Select certain files for Time Machine backup?

Is it possible to select only certain files for Time Machine backup? Or does it automatically backup everything, including what you don't want saved?

Time Machine will backup all user files unless you select the ones you do not wish to have backed up. see the attached from System Preferences:
Ciao.

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Unable to select two drives for time machine backup?

I had a notification from Time Machine saying "This backup is too large for the disk..." and that I needed to omit items or select another drive. I've read online that it's possible to select multiple drives for Time Machine backups (so it switches between the available drives). When I go into Time Machine preferences and click "Select Disk" the drive I want to use in addition to my current Time Machine is there, but when I choose the additional drive I do not get the option to replace or "Use Both" (like pictured). Instead the additional drive is selected as the sole Time Machine and the current Time Machine drive is replaced.
In short, Time Machine is not giving me the option to "Use Both" - why would this be and how do I remedy this?
Thanks.

The reason is that that feature is Only offered in "Mountain Lion" OS X 10.8; and you are using "Lion" 10.7.
Hope this helps

Can I select certain drives only for Time Machine backup?

I have several internal drives and several external drives connected to my MacPro desktop computer. If I backup everything in all of the drives using Time Machine, the capacity on my designated external drive for Time Machine backup will soon be filled. Is there any way to selectively backup via Time Machine from only designated drives, not all drives connected (internally or externally) to my computer? Is so, how can that be done? I assume that Time Machine will start deleting data when its capacity is exceeded. If that is so, and I remove the designated Time Machine drive at that point and replace it with a new drive, will the removed drive thereafter be able to be reinserted and the prior material read and transferred as needed? Is there any way to utilized Time Machine after I insert the replacement drive to only archive new material saved after the switch of drives?

Yes, mount the drive by opening a new Finder window and clicking on your base station's name in the left column that says 'Shared'. Then double click on the drive name to mount it on your desktop. From there, open Time Machine prefs and select that mounted drive as your backup disk. Time machine will then back up to it. Theoretically.
If you want that disk to automatically mount every time you login to your computer, go to Sys Prefs Panel and select 'Accounts'. Then click 'Startup Items'. From there, drag the mounted drive's icon from the desktop in to that startup items list. It will then auto-mount from there forward.
I have had many problems backing up this way with Time Machine. It will, 9 times out of 10, fail over a wireless backup with an Airport Extreme Gigabit base station and a 1TB Western Digital My Book. Nothing seems to fix, so I have given up. When TM is finally fixed - I will use it. Until then, it's junk software as far as I'm concerned.
But - best of luck. The instructions above are how it's 'supposed' to work..

Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups

I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

Can I partition a hard drive so that one partition is for windows files and the other is for time machine backups?

I have a 1TB WD passport that currently contains windows files e.g photos, documents, etc. Can I partition it so that one partition contains these files and the other partition is used for time machine backups? Also, how do I change the partition system on the hard drive so that it uses the GUID partition system?
Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can, though you need to format and partition the drive from the scratch.
1) back up your PC data on other drive.
2) partitioning your drive into 2 partitions with Disk Utility.
3) format one partition by Mac OS extended (journaling) for Time Machine, the other by exFAT for PC data.
4) restore PC data on exFAT partitioned drive.

Macbook Pro -yosemite install stalls at disc select with ''This disc is used for Time Machine Backups' - help !

Having downloaded Yosemite it installed fine on my iMac but on my Macbook Pro installation has frozen at the Disc Selection stage (where you want it to install) with the message 'This disc is used for Time Machine Backups'.
I cant find a way past this to complete the installation.
Any ideas anyone ?
Many thanks.

Time machine needs its own partition to operate. So you are not going install a OSx Lion on that volume.
If there is enough room you may be able to partition the drive on the fly with DiskUtility
Are you saying you clean installed Lion and you are trying to move your user Data over with TM via the migration Assistant? Please explain.

When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive.

When attempting to upgrade my iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, I receive the message "This disk is used for Time Machine Backups" when I try to select the lone available hard drive. I have ensured that Time Machine is turned off. Upon some Google research, some who reported this problem were told to delete the folder backup.backupdb, but I do not have this folder on my Mac. Any suggestions?

The folder would be at the root of your hard drive. Double-click Macintosh HD and look there.
If it isn’t there, I’m not sure what it is seeing.

Need a external HD 40% bigger than internal for Time Machine backups??

I've heard that using Time Machine as my backup program I need a hard drive that's about 40% bigger than the source (internal) hard drive I want to backup. Some in these forums have said I need a external HD 2x or 3x as big as the internal hard drive for Time Machine backups!
What's your general rule, and does Apple recommend a certain percentage increase of the target over the source hard drive?

There is no set rule, except that the drive being used for Time Machine must be at least as large as the data (not drive) being backed up.
So if you have an internal 500GB drive, but you only have 300GB full, and with exclusions (things that you select NOT to back up), only 200GB needs to be backed up, then a 320GB external drive could do an adequate job (even though the internal drive is 500GB).
During the first backup, Time Machine will back up everything (that is everything you have set it to backup). So the external drive volume used for the backup must be at least the size of the data being backed up. After that, Time Machine creates an incremental backup states every hour, for things that changed during that hour. But because it is Time Machine and not just Backup Machine, the previous versions of the files that changed are also retained. Therefore, over time, the Time Machine backup archive will take up more and more space.
Once you run out of space, Time Machine will tell you and start deleting the oldest backup states to make room for the newest states. So if you have a really huge volume for your Time Machine backup, you can +go back in time+ further (probably back to the date you started using Time Machine) than if you have an adequate but smaller size drive for that purpose.

HT201250 How do I find out what portable drive was the drive I used for Time Machine Backup?

Hi, I have 10.7.4 and need to figure out what drive I was using for Time Machine Backup. I have three drives and I have connected each of them to my macbook pro, but I get an error, "Time Machine Error, The backup disk is not available" when I hit the time machine icon on the top of the screen and the "backup delayed" prompt. If I try Back up Now I get message, "Time Machine could not complete the backup. Back up disk is not available." I am trying to figure out what the time machine back up would actually look like as a file on the drives but I don't see a folder/file name Time Machine. If I enter Time Machine I can see in the far right column, in purple, the last back up date (Sept. 12, 2012), but when I hit it nothing happens. In the Time Machine preference box the select disk has, in red and to the right, "Delayed" with an "i" within a circle, and the option indicates, "Next backup: when disk is connected."
I know I have a years worth of backups on one of the three drives, but I can't figure out how the heck to find them or how to determine what was the last drive I used for the backups within Time Machine. Help please.

Hi, I have 10.7.4 and need to figure out what drive I was using for Time Machine Backup. I have three drives and I have connected each of them to my macbook pro, but I get an error, "Time Machine Error, The backup disk is not available" when I hit the time machine icon on the top of the screen and the "backup delayed" prompt. If I try Back up Now I get message, "Time Machine could not complete the backup. Back up disk is not available." I am trying to figure out what the time machine back up would actually look like as a file on the drives but I don't see a folder/file name Time Machine. If I enter Time Machine I can see in the far right column, in purple, the last back up date (Sept. 12, 2012), but when I hit it nothing happens. In the Time Machine preference box the select disk has, in red and to the right, "Delayed" with an "i" within a circle, and the option indicates, "Next backup: when disk is connected."
I know I have a years worth of backups on one of the three drives, but I can't figure out how the heck to find them or how to determine what was the last drive I used for the backups within Time Machine. Help please.

Lion Installer thinks that my internal boot hard drive "is used for time machine backups"

I recently installed a new hard drive on my MBP. It's been running fine, but now I'm running into trouble when I tried to install Lion!
The download worked just fine. But when I try to choose a disk to install Lion onto, my one and only hard drive (internal, boot disk) "is used for Time Machine backups" and is grayed out! I can't click it, I can't customize the installation or do anything except go backwards through the license agreement and such.
No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do! Time Machine is my menu bar is grayed out, but I can click "Browse other Time Machine disks" and for some reason my boot disk comes up! ("(My name)'s MacBook Pro on 'Untitled 1') I've never used this disk as a Time Machine!
I have a feeling that this is somehow related to my using Super Duper to clone my old hard drive during the upgrade process.
Is there a way to remove the Time Machine files from my boot disk or otherwise convince Lion to install? I've already repaired my disk permissions in Disk Utility. What else can I do?
Thank you in advance. This is very frustrating!

Alexander Chan1 wrote:
No, I do not use my internal drive as a Time Machine. But somehow, even after I've disabled Time Machine, it keeps thinking I do!
At some point, probably accidentally, your internal HD was selected as a destination for Time Machine. Even if that was immediately changed, it had already created a Backups.backupdb folder at the top level of the drive.
As long as that's there, OSX thinks you're trying to install OSX on your backup drive. Just delete that folder.

Cannot install mountain lion keep getting "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" when trying to install, HELP!!!

Ok i currently have Lion on my early 2011 15" MBP. When i try to install Mountain Lion to my mac HD it keeps telling me I cannot because its used for time machine backups. I have done a search and I know I have to delete the backups.backupdb folder but I cannot find it for the life of me. If anyone can help I would really appreciate, thanks!
Nik

If you double-click on your hard drive icon the Backups.backupd folder should be on the root level of your drive. Sometimes OS X gets confused and incorrectly puts a Backups.backupd folder on your hard drive. That folder should only appear on a drive used for Time Machine
If you can't find the Backups.backupd folder try using the free EasyFind with both Package Contents and Invisible Files & Folders checked. Search for "Backups.backupd" without the quotes on your hard drive (default selection), not your Time Machine drive. Right-click on the search result and choose to Reveal in Finder. Click on the link that kisuke3 provided and follow those directions
If you can't find a Backups.backupd folder anywhere try booting into Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key right after you hear the startup chime. Keep holding the Shift key down until you see the Apple Logo. The progress bar that appears indicates the progress of the file check that Safe Mode automatically does. Give it time to finish.
Reboot normally and see if the ML installer will work. If it does wait until Spotlight is finishing indexing before turning Time Machine back on.

Can't install Yosemite because my startup disk is used for Time Machine backups?

Tried to install Yosemite, but when I get to the screen which asks which disk I want to install it on, it won't allow me to select my computer's hard drive because "This disk is used for Time Machine backups." Any suggestions?

Because at the time I originally set it up I couldn't afford an external drive for a real backup, but thought it would be useful to have Time Machine copies in case I accidentally deleted a file or changed my mind about having done so. Once I finally got that external drive and started backing up to it, I forgot I had Time Machine files an my startup disc and didn't know that would be a problem. Anyway, thanks for the info, that fixed my problem.

I am trying to install Mavericks on my McbookAir, but it won't install, saying that my hd is used for time machine backups. I have an external HD connected to my mbAir that I'm using for time machine.

2012 Macbk air, with OSX 10.8.5. See my question above. Mavericks won't install on my Air's HD, says that both the HD - AND - the external HD (which has a different name from the laptop HD) are used for time machine backups. I've deleted my time machine plists, restarted, repaired permissions, turned time machine off, repeatedly selected the external drive in time machine preferences. HELP. (Install went perfectly on my desktop Mac, which also has an external HD for time machine).

I need to add that the only place I have the "Backups.backupdb" folder is on my backup external disk, and it's not on my HD :-( . If it were, I'd delete it!

Is it possible to use more than one external hard drive for Time Machine backups?

I want to use two hard drives for Time Machine backups.
Bigger one keep at home and be sure it is safe.
Second one (very small pocket size) keep with me for travels.
I want to backup to both drives to be sure I can restore everywhere and to be sure if something bad happened with my small travel disk I can restore from home backup.
Is there any problem with listed schema? Is it normal for Time Machine to handle backups for different drivers and keep everything consistent and smooth?

I really need some help! I have been using an Iomega NAS 1TB HD for the past year. And I received an error message. I believe I have ran out of memory on this drive.
Then recently in the last couple of months I got a ReadyNAS Duo 2TB with 2TB RAID. Should I switch my back ups to this one and delete the other back up file or keep the old back up image file on the Iomega?
Can I transfer the old image back up to this new ReadyNAS? How do I do this?
I appreciate any help.

HT4848 Is it possible to partition an external hard drive that is already being used for Time Machine backups without it being erased?

I'm want to use my current external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine Backup, as a recovery disk for Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. From what I have read, the recovery disk assistant will erase all data on the external drive unless it is partitioned. Can I partition my current backup drive without erasing it, even though it is already being used for Time Machine?

It's very simple to test. Turn off your computer. Have your time machine backup plugged in. Hold option and turn it on, keeping option held. Do you see your time machine drive? If so, select it and press enter. You'll end up in recovery. If it works, there you go. Then just click the apple and restart to get back to your regular desktop. Then you'll know for when you're ready to do the deed.
Edit...
I'm not sure if time machine will think it's an entirely different computer, though, when a hard drive changed, making an actual restore not doable. Either way, you could still reinstall mt lion fresh and then just migrate after, skipping the need for SL.

Select certain files for Time Machine backup?

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