Using a disk already in use for Time Machine before

Hi,
I was using an external drive less than a week ago with Time Machine (OS X Mavericks). A few days ago, I upgraded to Yosemite, but decided to return to Mavericks not long after. To do that, I had to erase my hard drive, so that now the external drive I was using is no longer recognized as such by Time Machine...
I want to continue using this same external drive without erasing my old backups. Is it possible? Will my previous backups be kept unaltered if I press "Use this external drive for Time Machine"?
Thanks,
Melian1

Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

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I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

There has never been a reliable firewire ---> USB adapter suitable for external high speed storage. This was a major issue when the MacBooks lost the firewire port a number of years ago (Apple subsequently brought it back).
The only high speed port on the Air is the ThunderBolt port. There are external ThunderBolt drive options out there, but they're somewhat more expensive than traditional USB/FireWire options.

How to reinitialize an external hard disk drive which serves for Time Machine?

How to reinitialize an external hard disk drive which serves for Time Machine?
Thanks for your answer.

Everything you need to know about initializing (formatting) is here.
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html
Lots of useful information on TM is here in the same place.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

Can I use the same external hard drive for time machine and storing other files

I have a 640GB external hard drive that I have been using for over a year for time machine backups. My mac hard drive is now starting to fill up and I am looking to move audio, video and picture files to my external hard drive. How do I do this without messing up my time machine backups? Can I do both on the same external hard drive? Do I just make new folders on the external hard drive to move the files I want? Thanks for the help.

If you move the files you will need to get another disk to back the files up to. You don't want to have only one copy of certain files (personal, professional etc.).

Can you use the same external hard drive for Time Machine backups and as an additional storage drive?

I have an external HD that I've been using exclusively for Time Machine backups. I need to clear space on my hard drive, so I was thinking to move music & photos to an external drive. Wondering if I can use the same one I have (which I'll aslo keep using for Time Machine) or if I need to get another drive.

Hi Jossydtaylor,
Time Machine can use either an entire external disk or a partition of that disk:
OS X Mountain Lion: Disks you can use with Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11171
You can use Time Machine with a Time Capsule, and with USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt disks. The backup disk can be directly connected to your computer or be on a network. If the backup disk has been divided into partitions, you can use one of the partitions.
If the disk is partitioned using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition type, some partitions may not be available for use with Time Machine. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition type is recommended.
For more info on partitioning, see this article:
Disk Utility 12.x: Partition a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5845
Cheers!
- Ari

I want to use my 1TB Seagate Hard drive for time machine and transferring files from Mac to PC.

For about a year I've been using my 1TB external hard drive for only time machine. To be honest, it wasn't until today that I tried to connect my hard drive to a PC and realize it isn't compatible. I read about partitioning the hard drive so that it can work both for time machine and transferring files between pc and mac. I'm not what you would call tech savvy, so I was wondering if I can get some advice on how to do this.
Thanks in advance.

To do it, you have to partition the hard disk, so you will have one partition for Time Machine and another one to store files and use them in a PC and Mac. To create the partition, follow these steps > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html
In order to read and write in the external disk on the PC, you have to select "MS-DOS (FAT)" as "Format". If you choose any other option, the PC won't be able to read your external disk. Apart from that, note that you can't use files bigger than 4 GB with FAT. If you want to use the external disk with files bigger than 4 GB, you have to format your new partition in exFAT, and you have to do it on a PC

If I don't want to use my Seagate hard drive anymore for Time Machine...How do I go about this?

I want to use the external hard drive still, but not as my back up disk for Time Machine anymore. How do I make it so that my Macbook doesn't associate this specific external hard drive with TM when I plug it in?
Thanks

chenango232 wrote:
Missing a pretty big step here.... How does one install a new OS on an external drive? You can't install an OS without first booting into an OS. I don't have a disk to boot to, but have gotten as far as downloading the install software. Perhaps the answer you should be providing is that I need to create an install disk somehow?
Is not the current HDD in your MBP a boot drive? If so and you have Yosemite installed, you can boot into the recovery partition. From the 4 option menu you can use Disk Utility. If you have the NEW HDD connected to the MBP it will appear in Disk Utility. Click on that drive to format in Disk Utility>Erase. After formatting, go to the 'Reinstall OSX' option and install the OSX onto the external HDD. When finished swap the drives.
Ciao

Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine

Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine

Yes, if the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
The USB port on the Time Capsule is under powered, so you may need use a powered USB hub with the 4 TB drive...even if it has its own power supply.

Is it not recommended to use a partitioned external hard drive for time machine?

1. i hv a 1 tb seagate back up plus hard disc ..,,i want to make partitions for using it for time machine, mac, and window repectively . is it not recommended to use a partitioned drive for time machine? some where i have red that time machine wont be able to restore data from external partioned hard drive in case internal hard drive crashes.
2. if i use the seagate back up plus 1tb for mac only and use time machine to take backup (roughly 250 GB) , then the rest space i cant use to transfer movies, pictures from a PC
3. how should i best use the seagate back up plus hard drive (not seagate back up plus for mac) in a way that i use it for back up , and to work with both mac and PC?

I use a partitioned external drive for Time Machine as well as other things.
How you partition it is a function of yoru needs.
Barry

How much Minimum Disk Space is Required for Time Machine?

Are there any recommendations from Apple for the size of external hard drive for Time Machine?
Also, is there any formula for the amount of hard drive space = how any days, months, or years of backup available?
Sorry about the poorly worded question.

Size of HD = IBS + [30*DCD + 487*DCD]NM
or
Size of HD = IBS + 365NMDCD
where
IBS = Initial Backup Size (GBs)
NM = Number of Months wanted before HD fills
DCD = Daily Churn Data in GBs
So lets say
IBS=160 GB
NM=24 (2 years wanted before having to worry about disk full)
DCD=0.05 GB of daily churned data on average (50 MB of changed and new data)
Size of HD = 160 + 365240.05 = 598 GB
If you wanted just NM = 12 then the HD size should be around 350 to 400 GB
Much depends on how many months you want to go before being bothered with disk full and how much average daily data churn you have.
Note that TM will make much effort to clean up old data that can be safely deleted before giving up when disk becomes full. It will also provide you with the opportunity to clean up old backups yourself to free up space.
Of course you can always re-format the TM backup HD and start over again but you obviously lose your TM backup history. You can also to decide you can delete the oldest 6 months of data and keep the more recent history to continue on with thr freed up disk space.

Can I use iPod as a backup device for Time Machine?

I have tried to set up Time Machine using my iPod as the storage device without success. When I tried to set up Time Machine it would not recognize the iPod as a valid storage device. Can anyone tell we why this is not allowed or am I doing something wrong.
Thanks. All answers welcomed.

I don't know if it is allowed or what you are doing wrong but I can tell you why it would be a bad idea. The iPod hard disk only runs briefly to load data off into flash ram and then stops. The music you hear is being played from flash ram. Time Machine use would be a lot more intensive than this. This causes two problems:
(1) I have read that iPod drives are rated for a life of 20,000 hours versus 750,000 for a desktop drive but worse is
(2) The iPod is only designed to dissipate the heat created by these short bursts of use. If you run it more than this you risk doing some damage due to overheating.
I installed Mac OS X on my iPod once to see if I could. It worked but it also got very hot.
I thought there was a technote on this but I can't find it.
Michael

Can I use a PC's hard drive for Time Machine?

I have upgraded my Apple iBook G4 to Mac OS X Leopard and want to take full advantage of all the applications on the OS. I am wondering if it is possible to use a Microsoft Windows PC's hard drive as the medium upon which Time Machine can use to back up my data. I know that external hard drives will work with Time Machine and so will wireless hard drives, such as Time Capsule.
So, would it work if I was to:
1 - Partition the existing C drive in my PC
2 - Share this partitioned C drive on the Network (my PC has wireless card in-built)
3 - Set up Time Machine to recognise this hard disk as a medium which it can use to back up my data
Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, but if there is a chance I can use a PC's hard drive, especially when the existing PC is hardly ever used, as something which Time Machine can use, then it would make sense to use that then spend money on an external or wireless hard drive.

No. This is not possible on the PC drive without wiping the drive.
Requirements to use Time Machine
Time Machine is only available with Leopard (10.5.x)
1. External FireWire or USB 2.0 drive
2. Time Capsule
3. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 or later using File Sharing
4. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 Server
5. SAN volume managed by Apple's Xsan file system
A TM drive must be partitioned with either APM (PPC) or GUID (Intel) and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

I have been using my usb as my backup for time machine and now I want to unlock it and use it as a normal usb. How can I do this?

I am having trouble switching my usb from a backup for my time machine to a normal usb for my files.

Have you reformatted the drive?
Just go to Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities folder), select the drive and erase it, formatting it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a single GUID partition. You may want to change the name of the drive when you erase it.
Have you tried that?
Clinton

External Hard disk has space problem for Time Machine

Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in. I have a bout 300Gb to back up. Currently my mac can only see 260GB free, which means theres about 150GB that isnt explained. I have run Disk Inventory, which shows the dot files on the drive. There seem to be hardly any. Is there anything else that could be taking up such a large amount of disk space? Theres one movie file of 28GB that I cannot move off the drive.

Tim Whelan2 wrote:
Im not sure this is the right place to post this, but I've just got OSX.5 so Time Machine is new to me. I've got a 500Gb Firewire Lacie Drive which I now have, as far as I can see, about 110GB of stuff in.
Let's see what Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) says. When it starts, click the top line for your drive in the sidebar (should have size and make), then the Partition tab. Towards the bottom is a *Total Capacity* line, followed by two different numbers: one in GB, the other in bytes. The first will be about 465 GB, the second roughly 500 billion. This is the different way of counting: decimal vs. binary.
There's also a *Partition Map Scheme* line. This should be followed by GUID or +Apple Partition Map.+ If your drive isn't one of those, you're going to have a problem using it with Time Machine. Report back what this says.
In the center part of the display is a diagram showing all the partitions currently on the disk. Each is represented by a box, with a name in the center, and the amount used represented by light blue shading.
If there's only one partition, it's total size and amount available will be in the center, shown in GB.
If there are 2 or more, click each one in turn to see it's sizes. The Total of the sizes should be almost the same as the total at the bottom (the Partition Map takes a bit of space).
It sounds like you may have 2 partitions, one for TM backups, one for your "other stuff". If so, each partition is treated separately for most purposes: there should be two icons on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar, for example.
Report back what you find, and whether it makes sense to you or not. Then we can figure out what's going on and what you need to do.
But note this: This drive is a bit small to use with Time Machine. TM works best if it has 2-3 times the space of what it's backing-up, so it can keep a few months of your backups. See item #1 of the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum.
Even if you could use the entire 465 GB or so, that's less than twice the 300 gb you want to back up. That would work, for a while, but depending on how you use your Mac, TM may not be able to keep your backups for very long.

I am setting up a time machine backup to a external Hard drive. I want to backup by Mac book Pro running OSX 10.8.5. I would like to Partition the disk and use one partition for Time machine backups and the other for my Lightroom backups. How to do this?

I want to create a two partition disk. One partition for time machine, the other for Lightroom backup. Currently Time Machine is using the entire drive and it is doing the intial encryption and is about 29% complete after two days. I've decided that I want to turn encryption off and partition the disk. So I do I start over?

With the external drive attached, open Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. Select the external drive from the list in the left side panel of the DU window. In the main window panel, click Partition in the buttons top center of that panel.
Select the number of partitions you want and adjust their sizes.
For the first partition, click to highlight the partition, then select the format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then the partition table as GUID [both of those are the defaults]. Click Apply and it will ask to confirm and erase and format that partion...oh, give the partition a name, like Backup.
Then repeat those steps for the second partition..and remember to name it...something like Lightroom.
Close Disk Utilitty and you are ready to send TM to the one partition, and do your backup of Lightroom to the second partition.

Using a disk already in use for Time Machine before

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