Sharing a hard drive between two Macs with Time Machine

can I use the same hard drive to back up two different Macs with Time machine? I'm ok with hot swapping the cables.
Message was edited by: Brian Monson

Brian Monson wrote:
can I use the same hard drive to back up two different Macs with Time machine? I'm ok with hot swapping the cables.
Yes, but TM, Leopard and external drives are not OK with hot-swapping. Never unplug a drive without properly ejecting it first.
Each computer will have it's own backup folder on the drive and each computer will recognize its own backup folder. There is no limit other than HD space on how many computers can be backed up on an external drive.

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Working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

Well first you have to figure out what is wrong with the machine and solve that problem first.
Your post is very vague on what occured, and there are many types of "crashes" it really depends upon what see on the screen and what the hardware does, we can't see it to tell you, so you have to tell us.
I suggest you run through these user tips and provide more information about your hardware.
Disconnect the TimeMachine drive for now
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Help us to help you on these forums
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If this is going way over your head, there are local PC/Mac techs that will assist you for a fee, Apple only does hardware repairs and is advised to use them if you discover it is, especially if under warranty/AppleCare.
Hard drive and RAM upgrades can be handled yourself or by a outside tech in many older models of Mac, but don't expect Apple to cover the new parts.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

Sharing an external hard drive between two macs

Could someone please give me step-by-step instructions on how I can share an external hard drive between my powerpc(running 10.4.11) and my macbook air(running 10.5.6)? I would like to do this with out any external software.

Anthony1900 wrote:
Could someone please give me step-by-step instructions on how I can share an external hard drive between my powerpc(running 10.4.11) and my macbook air(running 10.5.6)? I would like to do this with out any external software.
Simply connect the drive to one of the two computers and there you are!
Use your network and turn on file sharing. It's that simple.

Sharing external FireWire drive between two Mac Pros

I know that sharing an external FireWire drive between two machines (i.e. both connected at the same time) is a very bad things as both will assume that they have exclusive write access to the drive and quite quickly write over what the other machine has just written.
Would it be possible though to mount the drive as read-only on the first machine and in read-write mode on the second? Would this preserve integrity as the second machine would in fact have exclusive write access or would other problems arise?
Thanks for any responses to a stupid question!
Peter

Mmm, Connect the drive to the private secure network Mac. Connect the two Macs by FireWire and create a network over the firewire connection, configure it to use class C addresses, ie. 169.x.x.x manually and then share the firewire drive to the other Mac (also on a class C network address over firewire).
Both macs will still have their own ethernet network addresses and each network will not be visible from the "other" network (unless you choose to share your internet connection over firewire).
The only caveat here is that the firewire drive will be visible to every other Mac on the secure network that you allow to connect to it (which is why I chose that one, rather than the public Mac). Or can you restrict sharing to only one network ..... didn't think so.

La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive no longer working with Time Machine since update to Yosemite.

My La Cie Porsche Design External Hard Drive USB 3.0 is no longer working with Time Machine. Is Yosemite the cause? How do I fix?

Can you see the drive in Disk Utility? If so, try selecting it and using the Mount button in the top menu. You can also run repair disk and repair permissions.

Choosing Hard Drives to be Backup with Time Machine

i am using Time Machine to Backup my System Hard Drive and a 2nd Internal drive to an external drive. Recently i installed a 1 TB drive in my Mac Pro, and am wondering how i ensure that the data on the new drive is included in the Time Machine backups.
I would like to backup the data on all three of my drives to one external Backup disk.

Robs HD wrote:
None of my Hard Drives, excluding the Backup disk are on the TM exclusion list.
i have tried adding them to the list and then removing them.
Should i try deleting the Time Machine preference files?
No need to do so. If, while connected to your Mac, the drives do NOT appear in the exclusion list in the TM Prefs then everything will be backed up.

Do I need an External Hard drive to Back up with Time machine?

     I probably have all kinds of misconceptions about Resetting to an earlier time for the computer I have. It's a 2009 macbook, running OS 10.8.5. I got it last week, previous to this machine I have been running a powerbook G4. It does not have a backup with Time Machine either.
Let me tell you a funny story,
      Back in the year 2000 I got a powerbook G4, it was tops (in my Book) and my boss paid for it. David, my boss is the owner -operator of a manufacturing business turning out soft-weapons for martial artist's I call it the Chinese Stick Fighting Factory. <Sof-Stx.com> . While going to work one fine summer day on my Harley Super Glide,( I saw in my rear-view mirror that the back pack (packing the G4) had left the Vehicle with out authorization, and was bouncing down the road in the opposite direction. Anyway to make a long story short, I developed inoperable Colon Cancer in 2008, I had to retire for the second time in my life, this time collecting a fixed income. and when I was able to fit it in my budget (in 2012) I got a used G4 and last week I got the MacBook running Maverick.
     So… any input ?

Answer to your question....yes, buy an external HD. You do not need an expensive one and you do not need a huge one. I run two 500 GB externals - both attached (occasionally) to my MacBook Pro.
Barry

Sharing external hard drive between 2 mac's

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I have ratings, playlists, etc. and I've been using it with my desktop G4.
I bought a Powerbook and would like to use the hard drive with the iTunes on my powerbook. How do I share the library between 2 macs?
Thanks,
Jon

You can manually add the music files on the external drive to your powerbook's itunes by using File->Add to library but that won't bring over playlists, ratings or playcounts.
This "metadata" is in a file called "iTunes Library" on your desktop in Music/iTunes. To bring over that "metadata" you can try this:
1) Close iTunes on both machines.
2) Copy the "iTunes Library" from the desktop and put in in the same place on the powerbook.
3) Now open iTunes on the powerbook.
This will definitely work if the external drive is attached directly to the powerbook. I haven't tried your type of scenario, where you will access the external drive through the network to get to the desktop and then the external drive. But I think I've seen other here say this works.
If it doesn't work, ie it put exclamation marks next to tracks to indicate it can't find htem, then go into the preferences (Advanced, general) and set the music folder location to the external drive (through the network, through the desktop). This should make it find the music.
You'll also want to make sure "Copy files to the music folder" is ON so that any music you add through the powerbook is copied to the external drive. (If that's what you want. You may chose not to do this, to have some music stay on the local harddrive so you have acess to it when you're not at home).

Unlocking external hard drive that was locked with time machine

I use a MBP Retina (Mid 2012) with OSX 10.9.4. I left the MBP at Apple for repair and they changed the mother card and reformatted my HD (SSD). Since I had a backup on a WD My Passport external drive I was not too worried to restore. I had clicked the option "password protected" on TM and therefore the external HD was password protected. I also copied pasted many files on the same external hard drive, in case TM would fail one day to operate I thought that I would still have my files ...
But I was very surprised that when I plugged in my external HD into my MBP it didn't recognize it at all. The external HD did not appear on the screen anymore. Nor in Finder. It appeared in Disk Utility but it could not be mounted. Basically it was impossible to access my data. After a while and talking with Apple Support on the phone we could reach a point where a window appeared asking me the password for the access to the HD. Unfortunately it didn't work. The . password was not recognized. Even though we had selected the right country with the icon upper right on the screen to make sure that we used the correct keyboard.
So finally I reinstalled completely the OSX (coming rom Lion all the way to the last OSX) on the MBP and finally I could restore it with my TM. I spent three days on this since it only worked with one OSX - don't remember honestly which one - and not the last one. Don't know why.
Anyway.
Today I have my MPB working but I miss all the files that are still on my external HD because I cannot access to it anymore. As I said the recovery happened all of a sudden with TM with a former OSX and not the 10.9.4. With this current OSX my HD does not appear on the desktop nor on finder. Nothing. It is locked by TM and I cannot even key in the password to unlock it. Useless to say that I have the password.
Any idea how to sort this out please ? Thanks

This might work. Courtesty of V.K.:
run the following terminal commands (copy and paste, please)
sudo chflags 0 /volumes/*
sudo chmod a+rx /volumes/*
you'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal. this should unlock your drives.

Can I install a 1 terabite hard drive and update it with time machine?

What would I need to do? I have a 250 gig hard drive now, I would like to install a 1 terabite. Would I need to install the os then update it with the time machine backup to have everything that I have now? I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch with OSX Snow leapord. I had gotten this notebook mid summer of 2010. Any comment would be appreicated.

Right now, I have a 320 gig hhd that I use for my time machine backup, I recently backed up my notebook, if I decide to upgrade the hhd to a 1 tera, I will get another 1 terahhd for time machine backup. I just wanted to know if I could change the hhd, install the os and instead of installing all the drivers, music, movies that I purchased, if time machine backup would do that for me. Thank you for your comment OGELTHORPE!

I have upgraded to Lion Os but my Network storage (Iomega Home Media Network hard drive) does not work with Time Machine. Are there any solution available?

I have upgraded to Lion OS only to find that my NAS (Iomega Home Media Network hard drive) does not work. It tells me that it is not configured. Are there any solutions . Have Iomega sorted out the problem?

Same issue here. Based on what I can tell, iomega still has not developed a solution to the problem. See below:
https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28327/kw/Mac%20OS%20X% 20Lion

Backup hard drives in two locations and Time Machine

Can I have an external hardrive at work and one at home and have them both be separate locations for Time Machine to backup my laptop? How does Time Machine handle that and what is the procedure to set this up?

Yes, but you must tell Time Machine each time you "swap" drives, via +Time Machine Preferences > Select Disk.+
All you have to do is make sure each is formatted properly. See #5 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for instructions.
In this case, it will be a good idea to give them clearly different names, such as "Work Backups" and "Home Backups," so you're sure at any time which one is which.
The first backup to each one will be a full one, so they'll take a while. Thereafter, Time Machine's next backup will include all the changes made since the last backup +*to that disk,+* so each one will be complete.

HT201250 I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

Yes you can make multiple backups on one hard drive, for example if you’ve 1TB hard drive installed in your PC and you’ve two Mac Machines with 500GB drive each then you just make two backup images with size of 500GB each.
http://www.halfspot.com/use-your-pc-hard-drive-for-time-machine-backup/

The first time I connected my new My Passport portable hard drive to my Mac, the message asking if I want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine did not appear. What is the next step?

The first time I connected my new My Passport portable hard drive to my MacBook Pro, the message asking if I want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine did not appear. I would like to set it up to do this. What would my next step be?

Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Open Time Machine preferences to select this drive for use as the backup drive. Turn on Time Machine.

Sharing a hard drive between two Macs with Time Machine

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