Use Time Machine HD as regular external HD?

Is it possible to convert the backups.backupdb folder on an external HD I've been using for Time Machine into a regular folder? Or to otherwise move around and delete files within the backups.backupdb folder on the Time Machine HD?
My old Macbook Pro was stolen and I got a new MacBook Air. I had full Time Machine backups of my MacBook Pro on an external HD. I restored the majority of the data to my new Air, but I want to leave my iTunes music on the external HD in a separate folder or partition. Unfortunately, to do this, I need to move (rather than copy) the Music folder. I can't seem to move folders around on the HD; instead, I get a message saying "The operation cannot be completed because backup items cannot be modified." I've seen a few solutions but they haven't seemed to work--I tried something in Terminal, logging in as a root user, etc. Note that I cannot enter Time Machine to turn off backups for the Music folder, because the Music folder that was being backed up was on the stolen computer.
Any ideas? Thanks so much!
Yotam

It looks like this is along the lines of what I need to do: http://pondini.org/TM/E10.html. Unfortunately, the Music folder is far too large to copy onto my Air HD or external HD (which is almost full). That's why I wanted to simply move it out of the backups.backupdb folder using Finder rather than use the Time Machine restore function to restore onto the same HD. Does that make sense? I don't know if this is possible; people elsewhere in these forums seem skeptical of this kind of move.

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I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

I got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does someone has a fix???

i got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does anybody has a fix???

Does your external hard drive have it's own power supply? It should.
Is your external hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system? It won't work.
It needs to be formatted either with Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
(There are drivers available to add NTFS support to OS X but their quality is unknown, especially the "free" ones.)

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Yes, that's correct. TM will not backup a laptop while it's operating only on battery unless you upgrade to 10.5.3. This latest version provides a TM option to run backups when the computer is on battery power.
It's inadvisable to run a backup while on battery power because if the battery goes dead your backup could become corrupted. At the very least files may not get backed up as expected.

Beginner's question: Using Time Machine with a WD External Drive

Hello folks,
Could someone help me with some basic questions?
I have a MacBook with Mac OSX 10.5.5. It has Time Machine but I've never used it before. I've just obtained a Western Digital External Hard Drive which is Mac compatible but, I'm told, may not be formatted for Mac.
1. If that's the case, how do I format it for Mac so that I can use it with my MacBook? Or can I just plug-and-play?
2. Once ready to use, I'd like to use the external drive for two purposes: (a) to create back-up images of my entire computer using Time Machine, and (b) as a second drive where I can just drag-and-drop selected files when needed (e.g. so that I can put photos in a photo folder on my external instead of on my MacBook hard drive). Will my MacBook let me do this, or will using Time Machine effectively reserve the entire external hard drive for Time Machine and not allow my to drag-and-drop files?
Thanks! And Happy New Year!

Question 1:
1. Launch Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utility folder.
2. Click the "erase" tab
3. Select your entire WD disk on the sidebar (the uppermost icon).
4. Format: "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
5. Name the Disk
6. Click on "erase"
Question 2:
What is the size of your drive? If it is large enough you can partition it but Time Machine backup will "grow". So if it's important to you to save all backups you'll want to give it the whole disk. If not, you can partition the disk at the same time you format it.
Follow the steps here. It will accomplish both Q1 & Q2.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

Using Time Machine to Backup an External Drive (RAID 1)

Is it possible to backup an external drive to another external drive using Time Machine in Mountain Lion?
The following diagram describes what I want to do. I am basically trying to use Time Machine as an external RAID 1 system. However, I don't want to buy a RAID 1 box. I want to have control of TWO OR MORE time machine setups. I don't want to backup my OS every time. I simply want to backup one external drive to another external drive. The drives are 2TB each, so the advice to buy a big hard drive to back everything up on won't work. Also, I am often swapping drives and would like to use this system for all of my projects and all of my drives. Any help would be great. Thanks for your time.
NOTE: I am on Lion and wanted to know if this was possible before upgrading.

To be clear, TM can back up your external drive perfectly well, provided it's in MacOS format. What it can't do is back up the external drive alone to one destination, and everything else to a different destination.
As for what you should use instead of TM, I don't really have an opinion. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are well regarded. You need to make some decisions about backup strategy before you choose a backup method. TM makes incremental backups, so you can revert to any of several earlier versions of a file. Those third-party products can do that too, though not as efficiently as TM. Also bear in my mind that a single backup is inadequate. You need more than one backup to be safe, and to be truly safe, at least one backup must be stored off-site at all times.

Using time machine as backup AND external hard drive?

So I got the Time Machine so I could use it as a wireless external hard drive. Thought my computer just crashed and realized i realllly need a backup.... is there any way that I could back up my computer on it WITHOUT erasing my 100,000's of photos on the time capsule? Please be POSITIVE they wont erase.
Thanks
Ben Yorke

BenYorke wrote:
Sorry - forgot about this question.
My hard drive is about full. Its full of photoshop and rosetta stone stuff and I just would rather not loose it all if my computer were to crash (think 140GB).
As posted earlier, your best bet for that is a larger internal HD.
I just want one backup, maybe one that automatically backs itself up ever month/week and REPLACES the old one. Not looking for the time machine to work as it normally does, saving every backup it can. Looking to use the time CAPSULE as a backup, to save one copy at a time. Although not necessary, it would be nice to have it automatically REPLACE that ONE copy.
If you're going to have a backup of your system, you might as well use Time Machine. It's most recent backup is, in effect, a full backup of everything. If you let it do it's hourly backups, you'll never lose more than an hour of data.
You might want to review these:
What is Time Machine?
Time Machine Tutorial
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
Yes, there are other backup apps; many won't back up to a network drive (such as a Time Capsule).
See Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.

HT201250 can I back up two different Macs using time machine to the same external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro and a Intel Power Mac Tower. The Power Mac is backed up to a 4 TB external hard drive using Time Machine. Can I also back up the MacBook Pro to the same 4TB hard drive using its time machine without altering any of the Power Macs backed up files on the 4TB hard drive?
Ed

Yes, as long as the backup drive is large enough.

Backup multiple computers using Time machine to a single external drive

Is it possible to backup multiple computers to a single external drive connected to an Xserve using Time machine? We have a Six TB external drive that we are connecting to an Xserve that has three drives. We want to backup the entire

Set the drive as a network share in the File Sharing section of System Preferences on the Xserve it is connected to and see if Time Capsule on the other machines can see it. If so, it should work. If you don't want the whole drive as a network share create a folder for backups on it and set that folder as a network share.

How do I Use Time Machine to back up external HD

I have an iMac running Snow Leopard (10.6.7). I have a 1 TB USB external hard drive directly connected to the iMac that I use to store about 300 GB of pictures and videos (I will call this one AUX). I have another 1 TB USB external hard drive (I will call this one BACKUP) that is also directly connected to the iMac. I am using this one with Time Machine to back up my iMac hard drive. All connections are direct USB, no WiFi. Both external drives are formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Time Machine works fine with the iMac hard drive but will not back up the AUX external drive. The Time Machine system preferences window has an "Exclude these items from backups" display that shows only the BACKUP external drive (grey so not selectable). It does not seem to see the AUX hard drive. How can I get it to back up AUX???

Uhh, well, I guess I have to qualify my question above. Upon using a third party file search program, I find that the contents of my AUX external drive are being backed up by Time Machine. But, when I use Spotlight to search my Time Machine backup HD, I get nothing, which is why I thought it was not working right.
So, why is Spotlight not giving me results on my Time Machine BACKUP external drive???

How do I use time machine to backup to external drive on other machine on network

I have 2 x McPros, 2 x iMacs and 2 x MacBook Pro all integrated in the same home network. I have a DroboPro Network which can only be recognised as a Shared device by one MacPro only. There are 2 DroboPro 8 Bay RAID devices attached via Firewire to one MacPro.
With Mavericks how can I ensure that
a. The networked Drobo can be seen by all computers as a shared device (it is connected via Ethernet to central Gigabit switch)
b. That, failing the networked Drobo sharing, how can I ensure all computers on network will always have access for Time Machine backups using the DroboPro attached via Firewire to the one MacPro.
Many thanks, it's probably right under my nose.
Darrin

Time Machine will only back up internal and directly connected external drives. It will not back up a network attached storage device. You'll have to use some other software to back up the NAS.

I'm currently backing up using Time Machine and a Seagate external hard drive, how to do I restore on a new computer?

I hate to say it.. But I have never backed up!! I have thousands of pics of my son on this mac book, it got wet and NOW I'm backing up (as i type) to a Seagate external hard drive- I plugged it in, and then Time MAchine launched automatically. It looks like it's backing up my whole computer, is it backing up everything? photos, address book, documents etc? If my computer crashes tomorrow, how would I restore all of this information on a new computer?
Help, I'm computer iliterate- hence the reason I got a Mac (so easy to use). I need reasurance that it will back up! How do I continue to back up? Leave the external hard drive plugged in? I'm telling you I'm below the knowledge of "Backing Up a Mac for Dummies"

Time Machine makes a backup of the whole OS.X volume automatically, so you will have an exact copy of your hard disk in your Time Machine external disk. Also, Time Machine will make backups every hour, always that your Time Machine disk is connected. If you want more information, visit this site > http://pondini.org
To restore this in a new Mac, you have to use Migration Assistant. Just connect the Time Machine drive into the new computer, open Migration Assistant (it's in /Applications/Utilities) and follow the steps. You will be able to select what you want to transfer.
Also, if you have a brand-new Mac, you can do this during the initial setup. Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the Time Machine disk and follow the steps

Using Time Machine to Restore Failed External Drive to New Drive

I have Time Machine backing up my Mini's HDD as well as an external drive I use for DATA (I've removed this disk from the "exclude" list in the Time Machine "Options" menu).
Both of these drives are being backed up to a third external drive dedicated for BACKUP.
(I'll refer to them by the capital names now...)
If the DATA drive fails, and I replace it with a new external drive (NEW_DATA), how do I restore the data from DATA onto NEW_DATA from BACKUP? I can't invoke time machine on the new drive.
I've read older articles with differing conclusions that I need to make sure NEW_DATA has the same mounted name as DATA, but this doesn't appear to work.
I've also read Carbon Copy is the only way to do this, is this true?
My drives have not failed, so I being proactive, but I just wanted to plan for this (Carbon Copy or Time Machine)

You can have TM place a menu item on the menubar - if you do this you'll see the icon animate as TM works and looking under that item will show you the last time TM backed up successfully. Unless you change the settings with a third party utility or by manually editing the plist, TM backs up every hour and it will back up every folder/drive you selected.

How do i reformat a time machine drive to regular external drive

i have an external hard drive that i used for time machine. how do i reformat it so it goes back to it's original setting and i can use it for transferring and storing files?
also, is there a way i could partition an external hard drive so that maybe half is used for time machine and the other half is used for transferring files and such?

1. Format, Erase, or Reformat a drive

HT201250 How can I restore files using Time Machine to a new external drive?

I need to restore all the files on a failed hard drive—upwards of a terabyte of data. How can I instruct Time Machine to copy the files to a new external hard drive? Thanks!

Hold down the option key and select
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. The menu icon looks like a clock running backwards. If you don't have that menu, open the Time Machine preference pane and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Use Time Machine HD as regular external HD?

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