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.

Similar Messages

  • Time Machine, external hard drive and more

    Guys, I am very excited about the release of Leopard and in preparation, want to obtain separate external hards drive for use with Time Machine. I've got a Mac Pro 3Ghz with 3 Terabytes of hard disk space, 4Gig Ram. What would I need in terms of size for an external hard drive (I'm not sure if I will need all the extraneous stuff, maybe just want to back up most of the system files, etc and perhaps some other directories).
    Questions:
    1. What commercial external USB hard drive should I look at? (I'm not a build-your-own kind of guy.)
    2. Should I obtain separate external hard drives for my 24" iMac as well as my C2D MacBook?
    3. Should I have the external hard drive in place prior to the Leopard upgrade so Leopard finds it right off the bat?
    4. Should I upgrade my RAM on the Mac Pro to 6 or 8 Gig? Is that necessary or needed?
    5. When I receive Leopard (I bought the family pack because I have so many Macs) will it install over my current Tiger system leaving everything in place or do I have to start from scratch (I can't believe Apple would do that to us!).
    Thanks. You guys are always the best Tech support!
    John

    Hi Adam Jackson, nice site you have and thank you for taking the time/effort to provide the information. It is very informative and valuable!
    1. I notice that other people have good luck with LaCie products so I bought the 1Terabyte external. I see it on Google for $322 and not real concerned about the cost.
    2. The 24" iMac is the C2D version as is the MacBook. I actually sold my earlier models on eBay to buy the C2D models because I wanted 802.11n. Both machines are pimped out to max, including the MacBook w/3Gig of RAM. Now my Mac Pro came with Airport Extreme built-in and I have it turned on so my other machines can share the connection via WiFi. That is very cool.
    I was wondering if I would have to buy separate externals for Time Machine (TM) backups on those machines but you answer is great! I'll partition up the external hard drive. A new question about doing that is: do I move the external hard drive to each machine each time I want to backup? If so, I assume TM will allow me to backup manually and I could plug in the external HD on the iMac, and then move it to the MacBook and return the external to the Mac Pro as home base, backing up to the appropriate partition. Does that sound right? Or can I do it all via WiFi (THAT would be way cool!).
    Another question. You recommend installing Leopard to a clean drive. I hesitate there because I have so many programs already installed under Tiger from Final Cut Pro, Aperature, and many that are either too hard to find or no longer available or it would be painful finding the reg or serial numbers. Is it possible to back up all of those programs and their associated preferences/library/passwords/reg codes/ and just add them back after I have Leopard installed?
    My thought here is to make sure all of my apps are up-to-date then, back up all of the applications to the appropriate external hard drive partition, make a bootable Carbon Clone Copy as you suggest for safety purposes, wipe out the Mac Pro/iMac and MacBook hard drives and install Leopard on each machine. Once all machines have Leopard then copy back the working applications. I just don't know how to do that successfully, i.e., which user folders to backup.
    And thanks again,
    John

  • I want to replace the hard drive on my IMac but want to know how to transfer from the time machine external hard drive to the replacement drive?

    I have reached capacity on my IMac hard drive.   It is a 250 GB drive.   I have an external drive backing up using the time machine utility.  My question is once I replace the HD on the IMac, how do I load the new drive with the back up from the external drive?

    So many possibilities.
    I am not an expert, but I have learned this much is doable:
    Buy an external enclosure to re-use you old drive.
    Buy a new external drive at least as large as as your intended new internal drive.  Make it self-powered.
    Download CarbonCopyClone (free download, relatively small).
    Make a CCC clone of the original disk on the new external disk
    Install the original disk in the external enclosure.
    Install the new disk in the main system.
    Boot from that new external drive that has the carbon copy clone.  CCC will be installed on it and it will be bootable.
    Use CCC on the external to directly clone back to new drive you install in the main system (the "bootable" flag will copy).
    NOTE THAT AT NO TIME IS YOUR ORIGINAL DISK BEING OVERWRITTEN IN THIS PROCESS.  YOU CAN ALWAYS GO BACK AND REINSTALL IT.
    Step 1 makes your old disk resuable as a spare copy for "anything".
    Step 2 gives you something to use as CCC for after the recovery process.
    Step 3 gets the software needed for cloning
    Step 4 makes a bootable saved copy of your current system
    Step 5 shifts your old disk to a usable place
    Step 6 positions your new disk
    Step 7 boots your existing install of OSX (just from a different drive)
    Step 8 puts your original install on your new disk.
    Now you have a bootable larger hard drive, and a bootable copy on a drive large enough to save all you can store on your new internal drive.  And you have your old disk to use for "anything".
    Now you have TM backup in one place, and CCC backup in another.
    Two backups is better than one, and one of your backups is bootable in case of system failure.

  • Is it possible to use an external hard drive as the windows partition with boot camp?

    I am looking to get a Macbook Pro adn was researchin the different software advantages over PC and found a program called oot Camp that allows you to run Windows on your Mac. I thought that this was interesting as it was sort of the best of both worlds. I wanted to know from people who have used this before: How well does it work? Does it slow down the computer at any noticable rate? Etc.
    The last question that Ive been trying to find an answer to, but have no conclusive results, is wether you are able to select the partition as an external hard drive or not. Also how it affects your ability to use an external drive as well. Answers are much apreciated, thank you.

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
    Boot Camp is an application that emulates a BIOS so you can install Windows on a second volume on your hard drive. It can't be installed on an external disk because Windows can't be installed on an external hard drive. It works well if you need performance

  • 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 cannot get my iTunes library from my old computer to my new one. The old computer is so messed up that I cannot even get google to open. I tried to copy to an external hard drive and the music was there until I went to upload to the new computer.

    I cannot get my iTunes library/music from my old computer to my new one. The old computer is so messed up that I cannot even open a browser.I tried to copy to an external hard drive and the music was there until I went to upload to the new computer. I disconnected my old computer so I will have to reconnect it I am sure. thank you for any help. Last time I transferred I used a product I purchased. That was a long time ago.

    First of all make sure that you've definitely backed up the movies to your external hard disc.
    In iMovie click on any event you don't want, go to the file menu and select 'move event to trash'. Then do the same for any unwanted projects - 'move project to trash'. Quit out of iMovie and empty the trash.
    Hope that helps!

  • I just bought a mac mini over the weekend. I saved items from my old G4 to an external hard drive. I go to plug in the external hard drive and the new computer is not recognizing it. Help.

    I just bought a mac mini over the weekend. I saved items from my old G4 to an external hard drive. I go to plug in the external hard drive and the new computer is not recognizing it. Help.
    Here is the information I have. The external hard drive is a 120GB Acomdata. It has both USB and Firewire. When I go to plug in to the mac mini through USB, it is not being recognized. When I switch to Firewire on the old computer I can see it, however when I go to USB it is not being recognized (even on the old computer).
    I'm at a loss as to what to do. Any advice would be helpful.

    Shalese wrote:
    Have you ever tried the FW 400 to 800 adapter?
    I have used them on multiple occasions and they work just fine.
    Try this (maybe you already have):
    -Boot Mini with drive disconnected.
    -Do not connect drive but turn it on
    -wait a few seconds for drive to spin up
    -plug cable into the Mini then into drive.
    This is an old drive and may have some timing
    issues.
    I had an Acomdata drive a long time ago.  It
    worked fine with FW but USB was flakey.

  • 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 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, External Hard Drive question

    Hello,
    I am formatting my OWC External at the moment and it asks me if I want to back up all my data with time machine on my external hard drive, do I need to do this? I plan on only using this external for recording my music directly to the external hard drive, and store my music library's?
    Also how many partitiones would I need for my needs? just 1?

    Say 'No" to the dialog box that asks you if you want to use the drive for time machine.
    If you plan on using it as a record drive.
    1 partition is fine

  • HT201250 How to use time machine external hard drive on other devices

    I have an external hard drive which i usually use to back up my macbook pro via time machine but if i put pictures or songs on the external hard drive and connect it to a gaming concole or a pc nothing happens. The concole and pc doesn't recognize the device. Is there anything i can do to make it so i can access files from other devices while still using it for time machine?

    The external drive is Mac formatted for Time Machine. Your gaming console and PC won't be able to read its format.
    If you are determined to use it for both purposes, you can partition the drive in Disk Utility. Format the PC partition for MS-DOS or whatever is required for your gaming console. You may or may not have sufficient space for both partitions. If you do not you will have to erase your Time Machine backups.

  • Transferring data from Time Machine external hard drive to band new mac

    My husband bought me a brand new Mac but then powered it up to play with it and bypassed the magic transfer option at the very beginning which would have allowed me to transfer my backed up info from my old mac to this new one.
    Is there a process that I need to go through now to make sure this information transfers correctly or do I just plug in my external hard drive and let it do its thing.
    My worry is that I do something wrong and Time Machine doesn't know that I need to transfer to a new mac, it sincs with the new mac and the old data gets somehow erased.
    Paranoid? Oh yes!
    Thanks for any help....

    Time Machine transfers of backed up info to any Mac are not automatic, nor does any backed up info get erased from the Time Machine backup when you do a transfer. You have two options for copying Time Machine backup files to the new Mac:
    1. Use Migration Assistant (found in Applications/Utilities) to migrate (copy) items to the new Mac. Select "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" as the migration method, then select the Time Machine backup of the old Mac, then select the items you want to transfer. You can select some or all of the user accounts on the old Mac, Applications (all or none), Settings files (Time Zone, Machine, and/or Network), & "Other" files & folders (which are any other root level files & folders not included in the above).
    If you have already set up your network, time zone, etc. settings while playing with the new Mac then there is no particular need to migrate the old ones. If you migrate Applications, Migration Assistant will not replace newer versions with older ones, but it may transfer some old apps that don't work with Snow Leopard. This won't do any harm, but you may want to delete the incompatible apps as you discover them to save space on the new hard drive.
    If you have created a new user account on the new Mac with the same name as some account on the old Mac, you will have to either give the old account a new name for the transfer or replace the new account with the old one, which will erase any user files you have created in the new account. Thus, you should save any such files to a backup if you want to keep them.
    2. Use Time Machine itself to restore selected files or folders from the Time Machine backup of the old Mac to the new one. Open Time Machine from the Dock, choosing "Browse Other Time Machine Disks…" from the popup options. Again, choose the Time Machine backup of the old Mac, & then select whatever dated backup you want to restore items from.
    All this is harder to explain than to do in actual practice -- for the first method you get on-screen guidance for each step & for the second the interface is pretty intuitive.

  • Airport, Time Machine, External Hard Drive

    I have 2 MBPs in the house. I would like to set up an external hard drive to the airport extreme base station that both MBPs would use to store and access photos and music. All documents would be kept on the individual notebooks. I would like to use the same external hard drive for time machine backup for both units.
    Can this be done? Do I need anything special? Is there a good drive for this?
    Thanks for any suggestions and info.

    currently time machine does not officially work over a network router (there are some posts about a work around). The other way to do this is to hook the external to one of the MBPs, then both can use it. Or at least thats the way I understand it to work. I only have it for one MBP.

  • How to create mirror backup of my Time Machine external hard drive

    I am running Time Machine back ups for my MacPro with OS 10.8.5, purchased in 2008.  I am saving the Time Machine back ups to an OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 2TB external hard drive.  I have a second 2TB external hard drive and would like to mirror what's backing up to the first 2TB external hard drive.  I feel that it gives me better odds if I plug the hard drive in one day and it isn't recognized, or some calamity happens to my computer and everything goes downhill from there, which seems to be the rule rather than the exception.  Currently I store the external hard drives in a safe in my home between uses.  They don't spend 24/7 hooked to my computer.
    I would like to know that I always have two copies of the same Time Machine back up on hand.
    Thanks,

    Drives fail. Often in the first six months, and after that, they may last 5-6 years. Or not. A weak (not just bad) sector block is usually the best indication. Having spare drives on hand should be a must, and rotate primary drives to backup or archive every two years maybe after giving them a long erase - to ease your fears and hopefully find the worst possible error.
    RAID6 is useful for holding large video catalogues and projects - and then mirror your RAID6 to another RAID6.
    SoftRAID 5 http://www.softraid.com will scan drives in the background for weak blocks, monitor I/O better for read/write errors (without impacting performance is important) and can be well worth its $140 ish price (worth it in tech support alone, too if ever you need it)
    A couple programs will write the SMART status to the system log and show the numbers of used and remaining spare blocks. That is something a large study of disk storage revealed. And in today's world, storage needs and the need to "change the light blubs" on a basis before one fails is a must in massive data cloud and big data mining.
    Apple's Mac Pro and the RAID card is not "hot swap" capable, though the motherboard in the Classic Mac Pro actually could as designed by Intel. And hot swapping is a handy feature - create a 3 drive mirror array, pull one, you still have two and let SoftRAID do a better rebuild in the background adding a new 3rd mirror drive.
    Two drive mirrors are weak and not all that great, in my estimation.
    TimeMachine is there to get people to at least have a automatic ish do it and forget it, hopefully, versus none at all. A good beginning. It also turns 8 this September and has slowly, gradually, hopefully, matured. I might buy Disk Warrior 5 if only to check the backup catalogue for integrity though at $99 a waste for most and better spent on another backup drive or something. But you never want to be in need of Data Rescue 4, another $99 product.

  • How much external memory is necessary for a IMac desktop that has 4GB? I have a 500gb external hard drive and the computer is saying it is full.

    My Imac has been recalled by Apple to replace the Seagte 1TB hard drive.  I was told to back up my computer and I have a 500gb external hard drive.  The computers memory is 4gb.  why is my 500 gb external hard drive not enough space?

    Your backup drive has half the capacity of the internal drive. Depending on how much of the iMac's drive is full, the external drive may or may not be sufficient.
    It is like trying to pour the contents of a gallon milk carton into a half gallon pitcher. You may be able to pour the entire contents into the pitcher - but not if the milk carton is more than half full.

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