Time Machine and External Hard Drives

I am running Mountain Lion 10.8.1 on my iMac. I have 2 external 2TB drives that I have configued in Time Machine for backups. I have a LaCie ruggedized external hard drive I use on both my iMac and MacBook Pro for my pictures. My Lightroom library is on this LaCie drive and depending on what I'm doing or where I'm doing it, I might have the drive connected to my iMac via firewire or to my MacBook Pro via USB3.
I want to know if I configure Time Machine to backup up my Lightroom folder, what will happen if when I eject it and disconnect it from my iMac? Will Time Machine just skip over it because it's not connected? Will it just pick up where it left off when I reconnect it? I want an automatic way to back up this folder.
Suggestions/comments?

On Snow Leopard & I would assume in the newer OS versions even though it won't automatically back up until the next scheduled time, you can click on the little time machine icon or otherwise access Time Machine Controls & click Back Up Now.
I do that w my laptop when I've been using it elsewhere & then I want to back up before shutting down for the night.

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Using Mac Mini, Time Machine and External Hard Drives as a Backup Server

Hello...
I own a graphic design studio and have been looking for a long time to create/buy a no-thinker backup system for my macs. I have 4 workstations that I would like to backup to one central "server".
So what I was thinking was buying a Mac Mini, 3-4 external USB 2.0 Hard drives, external Blu-Ray burner and upgrade all our systems to OS 10.5. What I need to know is, will each work station with Time Machine on it back up across the network to a specific drive on the Mac Mini? If I have each workstation automatically mount one external across the network onto the desktop, will Time Machine recognize that hard drive as a legitimate drive to backup to?
Having the external Blu-Ray disc burner will give me the ability to burn data to a disc so I will have a way to take some of my information off-site. Since we are a graphic design studio, we use large amounts of disc space and regular DVD-R (4.6 gigs) is just not enough to back up some projects.
Can someone enlighten me, and tell me if this would work or not. It's the only way I can see me creating something that has enough space, will back up automatically across the network and allow me to make off-site copies of my data without spending $5,000.00.
Thanks for any comments you might have on this topic.
-SoupGFX

I'm a member of a freelance graphic artist team and have been scraping by with my MacMini and CS3. I recently obtained a used iMac (approx. 2 years old) and, instead of painstakingly transferring everything left on the Mini to the iMac, I wanted to know if it's possible to turn the MacMini into a pseudo external hard drive using the FW800 port.
I already had an external attached to the Mini and plan on using that as well, but I tend to hoarde information and run out of space really quickly. So keeping the mini around, preferably in a way that I can access it as an external through my iMac, would be perfect. I have very little experience with networking and don't have a wireless connection (yay modem cables!) so I don't quite know how to figure this out.
Has anyone done this? Would a FireWire 800 work? Would I need to set up a network between the two and use them as independently connected computers?

Time Machine and External Hard Drive wireless backup over airport extreme

Ok can this be done? I have an external HD that I used a firewire to connect to my macbook pro and it backed up my movies,photo's etc without a problem.
When I realized I could plug the HD into the back of the extreme I tried that and I can see the shared HD in my finder but I cannot get time machine to backup wirelessly now and I can't see my previous back up in Time machine but I can see it when I look on the HD.
Can I continue to do my backups over the extreme wirelessly? How do i do this? Or do I have to plug the firewire and mac into the HD each time I want to back up using time machine?
Thanks,

I hope that support is added to the airport extreme. I would be disappointed in apple to learn that they have disabled it for the airport extreme and connected hard drive in order to only sell another piece of hardware (time capsule) that is simply the airport extreme with a hard drive built in.
There are reported work arounds for getting the airport extreme and external hard drive to work with time machine. A couple google search results outlined the process, it didn't look too complicated. I would prefer it was a feature and not a work around though.

Back up using time machine and external hard drive

Hello,
I am having a difficult time deciding the best way to back up important documents.
I have:
1TB internal hard drive
3 TB external hard drive and
1TB external hard drive
I currently have about 1TB worth of data to be stored, but that will increase to about 1.5TB once I get a bunch of stuff off the HD camera's hard drive. I would like to keep my internal hard drive somewhat free to keep the computer running fast, but also want to make sure I am properly backed up.
Should I put ALL (or nearly all) of the files on the 3 TB external hard drive, and have time machine back that up and not worry about the rest? I'm a little weary about putting all of the files on one device even if it is backed up by TM.
If I do this, do I need to back up the 3 TB external drive in addition to using TM?
Thanks!

iMac11,2
OS X 10.6.8

Using a G Drive Slim as time machine AND external hard drive?

Hi! I have a G Drive Slim that I've been using as my time machine backup drive for a few years. Now I'm in need of an external hard drive, bigger than a flash drive but really not that big, and I was wondering if the G Drive Slim could be used for both purposes at the same time. If I start putting files from my computer directly on to the G Drive Slim, will it erase my time machine backup files? Not sure what to do here. Thanks!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
I would recommend you to get a second external drive to put your files there. In case you want to put the files in the same external drive which you have your backups in, you need to make a second partition. This has to be done in order not to damage Time Machine structure.
You can create a partition through Disk Utility -> http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html

Time machine and External Hard Drive backup problems

Ok I have an external hard drive that I don't leave connected to my mac. Time machine made an intial backup when I first connected it to the mac. How do i get it to backup again as I now have new movies and photo's i want to protect. It is plugged into the external HD and nothing is taking place and i cant find a command in time machine to tell it to perform another backup?
Thanks for any help in advance.

Try clicking and holding the TM icon in your Dock, then choose "BackUp Now".
Be sure in System Preferences >> Time Machine that it is turned "On".
-mj
[email protected]

Time Machine and External Hard Drive

I have a 1T external hard drive and Time Machine has backed up my entire Powerbook G4 laptop on it. I would like to free up space on my laptop by deleting some things that I want to save on the external drive, but don't need on the laptop, how can I do this? Every time I try to delete something from the laptop, it simultaneously disappears from the external drive. Please help!
Also, I keep reading about partitioning - what is this and how do I do it?

Hi
I think the point to address is that an intrinsic part of "backing up" is that you always have two copies of something. One original, and one if you lose the original, either if you accidentally delete it, or the hard drive crashes, etc. What you want to do is backup a file through Time Machine, and then delete the original - which is NOT a sensible backup procedure (because now you still have only one copy of your file).
That aside, Time Machine is designed to be a continuous backup of your system at any point in time. So if, last week, you had a certain file A on your main drive, but you deleted it yesterday, you can check in Time Machine and you'll see it in last week's backups but not in any you made today. You should always use the Time Machine interface to do this - don't go into the backup folder yourself and try to look around (and certainly don't delete anything you find there), since that will be misleading.
If you did want to delete ALL copies of a certain file from your backup, you should go into the Time Machine interface, locate a point in time where that file exists, highlight the file and go to the Action (gear) menu in Finder and choose "Delete all backups of this file".
It seems that what you actually need to do is make an archive of files you don't need on a regular basis (which can then get deleted from your main drive). Burn them to a CD or DVD, or copy them to another hard drive, but don't delete them from the Time Machine backups (better safe than sorry).
Partitioning is a way to convert a physical drive or other storage device into one or more logical volumes, so that the Finder sees them, and displays them, as separate drives. So you could have a single external drive, but create three separate partitions (using Disk Utility) which mount as three separate drives. Under Mac Help, search for "partitions" - there are several useful documents there.
Matt
Matt

Problems with time machine and external hard drive

Hi all
In 2009 with my imac I bought a WD external hard drive which the computer says is 148GB formatted. I recall that the hard drive contained folders with files for the running of the hard drive when I bought it - and after it had been plugged in to a mac and used as a time machine, it no longer worked on windows computers.
Now I have used 195 GB on my computer's internal hard drive and wish to stop using the external hard drive as a time machine and instead use it for swapping files between computers and the like.
How can I wipe the time machine back ups and start using it as per usual again? do i need to obtain the WD files from somewhere?
thanks in advance
Nick

Hi Nick,
Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

HT201250 Mac's Time Machine and external hard drive usage.

If you back up your Mac to an external hard drive with Time Machine, can all those files on the external drive be transferred to a new Mac later?

Yes.

Please Help - Time Capsule and External hard drive Issues

Recently, I switched from Comcast to AT&T uverse as my internet provider and I started experiencing problems.
(1) I have a 4th generation Apple Time Capsule which I am using as my router.
(2) Connected to the Apple Time Capsule - USB - is an external hard drive (not for backup with Time Machine.)
(3) I have a 2011 Macbook pro which I use to access my file on my time capsule and external hard drive.
(4) I had been using my AT&T portable Hotspot from my cell phone to get internet access on my MacBook pro from remote locations to gain access to my external hard drive which is attached to the time capsule.
(5) On August 2, 2014, I switched from Comcast to AT&T and had the AT&T turn off the router function. (I have been using the router from my apple time capsule)
(6) Under Network I switched to bridge mode.
(7) And since August 2, 2014 my time capsule has not been backup.
THE PROBLEM - I need to be able to use the hotspot function from my cell phone to gain access on the external hard drive using my MacBook Pro which I was able to do before. Now it is showing time capsule under finder but unable to connect.
Do I need to reset my Time Capsule since I have a new service provider. Everything else works fine - meaning able to get internet signal but unable to access my external hard drive and backup my time capsule. Please HELP.

(5) On August 2, 2014, I switched from Comcast to AT&T and had the AT&T turn off the router function. (I have been using the router from my apple time capsule)
(6) Under Network I switched to bridge mode.
(7) And since August 2, 2014 my time capsule has not been backup.
If you got ATT to turn off router function in their modem..
Then 6. is wrong.. You cannot have the Network switched to bridge mode..
You must have it set to dhcp and nat.
That is also why you cannot backup.. the TC is off the network.
Please change back to router mode in the TC.
Ensure the internet tab shows dhcp and you create a wireless network.
Then power down the TC... power down the ATT modem.. wait about 20min (you can try 5min.. but it might not be long enough).
Power up the ATT modem.. wait 2min for things to flash lights in de right blinkin order.. then start the TC.
Open the airport utility and make sure your TC captured the public IP and is now working as the router.
That should fix that end of it.. the hotspot end??
Tell us what happens.

Is a WD My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive bootable with my Powerbook G4 12" PPC 10.5.8?

Sirs or madams,
Is my Powerbook G4 12” PPC 10.5.8 'bootable' with a Western Digital My Book Studio Desktop 3TB Hard Drive - FW 400/800, USB 2.0, Apple Time Machine Ready external hard drive? Western Digital says officially no, but that it MIGHT be. I primarily live in China and bought a datastorage.com.cn Clearlight s400+ external hard drive enclosure with a 320GB disk drive a few years ago in China. My computer 'boots' fine from it, but since I got it in China all the paperwork, etc. is in Chinese; my Chinese isn't quite sufficient enough yet to read it. But there are references to something called "SATA", whatever that is.
My level of computer 'under the hood' knowledge is extremely low. I've been told that SATA has some relationship as to whether or not an external hard drive will boot a computer via the Firewire connection, something relating to 'interface', which I assume is how separate electronic gadgets work, or don't work, with each other.
I frankly don't care much for computers, the internet, or their related gadgets such as all these fancy phones. I longingly reminisce about the days when there were no such things. I use a computer & the internet because I have to, and unfortunately unlike a car where one doesn't have to have 'under the hood' knowledge to operate it, just knowledge of the steering wheel, brake, gas, etc., one seemingly must know a ridiculously great amount of 'under the hood' knowledge, including jargon, to operate computers.
So, please try to respond accordingly; thank you.
If this particular external hard drive won't, for certain, be bootable with my computer, can you advise as to what readily available brand/model would be in the 3TB range for a similar price, roughly $150ish??
Thank you very much.

Mr. BGreg,
Thank you very much. "...under the covers...". I think you meant "under the hood", as in a car. I suppose "under the covers" would be man/woman interfacing, which I am familiar with!
Actually, I'm back in the US now for a few months. I looked at the OWC web site, but only cusorily so far. I'll contact them; they appear knowledgeable about Apple computers.
As to what you wrote about Western Digital's cases, I certainly wouldn't want a poor case. In China I had over time gotten 3 different external drive cases, 3 different Chinese brands, and separately bought Hitachi brand disk drives that 'simply' plugged into the cases. The drives are roughly 80GB 120GB and 320GB. The two larger ones are in cases that have Firewire plugs/jacks, which are bootable with my computer.
So my understanding, as you wrote, has been that my Powerbook will boot from an external hard drive, provided it connects via Firewire, and the disk drive itself is 'normally' formatted with however my computer's own disk drive is formatted, (HFS OS extended (journaled) or some such??). So I was left wondering why Western Digital would indicate that even though their such-and-so external hard drive case/drive was Firewire capable, that they would then say it would not be bootable with my Apple PPC computer......
Well, anyway, since you indicated Western Digital's case quality is suspect, then I'll try OWC and disregard Western Digital.
Naturally, OWC should be able to address this, but your thoughts are also welcome. You mentioned the OWC cases are good with Apples. Would the disk drives OWC supplied with the cases also be of relatively dependable quality?? From my so far only cursory look at their web site they appear to have various options, including case only options where I could insert my own or their own drives. These sorts of options seem preferable, also along with quality components.
My Powerbook has been in use since 2004. In China I put in a 1.25 memory 'chip' in the bottom and installed the 10.5.8 operating system, which I understand are the maximum workable with my Powerbook. When I inquired with Chinese friends if my 1.33 GHz processor could be taken out and a more powerful one put in, they said it wasn't feasible because in my particular computer my processor was, as I recall them saying, soldered/'permanently' connected with the 'motherboard', that it would just be easier to get a new computer.
I would be with them and they would nonchalantly open it completely up showing me all its tightly arranged 'innards' while at least giving it a good internal dust/dirt clean job for cheap lunch and a beer (& so much dirt/dust/lint there was!)...these are the same folks who build the things of course...fast moving hands with tiny screws flying everywhere, but everything 100% all back in place when finished.
My Chinese friends also said that nowadays Apples are not as well built as when my Powerbook was built, that nowadays an Apple's life expectancy was considerably lower, so I fear that when I get a new computer that, though it will be more up-to-date and powerful, etc., it most probably won't last near as long as my Powerbook has. They also said that in an older computer the fan was often the first component to go bad, and if a new one couldn't be easily found, as they said was my case, then you're just left with having to get an entirely new computer. Part of why I dislike electronic computer gadgets generally is that they are obsolete so quickly.
So, anyway, thanks very much for your information.

Time Machine Damaged External Hard Drive?

hi,
okay, So I've had Leopard for about a week with no problems at all. I used my G-Tech G-drive (external 500gig) and it showed up on my desktop and worked perfectly fine with time machine. Yesterday, I went into time machine and the hard drive went from its resting state to into its high volume spinning, but time machine woudn't function at all, the stars moved but nothing could be clicked on, or exited from. after 15 minutes of trying to force quite (you can't get to it), i had to use the power button to shut off my mac. I turned it back on and there wasn't any problems, except now when my hard drive is plugged in it still spins normally, but the mac isn't recognizing it. Does anyone know what happened to my hard drive?

So it randomly started working again.
I restarted my computer for the 15th time, and turned it on once everything was up and running and it was recognized after about 5 minutes, so we shall see if it lasts.

Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive

Hi all,
Can I use my time capsule as a time machine and a hard drive?
I don't want to store much on my imac, I would like to store it on the time capsule.
If this is possible, how do I do it?
Thanks, Crankyhead.

This is often asked.. and we always have the same answer. have you thought this through?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4830944?tstart=0

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it?

My time machine backup external hard drive has failed. I have a newer external drive already connected to my MAC but can't figure out how to get Time Machine to set up on it

http://pondini.org/TM/21.html

Using Time Machine w/external hard drive connected to airport extreme

I hooked up an external hard drive on my airport extreme. I see it in sharing, however, Time Machine doesn't recognize it as a back-up drive unless I have it directly connected to my MacBook Pro. How do I get Time Machine to recognize the external drive when it's connected to the airport?

FWIW, the AEBS has known problems sharing a directly connected HD. Take a look over in the AEBS forums, and you'll see that this is a very common problem. Perhaps Apple will update the firmware and rectify this problem.
Cheers,
Andreas

Time Machine and External Hard Drives

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