Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

Hi all,
I have been "a Mac" now for over a year and just keep finding cool new things that make me happy I switched. The latest thing is Back to My Mac offered with my Mobile Me account. With a rather convoluted mix of PC/Mac/iOS devices to manage - best $99 I ever spent btw...
I also have a 1TB Time Capsule that I have been using with Time Machine to back up all four of my Mac computers at home. Needless to say, the 1TB is really struggling to handle the amount of data being backed up and certainly leaves no room for anything else.
What I wanted to do was to attach a larger external hard drive via a powered hub to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use it for Time Machine backups while using the internal 1TB drive with Back to My Mac so that I can have remote access to all my data from anywhere without having to leave my computer running at home all the time in order for my laptop to "see" it when I'm away. And, yes, the amount of that data far exceeds what any level of Mobile Me subscription can offer! I should also mention that the hard drive is the only USB device connected through the hub to the Time Capsule at the moment. There are no other devices that might be "getting in the way".
I'm thinking maybe all this is asking too much without the addition of a dedicated file server (Mac Mini, perhaps - not a purchase my budget wants to make).
I understand that the Time Capsule doesn't support partitions, so I bought a Western Digital 2TB Elements drive, connected it to my Macbook Pro and used Disk Utility to reformat the drive from the incompatible NTFS it shipped in to a single, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. I then made two folders on the drive, one for Time Machine backups and one for Back to My Mac remote storage/access. Great.
However, when I connected the 2TB drive to my Time Capsule I could not see it at all. Time Capsule was reporting problems in the way of a disk error. From within my Airport Utility, I could see the trouble was the external drive. The utility suggested connecting the drive to a Mac and using it's Disk Utility to troubleshoot.
I followed through, checking the disk, etc. and ended up reformatted the drive on my Macbook Pro yet again with the same specifications as before but without the folders and reconnected it to the Time Capsule. Same deal. But now, I can't even remotely connect to the Time Capsule at all. I can see the Time Capsule in the shared area of my Macbook's Finder but can not connect. The connection tries and fails even before it gets to asking me for username and password credentials.
Long story short, first of all, I suppose I would like to know if I'm asking for the impossible?
Second, if what I want to do *is* possible, what steps do I need to take to make it so?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions you might have.

Well, I have now reformatted/partitioned my poor WD Elements 2TB drive about a dozen times as well as restarted my 1TB Time Capsule so many times it's no wonder it's as confused as I am! <G>
Last night, at your suggestion, William, and in respect for your continued support, I tried creating two 1TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions on the WD external USB drive, both with GUID partition tables. Both volumes mounted to my laptop's desktop flawlessly and without issue.
Once the external drive was connected to the Time Capsule, however, it was a crap shoot as to whether or not the drive was recognized at all, reporting a problem with the disk, or, even at one point, mounting one of the two volumes but not both. <sigh>
I read somewhere on the Internet that you need to restart the Time Capsule for volumes on an external USB drive to be recognized.
So I tried that. I connected the freshly partitioned/formatted disk to the Time Capsule and restarted it. This succeed in removing the issue of reporting a nameless drive with a capacity of 0MB. It then reported the drive with its correct name but would not recognize whatever volumes in whatever partitions that particular crack at it contained with the exception of the once, as I mentioned above, when only one of two volumes mounted correctly and was listed with the right name and capacity on the Time Capusule's Setup's Disk tab.
At this point I have given up on my goal to use the external drive with Time Machine to back up my Macs or to hope I will ever be able to see its contents remotely via Back to My Mac. All I would like to do now is simply find a reason why I can't get it successfully connected and playing nice with my Time Capsule in the first place!
Any further suggestions or advice as to what steps I might take next would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.

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How can I use one external hard drive for both Time Machine and iPhoto Library?

I have been using a 1 TG LaCie external hard drive for Time Machine backups. My (older) Mac has 160 GB and is almost full. I would like to move my iPhoto Library to the external hard drive, but I've heard Time Machine doesn't share one space well. Should I
1. create another partition (but will this erase what I've already saved) with Disk Utility? *I am running Snow Leopard*
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3. leave it with one partition and move the iPhoto Library to the same partition with Time Machine back ups?
I know I don't need the entire 1 TG for back up of 160 GBs. Please advise the best path to take. Thank you!

You are getting incorrect information from your ASP. If you look at drive specifications the heat generated is no different for high vs low capacity drives.
I have upgraded the internal drive in my iMac 2007 with a 3TB Hitachi drive without any heat issues or other problems.
Larger hard drives have higher density platters so to access any given amount data the drives travel a shorter distance. Higher capacity drives should therefore run cooler than lower density drives because the drive spends less time spinning to access data.

Using a single external drive for both Time Machine AND for manual backups?

I'm new to Leopard and haven't launched Time Machine yet. I would like to use a single (500 GB) external hard drive to use with Time Machine, plus I would like to use whatever portion of this external drive Time Machine isn't using to keep some other files upon it as well--things that I can drag-and-drop manually and then trash from my computer's HD (avi files, etc., so that they don't take up space on the computer). Is there anything special I need to do with the external hard drive before I let Time Machine have its way with it, so that I can also do drag-and-drop manual file backups with it?

I’m not terribly knowledgeable, but I’ll tell you what seems to be working for me.
I also have a 500GB external drive which I had planned to use for TM for my MBP. I partitioned it (using Disk Utility) into two partitions. One I created nearly the same size as my MBP drive, the other I used for TM.
I used the smaller partition for a backup using SuperDuper prior to upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. Once I tested that I was able to boot from it and that all my programs seemed to work, I upgraded to Leopard and told it to use the other partition for TM.
It then created a TM icon for the other partition and, to the machine, it looks like a separate drive. I’ve seen no performance hit at all.
Just one man’s experience, though I haven’t yet tried to retrieve anything.
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Can I partition my external HD for both Time Machine and for basic disk use

I wanted to know if through Disk Utility I can partition my external HD so that I have about 400 gigs for TM and 100 gigs just for storage? Thank You in advance

Yes, you can. I did the same thing.
Also, by default Time Machine will not back up what you have on that extra partition. You can make it so that it does if needed (Would be a bit overkill if you did).
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1 is for Superduper (when it's Leopard compatible).
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The external drive must be connected to the Mac using either USB or FireWire
You must remove the external hard drive from the list of items that are "excluded" from backups in Time Machine Preferences.
Here's how:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Time Machine
Click Options
Look for the name of the hard drive in the list of "excluded" items and click on it to highlight it
Click the -- (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the hard drive from the list of "excluded" items....so it will now be backed up
Strongly recommend that you do the first backup using Ethenret from your computer to the Time Capsule since the entire contents of the external drive will be copied on the first pass. Ethernet will be 3-5 faster than wireless.
Once you have the first backup done, you can use wireless for subsequent backups since they will nornally be much smaller....unless you add large files to the external drive.

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External Drive Stolen with Time Machine Back Ups

Hello,
Sorry if this has been posted before. I scanned through a few pages of posts and didn't see anything.
My home was burglarized and they took my G5, Cinema Display and my 500GB external drive with my Time Machine backup data. My question is: How secure is the data on the external drive? Can the theif just plug in the drive and see all of the files or does TM password protected? My G5 was password protected to log in to it. Does that log in transfer to the TM files?
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DH

As Donald says, the data can be accessed.
Your backups are as secure (or insecure) as your Mac -- if someone steals either, they can get at your data fairly easily, if they know what they're doing, unless it's encrypted.
It is harder to get at Time Machine backups on an external drive, because Windoze can't read it; you'd have to use a Mac (running Leopard or Snow Leopard) to access it.
But most theft is not for your data; it's to resell the hardware.

Hi, I have a macbook pro with a new hard drive installed. My WD external drive backup on time machine now wont let me access the files. I get a prompt saying 'you do not have permission to access the files'

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See E-10 in the first link.
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Hi,
do you know if there is a way to use iCloud drive as a Time Machine drive. I mean, we can have more than one time machine drive, using iCloud Drive would be a nice option for off site backup no?
I Currently use Crashplan for that, but using iCloud drive would be better, as I'd have access to my stuff more easily than with crashplan's UI.
MAybe a third party services offers that?
What do you think guys?

Manusnake wrote:
Well I thought the same, but actually I did a new Time Machine backup a month ago via wifi (starting from scratch). About 700 GB of data. It was slower than Ethernet of course, but it worked without any issue.
You must have top-of-the-line WiFi hardware. How long did it take? I don't even remember how long it took for the initial Ethernet backup before my Time Capsule died. It was at least a day.
However I see your point for online backup. That'd require TM to be more gentle. To do one backup per day for example could be a solution (instead of one every hour).
Time Machine works best in small increments. I always advise against hacking the backup frequency. People who complain about Time Machine tend to have hacked it up. People who don't tend to have left it alone. Just sayin'.

I cannot get time machine (with airport) to back up my mac. It worked previously but not now. It is working on my macbook. the message i get is "Time Machine couldn't back up to '(airport network name)'"

I cannot get time machine (with airport) to back up my mac. It worked previously but not now. It is working on my macbook. the message i get is "Time Machine couldn't back up to '(airport network name)'" Any help is appreciated.

OS is important.. What OS is on Mac and what is on the working macbook?
Was the Airport setup from the Macbook? That might be why it works from there..
Does the AE show up in Mac airport utility?
Can you mount the disk in finder and copy files to it/from it??
Did you try a TM reset after mounting in Finder.. so you know it is available?
What about a network reboot.. does it work post a restart for a few minutes/hours/days???

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I have just purchased a new my book hard drive and would like to connect it to my time capsule and store my itunes and iphoto contentent there to free up space on my internal hard drive . Can this be done and what is the process?

I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

Using both Time Machine and External HD

Does it make sense to use both Time Machine for internal back up AND an external hard drive to move files to free up space?

colinlaunchpod
I want to be able to back up both the iMac & the 2TB My Book to the 3TB My Book, and back up only the iMac to the Time Capsule (due to limitations of space on the Time Capsule. I can't find a way to do this.
Huge mistake, thats making a single choke point of failure, very very bad idea.
its all about redundancy, see here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

Can I use the same external hd for time machine and storage without partitioning it?

Hello,
I have been using an external hard drive for my Time Machine that was only used for this purpose.
I downloaded some files in it that I want to use, and I haven't backed up using Time Machine since.
Can I download the files on my MacBook from the HD without running into any problems, or is there anything else I should do?
I prefer not to partition the hd, since I will be deleting these files, or transferring them to a different HD, and using this HD only for Time Machine back ups, as I did previously.
** I am not sure if this changes anything, but I just updated from Snow Leopard to Lion.
Thank you so much

carolsm wrote:
Thanks Kappy, I will do that.
I just really needed these files and had no other hard drive to store them.
Do you think that it will be okay just this one time if I download the files on my MacBook without compromising my backups?
I will transfer them to a new hard drive, and erase them from my Time Machine external hard drive.
For the time being it will be fine. There is always a chance of a disc crashing and therefore not advisable practice. Some here run seperate drives with Time Machine, Cloned backup and file backup. I have a portable drive I keep Time Machine backups and file backups on. I am running that at my own risk, but no problems over the last couple of years. Just make sure I get it to my normal TM Backup disk as soon as I get home. Backing up those other files will not compromise your Time Machine backups as you asked.
Cheers
Pete

Time Capsule both: Time machine and file server

Hi!
We have 3 macs that has access to a Time Capsule we use just as a file server.
Now, I'll like to do backups of all the data, and I was thinking about using Time Machine in all the computers to backup in Time Capsule.
My question is, can I use Time Capsule as both? With Time Machine and also as a file server?
Thanks,
Júlia

Time Machine can be used to backup your Macs to the Time Capsule. You set this up on each Mac by opening System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock and then opening Time Machine to select the Time Capsule as the destination for backups.
Time Machine will keep separate files for each Mac on the Time Capsule and your regular files on the TC will be left alone. Ideally, Time Machine needs about twice as much space for each Mac to allow for a good history of future backups.
Backup each Mac one at a time since the first backup will copy everything from the Mac over.
Things will go 3-5 times faster if you connect the Mac to the Time Capsule using an Ethernet cable for this procedure.
Once the "master" backup is completed for each, you can switch back to wireless to backup incremental changes since these will only take a few minutes on average.
As you know, Time Machine cannot be used to backup the regular files that you already have on the Time Capsule disk. If you need to backup these files, post back for a few suggestions on applications that can handle this task.

Weird external drive behavior with Time Machine....

I have a 500 GB WD My Essentials USB hard drive. I've been using on Lion for 6+ months. I have the drive in 2 partitions, 400 GB for Time Machine and 100 GB for storage. Everything has been working fine for 6+ months. As of yeterday when I plug in my WD drive, the storage partition will mount on the desktop but the 400 GB Time Machine partition will not. The TM partion does show in the disk utility but cannot be repaired. I'm wondering why the problem is only with the Time Machine partition.
Any ideas?

Oh, the drive will not "eject" properly either. When I try to eject it the storage partion turns light in color but it still shows on the desktop and is still listed in the Finder side menu (but you can't access or see the actual drive).

Use external drive for both Time Machine and storage for Back to My Mac

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