Question:  Time Machine b/u vs bootable external drive

I wanted to make an external bootable drive and planned on getting Carbon Copy Cloner.  However, I see some discussion strings on Time Machine that suggest that if your hard drive fails, you can boot the computer using Time Machine backups.  Surely the TM b/u's do not allow you to boot from scratch too (or do they?)

gangof4 wrote:
I wanted to make an external bootable drive and planned on getting Carbon Copy Cloner.  However, I see some discussion strings on Time Machine that suggest that if your hard drive fails, you can boot the computer using Time Machine backups.  Surely the TM b/u's do not allow you to boot from scratch too (or do they?)
Use both

Similar Messages

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    Additional info: The laptops in question are 15" MacBook Pro and a 17" MacBook Pro from 2011 running OSX 10.9 (Mavericks)

    You are welcome.
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  • Best way to transfer time machine back up files between external drives

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    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
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  • I am trying to move previous Time Machine back ups off an external drive to my new Time Capsule. How do I do that?

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  • HT201250 Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button.  No drive is found. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past.  I'm on the latest version of Snow Leopard.  Thank you!

    Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button.  No drive is listed. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past.    Any suggestions

    Does the disk appear in Disk Utility?

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    When using Time Machine to back up to external drive, does Time Machine back up content in your Trash folder?

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  • Time Machine formatted itself on my external drive despite pressing "Don't Use"

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    ._.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
    .com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
    .Spotlight-V100
    .fseventsd
    .Trashes
    USBCˆö?␀.␀€␀
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    Thanks. If you have any questions please reply below

    Thank you Thomas,
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    "2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: / has entries after end of directory
    2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Truncate? no
    2013-02-16 12:06:23 +0000: Extend? no"
    Will the tools mentioned in you post work with FAT 32? I am looking at Data Rescue 3 becuase of the FileIQ functionality since I know I have obsure file formats on there
    Does this help or it is irrelevant?

  • Time Machine isn't backing up external drive

    I've been using Time Machine successfully for some time now. Recently I decided to move my iTunes music to an external drive (my internal drive was nearly full.) So I moved 150+ GB of iTunes library to the external drive successfully, but Time Machine seems to completely ignore the external (FireWire) drive. It's formatted as Mac OS Extended (that's HFS+, right?) so I don't understand what the problem might be.
    Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
    Thanks in advance for the help.

    Dave Troup wrote:
    If V.K.s suggestion doesn't work, try excluding the drive, quitting System Preferences, then removing the exclusion.
    Also, if I can get Time Machine to start backing up both drives correctly, should I erase the backup drive and start over? Otherwise, I assume that I'm going to be wasting a lot of (backup) drive space, since the 150GB iTunes library will be backed up from its original location on my internal drive, as well as from its new location on the external drive… what's the best way to deal with that?
    You may not need to. TM will, eventually, delete it's copies of anything not still on your internal HD. When is just a question of how soon the TM drive/partition gets near full, and TM must start deleting your oldest "weekly" backups. You are supposed to get a message about that, if you have the appropriate box checked in TM's Preferences, but several folks here report they never did, so assume nothing.
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    Then make some change to the folder, or something within it, so TM will consider it changed and back-up the new (smaller) version.

  • Time Machine won't back up external drive to Time Capsule

    I recently got a Time Capsule, and successfully set it up to back up my iMac's primary drive, but for some reason Time Machine won't back up my external drive to the Time Capsule.
    I removed the external drive from the exclusion list in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and from what I've read this should be sufficient to make Time Machine back up the drive.
    The external drive is connected to my iMac via Thunderbolt > Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adaptor > Firewire 800 input, and the Time Capsule is connected via Ethernet to my LAN.
    Since I'm using Ethernet, I've disabled Wi-Fi on the Time Capusule by going to AirPort Utility > My Time Capsule > Edit > Wireless > Network Mode > Off.
    The reason I believe the external drive is not being backed up is because when I click the Time Machine icon in the upper-right status bar and choose "Enter Time Machine", none of the folders on external drive show any older versions.
    Furthermore, when I click Finder > Time Machine Backups > Backups.backupdb, I can see only one sub-folder which has the name of my iMac's primary drive. I can't see any equivalent folder for my external drive.
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    I don't see anything you have done wrong.. perhaps it does backup in a different way.
    Load the widget.. A1 here... http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    That will allow you to track the log of TM to see what it is doing.
    I would also try rebooting the computer.. exclude the drive again.. reboot.. and remove the exclusion.
    You should be able to check the actual settings of TM in plist file.
    And you can do a full reset of TM as well.. See A4. Check what is in the file. Pondini lists the location for you.
    Nothing surprises me with Mountain Lion ...!!

  • Time Machine to backup a bootable external HD

    Running 10.6.8 on a 27" 2009 iMac with a bootable external HD also running 10.6.8.
    For the internal HD (1TB, 680GB used), I use TM to backup to external HD  (1TB). No problem.
    For the bootable external HD (called "CupCake," 500GB, 200GB used), it tells me that the external HD that I'm trying to backup to (called "CC TM," 500GB, empty), is too small for the 800GB data. I assume that 680 + 200 = 800GB, TM is trying backup the internal HD and CupCake. I want to backup CupCake alone to CC TM.
    How do I get TM to backup only the external HD?
    Thank you, JS

    I would suggest CarbonCopyClone ($40 download) to backup an external drive.  It allows you to select the source and destination drives, and makes bootable clones which I would suggest doing for your intern drive.   A bootable clone is a good "usable backup" when your internal drive fails (it will eventually fail).
    SuperDuper also clones, but does not save the RecoveryPartition like CCC does (at least so is reported).

  • Does Time Machine work with a partitioned external drive?

    I just bought my first Mac this weekend (yay!) and would like to use the external Maxtor drive I used for backups with our Windows machines with Time Machine. The problem is we still have two Windows machines that were using this drive as a backup and I would like to continue to do so. Can I put two partitions on the drive, one for Mac and one NTFS for the Windows machines, hook the drive up to my iMac with the Firewire and have Time Machine use the Mac partition while I share the Windows partition for use by the Windows machines? Any insight would be appreciated.
    Thanks,
    HD

    Never mind. I found a post from April 8th where a similar question was asked and it appears as though the answer is yes.
    Thanks all

  • Time Machine, how to remove dead external drive ?

    When an external drive started behaving irrationally, I transferred all video projects to a new drive. Now I noticed that this no longer existing old drive with all its 242GB contents still appears on my TM backups.
    Is there a way to remove it in order to free badly needed space on the TM?

    No, you need to use the Time Machine interface, not the Finder.
    See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

  • HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive?  I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

    Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive?  While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean!  When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message:  "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

    Thanks so much Terence.  I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
    http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
    That worked like a charm.  I really appreciate it. 

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