Program to transfer new files to my external HD? (Not Time Machine)

Is there a program that I can download to automatically transfer new files that add to my MacBook to my external hard drive when I connect it? A program that will not delete files off of my hd that are no longer on my MacBook-unless I delete them myself? I want this program for extra storage, so once I no longer need files immediately I can delete them off my MacBook, but still have them on my hd for easy access... So as to say I would like a program to make copies rather than files that I need to restore to use.

Carbon Copy Cloner can do what you want: http://www.bombich.com/

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Recovering files from a external HD pre Time Machine

Please someone throw me a ladder to get me out of this ginormous hole I doug myself.
A few days ago I set up my old MBP to be a server of sorts. It is plugged into my external HDD and my Wife's external HDD. My reasoning for this is so our computers can wirelessly back them selves up with Time Machine. Setting my new MBP was not problem was doing a fresh install because I wanted to start fresh, select the location of the drive I wanted and go, cake! The wife's drive was just as easy or so I thought. She comes to me today and tells me that the only thing she has on her external HDD is the backups folder from Time Machine. She is missing 3 folders. I presume when I set up Time Machine on her compy that it did not recognize her old backups from previous and reformatted her external HDD. So my question to you is that is there a way to revert or go back and fetch the old files that were on her drive or will I be groveling and apologizing until I die.
I beg for some help.

So my question to you is that is there a way to revert or go back and fetch the old files that were on her drive or will I be groveling and apologizing until I die.
probably the latter. if the drive was reformatted to make it work with TM the only way to possibly recover anything from before that happened is by using Data recovery software like Data Rescue II or Filesalvage. you should stop using the drive and do it ASAP. But there are no guarantees here. if the data that was there before has already been overwritten by new data then Data Recovery won't work.
Message was edited by: V.K.

If I back up files to an external HD w/ time machine and delete them off the MacBook, will the HD also delete them on next backup?

I hooked up an external hard drive and my MacBook offered to run Time Machine to create a back-up. Once the back-up is done, I'd like to delete some of the videos off of my actual MacBook but if I do that, will I be able to watch them on the external HD or will it delete them on the next backup? Thank you for any help you can provide. I am running a MacBook 13 inch with Mac OSX 10.5.8 if that helps.

If you delete files backed up by TM, then eventually they will be deleted from the backup. TM is not a permanent storage alternative. For that you should purchase and connect a separate drive.

Can I backup another external HD with Time Machine/Capsule?

I have two external 250GB hard drives hooked up to my mac via USB. One for Time Machine and one for files. Does anyone know if it’s possible to backup my external HD for files to the external HD for Time Machine?

using the usb connected to the TC the readme says its doable. Just try it , what can it hurt unless you have valuable files on it.

How do i transfer files from my external HD to time capsule?

Hi Everyone,
I've been reading thru the discussions and yet to find a clear answer on how to transfer files from my external HD to time capsule. I am fairly new to Mac computers, pc user for years, but just bought a new MacBook Pro and the 500g time capsule.
I plan on using the Time Capsule as a back-up and external harddrive to store all of my music so not to overload my laptop.
Also, i have a pc formatted ipod, which i will have to re-format for my MacBook so I don't mind creating a new library in itunes but is it difficult to point the library to the music file on the Time Capsule? And will it work?
Thanks a bunch for any info!

nnigel, Welcome to the discussion area!
I've been reading thru the discussions and yet to find a clear answer on how to transfer files from my external HD to time capsule.
If it is directly connected to your Mac via USB or FireWire, Time Machine will include it in the backup.
...but is it difficult to point the library to the music file on the Time Capsule?
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Music folder

Why can't I transfer any files to an external device?

My MacBook Pro will not let me transfer any files to my external hard drive or android tablet. I can transfer from the device to the macbook but not the other way around. I used to be able to as I have transferred movies from the macbook to the hard drive before but it will no longer allow me to do that. I have downloaded the android file transfer app. How do I fix this?

The external HDD is probably formatted NTFS, for Windows, which allows you to read but not write to it. Click on it with COMMAND + I and check the format.
You can reformat it for Mac or PC and Mac, but reformatting will erase all user data off of the HDD.
You also can use a third party software such as Paragon or Tuxera to write to it.
Ciao.

Ust purchase an iphone 4s and need to know how could i transfer all files including (contacts, pictures, music, notes and ect.... from sd card or any external card to iphone 4s, please advise thx

ust purchase an iphone 4s and need to know how could i transfer all files including (contacts, pictures, music, notes and ect.... from sd card or any external card to iphone 4s, please advise thx.

You need to put all of your info on your computer and then sync it to iphone.

I need to configure a new hard disk as backup disk for time machine. The set up program is running and it says it will take 9 days to backup about 56 GB. Is it normal ?

I need to configure a new hard disk as backup disk for time machine.
The set up program is running since two hours and it says it will take 9 days to backup about 56 GB.
Is it normal ?

Roberto 17 wrote:
I started this morning at 12 and after 5 hours now the backup is about 6 GB up on 56 GB.
The new HD is a WD My Passport Edge 500 GB capacity
5 hours to do 6 GB of transfer is NOT normal, even for USB 2.0 so there's something wrong here. I'd say cancel it, wipe the drive and then test the integrity of the drive. Do some file transfers over to and see if it's behaving normally. It could be a bad USB cable, it could be a bad drive or bad enclosure. As it's new, I suspect you haven't really put it through its paces yet and it's important to do that first before commissioning it to serve as your "reliable backup."

Using the same external drive with Time Machine on new mac?

I recently got a new mac because my old one broke. Thankfully, I had a fresh backup on Time Machine ready to restore onto my new computer. But when I try to use Time Machine with my new computer, it keeps wanting to do a whole new backup. It won't recognize the latest backup to only add new or changed files.
Here's a breakdown of my events:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
want to continue using the external drive with Time Machine from where I left off (only adding new files since the last backup) on my new computer
Time Machine wants to do a whole new backup
Question: How can I continue to use my existing external hard drive with Time Machine on my new computer, picking up where I left off (not a new, complete backup)?
My old computer was Snow Lepoard, my new one is Lion.

Bergers wrote:
new computer
restore Time Machine on new computer at install
That should have left a "trail" in your SystemMigration log, so Time Machine can figure out what happened and automatically "inherit" the old backups. But sometimes, obviously, that doesn't work.
Since it didn't, there's a chance you can do it manually. See #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

HT3275 New macbook, old external drive for time machine

I got a new macbook pro a few weeks ago and set it up using my last backup from time machine. I want to use the same external drive for backups but there is no room. Can I delete all of the old files from the old computer or do I need to keep them?

kat.hayes wrote:
I want to use a 3 TB external drive for Time Machine to backup multiple 500GB hard drives in my Macpro. I have lots of large video files from HD cameras.
1. Will Time Machine backup all of the hard drives in the Macpro?
As long as they're formatted HFS+, yes. Be sure there's enough room, though -- Time Machine needs considerably more room than the data it's backing-up. See #1 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Swap Files on external HD via Time Machine?

Two weeks ago I bought a new iMac:
Been having some fairly seriously issues with Leopard, but the most perplexing one is a Swap file that was backed up via Time Machine, I'm assuming, as it's on my external HD:
Western Digital
Capacity: 465.64 GB
Available: 356.04 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/My Book
In a folder outside of the Backups.backupdb folder--as viewed from the finder window--is a Private folder, which inside looks like this:
private
tmp
tempVM
vm
swapfile0
The swapfile is 64mb
Any ideas on how this got there? Why it's there? Why my iMac would be swapping with 4GB RAM, and only using 24% of a 320GB HD?
Also it takes forever to open and close apps, restart, 15 to 45 seconds of blue screen before OS starts to load, jerky video, kernel panics, privileges errors, thread crashes, you name it.

I have the same on my Western Digital with my MacBook Pro.
My wife's iMac uses a Seagate and the private folder does not exist.
Thoughts?

I've used an external drive for time machine which has important files on it. After trying to back up my computer, it suddenly needed to be "repaired" by utilities. Now it's not being "seen" at all! How do I recover my important files off the drive?

I've used an external drive for time machine which has important files on it. After trying to back up my computer, it suddenly needed to be "repaired" by utilities. Now it's not being "seen" at all! How do I recover my important files off the drive?

If the external drive can be seen at all in Disk Utility, follow the instructions for repair here.

I just got a new MacBook Pro, and I tried to bring across my files from my last mac using time machine. After it was done copying I can't find my files anywhere but the space (about 130gb) has been used on my hard drive. Help please!!

I just got a new MacBook Pro, and I tried to bring across my files from my last mac using time machine. After it was done copying I can't find my files anywhere but the space (about 130gb) has been used on my hard drive. Does anyone know how I can get to them? I did change my user name from 'user' while it was copying, could this have something to do with it?

You don't want to do that by copying.
Your best bet, by far, is to use Setup Assistant. If your Mac is running Snow Leopard, see Using Setup Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard.
If it came with Lion, it's a bit different: Using Setup Assistant on Lion

Does the new airport extreme support backing up via time machine to an external hard drive pluged into the usb port

Does the new airport extreme support backing up via time machine to an external hard drive pluged into the usb port

Yes, but you might want to note that the port on the AirPort Extreme is only USB 2.0, and that it runs at about half the speed of the USB 2.0 port on a computer, so things are going to be quite SLOW as far as backups are concerned, or anything else for that matter.

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

I backup to an external hdd with Time Machine, when it ran out of space it did not delete old backups, now my internal hdd says its full when before it had heaps of space. I have searched for extra files but cant find any. Can anyone help, please.

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can also use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Program to transfer new files to my external HD? (Not Time Machine)

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