Time Machine on a WD Smartware drive? Converting a WD Smartware back-up harddrive to Time Machines

How do I convert a WD Smartware back-up hard drive to TimeMachine software? That is, how do I delete the WD Smartware software sothat I can then load Time Machines onto that hard drive and turn it into a timemachines drive?
I ask because the WD Smartware software is terrible and itappears to not work since I updated to Lion. And it wasn't great softwareto begin with. So I really want to convert this hard drive to TimeMachine. Someone told me that it is possible, but I am not clever enoughto figure out how. I recall something about "disc utility" butI can't figure out either 1) how to erase the WD software on the drive and 2)how to install Time Machine software or to use it with Time Machine.
Thank you!

You don't have to install Time Machine on the drive. TM is already part of OS X. What you want to do is repartition and reformat the drive:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
You can now use the drive as a Time Machine backup drive by configuring Time Machine preferences. See Mac 101- Time Machine.
You will find a wealth of help with Time Machine at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ.

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Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

Once I upgraded to ML, I'm now finding that my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive is no longer being backed up by Time machine. Do I have to wait for Seagate to update their drivers for this hard drive?

I tried your suggestion, and it's been giving me the message "Preparing for Backup" for the past 8 hours. Does this mean TM is backing up my hard drive? I'll give it a few more hours, but if nothing else happens, I'm not sure what else to do. I'm not sure if there are any new external hard drives that are compatible with ML yet.

I have an iMac and I am running out of disc space. I am considering an external drive to house my iTunes library. If I buy a second drive to operate as a back up will time machine back up the disc on the IMac and the external drive with the iTunes library

I have an iMac and I am running out of disc space. I am considering an external drive to house my iTunes library. If I buy a second drive to operate as a back up will time machine back up the disc on the IMac and the external drive with the iTunes library?

If you have a considerable photograph and/or movie collection you may want to consider off loading those to the EHD too. Here are Apple's article showing how handle iTunes & iPhoto libraries.
iTunes: library on EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to EHD
Roger

External drive for iTunes library and backing up via time machine

Hi, I currently have an 320gb external drive plugged into usb port of my imac for time machine back up, but my itunes library is 500gb and currently excluded from time machine back up, I would like to buy a 2 or 3tb external drive and then move my itunes library to that to free space on my imac.
I'd really like to know the best way to set up and what to buy, ie, if i move the library to an external drive am I able to back up the external drive via time machine, plus I assume if I do this i need a second external drive or time capsule to back up the library
Also the external drive is plugged directly into imac but I have an airport extreme is there any benefit plugging the drive into this, would this mean you access file from network (should you do this if its used for time machine), should I get rid of the extreme and buy a time capsule
Thanks in advance

Hi, I'd recommend one of these...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
FW400 will be faster than USB2, & FW8000 even better.
I see no advantage to plugging it into Your Extreme.

I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

I went to Mac Store and had replaced hard drive because I encountered 4HDD ERROR(hard drive failure). I had backed up my old hard drive by TIME MACHINE regularly. Now how can I restore everything I had?

Thanks for your response.
I had tried COMMAND+ALT+R which led me to directly to INTERNET RECOVERY via wifi. After 1 hour or so it dropped me at the same point.
I've tried MIGRANT ASSISTANCE as well, it kept on LOOKING FOR OTHER COMPUTERS even though I clicked on TIME MACHINE BACK UP USING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
so what to do now?
P.S. Guys at MacStore were so careless to even listen to me when I asked them about retrieving back up :(
Please help

HT201250 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ?

When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ? I need time machine to migrate the latest back-up. Should I delete the older back-ups ?

As noondaywitch says, it should use the latest backup.
Where are your backups (external HD, Time Capsule, etc.)?
It sounds like there are two separate sets, and you're not connected to the right set.

I just fix my macbook air because it was kernel panic. They changed the hard drive. I could not back up with Time Machine, because it did not work and I had over Adobe creative suite 5 design premium student. But I finished my studies last year and I'd li

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You can download Creative Suite 5 here:
Other downloads
To deal with the issue of the serial number and using it again, you'll have to use Web Chat. Here's a link:
Adobe ID, sign in, and account help
See the bottom of the page for a link

My Imac drive just died. Always backed up with Time machine to a WD My Passport. But after connecting it to my other imac (also running Snow Leopard) all the files are missing. I click on backup.backupdb but no files - just applications. Any ideas?

My Imac drive just died. Always backed up with Time machine to a WD My Passport. But after connecting it to my other imac (also running Snow Leopard) all the files are missing. I click on backup.backupdb but no files - just applications. Any ideas?

Welcome to the Communities.
We want to help you but unfortunately you have given us insufficient information.
Please find a moment to tell us more about your machine, the model identifier, the OS version, and the total amount of RAM you have. It also helps to know where you are, nothing specific, just the country. Macs do not run on iOS 6.1.6 as your profile says.
Then fill those same details in your profile for future use
These documents may prove helpful .. Solving Time Machine problems Pondini FAQ
http://pondini.org/TM/ Troubleshooting.html

10.5.8 to 10.6 Can I use an internal SATA drive in my MacPro for back up..

10.5.8 to 10.6 Can I use an INTERNAL SATA drive in my MacPro for back up..
or must I use an External hard dive.
I prefer to use an internal for anti "desk-clutter" purposes. I am looking
at a 2TB drive to install into my Mac Pro tower for the purpose of back up
and time machine i guess.
Also.. if doing a clean install of 10.6 how do i restore the backed up apps
without re-registering all of them?

A clone is a functional copy of the original, including the internal links & setting that makes it bootable if the original is. Time Machine will not make a clone of a volume, nor will a Finder copy. You can make a clone with the appropriate settings in the "Restore" tab of Disk Utility but many users find purpose-designed cloning utilities easier & simpler to use. The two most popular of these are SuperDuper! & Carbon Copy Cloner. Both are very reliable, easy to use, & well documented.
I prefer SuperDuper! for reasons that are not important here. However, even if you decide to use CCC, I suggest that you download SuperDuper! just to read the extensive documentation that comes with it.

Can i delete the backup on my internal drive as i have it backed up on a external drive...if so how??

can i delete the backup on my internal drive as i have it backed up on a external drive...if so how??

When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

What size hard drive does it take to back up a mac book

What size hard drive does it take to back up a mac book pro?

The bare minimum would be one equal to the total used storage space on your MBP's hard drive.
However, that is the technical minimum and not an optimal estimate. Optimally, if using Time Machine, you should look for a hard drive that is 2-3 times (or larger) than your internal hard drive - that gives you space to grow your backup archive, and to be able to go back in time a fair bit if need be to restore something since TM keeps a database of incremental backups over time (TM will only purge an older archive if the drive fills up and it needs space for the current incremental backup).
If you are cloning your system, then you should buy an external drive equal to (or larger, if you cannot match exactly) the size of your internal drive. A full system clone will never be bigger than your internal drive is, so there is no need to have a much larger drive for the clone.

What is the best format to use on an external hard drive so I can both back up my Macbook Pro and also put movies on it from another hard drive (PC)?

I am looking for a solution to whether if it is best to get two hard drives or one that can do two things that I want.
I am looking for a hard drive format that can both back up my 500GB Macbook Pro but I was also wondering if I could also put movies on it from another hard drive that is PC based. Would partitioning the hard drive work for this? I don't know what are the best formats to use.
If this is too hard it might just be easier having a separate 500GB hard drive for back up of my Mac and another bigger hard drive for the movies etc (the files are probably bigger than 4GB). Any help would be greatly appreciated as I need to make a decision soon!

Csound1 wrote:
Microsoft has not released the official exFAT file system specification, and a restrictive license from Microsoft is required in order to make and distribute exFAT implementations. Microsoft also asserts patents on exFAT which make it impossible to re-implement its functionality in a compatible way without violating a large percentage of them.[13] This renders the implementation, distribution, and use of exFAT as a part of free or open-source operating systems or of commercial software, for which the vendors could not obtain a license from Microsoft, not only technically difficult, but legally impossible in countries that recognize United States software patents.
Can't help with that, if one is using a Windows machine then they are subjected to their rules and control.
Limited support outside Windows and Mac OS X operating systems as of 2012, when most consumer electronic devices could only handleFAT12/FAT16/FAT32, rendering exFAT (and flash memory formats using it) impractical as a universal exchange format.
The OP said they plan to store movies on the external drive.
Many movies today are well over 4GB in size, thus exFAT has to be used and formatted on the PC, which the Mac can then read.
Older Windows NT versions up to Windows Vista without Service Pack 1 do not support exFAT.
Irrelevant, Microsoft provides a free download of exFAT for Windows XP, and Vista shouldn't be running on pre SP1 anyway.
Some distributions of Linux have begun to include support for exFAT. It is however, only available as a file system in user space, as it's not supported by the kernel.
Irrelevant, OP is using Windows and OS X, not Linux and if they did Linux can read the files at least and transfer, which is all they care about really.
Windows Vista is unable to use exFAT drives for ReadyBoost. Windows 7 removes this limitation, enabling ReadyBoost caches larger than 4 GiB.[14]
Irrelevant, the OP's is intending to use it as transfer drive between Mac's and Windows for movies.
The standard exFAT implementation only uses a single file allocation table and free space map. FAT file systems instead used alternating tables, as this allowed recovery of the file system if the media was ejected during a write (which occurs frequently in practice with removable media). The optional TexFAT component adds support for additional backup tables and maps, but may not be supported.
Some relevancy, but only exFAT can handle 4GB+ files between Mac's and PC's, so the need outweighs the possible problem.
The OP needs to follow the standard Windows practice of "safely removing hardware" before physically disconnecting the external drive. If a write is occurring, it won't allow disconnecting until the write is finished.
Support for up to 2,796,202 files per subdirectory only.[1][nb 3] Microsoft documents a limit of 65,534 files per sub-directory for their FAT32 implementation, but other operating systems have no special limit for the number of files in a FAT32 directory. FAT32 implementations in other operating systems allow an unlimited number of files up to the number of available clusters (that is, up to 268,304,373 files on volumes without long filenames).[nb 4]
Not a issue, only in extreme cases of a lot of small files. The OP plans to use it for movies which are usually large and take up a lot of space on the drive.
IMMO It looks like you just ran off and copied something to argue your point when all the points are basically irrelevant.
There is only one format that can easily share 4GB sized files between Mac's and PC's without further complications.
It's ALSO possible to install MacDrive on the PC and format the drive on the Mac HFS+, but I didn't recommend that because I know it's a hassle just like third party NTFS writing software is a hassle on Mac's.
If you so anti-Microsoft format, then you must know Paragon has to pay a license fee to Microsoft for using the NTFS format.
At least with exFAT there is no fee to Redmond, at least not yet.

I had to erase my hard drive and then reinstall everything back from my passport external hard drive. Now my iPhoto edit is not working. I get a blank screen when I want to edit. The photos show up in the library but I cannot edit them. Help?

I had to erase my hard drive and then reinstall everything back from my passport external hard drive. Now my iPhoto edit is not working. I get a blank screen when I want to edit. The photos show up in the library but I cannot edit them. Help?

There are several possible causes for the Black Screen issue
*1. Permissions in the Library* : Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Include the option to check and repair permissions.
*2. Minor Database corruption*: Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild.
*3. A Damaged Photo*: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). Will the file open in Preview? If not then the file is damaged. Time to restore from your back up.
*4. A corrupted iPhoto Cache*: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto folder from HD/Users/Your Name/Library/ Caches...
*5. A corrupted preference file*: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
If none of these help:
As a Test:
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?
Regards
TD

Converting a class object back to a .class file

Hi,
How can i convert a class object back to a .class file ? Thanks

any pointers on how to do it then ? i don't have
access to the native codeIf I have understood you correctly, you have native code that generates bytecode. Currently you load the class this bytecode represents right into the classloader, but you want to save it to disk as a .class file. Right?
If so, you just have to get hold of that bytecode before it "disappears" into the classloader, and save it to disk. How you can best do this depends on exactly how you communicate with that native code.
If I have misunderstood your problem (and that's not unlikely), please try to be clearer.

Hi, I got my Mac in 2009 with photoshop elements on it - it's recently been wiped, however before the process we put Photoshpp onto a hard drive, we then copied it back over and it no longer works, I'm getting error code 150:30 and I'm being asked for a p

Hi, I got my Mac in 2009 with photoshop elements on it - it's recently been wiped, however before the process we put Photoshop onto a hard drive, we then copied it back over and it no longer works, I'm getting error code 150:30 and I'm being asked for a password... any ideas how to get it working again?

You can never, never migrate an installed copy of PSE. It's just too complex and you can't get to all the bits and bobs.
First you will have to download and run this:
Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
which will not seem to do anything, but is necessary to break the links within PSE so that you can pitch the bits manually. Then you will have to go around, not only to applications, but also to your username>library>preferences and most importantly to the library at the top level of your hard drive>application support>adobe, and remove everything you can find. Spotlight will not help with this kind of search, so don't try that.
Then you can install PSE from scratch.

Time Machine on a WD Smartware drive? Converting a WD Smartware back-up harddrive to Time Machines

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