance

    I want to move the location of my iTunes library music files. At present they are all on my time machine . I want to move them all to my imac. Can I do that and keep all my playlists and play counts? Thanks in advance
    its 1000s of songs . Originally I used the time machine as a networked drive but it can cause the songs to pause so I'm thinking it would be better to have the songs on the internal imac drive
    how can I move the songs so I can re-open iTunes and the playlists (with plays in the 100s) find the song in the new place?

    Do you mean on your Time Machine backup drive? Or are you actually accessing the backup? In either case you shouldn't be doing that. If you haven't space on your HDD to store the iTunes Library, then at least put it on another external drive.
    Since you did not provide any information about what's actually "on my time machine," here's what you would do. The entire iTunes folder should be stored in the /Home/Music/ folder. Within that folder you would have three folders: imm Media, iTunes, and iTunes Playlists.

  • How can I retrieve data on a time machine if I have forgotten the password?

    How can I retrieve data on a time machine if I have forgotten the password?

    There are so many passwords.. which one do you mean?
    TC password or disk password in the TC.. no problem.. soft reset.
    Or recover the password.. via the Tesserax method.
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3372
    If you encrypted the backup in TM and have forgotten that password you are doomed.. there is no way to recover it I know of.. there is a warning.. very clear.. do not forget the password.
    http://pondini.org/TM/31.html
    Pink box at the bottom.

  • How do I delete all backups of Time Machine in OSX 10.7.2?

    I had some huge photo files (100gb) that were on my computer for a few weeks and have now been processed and deleted. I suspect that Time Machine backed them up on my external hard drive. How can I delete all backups from Time Machine and start with a fresh series of backups?
    Tks

    That would work also.
    I like to reformat the disk just to rebuild the directory when I clean one.
    Allan

  • How to restore all system with Time Machine ?

    How to restore all system  from Time Machine ?
    The backup disk for Time Machine is a Usb disk, and the Os is Mountain Lion 10.8.2.
    Thanks in advance !

    Restore the system  with Time Machine  and from the external backup Usb HD,  by pressing  CMD + R  at the power on.
    It worked without problem.
    Thankyou once more !

  • Hi there,I was using MacPro with older snow leopard just now i install OS X LION,before install i backup all deta to time machines about 70GB,now when i connect i dont know how can backup the old deta to OS X LION,but it just backup the recent deta to tim

    Hi there,
    I was using MacPro with older snow leopard just now i install OS X LION,before install i backup all deta to time machines about 70GB,now when i connect i dont know how can backup the old deta to OS X LION,but it just backup the recent deta to time machine,pls guide me how i can backup my old deta to my computer??
    Will be much appreciated !!
    Thanks.

    >Step 1. Backup existing data using time machine.
    Time Machine is nice, but you have very little in terms of ability to verify that your data is all backed up.      I find Time Machine is better for the occasional recovery of previously written data at specific times.  A good backup solution that survives an erase and install (there is no clean install in Mac OS X), is a clone, and preferably TWO clones.    See my FAQ*:
    http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
    Time Machine can work as good as a clone, and in fact I once had to rely on it because my hard drive died.  Thankfully it did recover everything.   But I had my clone just in case it didn't work.     Now I feel more comfortable since clones allow you to boot themselves, and thus prove all the important system information got saved, and not just the user data.
    Clones are also easier to import with the migration assistant.

  • How do I restore the entire system from a Time Machine external drive?

    Hello everyone,
    Up front - I have searched through numerous threads but have not yet been able to solve my problem - even though it is presumably easy for many.
    So... I had to bring in my late 2009 27" iMac to Apple to replace the hard drive - mine was one of the thousands affected by the defective Seagate 1 TB disk recall. I was told that the disk would be cloned, but nevertheless I made a full system backup with Time Machine to a dedicated external hard drive.
    A week later and I now have my iMac back - but when I boot, I only see a white screen with a pointer, so it appears that the drive was not cloned - but that I now have a blank 1 TB disk, correct?
    I have also tried booting with the external drive attached, thinking that the dedicated Time Machine external drive would allow me to boot directly from it and restore the system if need be - I booted with CMD+R, tried again with ALT ... no luck.
    And I cannot find my Mac OS DVDs...
    So... is the drive blank, or am I missing something here?
    If so, how can I boot from the external Time Machine drive, or is that not possible either?
    Any pointers greatly appreciated, thanks very much in advance.

    Call Apple to get replacement DVDs > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
    1. Insert the Mac OS X DVD and press C key while your computer is starting.
    2. Go to Utilities menu and restore the backup.
    You should have made a clone instead of the backup because Apple gives the hard disk without OS X

  • Hello  I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for.  i plugged in the

    Hello
    I bought my wife a new MacBook Pro, in setting it up for her, I took her Time Machine external drive to migrate onto the new machine but her old MBP not only was on 10.6, it was my old machine which I was still Administrator for.
    i plugged in the external drive to start the migration process after entering her name and username from the old machine which gave me the options on transferring the old data over.
    I also unchecked the Administrative end that had my info hoping that ONLY her data, files, etc., would be the ones sent over to her new machine which I wanted her to be the ONLY Administrator for. All went like clockwork until the restart.
    Normally the screen should show the username and only need the password but both entries were blank, as in ‘Other’ sign in option available only. I entered her name and password, nothing….used her username and password, nothing. Used my old Administrator name and password, NOTHING!
    I tried defaulting to factory settings from the Restore feature but it directs me to notify Apple. I tried in Terminal to change the password, nothing. I tried to boot from MY external drive and it doesn’t recognize it. I tried to even use my external drive which actually has the Mavericks upgrade, nothing!
    Basically I can only get the startup screen which isn’t accepting the username/password or the Restore feature which doesn’t offer any options helpful!
    Please, how do I start from scratch and start over here? Or simply change the Administrator name and password so I can proceed with everything thats already on there? I wish I could even boot from another drive but no luck on anything!

    First, on the old machine, make your wife's account an admin one. Log into it and delete yours. Then, update the TM backup. Finally, use Internet recovery mode, ⌘⌥R, erase the HD, and restore the OS. One first boot, follow the steps outlined in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide.

  • Lion time machine - external drive spin up causing apps to crash

    I have a 1TB external drive set up for time machine backups on my 27" iMac running Lion 10.7.3 that seems to be causing my Adobe CS 5.5 suite of apps (photoshop in partiucular) to crash as the drive spins up.  If an adobe application or lion/time machine is asking the drive to spin up I have no idea, but it seems random, and when it does, the adobe app(s) freeze and the beach ball from **** just spins. All other applications remain uneffected which leads me to believe it's related to a scratch disk function of some sort. I've googled high and low to find an scrap on insight into this issue and have found nothing...
    Few questions:
    • Why does the time machine external drive randomly spin up even though there are no backup processes running?
    • Why would an adobe app would need to access an external drive?
    Before anyone says it, I know I can always just eject the drives, but I'd rather keep my backups running for obvious reasons. If a complete wipe and install is the only solution recommended by the doctor, I will. It's just maddening to regularly loose work. Any help is greatly appreciated!
    iMac: Mid 2010 27"
    Processor  2.8 GHz Intel Core i5
    Memory  8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
    Graphics  ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
    Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50)
    Adobe CS 5.5
    Photoshop CS5  / v12.1 x64
    Illustrator CS5  / v15.1.0
    InDesign CS5.5 / v7.5.2
    External Drives
    Firewire800: 2TB Hitachi G-Drive: http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
    USB: 1TB Western Digital MyPassport 0730

    Set the TM drive not to spin down, I think there is a setting in the system preferences.
    Could be the G drive feature,
    consider making option key bootable clone drives
    Most commonly used backup methods explained

  • Is it possible to store all iTunes files on an external drive?

    Is it possible to store all iTunes files on an external drive? I'd like to free up space on my Mac Book Air and iTunes is the largest space hog. What can I store on my 1TB external drive and delete from the laptop's hard drive?

    Drag the iTunes library there, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to that instance of it.
    (85793)

  • Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

    Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

    What kind of repair?

  • Firewire thunderbolt adaptor does not recognize my time machine external hard drive

    Hi everybody. I have a retina MacBook Pro, and wanted to connect my time machine external HD to the mac using a firewire-thunderbolt adaptor.
    I did so, but the HD does not show up in the devices menu. Any suggestion?
    thank you for your help
    Giulio

    Have you tried rebooting? If you share what type drive you have, perhaps others will share their experiences. Is your drive bus powered? I haven't had any trouble so far connecting through a TB-FW adapter to my external hard drive (Hitachi drive in an OWC case, bus powered).

  • I need advice:  I love my apple TV.  But my laptop at home, only has a 750gig hard drive.  Is there a possibility of having all my media on an external hardrive to still connect to the Apple TV?

    I need advice:  I love my apple TV.  But my laptop at home, only has a 750gig hard drive.  Is there a possibility of having all my media on an external hardrive to still connect to the Apple TV?
    Is there like in a hard drive of which iTunes can read the media, which will not require me to add and delete media onto iTunes, because of a lack of space on my laptop?

    just get an ext HD, and point your itunes library to that drive so now you'll just keep all your media on this ext

Maybe you are looking for

  • How can I restore iCloud files from my lost iPhone

    I backed up my files to icloud. But I lost my Iphone last week. How can I restore my files from icloud to my macbook ?

  • How to print Report Locale information in siebel BI publisher report

    Hi, i would like to print Report Locale Information selected by user in siebel BI publisher Report? Is it possible, please advise me to handle this? Regards, Joe

  • I am trying SOAP to SOAP scenario an i am getting the following error

    HTTP operation 'POST' could not be performed on URL '/XISOAPAdapter/MessageServlet?channel=:BS:CC'due to an error :The connection with the server was terminated abnormally.   Can some one help me out , really urgent

  • Sales Order Costing

    Hi friends In case of sales order costing i have few doubts mentioned below  can anybody help on same subject? 1. While raising the sale order it allow to save the sale order prior to sales order costing.             Is there any solution on same so

  • Merging virtual copies back into original

    Hi, I'm using Lightroom 2 and have finally got round to creating a single master catalogue from all of my yearly ones. Somehow during the importing I managed to pull in a load (1400) photos without their develop settings. This would have been fine if