Time Machine and Hard Drive Weirdness -- start again?

I bought a LaCie 500 Gig slick Porsche metallic drive to go with my slick metallic iMac last year. Set up Time Machine, was in awe, life was good. In recent weeks, I've noticed the drive running hot and a little louder than normal. Since it's not crucial for me to have TM always on, I just turn the drive off.
Recently, I noticed TM machine wouldn't mount. It was doing a lot of work, running real warm, but not mounting. In disc utility, the drive was blinking in and out of being accessible. Finally I was able to access it, and I verify/repaired it twice.
The next time it booted up, the drive icon wasn't in 'go' green but 'wait a bit' yellow. In preferences, I could see it preparing and preparing. It seemed like it would never end, and finally needing to go to sleep, I turned it off on yellow. This morning, it mounts GREEN and is working normal. Not hot, not noisy.
Here's the big question: now what I do?
You see, I've got some warranty left on this drive, and I can't figure out if it's about to break, or Time Machine is breaking the drive.
My gut tells me to trash my backups.backupdb file and start all over again. After all, I'm at a nice place where I don't need anything from a while ago. I figure if I try to do this and it outright fails to backup, this is an indication of a weary drive.
Also, if I were to backup all over again, it would be about 160 gigs of info. My backup drive currently has 130 available. There's maybe another 60 gigs or so of stuff on this drive tops, and so it seems Time Machine has nearly doubled in size of what it's backing up.
So, would y'all recommend purging the backup and starting again?
Sorry for longwindedness, but just trying to provide all info I can,
Me
Also, I see that I've got about 130 Gigs open on the 500 gig drive. I'm using half of my iMac's 300 gig drive, and so by my best guestimation I'd say Time Machine has already double

Jerome,
First, make sure Spotight is not set to Index the LaCie drive. That could have been the cause of the excessive use.
Next, if Time Machine hasn't been backing up for a while ("wouldn't mount"), then the next time it successfully mounts it will do a long "Preparing..." (I believe it's called a "Deep Traversal") session to compare what has changed since the last time it connected. This is normal and will show the drive as busy (Yellow light). Let it do its' thing in that case - perhaps leaving it on over night.
Your Drive is most likely fine.

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Time machine external hard drive stalls start up

I am relatively new to Apple hardware and this is my first post.
I have been using a 1TB Iomega Select external hard drive which I use with Time Machine. All has been well for the first few weeks. However recently I have noticed when I switch on my iMac it freezes at the white screen. I also noticed that the hard drive was spinning so I disconnected the power (there is no on/off switch). Immediately the Apple logo appeared on the screen and the iMac started up as normal. However on reconnecting the power to the external hard drive, though the disc starts spinning the iMac does not recognise it. The only way to resolve the latter seems to be to disconnect and then reconnect the USB cable.
I "repaired" the Iomega drive using the disc utility, which went through the process but said it was OK anyway.
Any ideas how I can resolve this? On a related issue are there good alternatives to Time Machine, I don't really need it to back up every hour?
Sorry for the long post
Chas

Chas F wrote:
I am relatively new to Apple hardware and this is my first post.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You might want to upgrade to 10.6.4; there have been some fixes since 10.6.2 that might help. You can go directly to 10.6.4 via the "combo" update. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
I "repaired" the Iomega drive using the disc utility, which went through the process but said it was OK anyway.
Good.
Any ideas how I can resolve this?
Are you shutting your Mac down daily? If so, it's probably better to let it sleep instead. See Sleeping your Mac vs. Powering it Down.
Does the same thing happen when your Mac wakes from sleep? If so, and if the upgrade doesn't help, try removing the check from the +Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ...+ box in +System Preferences > Energy Saver.+ Some externals respond to that setting, some don't. See if yours does, and whether it still doesn't power up properly.
You might also want to check with Iomega, to see if you can disable or adjust it's internal settings, or if there are any firmware upgrades.
On a related issue are there good alternatives to Time Machine, I don't really need it to back up every hour?
Time Machine was designed and optimized to do that, and will protect you best that way. When your internal HD fails (they all do, sooner or later) or something else awful happens, you won't lose more than an hour's work. Plus, if you accidentally delete or change something, or a file gets corrupted, there's a much better chance of recovering a previous version.

Time machine and hard drive space problems

It's a long story, but in a nutshell...I've had some problems with my time machine backups on my external hard drive and my MacBook Pro has been taking a long time time boot up. So, I decided to wipeout the backups on my external by deleting them (I know that's a bad idea) and then I started to transfer all the stuff from my MacBook Pro that I wanted to backup, and now I have ran out of room on the external (1TB) drive. However, the space that is being used doesn't seem to match what should be available. There is around 200gb (I think) that isn't accounted for.....is there some hidden stuff I might have missed?

johnl927 is suggesting you wipe your external hard drive to remove any ghost files or errors in the file system. That would be the fastest and least time consuming way to go.
Your alternative is to run Disk Utility, verify disk and the partitions of the external hard drive, and if still in doubt verify permissions. The disk may sometimes claim to have less free space than really available because at some point in the past your computer or else where you plugged it in forgot to do some general housekeeping on the external hard drive.

Time machine and Hard drive

Hi,
i want to buy a hard drive which i can use as a time machine whilst also using as a standard hard drive is this possible?
i was thinking of buying the WD my cloud 2tb what do you think?
want to spend about £100...
or shall i buy a Time capsule and a Hard drive separate? but want to link this

About TM "Backup Drive is Full" Alert
TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.
I suggest your do a fresh install of OS X on your new SSD, then you can manually transfer what your want from your backup. But I would work from a cloned backup instead of a Time Machine backup because it will be easier to transfer your stuff.
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

Time machine external hard drive requires repair every time I turned the computer off or after I ejected the external hard drive?

What kind of repair?

I just had my hard drive replaced and restored everything from a Time Machine external hard drive backup and now my "note" widgets won't load. Any ideas ?

I just had my hard drive replaced. I restored it using a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive. When I open Dashboard none of my "note" widgets will load. The other widgets open, such as weather, weather radar, calculater, dictionary, stock... Even the iPhoto Mini widget works, just not the notes ( Sticky Notes and K-Notes ). Any ideas on how to fix this ?

I did some research and found the solution to my problem. So I hope it's okay to answer my own question.
When you reinstall the OS, your Preferences go back to their default settings. Apparently Preferences is where this widget information is stored. This Preferences folder is located in the user Library folder which is hidden by default. You can access it using "one, or the other" of the following actions.
Action 1:      (1) In the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder
                     (2) In the Go To Folder dialog, type ~/Library
                     (3) Click Go
                                                      -- OR --
Action 2:     Hold down the option (alt) key when using the Go menu. The Library folder is listed just                            below the Home folder.
After opening the Preferences folder, the file that you want to locate for k-notes is named
widget-com.rakoth.lichlord.widget.k-notes.plist
After you locate it make note of the byte size of the file. Now, with the Preferences folder still open, open Time Machine and go back in time until you see a big jump in the file size. That will be your uncorrupted plist. Restore it and close Time Machine.
Then Restart your computer.
After following this procedure I brought up Dashboard and my blank k-notes were now refilled with the previous text and color that occupied them before I had to restore the OS.
This procedure also worked for Sticky notes, which in the Preference folder are named
widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist

Time Machine, External Hard drive, and the Windows Partition

Is it possible for me to back up my mac with Time machine, and also back up my windows partition on the same HD? I just got the External HD today, so I'm very new at this. Thanks for your help.

Time machine does not work with windows drives.
however the way I have backed up my bootcamp partition is to use diskutility to make a dmg of the windows partition. I then only make regular backups of my user account on the windows partition.
You could partition the new external drive and make 1 partition hfs+ and the other fat32. Then when booted into windows it will see the fat32 partition on the external drive. Then you can carry out backups from within windows to that partition.
Timemachine will backup your mac partition with no problems.

Time Machine - External Hard Drive Read only error

Just recently got a Iomega 1TB MiniMax FireWire 800 USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive and used Time Machine to backup my computer. This was my first time using Time Machine and it successfully backed up 350 GBs. It continued to do backups every hour. When I turned my computer off and then turned it on the next day Time Machine wouldn't allow me to do a backup because it said the hard drive was read only. When I checked info it said it was read/write. I used disc utility to verify disc it said it could not verify disc do a disc repair. Disc repair failed and it said reformat disc. I erased the hard drive tried again and I got the same error message. The hard drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I searched this forum and the trouble shooting links and couldn't find anything on how to correct this. Any help on this problem would be appreciated.

See the following:
What to do if Time Machine reports you don't have permission
This was posted in the Apple Discussions by V.K. I have only modified it slightly to be more generic.
The problem seems to be that 10.5.6 changes permissions on a file so that even the root user doesn't have write peivileges. I have no idea why they did this. The workaround suggested in [an]other post will probably work, too, but i did something less drastic. Instead of deleting the file I changed permissions on it, and it worked just fine. An added benefit is that the permission change seems to stick, so you don't have to delete the file every time you change a drive.
[Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt [enter] the following command:
sudo chmod 644 /volumes/"TM drive name"/.xxxxxxxxxxxx
The name of the file .xxxxxxxxxxxx is based on the MAC address of your computer and will be different for every computer. Put the name of the TM drive in the above and keep the quotes.
You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see) which is normal.
This was edited by Kappy just for cleanup.
Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Also, see User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Time Machine: External Hard Drive with Additional Files + Back-up

Hi-
I am hoping someone can clarify something for me. I use a 500GB external drive (WD-My Book) to back-up my macbook periodically (2x month). I also use this same external drive to store additional files from an old computer.
I just spoke with some folks at Apple and they confused me and made me think that I might have inadvertently deleted some of the original non-back-up files. However, I have scoured the drive and everything seems to be there IN Addition to the backups.backupdb folder.
Can someone reassure me that I have not somehow corrupted/lost either the original files or the back-up files?
I have read the tutorials posted in 2009 - and realize that I should have partitioned the drive, but I didn't. Moving forward I will purchase a dedicated drive just for back-ups - but want to be able to sleep tonight and not worry . . .
Thanks!

claisb wrote:
Wow-Thanks again.
Apple Support was marginally helpful. After the rep told me I probably lost data, my anxiety rose . . .
My original Time Machine question to Apple Support =
My MacBook cannot handle all the media I have. So, I bought a Seagate 1TB to hold movies, photos, and music. If I have the 1TB Seagate plugged in to my MacBook at my designated back-up time, will Time Machine back both the HD and Seagate 1TB to a new (yet-to-be-purchased) 2TB External drive (which will be purchased solely for Time Machine files)?
Yes, as long as both are formatted for a Mac (see #1 in Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks).
The Seagate might have been automatically excluded from backups; if so, it's easily removed, via Time Machine Preferences > Options. If it's listed in the exclusion box +*in black,+* (while it's connected) just select it and click the minus sign at the bottom. If it's listed in gray, it's not formatted properly -- Time Machine can't back it up, and you can't remove it from the exclusion list.
I'm having a difficult time knowing if I'm utilizing Time Machine properly. Since I have a MacBook it doesn't make sense for me to have Time Machine continuously running in the background. So, I only back-up 2 or 3 times a month. And, each time - I seem to get nervous that I'm not doing something correctly.
Time Machine was designed to back up hourly. On a desktop Mac, it's best to let it do just that.
On a laptop, of course, that's rarely practical. But you probably should back up more often -- when your internal HD fails (they all do, sooner or later), or something else awful happens to your Mac, you risk losing everything you've done since the last backup. Think of your Address book, browser bookmarks & history, documents, and especially your media files.
You might want to consider backing-up over your network. It doesn't sound like you also have a desktop Mac, but if you do, you can back up to a "shared" drive on it.
It's a lot more money, but Apple designed the Time Capsule as a combination wireless router and hard drive specifically for Time Machine backups. Most folks do the initial backup while connected via an Ethernet cable, but subsequently Time Machine can do those hourly backups wirelessly, as long as your Mac is awake and in range of the Time Capsule. See http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC344LL/A/Time-Capsule-2TB?fnode=MTY1NDA0Mg&mc o=MTMzNzU2MjI
But as long as you're diligent about doing your backups regularly via an external drive, a TC may not be worth the big bucks, especially if you already have a wireless router.

Time Machine & external hard drives not used daily

I have a question about Time Machine and external hard drives that I used for storing digital files. I do not need to turn on these drives every day. Or even every week. Is Time Machine going to "forget" them (delete their files from backups) if I don't turn them on regularly? What do I do to make sure they are safely backed up and that they stay backed up even if they aren't turned on every day?

As I said, then, "Time Machine will simply pick up wherever it left off." Just be sure to properly eject the drive before disconnecting or shutting off.
The "speed" question is a new one not present in your original post. You can address that in the following:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions About Mac Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
3. Maintaining Mac OS X
4. Mac Maintenance Guide
Periodic Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
Defragmentation
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
       external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
       mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
       drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
       failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
       reported on external drives. Otherwise, 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
       (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
       GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
       until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
Malware Protection
As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion, Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary. To assure proper protection, update your system software when Apple releases new OS X updates for your computer.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:
1. Mac Malware Guide.
2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
3. Macintosh Virus Guide
For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner 7.0.9, Maintenance 1.6.8, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
If you are using Snow Leopard or earlier, then for emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)
Installing System Updates or Upgrades
Repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand.
Update your backups in case an update goes bad.
Backup and Restore
Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. You can never have too many backups. Don't rely on just one. Make several using different backup utilities. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
     1. Carbon Copy Cloner
     2. Get Backup
     3. Deja Vu
     4. SuperDuper!
     5. Synk Pro
     6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Final Suggestions
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional reading may be found in:
1. Mac OS X speed FAQ
2. Speeding up Macs
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
6. Five Mac maintenance myths
7. How to Speed up Macs
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Most if not all maintenance is for troubleshooting problems. If your computer is running OK, then there isn't really a thing you need to do except repair the hard drive and permissions before installing any new system updates.

Time Machine, External Hard Drives, Drobos, questions....

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but feel free to point me somewhere else if not. I'm a professional photographer transitioning into some video work and am currently working out a media drive / backup drive solution to suit the needs of a one man band. Currently I have a couple of 2TB MyBooks running, and backup from one to the other each night, which isn't the most elegant solution but has worked so far. I've just ordered a Drobo and hard disks to give me a little more peace of mind, but because the Drobo isn't known for being the fastest solution in the world (at least the basic model isn't), I'm also purchasing a G-Tech Raid drive to use as my active media drive.
I'm hoping the following is possible and hoping someone can answer a couple of questions I have about using the following setup. I plan to use Time Machine as a backup solution, which saves me continually having to copy and check files are all in the right place each night as I do at the moment when manually backing up. I believe it's possible to have the G-Raid drive, which is where all media will be placed when importing, as part of a Time Machine backup that will put the contents of my iMac (which is not much, just core software) and the G-Raid onto the Drobo, and keep things updated when files are changed, updated or deleted.
The first thing I wanted to check is that I'm right in the assumption that the above scenario is not a problem? I'm guessing not as it seems lots of people use variances on this method. But what I'm wondering is, what happens when I fill the 1 or 2 TB raid drive (G-tech), and want to change it out for another one, and the Drobo, which has more and expandable storage, is not full? If I remove the G-Tech drive and replace it with a new one, will Time Machine just carry on as normal, leaving all the original data that was on the older drive untouched on the Drobo and still accessible in the future?
Is it better to partition the Drobo and create a section that is the same size as the current media drive I'm using (500gb, 1tb, etc...) and point the Time Machine to use that section, and then switch to a new partition when putting in a new media drive, or is that unnecessary and overcomplicating things?
I'm assuming that a lot of people tend to have 1 external hard drive working as their media drive, and another running time machine and backing up whatever's on the media drive, and that these drives are the same size, and a swapped out for new ones simultaneously when full. But if you are using a much larger backup drive, like a Drobo, then what do you do in the above situations?
Basically, I want a simple solution that allows me to have a fast (firewire 800 max as I'm using an iMac atm), media drive attached and which is backed up to a drive with redundancy, like a Drobo, and where I can change out that media drive without a problem and changes made on it are mirrored on the backup drive (but where data doesn't get deleted on the backup drive if I need to change out the media drive). My data needs are met with the above mentioned drives and I don't yet need to start investing in more advanced systems to deal with what I'm doing, I just need a solution that is simple, doesn't require excessive time spent tweaking and monitoring things, and where my data is safe if a drive fails.
Finally, I'm guessing if the above scenario is possible then I'll be connecting the G-Tech to the Firewire 800 port and the Drobo to the USB, but I thought I'd ask whilst I'm here whether anybody knows if you can daisy chain the Drobo to the G-Tech via Firewire and still have it operating as a separate backup drive using Time Machine; if this method is possible would people reccomend it over using the iMac's USB port?
Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions people can offer, and sorry that was such a huge ramble.

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but feel free to point me somewhere else if not. I'm a professional photographer transitioning into some video work and am currently working out a media drive / backup drive solution to suit the needs of a one man band. Currently I have a couple of 2TB MyBooks running, and backup from one to the other each night, which isn't the most elegant solution but has worked so far. I've just ordered a Drobo and hard disks to give me a little more peace of mind, but because the Drobo isn't known for being the fastest solution in the world (at least the basic model isn't), I'm also purchasing a G-Tech Raid drive to use as my active media drive.
I'm hoping the following is possible and hoping someone can answer a couple of questions I have about using the following setup. I plan to use Time Machine as a backup solution, which saves me continually having to copy and check files are all in the right place each night as I do at the moment when manually backing up. I believe it's possible to have the G-Raid drive, which is where all media will be placed when importing, as part of a Time Machine backup that will put the contents of my iMac (which is not much, just core software) and the G-Raid onto the Drobo, and keep things updated when files are changed, updated or deleted.
The first thing I wanted to check is that I'm right in the assumption that the above scenario is not a problem? I'm guessing not as it seems lots of people use variances on this method. But what I'm wondering is, what happens when I fill the 1 or 2 TB raid drive (G-tech), and want to change it out for another one, and the Drobo, which has more and expandable storage, is not full? If I remove the G-Tech drive and replace it with a new one, will Time Machine just carry on as normal, leaving all the original data that was on the older drive untouched on the Drobo and still accessible in the future?
Is it better to partition the Drobo and create a section that is the same size as the current media drive I'm using (500gb, 1tb, etc...) and point the Time Machine to use that section, and then switch to a new partition when putting in a new media drive, or is that unnecessary and overcomplicating things?
I'm assuming that a lot of people tend to have 1 external hard drive working as their media drive, and another running time machine and backing up whatever's on the media drive, and that these drives are the same size, and a swapped out for new ones simultaneously when full. But if you are using a much larger backup drive, like a Drobo, then what do you do in the above situations?
Basically, I want a simple solution that allows me to have a fast (firewire 800 max as I'm using an iMac atm), media drive attached and which is backed up to a drive with redundancy, like a Drobo, and where I can change out that media drive without a problem and changes made on it are mirrored on the backup drive (but where data doesn't get deleted on the backup drive if I need to change out the media drive). My data needs are met with the above mentioned drives and I don't yet need to start investing in more advanced systems to deal with what I'm doing, I just need a solution that is simple, doesn't require excessive time spent tweaking and monitoring things, and where my data is safe if a drive fails.
Finally, I'm guessing if the above scenario is possible then I'll be connecting the G-Tech to the Firewire 800 port and the Drobo to the USB, but I thought I'd ask whilst I'm here whether anybody knows if you can daisy chain the Drobo to the G-Tech via Firewire and still have it operating as a separate backup drive using Time Machine; if this method is possible would people reccomend it over using the iMac's USB port?
Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions people can offer, and sorry that was such a huge ramble.

Restore from time machine after hard drive install

I just had apple replace my hard drive on my Imac. I backed up everything with my external hard drive My Book. Tried to do a restore with Time Machine and it won't do it. I get a message that come up that says "Time Machine can't be modified or deleted because its required by Mac OS X. What steps am I missing to restore with Time Machine?

Hello, I personally don't use TM, but...
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Can't imagine something not being covered there.

Time Machine External Hard Drive Back Up

I am wondering if there is a way to back up on time machine an external hard drive connected to my airport extreme.
Here is my set-up:
iMac with a 2TB external hard drive connected via firewire to the actual iMac in the back
airport extreme connected to the iMac via ethernet cable
640GB external hard drive connected to the airport extreme which is used for sharing with PC Laptops throughout the home
I am simply wondering if I can back up the 640GB external hard drive connected to the airport extreme to my 2TB external hard drive connected to my iMac which is being used as my time machine for the iMac itself.
Thanks.

I would simply do this:
-Connect the 2TB drive to the computer via USB or somehow.
-Open System Preferences > Time Machine > and set up the 2TB one as your primary backup device.
-Connect the 640GB drive to the computer with the 2TB still connected.
-Copy everything from the 640GB to the 2TB (select, drag, and drop).

HT201250 How to retrieve external drive backups from time machine on hard drive without external drive connected

I am keeping my work files on an external drive which are backed up using Time Machine onto my computer's hard drive. I set it up this way so I can take my actual work drive with me if I need it. However, I just noticed that I can't see any of those files in time machine if the drive itself isn't plugged in, which makes this method useless. Is there any way to get to those, or do I need to reconfigure my backup system? I always thought if something happened to my hard drive I'd have a backup, but that won't work if I can't get to the files.

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Time Machine and Hard Drive Weirdness -- start again?

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