Problems syncing to an external disk

I am trying to back up my iPhone 6Plus to an external disc. My iPhone 5S was backing up fine, but then when I got the new iPhone 6 Plus along with the latest iTunes software it would no longer back up. I get a message stating that there isn't enough space on my computer even though there is plenty of space on the external disc. I run iTunes off my external disk because I have very little room on my MacBook Air. The volume is pointed to the external drive under iTunes Preferences but it still must not be seeing it or saving to it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My equipment is as follows:
iPhone 6 Plus
MacBook Air Mid-2011 (10.9.5)
iTunes 12.0.1.26
G Drive Slim 500 GB

If you backed up the entire iTunes folder to the external drive then it should be pretty easy.
Install iTunes.
Hold down option as you click the icon to launch iTunes, keep holding until asked to choose or create a library.
Click choose and browse to the iTunes library on the external drive.
Sync as normal.
Otherwise see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Similar Messages

Time Machine fails repeatedly with no problem detected on the external disk

Since a couple of days, Time Machine fails repeatedly, several times a day. I repair the disk with the Disk utility, that finds no error, then I reset Time Machine as indicated, and after one or two successful backups, it fails again, with the following report given by the Time Machine Buddy widget:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/iMac de MM size:8
Error: (-50) Creating directory 2010-09-22-231449.inProgress
Failed to make snapshot container.
Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/iMac de MM size:8
Backup failed with error: 2
I insist, the disk utility doesn't find any problem in the external USB disk. Should I reinstall the OS?
Thanks a lot for any help!
Best regards
Mauricio

This is the message after the ejection failure:
Starting standard backup
Backing up to: /Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 5.63 GB requested (including padding), 541.66 GB available
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Device not configured
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/mauriciomilchberg/Movies/Evenements iMovie/Nouvel événement/Edgar 4.mov to /Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/iMac de Mauricio Milchberg/2010-09-24-025248.inProgress/5034B0A3-F84E-4992-A7B8-8B9166E9AD42/Mac intosh HD/Users/mauriciomilchberg/Movies/Evenements iMovie/Nouvel événement
Stopping backupd because the backup volume was ejected!
Stopping backup.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/mauriciomilchberg/Movies/Evenements iMovie/Nouvel événement/Edgar 4.mov to /Volumes/Copies de sauvegarde Time machine/Backups.backupdb/iMac de Mauricio Milchberg/2010-09-24-025248.inProgress/5034B0A3-F84E-4992-A7B8-8B9166E9AD42/Mac intosh HD/Users/mauriciomilchberg/Movies/Evenements iMovie/Nouvel événement
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Copied 4768 files (2.8 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Error writing to backup log. NSFileHandleOperationException:* -[NSConcreteFileHandle writeData:]: Input/output error
Copy stage failed with error:11
The word "événement" has been written not by me, but by the translation.
Anyway, I'll follow your advice and start with the combo.
Thans a lot again.
Best regards
Mauricio

Weird Problem "The iPod cannot be synced. The required disk cannot be found

I have had my 2nd gen Ipod Shuffle since May 9th, 2008 and it has never given me problems until now. My computer was getting kind of backed up (I am running on 37.5 gig with 256 mb of RAM), so I decided to completely re-do my computer. Not a problem, I have done it hundreds of times before. Well, I get everything set up again and decide to change what is on my shuffle. I plug it into my computer like normal and Itunes comes up asking to erase and sync to the computer. Everything looks fine. But then when it goes to sync, it comes up with the error "The iPod cannot be synced. The required disk cannot be found.". So I reinstall Itunes and try it again. Same problem. Then I format it using my computer. The problem is still there. I tried to restore it in Itunes, but it came up with the error again and froze. Then I downloaded the ipod restore program and ran it, and it did take everything off. I plugged it back in, but it still had the same problem, even when it was completely re-set. I even tried unplugging my mouse and keyboard, but it didn't work. Then I decided to experiment. I uninstalled Itunes for a while and plugged the ipod into my computer to see it it would show up as a disk. It did. Then I reinstalled itunes and tried it again, but as soon as itunes started up, the ipod icon in the "My Computer" box disappeared. So I cannot use itunes to fix my problems because the computer reads that the ipod isn't there while itunes is running.
I have no idea what to do now, and if anyone knows, please help me!!!
Thanks
P.S. Sorry this was so long

I apologise beforehand this messgae is long
I have a strange problem too. This doesn't involve "required disk not found" problem.
I also have a 2nd generation IPod Shuffle.
I have a Windows XP and the latest service pack, so my PC is not at fault. I have all my music on an external hard drive which works all the time, as i have playlists in ITunes and Windows Media Player and they always work. I also bought a 80GB Ipod some 2 years ago never had a problem with the music being on an external hard drive.
With the shuffle i made a playlist up of all the tracks i wanted on it. I then Plugged the shuffle in and i seemed to sync. The playlist has 200 tracks this in total is 900MB. The shuffle is 2GB!!
After syncing i unplugged went to listen and only 5!!! songs were on it.
I noticed that the external hard drive was dissapearing. I mean when i go into my computer and into external hard drive and it was empty. When its got 350 albums on it, 1000s of pictures etc.
The external hard drive seems to dissapear when the shuffle is plugged in
Does anybody know how to fix this as listening to 5 songs i rather boring!!!!

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to". I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

I was trying to sync my 120GB iPod Classic earlier, and it said it couldn't sync as the iPod disk could not be "read" or "written to." I now can't get anything onto my iPod, and I was wondering if it is a hard drive problem? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the b.u. stops

I am trying to do a full Time Machine Backup to a new external disk. The backup starts, and it says "Time remaining about 4 days." That seems like a very long time, but the real problem is that the computer "logs off" after a few hours, and the backup stops. The system preferences are set to "Never" for Computer sleep and Display sleep. The computer does not ordinarily log off automatically, but it has done this twice since I started the Time Machine backup.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console 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 Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the search box.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

External disk problem with AVI files

Hi
I do have Premiere elements 7 installed on a Sony Vaio laptop with Vista.
I have just rendered (DV camera to AVI files) some 20 tapes to my external disk (usb and fire wire connection) and everyuthing worked perfect.
A week later Premiere complains that I have not the correct codec installed.
However AVI files stored on my laptop still works.
Someone that has a clue about this?
Second problem.
When renering the DV camera to AVI files directly to the laptop the dates works fine.
When i copy them to an external disk, the dates are replaced with todays date and I can not anymore see the shooting date.

Hi,
Thanks, the forum seems to be a good knowledgebase. And thanks for your fast reply.
The thing is that I have a external disk with firewire and USB input.
However the laptop has only one firewire connection, so when rendering I use the laptop firewire for my Sony DCR-TRV33E and connects the external disk with USB.
When I create my videos, I connect the external disk with firewire.
However the problem is the same even if I try with USB or Firewire.
BUT last week it worked with both?????
//Per

External Disk Problems - Serious

Dear Apple,
10.4.3, eMac latest, 512MB.
external USB2 drive, freshly formatted, extended non-journaled
Problem. Doing anything with the disk Finder-wise (like getting info on large folder) while copying something large (32Gb folder) to the external disk hangs the finder for good. This is 100% reproducible behavior. I assume this has something to do with Apple's USB driver or Finder.
PLEASE FIX IT BEFORE WE SUE YOU.

Thaks for suggestions. Here is what I know:
a) disk is external 160Gb, formated with Apple utilities, extended HFS+ single partition.
b) the disk is mass produced, sold by Frys, manufacturer claims they never heard of this, their suggestions (go single port not ext hub, bad port, bad cable) did not pan out. They are 100% the problem isn't theirs.
c) there is no trace of anything in any log except when I pull the plug on that drive.
d) there is no report of anything similar on the web.
e) again the problem is, in the middle of file copy the transfer stops, the drive indicates (light) that is stuck writing. After some 10 sec the drive goes back to normal mode and the system loses ability to communicate with the drive. Finder hangs. That happens with 100% reproducibility but at very variable point in transfer (1M to 1G). Puling the USB cable immediately un-hangs the Finder.
f) I did try using cp, same problem, also running from safe boot mode (extension disabled), no difference.
Short of buying another drive and computer to try to mail the culprit I see nothing else to try except blaming Apple simply because I agree external USB silicon is extremely unlikely to have a problem synching communications with the mac.
Mac OS X (10.4.2)

How can I save the images and movies on a external Disk from iphoto program, to protect the images when problems occur in the laptop,

How can I save the images and movies on a external Disk from iphoto program, to protect the images when problems occur in the laptop,

Most Simple Back Up:
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex: Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.
Example of such apps: Chronosync - but there are many others. Search on MacUpdate or the App Store
If you want to back up the Photos only:
Export them using the File -> Export command.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

Problems connecting external disk to my Thomson router

When i connect my external disk to my Thomson router the Mountain Lion can't access to it inside my home wireless network. With the app muCommander i can access it by writing the IP address but in Finder i can't access it. Any ideas?

I apologize if this is answered elsewhere, but I
could not navigate through to the right thread.
I've just bought a Maxtor One Touch III for Macintosh
(500gb). Having connected it to my Airport Extreme I
can see the disk in Disk Utility.
[portions omitted] .
What am I doing wrong? Please help
I am using the 750GB Maxton OneTouch III with the extreme software 7.1 with absolutely no problem. This is one of the drives that actually gets recognized even after power down - power up.

I have recently bought macbook air, previously i was using macbook pro 13". I have a problem in accessing my external hard disk, on which i used to take backup through time machine on my earlier macbook pro. I am not able to access the hard disk.

My new macbook air is not even detecting the external disk, leave alone reading it. I have important documents as time machine backup on the external disk. Please help in resolving this issue.
Thanks

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Yosemite: problem with external disk

Hello,
After installing Yosemite I cannot use Time Machine anymore because the external disk (WD My Passport Edge) cannot be mounted. Does someone know what to do? Thanks in advance for your help.
The Disk Utility Program shows the external disk however none of the action button is active.

See mount section at the end.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

Secure Empty Thrash on external disk problem

If I try to use "Secure Empty Thrash" on an external disk, after a few (1-3) items are thrashed (sometimes even none), the Finder sticks, nothing more happens and, as usual, clicking on "Stop emptying thrash" on the bar does nothing either, so that I finally have to do "Force Quit" on the Finder. This is clearly not good...

1. Yes, apologies. For thrash read trash throughout. Dumping the com.apple.finder.plist file seems to have worked to some extent, or at least helped. What is now happening is that files (whether on hard drive or external) take much longer to trash securely than they did under Tiger, even when they are completely empty. Interestingly, when securely trashing single files of any kind or size, and even empty folders, the Finder appears to think it is dealing with 10 items in each case - at least, that is what appears on the bar. I would still like to know what is going on.
2. I have discovered the source of the mysterious folders - apparently it's related to the Epson TWAIN plug-in for Photoshop CS and CS2 (see http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070215095449325)

I have a problem syncing iCal on my Macbook air (10.7.5) and my iPhone 4s (5.1.1) over iCloud. The following server error message comes up "The request (CalDAVAccountRefreshQueueableOperation) for account "iCloud" failed." Been to Apple - no luck. Ideas?

I have a problem syncing iCal on my Macbook air (10.7.5) and my iPhone 4s (5.1.1) over iCloud. The following server error message comes up "The request (CalDAVAccountRefreshQueueableOperation) for account “iCloud” failed." Been to Apple Store - no luck instore, or with Super genius over the phone when with genius in store, taking data in real time via ethernet!
I had to do a full wipe of my system because of time machine back up issues 2 weeks ago, and the error has only occured at some point since then. I only did a drag and drop of my user account folders/files into an External HDD rather than a copy of my user account (advised by the staff in store at Apple to do this) and when reimported, the Mail folders are all present but each message is in a sub-sub-sub folder that is numerically named. I do not have a mirror image of the hard disk prior to the wipe, only a time machine back up from 2 weeks prior to it being done. I am uncertain if this reinstall has caused the issue.
I am not happy to upgrade the software in my iPhone until I have the calendars working. I have purchased Mountain Lion, but again am concerned about upgrading until the issues are sorted.
I have tried the other solutions on here with no luck. HELP please.
Many Thanks.

Progress Update.
I made a back of what existing phtos and Videos I had on my Iplhone. I used Image capture to do this making an entire back up of photos and videoa that were still intact on the phone.
Image capture is god for this purpose, as it does exactly what you ask it to do without applying any rules or squishing the files back into iphote (which might also be corupted)
Image capture wil do the basic function of retriving the contents of the phone and save them as native files on your hard drive.
Once I did this I erased my iphone, and re intitialised it restoring an older back up from icloud.
As the retore was happneing - I did retreive the missing files that cuased the intial beviour as above, and I could play the videos that were missing in the above scenerio. The wierd ting was however that even though the source files were now back on the device, the thumbnail previews were missing. Where I ahd balck thumb nails for server portions of the resotred content.
I then went to bed as the restore is a long process. When I woke up the library had library had cleaned itself up. Mysteriously the prcess had deleted the files missing the their thumbnails.
This is very perculiar and bad behavior.
I am now repeating the process, and will attempt to download the missing content as it is restored and prior to the phone trying to fix itself.
Here are the lessons learned.
DO NOT rely on Photo Stream to keep back ups and synchornise videos from you IOS device. IT DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS CAPBILITY
DO NOT rely on iCloud Back Up alone - always fd an occassional iTunes back up or more reliably still always take a back up of photos and video files using Image Capture to be doubly sure that you a have backd up any content.
DO THIS NOW - dont wait to loose your phone ofr have your phone repaired by replacement at the apple Store. (I did both :-(

"The iPhone cannot be synced. The required disk cannot be found."

I have been having this problems since I got my iphone last year. Early on the phone would sync after 2-3 tries but as of the last 2-3 months I have been only able to sync it 2-3 times even after trying all the solutions presented by the troubleshooting and reading forum posts that seem to have a similar or near similar problem.
The first message I get after having the phone sync is
"The iPhone cannot be synced. The required disk cannot be found."
After itunes attempts to sync again I get a different message that says
"The iPhone cannot be synced. An error occurred while writing to the device."
Ive ran the diagnostic and this is what I got:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
EVGA__ 132-YW-E179-FTW
iTunes 9.1.0.79
QuickTime 7.6.6
FairPlay 1.7.16
Apple Application Support 1.2.1
iPod Updater Library 9.0d11
CD Driver 2.2.0.1
CD Driver DLL 2.1.1.1
Apple Mobile Device 3.0.0.102
Apple Mobile Device Driver 1.46.0.0
Bonjour 2.0.0.34 (214.3)
iTunes Serial Number 5DD5EE0A2E39800E
Current user is an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2010-04-21 16:55:29.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
Video Display Information
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
** External Plug-ins Information **
No external plug-ins installed.
The drive E: Memorex 52MAX 325216AJv2 Rev RW$5 is a USB 2 device.
** Network Connectivity Tests **
Network Adapter Information
Adapter Name: {5EC41707-0E19-4943-9EBF-169BD17E249E}
Description: NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
IP Address: 192.168.15.4
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.15.1
DHCP Enabled: Yes
DHCP Server: 192.168.15.1
Lease Obtained: Wed Apr 21 16:35:40 2010
Lease Expires: Wed Apr 21 17:35:40 2010
DNS Servers: 192.168.15.1
192.168.15.1
Active Connection: LAN Connection
Connected: Yes
Online: Yes
Using Modem: No
Using LAN: Yes
Using Proxy: No
Firewall Information
Windows Firewall is on.
iTunes is enabled in Windows Firewall.
Connection attempt to Apple web site was successful.
Connection attempt to iTunes Store was successful.
Secure connection attempt to iTunes Store was successful.
Secure connection attempt to iPhone activation server was successful.
Last successful store access was 2010-04-21 16:15:50.
** CD/DVD Drive Tests **
No drivers in LowerFilters.
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.2.0.1),
D: SONY DVD RW DRU-V200A, Rev 1.60
Drive is empty.
D: SONY DVD RW DRU-V200A, Rev 1.60
Drive is empty.
E: Memorex 52MAX 325216AJv2, Rev RW$5
Data or MP3 CD in drive.
Found 1 songs on CD, playing time 255:57 on CDROM media.
Track 1, start time 00:02:00
Get drive speed succeeded.
The drive CDR speeds are: 4.
The drive CDRW speeds are: 4.
** iPod/iPhone Connectivity Tests **
iPodService 9.1.0.79 is currently running.
iTunesHelper 9.1.0.79 is currently running.
Apple Mobile Device service 3.0.0.0 is currently running.
Universal Serial Bus Controllers:
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller. Device is working properly.
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller. Device is working properly.
FireWire (IEEE 1394) Host Controllers:
Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller. Device is working properly.
Most Recent Device Not Currently Connected:
iPod nano (4th Generation) running firmware version 1.0.4
Serial Number: YM9023TZ5BF
iPhone 3GS running firmware version 3.1.3
Serial Number: 879230PW3NP
** iPhone/iPod Touch Sync Tests **
Sync tests completed successfully.
If anyone has a possible solution please let me know as its getting very frustrating not being able to update my phone.
Message was edited by: powerweb11

I had the same problem and fixed it.
"The iPhone cannot be synced. An error occurred while writing to the device."
I think it is caused by downloading too many apps, or large apps, and then when syncing over USB it doesn't recognise the iPhone and you get "The iPhone cannot be synced. An error occurred while writing to the device."
To fix this:
1. Ensure iTunes is closed & iPhone is disconnected but keep USB cable connected to iPhone
2. hold down CTRL + SHIFT on your keyboard
3. connect USB cable to PC and wait. If iTunes doesn't start for a minute then start it (keeping hold of CTRL + SHIFT)
4. if it wont let you start iTunes or all your icons are selected then release CTRL + SHIFT
5. when iTunes starts it may ask you about safe mode or something similar, say yes
6. Your iPhone should list as a device as normal, click sync.
It will then start the sync as normal and you may find it will transfer only one or two apps and you may get the dreaded error message again as I did. However, persist with the above steps and eventually it sync'd all my apps with no error message. Because I have only just done this I haven't downloaded any more apps so it might be a frequent thing but better than the error message.

Sizing Backup, Bootable and Storage partitions on an External Disk

I have iMac G5, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB HD with one partition currently holding about 140 GB, and a TB external disk. I want to use the external disk for three purposes: Bootable Partition, Time Machine Backup, Miscellaneous Storage.
Apple advises matching the capacity of the Time Machine backup to that of the volume being backed up. My inclination is to limit the Backup volume to 500 GB, see how that works out and re-evaluate as HD use increases.
Q1. As I understand, the bootable partition would be, at the minimum, a duplicate of all OS X (Leopard in the case of G5s) system and application software.
Q2. Should it also include 3rd party apps? (yes?)
Q3. Should it be a pristine installation that is independently kept up to date with all upgrades, but essentially unused unless an emergency arises? (yes?) Or is it okay to somehow sync it with my HD content? (this could copy a problem to just where you don't want it to be?)
Since I will be using Time Machine to backup my HD, it does not seem that all the data files (e.g. iTunes Library) need to be included in the bootable partition.
Q4. What are the correct choices for what goes into the bootable partition, including 3rd party apps and data?
Q5. What process should be used for updating this software? Independent, parallel updates? (yes?)
Q6. Are there any files that should be duplicated in this partition; for example, keychains are something you need - or would you get these from Time Machine too?
Q7. Since the Time Machine backup resides on the same disk, it is possible to restore needed files from there. When Time Machine restores the system, does it put everything into the boot partition? (yes?)
Q8. If so, since Disk Utility allows dynamic re-partitioning, I could use a limited space for the bootable partition and then re-allocate more space to it later if I wanted to run a fully restored version of the system off the external disk? (yes?)
Q9. Does it make sense to separate the Miscellaneous Storage into a separate partition? (yes?) Or should should I use just one partition to hold the bootable stuff and the miscellaneous stuff? (no?)

Mr. Cat wrote:
Mostly agreeing with Kappy here, but a few additions.
Apple advises matching the capacity of the Time Machine backup to that of the volume being backed up. My inclination is to limit the Backup volume to 500 GB, see how that works out and re-evaluate as HD use increases.
That should be plenty, depending on how the 140 GB will grow. Our "rule of thumb" is, TM needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing-up. See #1 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Q1. As I understand, the bootable partition would be, at the minimum, a duplicate of all OS X (Leopard in the case of G5s) system and application software.
That depends on what you're trying to do, and how much space you have, but usually a bootable clone contains everything. Thus it's partition should be a minimum of 120% of the data on (or anticipated to be on) your internal HD.
Think for a moment about why you want two separate, independent backups. The safest route is to have them on separate disks, so you're protected against either disk failing (and they all do, sooner or later). For that reason, consider getting another disk for the clone. If you get a portable one, you can take it to a secure off-site location, so you're also protected against fire, flood, theft, and direct lightning strike on your power lines. Some folks get a pair of them; use one for a week or so, then take it off-site and swap with the other one.
The other reason to have two backups is to protect you against a problem with one app or drive; thus if your TM backups somehow get corrupted, you still have the clone, and vice-versa.
In both cases, your best bet is to let both apps back up nearly everything. Sometimes there's a good reason to omit some things; see #11 in the FAQ Tip for more detail. Also, if you're running Windoze via virtualization software, you likely do not want to back it up with Time Machine. See #9 in the FAQ Tip.
Q5. What process should be used for updating this software? Independent, parallel updates? (yes?)
I use CarbonCopyCloner, in addition to full Time Machine backups; SuperDuper is similar. Both are reliable. CCC is donationware, SD has a free version, but you'll need the paid one (about $30) to do automatic scheduling and updates (vs. a full replacement). Both are easily found via Google.
Q7. Since the Time Machine backup resides on the same disk, it is possible to restore needed files from there. When Time Machine restores the system, does it put everything into the boot partition? (yes?)
You select the destination disk/partition.
Q8. If so, since Disk Utility allows dynamic re-partitioning, I could use a limited space for the bootable partition and then re-allocate more space to it later if I wanted to run a fully restored version of the system off the external disk? (yes?)
Yes, but be careful. You can only resize a partition by dragging the bottom in the diagram up or down; you can't move the top. Thus to expand a partition, you have to delete the one below it.
Q9. Does it make sense to separate the Miscellaneous Storage into a separate partition? (yes?) Or should should I use just one partition to hold the bootable stuff and the miscellaneous stuff? (no?)
They should each be separate. See #3 in the FAQ about the TM partition; and you'll also want the clone to be on it's own partition.
Since you have a lot of room on the external, I'd recommend putting the TM partition first, and the most-easily replaced partition(s) last.
You might want to use the Restore option of Disk Utility to make a copy of your Install disc in a small partition on the external (towards the end). It's much faster and easier to boot from that instead of trying to find your Install disc, when you need to. I'd also recommend making a duplicate of that disk and keeping it in a secure off-site location.

Problems syncing to an external disk

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