UNIX cp Easier way than automator to back up folders to an external drive

I created an automator workflow to backup one of the folders on my desktop.
The problem is, if I add a file to one of the subfolders automator does not backup the folder contents. The workflow works only if I add an item to the folder in the top of the heirarchy. What should I do?
the applescript generated by automator is
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
tell application "Macintosh HD:Users:myUserName:Library:Workflows:Applications:Folder Actions:Backup2Tiger.app"
open added_items
end tell
end adding folder items to
I had this message posted some time ago on this forum. Was looking for a solution to back up files from my USB flash disk to my Firewire hardisk.
Just as I was learning unix from this great book at oreilly.com called "Learning UNIX for Mac OS X tiger", stumbled upon the unix command 'cp'.
cp -R /Volumes/USBDisk/SourceFolder /Volumes/FirewireDisk/destinationFolder
All I need Now is to learn the UNIX commands to compare two folder contents before the copy command.
Thanks for all the earlier suggestions on this topic @ http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1878408#1878408
Mac OS X (10.4.1)
Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Hi there,
either of these additions may help you to do this via Automator...
The underlying commands in these Actions are UNIX.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/backupfolder.html
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/comparefolders.html
These two movies may help...
http://www.mac-help.com/images/backup.mov
http://www.mac-help.com/images/backuptodrive.mov
regards
Ric

Similar Messages

Easy way to install bootable OSX (or Win XP) on external drive in iMac?

HD in wife's 17" white iMac Core 2 went belly up. She exclusively uses Windows XP on the machine via Bootcamp.
Any want to do an install on 250G Western Digital USB HD so that she can run from that and just ignore the screwed up drive inside the iMac? If OSX than I'd want to install Bootcamp and Win XP on the external, too.
Or, if feasable, just install XP on the external HD and boot from there & again ignore the broken drive inside the iMac?
Thanks.

You should have no issues booting from a Mac OS X install DVD and installing Mac OS X on an external HDD, USB or FireWire. The issue is going to be getting Windows on that drive. Boot Camp will only install a Windows partition on a Mac's internal drive, but not an ext drive.
However, if anyone has figured out how to do this it would be the folks in the Boot Camp forums. The Forums are at the bottom of the main Apple Discussions page under Windows Compatible Technology. Here is a link;
Boot Camp: Installation and Storage
Dah•veed

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

I have been storing my Aperture and IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive that recently died. Fortunately I've been using Time Machine to back up to a 2nd external drive. How do I restore my libraries to a new external hard drive?

This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

Is their another way like to use my time capsule as an external drive not using time machine?thanks

is their another way like to use my time capsule as an external drive not using time machine?thanks

You do not have to use Time Machine.. but the TC is hardly suitable for a NAS.. it has no means to back itself up and is relatively slow. Still that is up to you..
CCC or Superduper are good backup softwares .. and there are a number of others.

My mac mini won't back up to my Seagate external drive but can read the information on it. Can i back up to it at all?

My mac mini won't back up to my Seagate external drive but can read the information on it.
Can i back up to it at all? and how do i do it?
Simon

I suspect the Seagate is not formatted to be used with the Mac. The correct format would be Mac OS Extended (Journaled), if you just bought the EHD then almost certainly it's formatted to be used with MS Windows machines. This is easy to fix, here are instructions on how to format it:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
After formatting Time Machine http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427 will launch and will begin backing up. The first backup will take some time however after the first backup it will go pretty quickly.
NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After formatting all data will be erased, so please if you have data on that move it to the internal HD first and then format. Then once you have backed up you will have a backup copy of the data. Also NEVER EVER use a backup disk to be used to store data. The reason being is if that drive crashes you have not only lost the data you have lost it's backup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can somebody please advise urgently... I backed up my entire hard-drive of my macbook pro - just prior to installing osx mountain lion. I put everything into a folder on my desktop - then backed it up onto an external drive. Once this was done - i deleted

Can somebody please advise urgently...
I backed up my entire hard-drive of my macbook pro - just prior to installing osx mountain lion.
I put everything into a folder on my desktop - then backed it up onto an external drive. Once this was done - i deleted the folder off my desktop - and following this - things started to go all weird...pages hanging, the coloured 'wheel of death' appeared for ages. So i had to employ a 'hard-boot' restart - as i had not other options.
I'm pretty sure i made copies of of files/apps/folders etc - however not so sure now as i cant even start up my laptop!!!
Can somebosy please help me urgently??!!!

Got the exact same problem, and I also did this operation many times before, from 500Gb to 750Gb, and then from 750Gb to 1 Gb. Not My HD got a little such complaining about bad sectors when in windows bootcamp, but still runs fine though.
So I bought a new 1Gb drive exactly same drive as the one thats getting sick. I did the clone thing, with super duper, CCC, DU, but no matter it will not boot when i move the new drive inside the macbook…….**** thing exuse me, but wasted so much time.
Now I get this strange feeling that something must have changed in the macbook itself. Just wondering if this could be a EFI "mac bios" prevention thing, they made just to sell more new computers, when you can't improve or fix your old one.
If so, then its pretty scary. If not then I simply can't figure out why this suddenly becomes a problem for so many people, as I see so many posts about this!!
BR Pete

I just had a new hard drive installed. After loading everything back on my computer from external drive, i came to the "select wireless network screen. I've misplaced the WEP password for my internet. Is there anyway to find it on another computer?

i just had a new hard drive installed. After loading everything back on my computer from external drive, i came to the "select wireless network screen. I've misplaced the WEP password for my internet. Is there anyway to find it on another computer?

Maybe. What kind of other computer are you talking about? What operating system is it running? What kind of wireless router are you using?
Your best bet may be to just reset the router and set it up again.
Just so you know, WEP is a very old security system for wireless and is considered insecure. If you have it available, use WPA2.

Hello. I keep my IPhoto library (about 90GB) on an external HD and am trying to back it up to another external drive. Both are formatted Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled). Recently, backup has failed from the start due to error 36. Howtoresolve?

Hello. I keep my iPhoto library (about 90GB) on an external HD and am trying to back it up to another external drive. Both are formatted Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) and both check out when scanned with Disk Utility. Recently, backup has failed from the start due to error 36. Any ideas how to resolve? Also, what's the maximum recommended size for an iPhoto library file? Thx!

Since you can't drag the library to the other EHD for the backup see if you can duplicate it (if you have enough room on the drive) by selecting it and typing Command+d (duplicate).
If you do rebuild the library without a backup and it goes awry you won't lose your photos but you may lose your orgnaizational efforts. So try the following:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library in the location of your choosing based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
NOTE: Fix 2 above might be the method you might want to try first with iPLM creating the new library on your second EHD. If it works that would get your backup copy on the second EHD at the same time as repairing it. If it does'nt work then go back to Fix 1.
OT

Is there an easy way to convert and import MTS files from a external hardrive so that I can edit them in FCP?

I am trying to convert game footage that is in MTS format to something that I can edit into a quick highlights video. I have final cut express and the standard IMovie '09. looking for easiest solution, everything seems to involve using one application to convert to Quicktime and then dropping file into Iphoto etc. is there an easy way?

I'm not completely sure that MPEG Streamclip can convert AVCHD footage (.mts files). If MPEG Streamclip doesn't do the job, then get a copy of Clipwrap, which was designed for transcoding .mts files to QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec (that's the format/codec you need to convert the .mts files to for use in FCE).

Is there a way to get automator to turn off dropbox if my external drive is disconnected and possibly reconnect drive and restart dropbox?

I am using my Time capsule to contain my iPhoto and some larger image folders as I have a 128gb macbook air.
I use dropbox to backup these folders using a program called MacFropAny to create links to these folders on the ext drive.
All works well until the drive is not there and dropbox has a fit and starts to delete all my folders (75gb worth)
This gets quite frustrating... I have an automator script that runs on log in to make sure that the drive is connected, this is cool, but I would like something that says something like:
if drive is disconnected > close dropbox if open > attempt to reconnect drive > if drive is reconnected restart dropbox
Is this possible to have an automator script that "listens" for a drive being disconnected and then run?
Many thanks in advance.

Yes. Sign in to the iTunes store, click below Quick Links where it says Purchased and start downloading your previous purchases.
If you have content on an iPod then this is an alternative approach:
Recover media from iPod
See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

When I backed up files on my external drive, I inadvertently dragged my itunes library there. Now I can only play songs on my laptop when my external drive is plugged in. How do I get the library back to my computer

When I was backing up files from my computer to my external drive, I inadvertently dragged my itunes library to the external drive. Now I can only play my library when my external drive is plugged into my computer. How do I get the library location changed back to my computer?

Your drive was used with a PC and formatted NTFS which is proprietary Microsoft format.
You need to install a third party program that will read the NTFS format.
There is various software from PARAGON, Tuxera and NTFS-3G
When you get the data off and have verified it to be good, reformat the drive either HFS+ for Mac use only, or for Mac and PC use then MSDOS (FAT32) for under 4GB files (best) or exFAT (for larger than 4GB files) is proprietary and Microsoft is appling for a patent, which would likely mean OS X won't be allowed to read it anymore without a licensing fee and you'l have to pay another third party software company to read the format, just like NTFS is.
The less you have to rely upon third party sources to read your drives the better, this way if you have a issue and need to read the drive on another machine you don't need the software, and a internet connection and a credit card and...and...and...

What is the best way to consolidate Aperture and iPhoto libraries onto an external drive? I am just starting out and not used to Aperture filing system.

I would like to use the drive as storage/aperture backup rather than use it to back up my whole Macbook. Would like to keep the majority of the photo files on the ext. drive and be able to add files there directly. BUT, when workng in aperture would like to be able to select some from the ext. drive and work them on the laptop directly without having to have the ext drive attached.
So do i, have the aperture library path mapped to the ext drive, and then import the iphoto library? and then how do i add additional from the camera? Or, do i move everything together (imported iphotos and new from camera) in Aperture on the Macbook first, and then transfer that library to the ext drive?
For the life of me I can't figure out how to do this in a way that seems logical. Vaults? Masters on ext drive, versions on the macbook? Consolidating libraries? The endless possible answers are baffling me.
Thanks for any help!

Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane

Backing up Events on an external drive... but FCP don't like it ??...

I connected an external drive on my Mac mini for dual purpose of:
1) backing up Events (captures from DV tape camera), especially that I cannot work will all projects in mind at same time... And capturing a 63 minutes DV tape takes... 63 minutes !!... So don't want to redo it over and over again, should something happen on the working HDD...
2) Eventually store ''finished projects'' with all their files to free up space on working disk.
However, it looks like FCPX becomes a little mixed up at opening (''cannot open event twice'' kind of message, as it sees it on both drives). Unfortunately, it will open (for some of the events) the version on the USB2 drive... which is not the one from which I want to create, edit, and finalize, of course.
The only turnaround I found was to disconnect the USB drive before launching FCPX ...
Can't believe there's not a way to set FCP to use from the main HDD in some settings or so ?
(I also read in a tutorial not to copy files other than doing that from ''inside FCP'' - In this case, I recognize I did the backup manually outside of FCP... But yet: this is aimed to be a backup of Events (not yet linked to a project). I can foresee it could become a nightmare once events will be linked to a project...
What would be the ''best practice'' in what I aim to do (2 objectives above ?)
Thanks,
Rob

However, the idea of a backup here is not to ''use'' the backup to edit/finalize, so I don't think USB2 will make any difference (except taking longer to backup/re-import. I just returned a so-called Thunderbolt LaCie RuggedUSB3 that claimed to do 10GB/s but took over 5 minutes to transfer 12 GB !!... (Tried it at Apple Store and it took 3:06 minutes to transfer 30GB, which in my maths does ... 10GB per minute (I can afford a ''margin'' but... 60 times more sounds to me like ... a **very big** margin. So I did not judge the drive worths $200 to gibe me a TB storage at that speed when I can get a USB drive at a fraction of that price. (Just my statement of the day )
You need to temper your expectations... no drive today can do 10GB/s - and even 10GB a minute may be only theoretical. Plus, remember that many factors may be involved. The bottleneck may be in the processor, the bus and, of course, your internal drive. A Ferrari stalled in rush hour traffic goes as fast as the next car...
A regular hard drive in a USB3 box is mor likely to be limited in throughput by the drive itself, not the connection; but with USB2, it's the other way around: the connection is slower than the drive.

How to back up iTunes Library to external drive so it can be restored

I recently moved my iTunes Library from a firewire Lacie external hard drive to a Western Digital USd hard that is now having problems (It keeps unmounting itself and I don't think that's good). It was not easy to move my iTunes folder and make it work again. I do not want to send 3 weeks plus using my spare time relinking songs or recreating playlists. I had to re-link 6,000 songs one by one. I iTunes will make a backup on CDs or DVDs why not an external device? Why would I want to copy 80 plus gigs to CDs?
If I simply copy my iTunes folder to the LaCie drive like apple recommends and the WD fails, I will lose all my playlists, track info, art work. I just got it all back. There must be some type of back up program I'm not seeing.
Please, some one help me. I am very disappointed that this solution is not on here.
I'm going to copy the file for now but it's really a poor solution.
Message was edited by: CindyLoo

I want to back up every thing, but I can't find a way to do it. That is the problem. Apple recommends if you are backing up to an external drive to copy folder the music folder to the drive via drag and drop. But I know when you do this that if you try use the backup you will only have the songs as if they were first added to iTunes.
I was able this time to move my music folder successfully (Last time the problem wasn't immediately apparent as it didn't affect my iPod, so I hope I'm not jinxing it). For now, my music is back on the Lacie drive, but it's still not backed up. If the LaCie drive were to fail I'd be faced with reimporting all my music and re-purchasing the TV shows and movies. (I almost always make a CD of new iTunes Purchases. which is why I have no desire to have a second huge stack of CDs.) My computer will not burn DVDs.
I want to backup everything so that it could be restored and be like it is now, but I don't see a way to do it. And I am not backing up all 80 plus gigs to CDs. My computer would crash and burn.

Backing up iphoto running from external drive

After transferring the iphoto library to a second external drive (other than the one being used to backup the internal drive with Time Machine), is there a way to backup the second drive with Time Machine while still continuing to backup the internal drive? To clarify, I would be running iphoto off of an external drive to free up space on the internal drive but since Time Machine is backing up my internal drive how do I now get it to also back up iphoto since it is now running off of the external drive?

That is really a time machine question rather than an iPhoto question
I found that by default TM was backing up everything - internal drive and two external volumes - I simply went tot he TM preferences and told it not to backup my extrenal volumes which are clones of my internal drive - launch TM and look at that it shows - I think you will find it is backing up your external drives
LN

UNIX cp Easier way than automator to back up folders to an external drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for