TM with 2 external drives.

I have a client I am installing 10.5 for, and I was wondering if its possible to backup to 2 different external drives alternately. What they want is to back up to Drive 1 one day and Drive 2 the next, and keep alternating like that. Both the drives are the same, 320G FW drives. I looked around a bit for answers but didnt find anything. Thanks in advance.

factcomp wrote:
I have a client I am installing 10.5 for, and I was wondering if its possible to backup to 2 different external drives alternately. What they want is to back up to Drive 1 one day and Drive 2 the next, and keep alternating like that. Both the drives are the same, 320G FW drives. I looked around a bit for answers but didnt find anything. Thanks in advance.
It might be possible to write an AppleScript to change the drive at some appropriate time and/or each time the system reboots. You would need info from someone more experienced in script writing than I, however.

Similar Messages

Finder crashes with External Drive on Sleep Mode

I purchased my new iMac 21,5" less than a week ago, and I haven't had a problem with it except for one that it's been bugging me a lot.
I have a LaCie 1TB Quadra d2 external drive that I use to store footage (since it's HD, the filesize won't fit in my 500TB internal hard drive), but I noticed that sometimes when LaCie external drive enters in Sleep Mode, the Finder freezes and the only two ways around this, is to force reboot, because the Finder won't answer and won't open again, or unplugging the external drive without ejecting him first, which it's not safe for me to do, because I'm afraid of hurting the device, and the files in it are pretty important.
This happens almost everytime, especially after a long time on sleep mode. I usually leave Final Cut Pro transferring files all night (since it takes a long time) so I kinda need the sleep mode, but when I wake up, Finder and Final Cut Pro won't answer.
I updated to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on day one. Is there a way to fix this? Is it normal? I read somewhere that some users were having trouble with external drives on Sleep Mode, but I can't seem to find any further information about this problem.
Thanks!

I've got a MacBook Pro 13.3" that's a little over a month old, with a LaCie 1TB LaCie d2 Quadra with USB 3.0, #301542U and I'm suffering the same problems and a few others with it. I've got a partition on it set up as my Time Machine backup drive. I've turned off the Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible in the Energy Saver preferences but I'm still having the sleep problem with it. According to the LaCie Manual:
By default, your drive will enter Eco Mode after 30 minutes of inactivity in order to conserve energy. To exit Eco Mode, simply access data on the drive and the disk will automatically restart. You can manage this feature using LaCie Desktop Manager. Click the Eco tab.
The LaCie Desktop Manager (in my case) only takes me to the Energy Saver Preferences in OS X to adjust the time there. Turning off Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible doesn't seem to make any difference, the drive still goes to sleep after 30 minutes. However, after 15 minutes the drive seems to wake back up, but then during the next 15 minutes goes comatose (no power light). Sometimes it will go through multiples of these sleep wake cycles without going into a coma, but eventually it does go into a coma. This happens in between hourly Time Machine backups.
After locking up Finder, Disk Utility and Time Machine multiple times trying to access the drive in this state I figured out that I could cycle the power switch to regain use of it (with a Finder warning of course) but this will only lead to file corruption eventually and I shouldn't have to resort to this. I've also dismounted it, expecting it to turn off and instead it goes into an extended spin down cycle (rapidly flashing light) and never turns off (or goes to sleep or what ever it's supposed to do) and once again requires turning the power switch off.
This is just too unpredictible and unrelable for me and as soon as I get the opportunity to do a 7 pass erase I'll be returning to the place of purchase. Based on the reviews of other external hard drives a drive from another company doesn't look to be much better of a prospect so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220.

Experiencing serious problems after Mavericks installation with External Drive Lacie P9220 1TB. Mac Finder totally locked!
I had to format the External hard drive with a Windows PC (fat32), then format again with my IMac (mac Journal.) and hopefully restored data from time machine backup.
So far so good but system looks unstable. Some software were not able to write on the hard drive.Some strange things happens. With Mountain Lion never had an even minor issue.
I read many discussion regarding problems with WD, just wondering if anyone had the same problems with Lacie and if there is any tip to solve the
problem.
Many thanks.
Marco

Thanks very much for your reply.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a solution because the article refers to whom have configured the drive with included software and drivers that came with the drive.
This is not my case, I never used any third party soft ...only OS X disk utility ...
best
marco

IMac won't boot with external drives attached

I am using iMac 27" Late 2013 model upgraded to mavericks 10.9.4. Two external drives are always attached with it, one is segate 3.5" 2TB USB 3.0 drive and another one is 2.5" usb 2.0 drive.
when i start my imac with external drives attached it won't boot up. Stuck at plain white screen after a startup chime, not even any apple logo or any progress circle appears. And i have to detach all of my drives to make it boot.
This problem arises after upgrading to mavericks. Already tried resetting PRAM, SMC and checked Startup disk and verify disk with disk utility.

Raja,
Do a SMC reset perhaps even a couple of times and see if that helps. Also in System Preferences + Startup Disk make sure the internal HD is selected.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
Roger

Best practices with external drives connected to Time Capsule?

I'm enjoying my new MBP but the storage limitations are a challenge with twenty+ years of data. I know it's not technically sanctioned by Apple but in another forum I found a discussion about successfully connecting an external drive to the Time Capsule. I tried this for a few months and had some problems, so I wonder if anyone here might have some insight into which of my drives would be best to use in this way and what, if anything, I must do to bless it for the task.
The drive most highly recommended in the forums at the time is the WD My Book. After buying it I learned that is Windows users install a package and update the driver for use with Time Machine, which Mac users are not able to do. The driver is available on the web but it's said to cause problems with Mountain Lion, which I can confirm. It's USB 3.0 and powered, though, which my two alternatives are not. It's also 2 TB and presently in two partitions. I also have a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex 500 which gets extremely hot with any use and an Iomega eGo Helium 500 I've been using for backups. Both are USB 2.0.
My goal is to put my iTunes Library and Time Capsule on the net (running 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz, averages 50Mbs). When I did this for a few months with the WD both its shares frequently dropped off my Desktop, as if powered down or something. Also there were the issues with Time Machine many others are having. Right now our video collection sits on the Time Capsule. Would it make sense to move our video to the WD and run iTunes and Time Machine on it? If so, do you have any tips for formatting, petitioning, or drivers (or anything else) to help this run smoothly? The WD works fine when hard-wired and the TC, too is fine without the WD at the party.
With apologies for the tome.

kevlee64 wrote:
Thanks, but the drive is connected directly to the back of the Time Capsule by an ethernet cable.
Ah, that's a different colored horse.
You have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive, not a USB external drive connected to the USB port.
Many of those need software/firmware updates to work with Lion. Check with Iomega.

Windows XP Pro on MacBook Pro with 'external drive'!?

I don't want to load Windows XP Pro on the MBP ... it will take up too much space - I'm running Final Cut Studio and Logic Audio.
Can I put Windows XP Pro on a SEPARATE DRIVE, along with the few apps I want to use in Windows ... and then BOOT from that drive when I want to work in Windows?
And would there be something specific I have to watch out for?
Is there a good article somewhere about running Windows on the Mac Intel? That would help my technical guy create the bootable Windows\Mac Intel version external drive?
Thank you,
Ben

Thank you Blue,
I'm awaiting my new Final Cut Pro Studio Universal disks, and then my Logic Audio 'Universal' disk ... I don't think I'm going to have a lot of room to play with.
I'm already eyeing the 120 gig drive.
But, actually, I'm not sure I want to have Windows in any way connected to this computer. The idea makes me nervous.
All the best,
Ben

Can I edit one project on two computers with external drive and two copies of software?

I have two copies of premiere elements. One on IMac and one on Macbook. Video files on external drive. I want to be able to edit same project on both. I originally started the project on macbook but IMac doesn't see the exsisting project. Can I do this? thanks for the help

jazziegirl
Thanks for the follow up.
The matter of the sign in/trial version has happened to me from time to time with Premiere Elements (I worked with Windows). I supply
the requested information and that usually takes care of that message for a long while.
What is the status of the issue now with the MacBook Pro to iMac projects? Is that matter restricted to just one project from MacBook Pro to iMac?
If so, on this particular one, did you try the Project Archiver/Copy Project workflow in MacBook Pro?
As for the error message...I am not a Mac user, and consequently I am not sure I am interpreting the following correctly. But take a look to see if any of it applies
Have you looked at the permissions on your file?
USB tethering lost after installing iphone conf... | Apple Support Communities
iTunes 11.4 - All Things Apple | DSLReports Forums
"System extension cannot be used -- The system ... | VMware Communities
Please review and then let us know the outcome.
Thank you.
ATR

PC to Mac with external drive as main library

I recently switched from PC (Dell Inspiron) to Mac (MacBook) and am having some serious difficulties getting my iTunes to cooperate.
I used an external drive as my main iTunes library on my PC. I would like to continue doing this with my new Mac because my library is quite large. I know it is not as simple as pointing to the folder on the external HD from within the Mac. I have read all the posts out there and none of the address my issue specifically.
To reiterate, I currently am using an external HD with my PC that contains my iTunes library. I am now using my Macbook as my main computer and want to continue using the same external drive because my library is too large to import to the internal HD. How do I get the iTunes on my MacBook to read (point to?) the external drive where all of my media (music, podcasts, TV, Movies, Games, etc) reside without losing any information and/or files?
Please help...thanks!
Brian

I pretty much did the same thing (switched from PC to Mac) and had the same issue and this is how I set it:
go to preferences then click on the advanced tab, then on general
then for the folder just click 'change' and set it to be what your folder with all your music is on (on the external). I unchecked the 'copy files to itunes music folder...' as well (not sure this is needed, but didn't want to experiment it copying everything again)
then I went to File > Add to Library, selected the same folder and done. It will take a bit as it goes through the whole library. I guess after this you could go back to preferences and check that copy to itunes folder so any future additions get put on the external.
I hope that helps.

Change itunes from PC to Mac with external drive

Been using a Dell with itunes for my music system in mt home. I installed an additional 80G that i've maxed out with tunes. This is in addition to the 30G that came with the system. I have a Mini and just purchased a 500G Western digital external drive. I want to transfer all the music on the 80G (PC/Windows)to the 500G(which is not yet formatted)and set the Mini up as the music system. Could use some pointers on the best way to do this.
Many thanks

First, make sure that the hard drive is formatted for FAT32; then it can be used by either the PC or the Mac.
Then the easiest way will be to just drag the entire iTunes folder to the external hard drive (the one actually titled "iTunes", containing the iTunes Music folder and the iTunes library files). Then connect the drive to the Mac, hold down the Option key and launch iTunes. You'll get a dialog box offering to either create a new iTunes library or use an existing one. Choose the "use existing" option and select the iTunes folder on the external drive. Then just make sure the drive is connected and mounted on the Mac before you launch iTunes (otherwise it will reset back to the default location on the internal drive).
Hope this helps.

Time Machine running on Linksys WRT600n with external drive.

Hey Folks,
After searching the internet for the answer on how to setup OS X Time Machine on my Linksys WRT600n with storage link, and finding nothing or only parts of what I needed, I finally got it to work. Hopefully this will help you in your setup.(this should work for any linksys routers with storage link.)
1) First you will need to attach your external USB drive to the Linksys Router, and format it using the linksys utility. This will format the drive as fat32 so it can be access by the mac and the router.
2) You now need to create a share on the drive using the Linksys utility (I called mine "TimeMachine") and grant R&W permission to it. I found and article that said you have to create a group called "root" and a user called "root" within that group, then grant the group R&W access to you share. I did this but I am not sure if its required. you may be able to edit the default "admin" account.
3) Once you have the share created you should be able to access the share from your mac by logging into it using your (Linksys) "root" account and password. Make sure you can save a file here. You maybe able to create a folder but make sure you can save a file (.doc for example).
4) Apple has blocked the use of unsupported drives in Time machine so you will have to make a change for this to work. open a terminal window and type the following in one line:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Hit enter, and close terminal.
5) For some reason Time Machine will have issues creating the .sparse bundle Disk required for the backup over the network. So you will have to create it yourself. Safely unplug the USB drive from the router and plug it into your mac. Open disk utility (applications > utilities > disk utility) and create one the same size as your external drive.
parameters:
- Volume name: "Time Machine" (has to be this to work)
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled);
- No partition map
- sparse bundle disk image
Make sure the sparse bundle is in the share folder. If Time Machine had created this sparse bundle it would named it after your machine. You will have to rename it accordingly. This is the required format 'computername'_'mac address without colons'.sparsebundle
(eg. "joe's MacBook Pro_000000000000.sparsebundle")
6) Once all the above is complete you can reattach the drive to the router, and attach to the share again from your mac. Open Time Machine and you should see your share. Setup Time Machine to use this drive. You may want to be connected using Ethernet for the first backup as it may take a while.
I have found the wireless backup to take a bit of time to prepare and run but it seams to work nonetheless. The slowness could be caused by the difference in mac addresses from wired to wireless. So you may want to change the sparse bundle file name depending on how you are accessing time machine.
Hopefully this will work for you as it did for me.

I am afraid I have to pour some cold water on your enthusiasm.
Yes, what you say can get TimeMachine working, but there is a nasty snag:
WRT600N uses FAT32 for its external harddrives and (regretably) understands nothing else. FAT32 has two restrictions:
1) Maximum file size is 4GB
2) (a lesser-known one) Maximum number of files in a directory of 65,535.
The first restriction isn't really a problem because Time Machine organizes its data in 8MB "bands", which are files within your sparsebundle directory.
The second restriction, however, will cause Time Machine to eventually hit a brick wall: The sparsebundle bands are given a sequence number in hexadecimal and there isn't really a limit to how many you can have. If you run Time Machine on a large harddrive attached to the WRT600N, you will eventually run into a situation where you are hitting the 65,535-files-in-a-directory limit. Time Machine will, therefore, run for a while and then suddenly fail for no apparent reason.
Given the parameters of Time Machine, you can't run Time Machine reliably on a WRT600N with an external harddrive larger than 8MB * 65535 = 512GB. If that's good enough for you, then great. If not, you can do one of two things:
1) Get something that doesn't format its harddrive in FAT32.
2) Install DD-WRT on your router (thus voiding its warranty), fight with it for a while in order to get SAMBA running on it, and gain the ability to format your harddrive in Ext2.
I hope this helps somebody.

I removed the original HD and want to use it as a backup with external drive.

HP laptop G71ous win. 7. This forum helped me remove and reinstall original drive. I am using it in an external drive unit. My question is : How can I remove data so i can clear space. It tells me i do not have admin rights, and cannot remove windows folders. I have tried entering properties and changing ownership.Thanks for your help.

Just to add to what mct007 said, I recommend formatting the drive though this will remove all files on the drive.
Another alternate option is to use the command prompt to take ownership of the said folders.
This site has some good information on the commands to do this. Be sure to use the folder commands for folders and the file commands for individual files. Also, don't forget to elevate the command prompt. This can be done by right-clicing the command prompt in the Start menu and selecting Run as Administrator.
Once ownership is achieved, you should be able to do anything you want with the files and folders.
There are many ways to accomplish the same task and I just wanted to add to mct007's statement.
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

Synchronizing folders with external drives

I just upgraded to Lightroom 2 and I'm having trouble following the file management workflow that I used to use with Lightroom 1. Basically what I did before was:
Import photos to either my internal hard drive or to my external Lightroom drive, depending on whether I was at my desk or out and about. If I imported them to my internal drive, I'd eventually want to get them onto my external drive when I get to my desk.
Run a shell script that rsyncs the internal drive photos to the exact same structure on the external drive. This effectively merges what I had on my internal drive into my filesystem on my external drive.
Then I'd delete my folders from my internal drive, and when Lightroom couldn't find the folders, I'd do the Find Missing Folder thing and point it at the external drive. It would realize that I have selected a folder that was already in Lightroom, so it basically just re-pointed the missing files that were just copied and everything worked.
Unfortunately if I try this with Lightroom 2, it says "The selected folder or a folder it contains is already in Lightroom." when I try to locate the missing folder. And while it is quite true that the folder is already in Lightroom, that folder contains all the images from the deleted folder that I just copied over. I'm stuck and I basically have ~200 images from various dates that have been interspersed in my Lightroom drive, but Lightroom has no idea that they're there. I tried running Synchronize Folders on it, but that just made it worse, since it didn't realize the files were duplicates and so now I have two copies of my images. The old copies are still broken, but they have all my metadata and adjustments.
Here's a small illustration of what's going on:
Before:
~/Lightroom2009
1234.dng
9876.dng
/Volumes/Lightroom2009
4567.dng
5555.dng
After:
~/Lightroomempty
/Volumes/Lightroom2009
1234.dng
4567.dng
5555.dng
9876.dng
Does anybody have a similar workflow to me that actually works?
Thanks,
Brandon

Hi CPMTECH,
To configure the Windows Time Service on first forest root domain controller
Log on to the domain controller.
Type the following command to display the time difference between the local computer and a target computer, and then press ENTER:
w32tm /stripchart /computer:target/samples:1/dataonly
Where target specifies the DNS name or IP address of the NTP server that you are comparing the local computer's time against, such as time.windows.com and 1 specifies the number of time samples that will be returned from the target computer. In this example, only one sample will be returned to test basic NTP communication.
Open UDP port 123 for outgoing traffic if needed.
Open UDP port 123 (or a different port you have selected) for incoming NTP traffic.
Type the following command to configure the PDC emulator and then press ENTER:
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:peers /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes /update
Peers specifies the list of DNS names and/or IP addresses of the NTP time source that the PDC emulator synchronizes from. For example, you can specify time.windows.com. When specifying multiple peers, use a space as the delimiter and enclose them in quotation marks.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784929(WS.10).aspx
Skip step 2 complete step 5 first then step 2.
Checkout if this work.
Hope you find the info useful

Start MacBook retina with external drive

how can I start a MacBook retina with an external drive? I'm trying to trying to use a clone of my system with Mavericks to run the Mac so that I do a clean install of Yosemite. Holding Option key while starting doesn't give me the external drive to select for startup.

Sorry, the Mac is on 10.10 not 10.6. It was on 10.9. The hard drive is on 10.9.

IPod cannot sync with external drive

I had to transfer my iTunes music folder to an external drive as I was running out of space on my laptop. I'm also using my desktop now instead of my laptop. However, it is now only updating a few songs and I don't know where they're from as I moved all the files to my external drive.
I've configured the iPod to update from the external drive but it cannot recognise it. Do I need to reset my iPod before I can sync up to my external drive?

See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data - How-To Geek

What's up with external drives?

I found a FAQ here that says that Windows can't be on an external drive when using Boot Camp. That *****.
Here's why. I have a Windows box. I hate it, but there's a lot of software I use for work already installed on it. It'd be so much easier to just take out my C drive, put it in an external casing and then connect it to my Mac running Boot Camp so I can finally be free of the beast.
But no, I have to figure out where all my install discs are (tough after moving house twice in the past year), and then install XP as well as all the other software on a new partition once I upgrade to Leopard (when Adobe supports it).

you can run OS X from external drives. And it is Microsoft's and not Apple's limitation in that regard.
You can do what you say if you use a VM (Fusion etc). And they can use and import from external drives, BootCamp partition, and use it from there.
I wish I could install Vista as easily on external RAID as I can with OS X, but it seems too complicated to attempt and not supported. I keep all my docs and files and email though on a non-system drive, both in Vista and OS X. So whether using ultimate or home premium I have access to all my files. Same in OS X.

ITunes hangs with external drives; Genius is totally impossible to setup

iTunes very frequently hangs when I am using tracks on my external hard drive. I have verified the correct xml of the library files, and the drive's permissions are good. I also recently defragged it. However, oftentimes if I am editing the tags on or simply playing a track, the beach ball comes up and does not go away. When I force quit, I cannot reboot iTunes because it remains in the dock, with an arrow under it, even though it no longer is running.
After much trial, error, and grief, I found that when I physically disconnect the firewire drive (improperly, as it's still running, and won't eject due to having its files allegedly in use), the hang magically goes away. I can then sometimes replug it back in and work again, at least until iTunes hangs once more. I am sure this is not good for the drive and its files.
This did NOT happen under previous versions of iTunes and using previous system versions (I'm on iTunes 8, 10.5.5). It is a VERY. BIG. PROBLEM.
One of its many effects is that I have not been able to get the Genius function to work on my machine, as it always hangs. The Genius setup is so slow that I've never made it much past the first step. I have an 800GB or so library, and there MUST be a way to get this to work.
Are there any quick fixes to this drive issue? If not, can Apple PLEASE correct it ASAP? Not everyone has a little bitty iTunes library that fits on the internal disk.

Bummer that this remains a problem. I suspected it was the external drive I was using and from what I read here it seems confirmed. My library is much smaller that both of the ones listed here so I wonder if it's not so much size but the external drive. I thought maybe I just had a crappy network but iTunes has been uncooperative ever since moving my files to the external drive. And I've only got about 50 gig of files. Well, I guess I don't feel so bad now. But it's still crappy.

TM with 2 external drives.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for