Time Machine and External HD

Hi
I am using Lion and Time Machine.
WIth TIme Machine, in System Preferences, my external HD is automatically excluded from the backup.
The external HD is greyed out in the list and I cannot remove it from being excluded.
I would like to include my external HD in my Time Machine backups. The external HD is a Clickfree USB drive.

thanks for that very helpful link - perhaps i can explain my situation and you can assist me further - i transfered all my itunes music to an external hard drive after i switched from an old G4 tower to a new MBP - i suppose i wanted to conserver the hard drive - but is the best thing to do import the entire 10 GB of music? or is their a better, seamless way to keep them on an external HD - thanks

Similar Messages

All itunes data gone...can I reload from Time Machine and external HD

Okay, so maybe I was the stupid one and deleted all of my ITunes library....don't yell, I just wanted to free up some HD space...
Fortunately I use Time Machine and an external HD to back everything up..can I reload my Itunes library from Time Machine and the external HD..can anyone walk me through the process?

docutale1 wrote:
Hi there,
I've done some searching and i haven't been able to find the answer to this problem. I am wondering if someone can help me with this.
My HD was faulty so i had it replaced. my complete 300gb music library was backed up on an external HD. The iTunes program was running on my local HD. So i ran the local iTunes off of my ext. HD.
Now that i have a new HD and i restored everything from Time Machine,
Did you restore the entire disk from Time Machine?
Boot from your System install DVD then Restore from backup and select the Time Machine drive?
See this -> http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html

Using Time machine and external HD at the same time

Dear All
I'm intending to buy an external HD both for the purpose as a external HD and for time machine use.
Is this possible? If so, how do I configure it?
Thanks.
Jojos

Apple Partition Map works just fine on an external HD (including booting from a clone made with SD). GUID is only required for the internal HD on Intel-based Macs. There is a lot of misinformation going around on this topic.
Is Apple spreading the misinformation Barry? This OP originally asked about Time Machine and an external drive. He later asked about bootable backups. I tried to take all that in consideration in my reply. Apple has consistently said in everything that I have read in the Knowledge Base that when using Time Machine with an Intel Mac to use the GUID partitioning scheme.
There are also recent posts around these forums, as well as around the internet, where folks have had bootable volumes that were not GUID and they encountered strange behavior on their Macs that they report was resolved by making sure that their bootable volumes on external drives were in the GUID partitioning scheme.
Dah•veed

Time Machine and external HD in one?

I have a 2 TB Western Digital external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine backups. I have been considering buying an extra (they are on sale next week where I live) to use for stuff that takes up space on my Mac (like photos, videos etc.), but before I do so, I would like to know if I can partition or do something with the HD I already have, to use 1 TB for Time Machine and another TB for whatever I like to put in there. Is this possible, and if it is not, do I have any other choice than to buy an extra HD?
Cheers

This is from the disk utility help ...
Partition a non-startup disk
If you want to partition a disk that you won’t use to start up your Mac, follow these steps.
Partitioning a disk erases all the files on the disk. Be sure to copy any files you want to keep to another disk before you partition the disk.
If you’re partitioning an external disk, make sure it’s connected to your computer.
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.Open Disk Utility
Select the disk that you want to partition and click Partition.
Choose the number of partitions from the Volume Scheme pop-up menu.If you can’t choose the number of partitions, follow the steps for partitioning a startup disk.
Click each partition and type a name for it, choose a format, and type a size. You can also drag the divider between the partitions to change their sizes. If a partition’s name has an asterisk beside it, it’s shown larger than its actual size in order to display its name clearly.
Click Options and choose one of the following:
If you’ll be using the disk on a Windows computer, choose the Master Boot Record partition scheme (also known as “fdisk”).
If you’ll be using the disk only with Mac computers, choose GUID Partition Table.
Click Apply.
Note that all files on the disk will be erased when the partitions are created. If you want to try to keep your existing files, you can try this...
Create new partitions on a disk
You may be able to create new partitions on a disk without losing any of the files on the disk. Each partition works like a separate disk. You may need to create a new partition if you want to install multiple operating systems on your computer. You can also create partitions to help organize your files.
As a precaution, back up your data before creating new partitions on your disk
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.Open Disk Utility
Select the disk where you want to create a new partition and click Partition.
Select an existing partition in the Volume Scheme list, and click Add (+).Disk Utility splits the partition into two, leaving the data from that partition in one of the new partitions. If the partition is less than half-full, Disk Utility creates two partitions of equal size. Otherwise, it creates one partition large enough for the data, and another partition with the remaining space.
Resize the partitions as needed.You can drag the dividers between the partitions in the Volume Scheme list, or you can select a partition in the Volume Scheme list, and then enter a value in the Size field.
Choose how to format the partitions that will be erased or created.For each new partition, select it, enter a name, and then choose a format.
Click Apply.

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/

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 Time Machine and external USB drive for multiple Macs

I just bought a 1.5TB external portable drive. I have 4 macs in the household that might have about 400 - 500 GB of total HD capacity for the four of them. I am very confused on whether to create a separate partition for each mac, or let Time Machine manage the entire, single-partition drive.
The reason I ask is because I have run into issues with a smaller external HD where it didnt seem to know to remove old backups to make room for new ones. But, its' possible the 750 GB drive was too small to do what it needed to do.
So, I am looking for some definitive information on the best way to do this. Obviously, i'd rather leave the 1.5TB as a single partition, and hope (and expect) Time Machine to manage the backups of the four macs in such a way that it can properly make room as backups are added to the drive.
THoughts?

D/FW wrote:
Use a 1TB Time Capsule to backup wirelessly and a FW800 external drive for speed in case I need to reinstall. Therefore having 2 backups?
You can do that, but not simultaneously. TM only has one destination a a time; you can back up to the TC, then select the external HD via TM Preferences, then switch back.
I've been down the road of using SD (cloning) and am ready to move on to another backup strategy. Cloning works fine but it dedicates a drive 100% of the time where TM doesn't.
I don't know what you mean by that. I use CarbonCopyCloner (similar to SD) in addition to full TM backups, so I have two separate, independent backups, on two separate drives, and get the advantages of both. You can partition an external drive (but not a Time Capsule), so you could have your clone on one partition, and other things in one or more additional partitions (I do that as well). As long as the "clone" partition is the same size as your internal HD (or at a minimum, at least 15% larger than the amount of data on it), you can use the rest of the space for anything else.
See #5 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum for detailed instructions on setting-up a drive for Time Machine. The same procedure works for setting one up for a clone and other partition(s), too.

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

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?

Restoring iTunes from Time Machine and external HD

Hi there,
I've done some searching and i haven't been able to find the answer to this problem. I am wondering if someone can help me with this.
My HD was faulty so i had it replaced. my complete 300gb music library was backed up on an external HD. The iTunes program was running on my local HD. So i ran the local iTunes off of my ext. HD.
Now that i have a new HD and i restored everything from Time Machine, for some reason all my playlists and songs have been emptied from the new iTunes.
I am trying to restore it to its original state instead of readding everything from the external HD and trying to remember all the playlists. (and that doesn't work either as it comes up with errors.)
I have looked for the plist and or old .itl or.xml but nothing shows up.
Any ideas?
Ari

docutale1 wrote:
Hi there,
I've done some searching and i haven't been able to find the answer to this problem. I am wondering if someone can help me with this.
My HD was faulty so i had it replaced. my complete 300gb music library was backed up on an external HD. The iTunes program was running on my local HD. So i ran the local iTunes off of my ext. HD.
Now that i have a new HD and i restored everything from Time Machine,
Did you restore the entire disk from Time Machine?
Boot from your System install DVD then Restore from backup and select the Time Machine drive?
See this -> http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html

Time Machine and external HD music from iTunes?

Dear Apple friends,
To save space on my internal hard drive, I use an external hard drive to store all my music and have my iTunes play it off the external. Now, it seems that Time Machine (I use a different external HD for TM), does not back up those files on the other external HD. Which means if something were to happen to my Music HD then I would lose all that music there. How can I make Time Machine back up everything on my Power Book's hard drive including the music files it plays off my other external hard drive? I enjoy how seamless it is to download and play music directly off the hard drive with iTunes now if only I can get it backed up with Time Machine!
Thanks
Tomes

thanks for that very helpful link - perhaps i can explain my situation and you can assist me further - i transfered all my itunes music to an external hard drive after i switched from an old G4 tower to a new MBP - i suppose i wanted to conserver the hard drive - but is the best thing to do import the entire 10 GB of music? or is their a better, seamless way to keep them on an external HD - thanks

Time Capsule, Time Machine and external HD connected to time Capsule

Hi. I am a new mac user and have an imac.
I have a 1T Time capsule with an external hub connected to the time capsual. The Time caspsule creates a wireless home network which has the internet connected to it.
To this external hub I have a printer connected along with 2 external WD 500 Hard Drives. I wanted to use one of these WD 500 HD to store my iphoto library and data. I then wanted the time machine to backup the WD 500 HD to the time capsule, which currently is where the time machine backups are stored.
I can see all devices and they all work. I can only see the external HD's via the time capsule in finder.
I can't seem to get the time machine to backup the external HD to the time capsule. In summary - the external HD is connected an external hub to the time capsule. The Imac accesses it via a wireless home network which is created by the Time capsule.
Is this possible?

Hello DazImac. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
I can't seem to get the time machine to backup the external HD to the time capsule. In summary - the external HD is connected an external hub to the time capsule. The Imac accesses it via a wireless home network which is created by the Time capsule.
Is this possible?
Sorry, but no. Time Machine will not back up network drives ... which a USB drive attached to the TC's USB port would be treated as.

Disengaging Time Machine and external HD backup

I recently transferred my files and applications to a new computer from my iMac5 by using the Firewire cable that went from my iMac5 to the external HD as the conduit between the two computers and now, whenever I turn on the iMac5 both Super Duper and Time Machine start indexing and searching for viruses. During this time I am unable to open System Preferences. What I'd really like to do is turn off both TM and Super Duper. What do I do?

larry lund wrote:
recently transferred my files and applications to a new computer
What is the new computer, and what version of OSX is it running?
from my iMac5 by using the Firewire cable that went from my iMac5 to the external HD as the conduit between the two computers
How did you do that? Did you use +Setup Assistant+ or +Migration Assistant?+ If not, what did you do, and what did you copy?
It sounds like you might have copied something that's not compatible with an Intel Mac or Snow Leopard.
both Super Duper and Time Machine start indexing and searching for viruses.
Time Machine does not search for viruses. I don't use Super Duper, but I've never heard of it doing that, either.
Why do you think they're doing that?
It may be that Spotlight is indexing the drive(s) the backups are on.
During this time I am unable to open System Preferences. What I'd really like to do is turn off both TM and Super Duper. What do I do?
Does the problem stop after a period of time?

Backing up Macbook using Time Machine and external HD

I am trying to backup my Macbook using an external HD connected via USB and Time Machine. When I choose "select backup disk" there are no drives recognized and it's blank. I was wondering if someone could tell me how to get this to work properly?
Thanks,

Is it a new external HD? Have you had it previously formatted? Is it formatted for Mac?

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.

Time Machine and External HD

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