Time Machine and Mac Pro with 4 Drives

I am hoping there is a way to fix this. I have a Mac Pro with all four internal HD bays filled. One is, naturally my boot drive, one drive is a brand new drive I've designated for Time Machine, one other is a 500 GB drive nearly filled to capacity with my music and movies, and the four drive is the backup drive for said music and movies. Time Machine will allow me to eliminate any external drives I've got (and there are 6 of them), but not any of the internal drives.
Any one else have this problem?

So you want to specify that you only back up one of the internal drives or something?
I don't have any problems doing that... I have 4 internal drives, and I back up exactly one of them (that has my home folder) using Time Machine to an external drive.

Similar Messages

How do I set up my Time Machine and Mac Mini with Lion Server so i have one wifi loop in the house?

HELP!
So I have had a Time Machine wifi loop at the house for approx. 6 years. I run two Macbooks, 2 iPhones, 2 iTouch and a Samsung Smart Blueray on the loop.
I just bought a Mac Mini with Lion Server. When setting it up I'm not sure what or how I managed to do, but I now have 2 wifi loops, one doesn't lock and niether will support the Samsung BlueRay. Also, each time I want to go online with one of the other Mac devices i have to relog into the wifi loop.
Can someone please walk me through the fix. The mac Mini is plugged straight into the Time Machine to recevie its internet connection.
Thanks!
John

You often see this limit of 10 clients in wireless hotspots but I have yet to see it in an adsl modem.. most strange way to pay for a service that is really irrelevant how many clients you use.
Have a go .. I recently setup a TC to help a guy run his Roku.. and this setup worked well.. I have no idea if it can work in your case.
Lets say the IP you get is 192.168.2.1-10 .. doesn't matter what it really is. And the adsl modem is 192.168.2.254
(Assuming they are private addresses.. if they are public IP you can just use the DHCP and NAT. )
But go to the airport utility.. I think you need to run v5 at least to change DNS.. but you can do the same thing in v6 using static but no dns changes.
Now you set the IP of the TC manually.. This address might need to be in the dhcp range of the modem to work. You can set the DNS to same IP as the router address.. ie home address of the modem. Or you can use another DNS.. whatever you like.
Then set DHCP for clients that will join.. this can then expand the scope of addresses..
It worked without a NAT error.. although I am not sure exactly how.. on paper it should not be able to work but did.. have a go.. otherwise there is perhaps another way.. but it is complicated.
Give us an example from a computer plugged into the modem of what IP .. subnet mask .. Gateway and DNS you get. Then I can fine tune the values for it.

Time machine and mac pro

I've got the 640gb disk and plans to add a 1tb. But what I've understood from time machine use, I can't have more than one disk as target. How do I solve that, or should I look into other methods?

Ok, basically, you're saying you want to use TM to back up the data on both the 640 + 1TB drives... Yes, it will do that. You just tell TM "this is the drive I want to hold the backups". It will then go through all your other drive (unless you put them in the exclude list) and back them up to that designated drive.
The key is that you need to have a 3rd drive that is big enough to hold as much data as the other 2. Set that bigger drive up as the TM backup drive. Time machine will then merrily back up your 640+1TB drives to the 3rd drive (you said maybe a FW 800 one? ). Once it does the full backup, it'll then only do incrementals, storing only the changes since the last one...
If you're thinking that you'd have the 640 back up to the 1TB, and the 1 TB back up to the 640, then no, TM doesn't do that.... It's 1 way only (AFAIK).
While some people have had issues with TM, I haven't... YMMV. If nothing else, it's better than nothing (which is what most people have!)
There are some other options if you're concerned about TM though...

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

Bought referbished macbook pro oct 2011 version, just set it up using time machine and quicklime pro has disappeared. I have quicktime but not quicktime pro. Any ideas? thanks!

bought referbished macbook pro oct 2011 version, just set it up using time machine and quicklime pro has disappeared. I have quicktime but not quicktime pro. Any ideas? thanks!

Try, in preferences, resetting 64 bit to 32 bits. Should work fine. the older vidoes, etc will not work with 64 bit. Had the same problem/scare. Let us know if this helps and works!

Time Machine and Networked external hard drive

My family has thee macs and one PC, all under the same roof. All the Macs are 2008 and later models (MacBooks and MacBook Pros, with Leopard or Snow Leopard).
I lost a load of data last weekend and my i-disk did not contain a backup of all the data, pics etc lost which came as a nasty shock. Bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted, I've bought a Western Digital 1TB external hard disk and connected it to the USB 2 port on my linksys Gigabit N+ router. This network device does appear in my list of shared devices and I can manually copy and paste data to it, but Time Machine doesn't seem able to see the device to enable me to automate the backup process.
I've looked for relevant posts on this forum but can't see quite the thing, can you help me please?
What if anything can I do to get Time Machine to do automated backups and can this be done via the network router to enable others in the family to do likewise?

To expand a bit on one of the options Kappy mentions, if one of your Macs is stationary, you can back up over your local network to a shared drive connected directly to it. See #22 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
It's "iffy" and not supported by Apple, but some are able to back up to a USB drive connected to a recent-model Airport Extreme. See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum. As mentioned there, don't depend on those 100%; also maintain some sort of secondary backups, in addition.
But that's something I learned (the hard way, of course) long ago: Airport or not, never trust your backups to a single app or piece of hardware. No app is perfect, and no hardware is trouble-free indefinitely.
Or, you may be able to find an alternative app that will back up to your setup. See Kappy's post on +Basic Backup,+ complete with links to the web sites of each product.

Time Machine and Seagate External hard drive

I connected my Seagate External Hard Drive (300GB) to my MacBook pro for the first time. I got a prompt asking if I would like to use this as a backup disk with Time Machine. Absent-mindedly, I hit "NO".
Now the Hard drive is not showing up in the list of disks in Time Machine and I can't figure out a way to search for new disks or change the settings. I would like to use the hard drive to back up my Mac.
(Also, my Mac has a Windows partition) and I have used Norton to backup the Windows side on the same hard drive.)
Any suggestions?

MG1373 wrote:
(Also, my Mac has a Windows partition) and I have used Norton to backup the Windows side on the same hard drive.)
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Do you mean there's already Windoze data on the external you want to use for Time Machine? If so, this probably isn't going to work. The external is almost certainly set up with the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition scheme, which will not work for TM backups. To check this, use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Click the top line of the drive (with the make and size), then look at the bottom of the display for *Partition Map Scheme.*
If it is MBR, the only way you can put a partition for Time Machine on this drive is to erase it completely and reformat it with the GUID partition map scheme (unless it's a PPC Mac, which needs the +Apple Partition Map+ scheme), then make 2 (or more) partitions, one formatted +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ for TM.
If you do that, you may not be able to set up a partition that you can use for the Windoze data. I don't do Windoze, so can't be sure about that.

Is it good time to buy Mac Pro with display?

Hi There,
I am thinking to buy Mac Pro with display and I wonder if it’s good time to do that. Displays still waiting for update. We have been waiting for Mac Pro update long and as far as I see the update wasn’t what people generally expected.
And disappointing thing about Blue-ray drive as well. I think it was good time to put one in by Apple.
So do you think its good time to buy all that stuff or wait longer and perhaps better Mac Pro with new display will come out soon?
Regards

Rufus wrote:
Um no.. It's more than an "extravagant speed bump," the new Mac Pro is using the new 45nm chip architecture. In addition, the significantly larger cache and faster 800mhz RAM make for drastic performance increase.<</div>
Um...yes..
and with this new faster processor, I'm to do what with???...open an Excel spreadsheet a nanosecond faster, get a few more fps on Doom3? Woop-tee-do! I now have 8 cores but most software uses 1 of them while the other 7 purr in idle.
BluRay/HD video is here... or should I say HAS BEEN here for over a year now.... how am I going to use this new super-dooper processor with editing, creating, and authoring HD video and discs?
A faster processor at this point is meaningless without the tools to use it with.
All they did with the new MacPro is give you a computer that is worth the fixed $2800 price tag.
Reminds me of the tire commercial on tv where they describe this car with exotic and powerful 12 cylinder engine, and plush leather seats, and race proven suspension...... but with no tires.
It all looks great on a spec sheet, but you can't use it to do any real work.
I can film HD video all day long, but I can't use a Mac to put it on disc...... (but I can use a Dell!!)
There is no way anyone can explain this other than political.... I would bet that this has something to do with Steve's affiliation with Disney and other studios in regards to his doomed movie rental snafu. Apple has always been the ground breaker in bringing such technology to the market first (a mouse, a cd drive, multiple displays, a superdrive, etc.), and usually before the consumer even understands they need it. To be this far behind with BluRay, he's got to be holding back for a reason ... and I would love to hear it.
I've been a Mac user for 22 yrs and have only been embarrised to be so twice... once when the fruit flavored iMacs were introduced (eventually proved to be the best selling computer model of all times), and now with the absence of BluRay. I've been hoping Steve will prove me wrong again, but I've been hoping for year now... and am still waiting.
Um... No, the Mac Pros power isn't gonna do much for an excel spreadsheet.. However, I bought mine to use with Logic Studio which does take advantage of all eight-cores and the faster front side bus and RAM, and the performance is remarkable..
Just for kicks I timed how long it took to rip "Finding Nemo" with my old G4 dual 1.25 ghz using Handbrake's Apple TV preset... The G4 took 7 hours and 54 minutes.. My new Mac Pro did the same job in 24 minutes..
If you really want a Blu-Ray drive in your Mac Pro, then just buy one and stick it in the empty optical slot, but be prepared for the price tag... http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/
And if you use one of the Pro apps that takes advantage of multiple cores, the new Mac pro is a dream.. If you don't use one of those apps, you probably don't need a Mac Pro. At any rate, you're whole spiel about the Mac pro's power being trivial or useless is nonsense..

New to MAC - trying to sync iphone and Mac Pro with imac

Hi,
Just made the switch to Mac. Purchased my Mac Pro yesterday, loaded .Mac, and plugged in my iPhone to the computer. Followed the steps to Sync iCal and contacts from iPhone and although it is registering there is a phone and downloading photos, it is not syncing anything else.
The steps I took were System Preferences, .mac, and checked the relevant boxes. It indicates syncing is taking place but the calendar on iPhone and Mac Pro are not syncing.
Could anyone help with advice? SHould I be able to sync easily between the iPhone and the Mac Pro with .mac?

You use iTunes to sync an iPhone - not *.Mac Sync* or iSync.
*.Mac Sync* is for syncing between Macs, and iSync is for syncing third-party mobile phones and PDAs.
The iPhone specific forums are here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=201

When I plug a LaCie external hard drive into my new Mac mini, [os 10.9.1], to use with Time Machine it effects the performance of my internet and email. Turn off Time Machine and unplug the hard drive and the internet and email are working normally again

When I plug a LaCie external hard drive to work with Time Machine into my new Mac mini, [OS 10.9.1] it drastically effects the performance of the internet and email, turn off Time Machine, unplug the hard drive, internet and email go back to normal. Why?

Maybe:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/usb-3.0-hard-drives-can-cause-wi-fi-inter ference

Why does Macbook Pro rename my Time Machine and other external hard drives?

Why does my Macbook Pro rename my Time Machine to "Time Machine I" and then back again periodically. Last night it was one name, this morning it is another. It also does it on other external hard drives - usually by adding a I after the name. It is frustrating for me because I store a large runtime folder on an external hard drive and end up losing a lot of time with my computer not being able to find files because of the renaming.
And even though it still looks like Time Machine under "Get info: - when I open a folder window or Disk Utility it has a new name, and there is no way to change it. I've seen other questions that mention Macs renaming themselves, so it seems like a similar issue. I did try deleting the preferences plist file, but that did not work.
Is this a glitch with this particular model or operating system?
Specs: Macbook Pro A1297 - 2009 model.
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB ram
Many thanks for any advice.

nachdenki wrote:
strange, my external HDs were added to the exception list automatically. maybe because they wouldn't fit on the time machine volume.
It seems to depend on when the drives were connected. When you first turn Time Machine on, it only excludes the TM drive itself, and any drives not formatted HFS+.
If you connect a drive later on, that drive will be excluded automatically.

Problem with Time Capsule/Time Machine and MacBook Pro

I have run Time Machine against a Time Capsule for some time without problems. Suddenly I get an error message saing the disk in my Time Capsule is full. When entering Time Machine I can only see one "step" back in history despite the backup file using 650 GB on my Time Capsule.
My iMac that I havn't used much yet uses 46 GB and the disk in the Time Capsule is 1 TB so there should be plenty space... IF I undestand the file naming correctly...
Isn't Time Machine supposed to delete oldest backups when the disk is starting to get full? I hoped this system would be maintance free
As I can only see one step back in Time Machine I suspect some kind of error. Anyone have an idea what this could be?

Nick,
My first, suggestion is, mount the TCs hard disk and see how many disk images there are. There should only be one. If there are more than one, then at some point Time Machine lost track of its' previous backups and performed another Full Backup.
Alternatively, are you sure TM isn't backup up additional hard disks attached to your Mac?
Consider the following as it might give you some other ideas to explore.
*_Incremental Backups Seem Too Large!_*
Time Machine performs backups at the file level. If a single bit in a large file is changed, the WHOLE file is backed up again. This is a problem for programs that save data to monolithic virtual disk files that are modified frequently. These include Parallels, VMware Fusion, Aperture vaults, or the databases that Entourage and Thunderbird create. These should be excluded from backup using the Time Machine Preference Exclusion list. You will, however, need to backup these files manually to another external disk.
One poster observed regarding Photoshop: “If you find yourself working with large files, you may discover that TM is suddenly backing up your scratch disk's temp files. This is useless, find out how to exclude these (I'm not actually sure here). Alternatively, turn off TM whilst you work in Photoshop.” [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1209412]
If you do a lot of movie editing, unless these files are excluded, expect Time Machine to treat revised versions of a single movie as entirely new files.
If you frequently download software or video files that you only expect to keep for a short time, consider excluding the folder these are stored in from Time Machine backups.
If you have recently created a new disk image or burned a DVD, Time Machine will target these files for backup unless they are deleted or excluded from backup.
*Events-Based Backups*
Time Machine does not compare file for file to see if changes have been made. If it had to rescan every file on your drive before each backup, it would not be able to perform backups as often as it does. Rather, it looks for EVENTS (fseventsd) that take place involving your files and folders. Moving/copying/deleting/saving files and folders creates events that Time Machine looks for. [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14]
Installing new software, upgrading existing software, or updating Mac OS X system software can create major changes in the structure of your directories. Every one of these changes is recorded by the OS as an event. Time Machine will backup every file that has an event associated with it since the installation.
Files or folders that are simply moved or renamed are counted as NEW files or folders. If you rename any file or folder, Time Machine will back up the ENTIRE file or folder again no matter how big or small it is.
George Schreyer describes this behavior: “If you should want to do some massive rearrangement of your disk, Time Machine will interpret the rearranged files as new files and back them up again in their new locations. Just renaming a folder will cause this to happen. This is OK if you've got lots of room on your backup disk. Eventually, Time Machine will thin those backups and the space consumed will be recovered. However, if you really want recover the space in the backup volume immediately, you can. To do this, bring a Finder window to the front and then click the Time Machine icon on the dock. This will activate the Time Machine user interface. Navigate back in time to where the old stuff exists and select it. Then pull down the "action" menu (the gear thing) and select "delete all backups" and the older stuff vanishes.” (http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/backups.html)
*TechTool Pro Directory Protection*
This disk utility feature creates backup copies of your system directories. Obviously these directories are changing all the time. So, depending on how it is configured, these backup files will be changing as well which is interpreted by Time Machine as new data to backup. Excluding the folder these backups are stored in will eliminate this effect.
*Backups WAY Too Large*
If an initial full backup or subsequent incremental backup is tens or hundreds of Gigs larger than expected, check to see that all unwanted external hard disks are still excluded from Time Machine backups.
This includes the Time Machine backup drive ITSELF. Normally, Time Machine is set to exclude itself by default. But on rare occasions it can forget. When your backup begins, Time Machine mounts the backup on your desktop. (For Time Capsule users it appears as a white drive icon labeled something like “Backup of (your computer)”.) If, while it is mounted, it does not show up in the Time Machine Prefs “Do not back up” list, then Time Machine will attempt to back ITSELF up. If it is not listed while the drive is mounted, then you need to add it to the list.
*FileVault / Boot Camp / iDisk Syncing*
Note: Leopard has changed the way it deals with FileVault disk images, so it is not necessary to exclude your Home folder if you have FileVault activated. Additionally, Time Machine ignores Boot Camp partitions as the manner in which they are formatted is incompatible. Finally, if you have your iDisk Synced to your desktop, it is not necessary to exclude the disk image file it creates as that has been changed to a sparsebundle as well in Leopard.
Let us know if the above helped.
Cheers!

If i back up my mac using Time Machine and an external hard-drive, can that same hard-drive be used on another computer and on a PC?

Hi!
I hav just got a macbook pro and am used to using a HP pc and am a newbie! I have backed up my macbook with my elements external hardrive and was wondering if i can transfer the music i have purchased and is now on my external hard-drive back onto my other laptop purely because i use both laptops for different things and want to use my music on both. how do i do this? and do i need a particular software to do so?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
thanks
alex xxx

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can do it, but it's not recommended to use a Time Machine volume to store other files. In this case, you can create a second volume on the external drive, so you will be able to use it to store data and transfer it to other PCs.
As you are going to use the external drive with other PCs, you can make the volume and format it in "MS-DOS (FAT)" with Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html Finally, you will be able to copy files to the external drive.
If you copy files to a Time Machine disk, you may damage the Time Machine file structure, so you shouldn't do it. It may not happen, but it's better not to try that. Also, you won't be able to read the Time Machine drive in a PC

Trouble with my time machine and macbook pro

I had my macbook pro's screen repaired because the it kept going black. It was not the video card, but a faulty screen. I just got it home and plugged my time machine into the computer. Now I can't browse any of my old backups on the time machine. It acts as if they were never there. Nothing except for what was just added to the time machine today is there. I live 2 hours away from the closest Apple store and my Apple care plan ended. I work as staff for a business and they need me to be able to browse the backups. The time machine was working perfectly before I had the computer repaired. Is it possible that they changed something on my computer so it doesn't reconize my files? Is there a way that I can change it back or fix this problem myself?
I just called Apple store and they told me that there is basically no way that I will be able to get access to my old files because they changed out something in my computer when they repaired the screen. If you know of any other way that I can still have access to these files let me know! On a PC you can plug an external into any computer and access files. My files are still on my Time Machine. I just can't access them. Please help me.

wrong forum, and not sure what anyone can offer.
You want to find MacBook Pro support and repair services?
The place to start along with google is
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro
Before you send equipment in rescue the hard drive data or even the hard drive, replace if necessary (put in USB case).

Time Machine and Mac Pro with 4 Drives

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