Time Capsule can't backup external hard drives connected to it. Got that.

Hello Apple Support Communities! This is my first post. Hope this finds you all well My first year as an Apple user. I bought a 2-Tb TC and am running my first backup to my MacBook as I write this.
Problem statement: TC can't backup external hard drives connected directly to it, but the ones connected to the Macs that are connected wirelessly to it. Duly noted. However, the Spotlight will reindex the hard drives connected to the Mac and that will take hours; the whole backup will take days. Thus, excluding the hard drives at "System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab" will probably help reduce the time of backup, or just ejecting them will do too. That itself has not proven effective coz it's still taking forever (50Gb in 2 days, still going).
Questions:
1) Do I wait until my first backup to my MacBook's internal hard drive is done before I connect my hard drives to my MacBook and attempt another backup? If yes, how do I go about the excessive time Spotlight reindexing takes if I intend to backup my hard drives connected to my MacBook?
2) Is there any other way of speeding up the first-time backup?
*Note: All versions of OS and firmwares are up-to-date. TC is connected to an external wireless router. TC is intended to be used as backup device and / or file server only.
P/S: Apologee if this has already been discussed before, thus, a link to previous discussion thread would highly be appreciated)
- Shook Hashem, Malaysia.

How do I backup the externel hard drives connected to my MB. I was under the impression that that has already been done, because I've read it somewhere in a discussion that said it's done automatically unless I exclude it from a backup, which I didn't. So it's supposed to backup the external hard drivestoo because I had them connected to my MB the entire time during the backups.
By default an external drive is excluded.. the list is odd.. if I plug a drive into the mac.. it immediately is listed as excluded.
This is not the list of included.. this is the list of excluded.. remove it from the excluded list to include it.
It is kind of reverse polish notation in backups.
If I want to enter the Time Machine, should I enter it with the TM turned on or off?
Not sure what the question means. If you use the star wars display and want to recover files then use TM off.. but read up pondini.. how to do restore etc.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
15A in particular on the how to use TM.
When do I uplug the ethernet and use the wireless connection instead?
Once you have finished the main backup you can go back to wireless. The incremental backups are mostly very small.

Similar Messages

  • Time Capsule wont recognize my external hard drive connected to my router.

    I purchasd a Netgear N600 Ruter and connected a WD MyBook for Mac Hard Drive to it with the hopes of setting up a wireless Time Machine Backup system for my MacBook and iMac. Unfortunately Neither computer will recognize the MyBook Hard Drive as a Hard Drive for Time Machine. I can get to the files through the finder window just fine, but Time Machine won't recognize it as haveing space to back things up in. In disk Utility it stays that my external Hard drive is formatted to "Macintosh Formatting".
    Also in Time Machine>Select Back Up Disk>Other Time Capsule>Set Up it opens the Airport Utility. In Airport Utility If I go to File Menu and go to Configure Other it Requests a address and password. For the address I chose the files that the Hard drive is listed to which is smb://192.168.1.1...(etc) It says "An error Occured while reading the configuration." Do I need to reformat my external hard drive? I was on support for about 2 hours with the Router support and they finally said to contact apple Support. Any Ideas would be great. Please Help!

    Netgear made WNDR3700 and WNDR3800 as well as a specific Mac version.. all called N600 as well as some modem models also called N600.. So tell us a precise and exact model number.
    I think the Netgear are supposed to handle AFP file protocol, but we need the exact model to check... also if it can handle AFP since Lion.. because a lot of things changed and units that could do TM backups no longer worked. AFP in Lion increased security beyond what the firmware of the router could handle.
    You also need to understand, you cannot see a TM backup that was done on an external drive if it is plugged into a network device.. TM handles network drives differently to local drives.
    But there is no reason to do what you are doing.. In fact it is much better to leave the disk plugged into the iMac.
    You can still access it from wireless with your laptop, by simply sharing the disk to the network from the iMac.
    See http://code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-on-a-network-drive/

  • Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive

    Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive connected to time capsule via usb. (as an precaution just incase time capsule fails)
    Thanks

    Yes, if the USB drive has been previously formatted correctly in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
    Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
    Click the Disks icon
    Click the Disks tab below the icon
    Click Archive
    Allow plenty of time for the copy process to occur. You will not be able to make Time Machine backups from your Mac until the Archive process has completed.

  • Can i use the time capsule as just an external hard drive for music or does it have to be used soley as a backe up?? im thinking for music and photos

    Can I use the time capsule as just an external hard drive for music or does it have to be used soley as a back up?  I'm thinking for music and photos

    Nickles96 wrote:
    Hello friends.. I have a similar question, in that I would like to purchase the 2TB TC for use as a NAS device, in addition to taking advantage of the Air Port extreme.. Then I could dump my Linksys router.
    I was originally looking at a Synology NAS solution, but the TC seems like it can meet my needs.
    I have a Synology NAS as well as the Time Capsule.  If you look at the 3.2 beta program, the Synology actually attempts to replicate TC functionality in that you can use it with Time Machine on your Mac.
    I must say, Airport on the TC is definitely a nice feature!
    Nickles96 wrote:
    In addition to the obvious feature of the backup, can I indeed also use the TC as a NAS drive to access from remote locations (example from the office)?
    I'm surprised more people aren't using the TC as a dedicated NAS deviced.. I've searched high and low on forums around the web, and don't seem to see many people trying to use it as I've outlined.
    I can't see why this wouldn't fufill my needs, and take the place of a separate NAS solution (like the Synology, or iOmega, Seagate, etc....)
    Has anyone used this TC as such?
    Yes, you can do this and it's something I've been trying to do, but I'm currently having issues.  I have another thread stating I consistently get "connection failed" messages.  I'm basically storing my music/photo/video files on the TC and keeping my Mac hard drive fairly lean.  In terms of NAS functionality, the TC is very basic.  Synology/QNAP and others have a lot more features so don't rule them out.

  • Can I use Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive tos tore my music library(but with cable connection,not WI-FI)

    Can I use my Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive to store my music library but with a cable connection(Ethernet or USB) and not Wi-Fi.

    Yes, with the following warnings.
    1. A 1TB TC is a Gen3 or earlier and can die at a moments notice.. So backup is essential.
    2. A Gen1 or 2 is slow.. even over ethernet they were processor bound and so transfer speeds are not great.. a USB2 plugged into the computer will be faster. Gen3 is about 50% better as the processor was upgraded by 50% speed.
    3. TC has no built in backup.. TM cannot backup network drives.
    4. TC is designed to spin up slowly and spin down quickly.. you will have issues with itunes constantly losing the library.
    5. You cannot use USB to the TC.. it is a network drive. If you want to use USB directly on the computer buy a USB drive.. but buy as fast a drive as your Mac supports.. Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
    USB3 is cheap and very good.. but the port is only from 2012 so check your Mac specs.
    Thunderbolt whilst being super fantastic and around since 2011, has a bank account clearing price although there are Thunderbolt to esata converters.. for around $160. esata falls between usb3 and fw800.
    FW800 from WD is no better than USB2 but other brands it can be twice the speed of usb2.
    USB2 is the worst. But still faster than a TC.

  • Can I simply just use my Time Capsule as a normal External Hard drive? A wireless external hard drive?

    Can I simply just use my Time Capsule as a normal External Hard drive? A wireless external hard drive?

    I am not sure what you mean by normal external but yes, it is a network hard disk drive.. and you can use wireless.. the only trouble then is, if there is no ethernet connection and internet is by wireless to a different router, then you cannot do both at once.

  • Can Time Capsule support an additional external hard drive?

    A friend of mine is using Airport Extreme and has both his printer and external hard drive hooked through it accessing both wirelessly. The Apple site says this works great with Extreme but does not say you can do the same thing with Time Capsule. I called our local store and she wasn't sure. Both Extreme and Time Capsule have one USB port so no matter what, you have to split the USB(I know this works with Extreme). All my music is on an additional hard drive and it would be great if I could access it wirelessly. If anyone has done this with time capsule please let me know. I want to purchase it but if not I will go with Extreme.

    Can Time Capsule support an additional external hard drive?
    Yes.
    (41832)

  • Can time capsule back up an external hard drive attached to my imac and the iMac internal Harddrive

    Can time capsule back up an external hard drive attached to my imac and the iMac internal Harddrive

    In addition to Kappy's comments, the external drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in order for Time Machine to be able to back it up.

  • I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    If you move live files (files you don't want to lose) to an external drive, you need to back them up.  Any files not backed up are at risk of loss.  Hard drives and SSDs can fail at any time.  It is hard to backup a Time Capsule so a TC should be used only as a backup device.
    Do you have a Time Machine backup now?  If so, and if it is large enough, you can backup your internal and external disk to it using Time Machine.  If not, you all need to purchase an external drive or TC as your backup device.  (I recommend an external hard drive for backup instead of a TC.)  Ideally the backup drive should be twice the size of what you are backing up but 50% larger will work so if you have an external 1 TB disk and an internal 250 GB SSD then a 2 TB backup disk will work well.
    By default, Time Machine will not backup the external disk.  You need to remove it from the exclusions list:
    To have Time Machine backup your system disk and your external offload disk up onto your Time Machine disk:
     > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.

  • Will time capsule back up an external hard drive

    Will time capsule back up an external hard drive?

    Time Machine will backup the drive to the Time Capsule if it is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and it is connected directly to your Mac by USB or FireWire....and it is not "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Options.

  • Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

    Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

    The Time Capsule works as a network drive.
    An external drive connects to your Mac using either the USB or FireWire ports.
    If your real question is to ask whether you can store other data on the Time Capsule drive....you can.

  • Will time capsule also back up external hard drives?

    will time capsule also back up external hard drives?

    Yes. If you're using Time Machine, open its preferences and ensure the drives aren't excluded; Time Machine can't back up drives in some formats, such as FAT32.
    (71818)

  • Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

    Will Time Machine work with an external hard drive connected (via usb) to Airport Extreme?

    Sorry, but this article is about 4 years old, and was printed based on preliminary information at the time.
    The bottom line here is that Apple does not officially support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme.
    If it works for you, great.
    You might want to review the Apple Support documents below, which are far more recent than the article you reference:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
    It is supported.....
    This is NOT correct. Please do not post false information on the forums.

  • How do i set my time capsule as a wireless external hard drive?

    it is currently doing regular automatic back-ups of our system, but we want to set it as our hard drive as well.

    If Time Machine backups are occurring correctly, then you already have the Time Capsule set up as a hard drive on your network.
    Although not necessarily recommended, that means that you can manually drag/drop or copy/paste data directly to the Time Capsule disk.
    Are you asking how to do this, or how to locate the drive?  Please clarify.

  • Does TM/TC backup external hard drive connected to usb-port of TC?

    I have searched the web to find a straight forward answer to this question, but unfortumately have not been able to find it.
    The situation is as follows I want to make room om my Mac by copying my local iPhoto library (230Gb) to an external hard drive connected directly to my TC (2Tb) trough the usb-port (which is already up and running). Before deleting the original library I want to be sure that Time Machine also backups the contents of the external hard drive too. And if not, if there is an alternative way of backing up such external hard drive easily, apart from making a hard copy manually.
    Thanks a lot.

    Before deleting the original library I want to be sure that Time Machine also backups the contents of the external hard drive too.
    Time Machine cannot do this.
    Instead, connect the USB drive (formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) directly to your Mac's USB port and move the iPhoto library to that location.
    Then, Time Machine will be able to backup both your Mac and the USB hard drive.
    Click the Time Machine clock icon at the top of the Mac's screen, then select Time Machine Preferences.
    Click Options. By default, you will see that the hard drive is in the list of Excluded items, and will not be backed up.
    Click the hard drive to highlight it, then click the - (minus) button to remove it from the list of Excluded items.
    Time Machine will now back the drive on the next pass.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Check_changed_data not working properly

    Hi, I have created a editable ALV using reuse_alv_grid_display. There is a field with type P length 13 Decimals 2. when I use check_changed_data method to reflect the changes to internal table I am having some trouble with decimal places. for eg 1234

  • Do I need 32 bit version of software?

    I'm running CS6 on 64 bit laptop. Do I need the 32 bit version also, or can I unintstall that part?

  • Open and saving files???

    When I try to open or save files, the pop up window wont display the existing files already on that folder. What is the problem?

  • Won't connect to facebook

    I can't find any solutions anywhere on the Internet. This happened literally 30minutes ago and I can't seem to resolve the issue. Every time I try go onto Facebook I get this appear: "Your current User-Agent string appears to be from an automated pro

  • Web Page changes site-wide

    I am doing a redesign of my website and I have redesigned a template for every page other than my index page. My pages are such that there is a header/logo and two rows of buttons below on the top of every page....and an ad and another row below it.