Using external back up drive

Is there an app that allows me to use my existing seagate freeagent 1 TB external harddrive as a backup I can sync with?
Thanks for any suggestions!
J

sync with in what regard, what use.
You can use same as a time machine backup, or an external data archive, etc.
you can have it connected to the back of the NEWEST airport extreme as TM backup.
More specifics needed.
You can use your hard drive as a backup or archive in many ways as mentioned here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

Similar Messages

Macbook pro OS 10.7.5, what is the best external back up drive to use with it?

Hi
I have a Macbook pro OS 10.7.5 and am looking for an external back up drive. What external back up drives do people recommend?

T4444 wrote:
Hi
I have a Macbook pro OS 10.7.5 and am looking for an external back up drive. What external back up drives do people recommend?
We don't know which MBP you have so start by establishing what ports you have on the MBP that you can connect an external drive to. It'll have USB ports, but if they're USB 2.0, a full, bootable backup could take a very long time. If it's USB 3.0, backups can go a lot quicker. The USB external HD's are common and relatively inexpensive. If you have a Thunderbolt port, that's very fast but the externals compatible with it tend to be more expensive.
If it's just USB 2.0 and Firewire, Firewire is faster but is being phased out. USB 2.0 is backward compatible with USB 3.0 so when you upgrade to a newer MBP, a USB 3.0 external can plug right in.
Also, unless the external must be really portable, look for one that has a separate power source rather than drawing power from the connection to the Mac, since some externals need more power than the Mac is able or willing to supply.

How do I get iTunes songs which were downloaded from external back-up drive to play on new computer and is there a way to get my play lists back?

When I try to play a song from my re-installed iTunes library, I get the error message: "Song xxx could not be played because original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" > "Locate" or "Cancel." When I click on "Locate" I can't figure out how to get the song to play from any of the places that were "located." The path is C:\users\Janet\libraries\music\iTunes
However, iTunes songs chosen from my library will play in iTunes (current version) when I have the external back-up drive plugged in! I recently copied my backed-up iTunes library from my external back-up drive to a new computer.
Most of the songs, but not all, magically appear in Windows Media Player and I can play those just fine.
I can see my iTunes library in the newest version of iTunes, recently downloaded to new computer, but can't play songs without connecting to the external back-up drive - so maybe there is something else on that external drive that needs to be on my C: drive?
I am using an HP Pavillion Notebook, Windows 7, 64-bit. My previous computer was Windows Vista. Before Vista, I had XP.
Back when I had XP, I wanted to purchase some songs to download to my computer. Because iTunes had the ability, I used it to create a massive library of songs, most of which were ripped from my CDs. I don't have an iPod and iTunes worked fine for creating playlists and then burning them to CDs.
Also, I'd like to know if there is a way to get back my playlists.
And another thing - in the older version of iTunes, there was a folder in the lists on the left-hand side of the screen where I could click to see all the songs I had purchased. I'd like to get that ability back if possible.
In hindsight, iTunes was probably not the best choice for me to build my music library in a Windows operating system, but it seemed to be the best choice at the time. I really wish I could convert all the songs to mp3 format.
I have been working with computers since the days of DOS, black and white screens, and no mice. The first computer I bought for my own use at home was a Mac and it had "Flying Toasters" as a screensaver. (I miss that screensaver.) It did not have a tower and I believe they called it a laptop, even though the thing was as big as a suitcase and probably weighed around 30 pounds. However, I am by no means a computer expert. In other words, pretend you're trying to tell your mother how to do what I am asking. =)
Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

I copied the iTunes file from the external drive and it's in both places. I thought all I would need is the iTunes program (which I downloaded to new computer) and my iTunes library file. There must be something else that's missing. My iTunes library looks the same on the new computer as it does when I open it on the external drive. If I click on an iTunes library song from my new computer, it will only play if I have the external drive plugged in.
My back-up drive is a mess. I have multiple copies of music, video, photo, and document files and I don't know how that happened. ={ Obviously, I don't know how to back up stuff properly and there are back-up files extending over a 6- to 8-year period. I think all I did was just drag and drop the main folders from the back-up drive to the same main folders on the C: drive. Also (and I'm kind of fuzzy on this) Windows used to automatically save music files in a folder within my document files (which makes no sense to me). As my Jewish friends would say, "Oy Vey!"

How to remove hard drive to create external back-up drive

All,
I have an old Powerbook G4 that has seen better days... I'd like to take the hard drive out of it an make myself an external back up drive.
Has anyone done this?
Lindsay

That should function just fine, with one possible exception. Some very old 2.5" HD's were up to 12.5mm tall (and now at least one of the newest high capacity/300GB drives is over 10, but you don't have to worry about that in your case), and as the specs for this particular case state, it can accept a max height of 10mm. I don't know if Apple ever used 12mm drives in TiBooks, but I don't think so. Even my older Pismo HD is 9 or 9.5mm.
And from your OP, it sounds like you're retiring the TiBook and using its HD as backup for your new MB, which has USB2, so as you say, speed shouldn't be a concern in that situation.

HT201250 Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button. No drive is found. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past. I'm on the latest version of Snow Leopard. Thank you!

Time Machine cannot find my external back-up drive when I click on the "select disk" button. No drive is listed. I have run a Time Machine back-up to this external drive in the past. Any suggestions

Does the disk appear in Disk Utility?

Back-up to an external Back-up drive

Thanks for your helpful questions and posts. I'm trying to backup my IPod to an external back-up hard drive. I cannot change the option from back up to CD or DVD. Has anyone completed a back-up to an external back up hard drive? My external back-up drive is a Western Digital external Hardrive. Thanks for your help.

In the Advanced section of the iTunes preferences, set the music library's location to the internal drive, consolidate the library, and then copy the music folder over outside of iTunes. If there isn't enough space on the internal drive to store the library, the external drive needs to be plugged in.
(29630)

What external back up drive should I get?

I have a 2010 27" i7 iMac with the 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD. My current back up drive is maxed out because its only a tiny 500GB, so I need to buy a new one that will accommodate my machines drives.
I am confused on two points.
1. How big of a drive should I buy?
-I have been thinking of getting a 3TB, but I'm not sure if this is big enough. I've also though about getting a 2TB and adding on when I need it.
2. What Back-up system should I use?
-I am using Time Machine currently, but I know that is not a true bootable back up and I would like to use Super Duper in addtion to Time Machine on the same external drive if possible.
I would appreciate any advice on what set up I should get. If you can comment with your back up configuration I would appreciate it as well!
Thanks!

1. How big of a drive should I buy?
-I have been thinking of getting a 3TB, but I'm not sure if this is big enough. I've also though about getting a 2TB and adding on when I need it.
2. What Back-up system should I use?
-I am using Time Machine currently, but I know that is not a true bootable back up and I would like to use Super Duper in addtion to Time Machine on the same external drive if possible.
I would appreciate any advice on what set up I should get. If you can comment with your back up configuration I would appreciate it as well!
Thanks!
For Time Machine you should get as large as you can afford because it will eventually fill. The brands and models I recommend are:
OWC (macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro series
Lacie Quadra D2 series
G-Tech G series
all have similar functions and are all very high quality.
For your second question many on this forum (including myself) use a redundant backup strategy. My strategy is to use Time Machine and also to create a Bootable Clone using SuperDuper (CCC will work just as well). However NEVER NEVER NEVER put both backups on the same drive even if it has enough space. The reason being is very simple if that drive crashes you have lost both backups and defeated the whole purpose of a backup! There are numerous backup strategies available depending on your needs, fear factor and budget. I would recommend reading these MacWorld articles where they talk about different strategies. I think you will see a common theme in them though.
Backup Plan I
Backup Plan II
Backup Plan III
Roger

Problems Installing Win7 using External, USB DVD Drive

I have a mid 2010 15" i7 MBP which I upgraded to from 4GB to 8GB RAM courtesy of OWC. I recently upgraded the 500GB 7200RPM HD with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 and using an OWC Data Doubler, I replaced the DVD SuperDrive with the 500GB Hard Drive.
I used an External USB DVD Drive to install OS X SL On the SSD without issues. Also, I got all my updates and software installed and working without any problems.
I've been running great for about 2 weeks now, so I decided to install Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I ran Boot Camp Assistant and partitioned the 240GB SSD in half 120/120. Everything went fine with creating the partition. I selected to Install from the Win 7 DVD media in the USB DVD drive and rebooted. I got a grey screen. I turned the computer off and turned it back on. Holding down Option, I selected the Install DVD from the Boot Menu. I then got a screen with the Apple Logo flashing intermittently with a Circle/Cross Hatch. So I can't get the Windows Install to start to save my life. I know the External, USB DVD works since I used it to install OS X and I have no problems using it in OS X. I Know the media works because I tried a test install, without activation in a VMWare Fusion VM.
Any suggestions are appreciated?

So here is the answer. The Firmware on the MacBook Pro only supports installation of OS X from External Media and will not install operating systems from 3rd Parties. I tried to install Windows XP, Win7 Ultimate 32 & 64bit, and Ubuntu 11.04 but no success.
Supposedly, the MacBook Air does support installation of 3rd party operating systems from external media, but I have no way to confirm this.
I ended up reinstalling the internal DVD drive installing Win 7 and Ubuntu on the SSD. Using rEFI, I'm able to triple boot all 3 operating systems. Then removed the drive again and reinstalled the 2nd HD. Everything seems to be working fine.
I'm looking for someone who has experience in Mac EFI Hacking to see if there is a way to enable booting 3rd Party OSes from external media. I'm guessing someone could examine the MBA firmware and figure out how to hack that capability into the MBP.

[SOLVED] Kernel panic when using external USB hard drive

I have a desktop PC with a 64 bit arch install, on a Core2 Duo 6320 CPU. I have been using (and continue using right now) a 500 GB "Iomega Desktop Hard Drive" external USB hard disk without problems. But I have just bought a 3 TB "Seagate Expansion" external USB hard drive and I'm unable to use it from my Arch install. Each time I try to format it or to copy data from the PC, Arch freezes with a kernel panic. Sometimes it freezes faster and I cannot see anything, but others I am able to see the following kernel messages, repeating several times:
[11701.205071] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13380 tag 29, inflight: CMD
[11701.221297] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.221313] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.221323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13500 tag 30, inflight: CMD
[11701.237550] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.237567] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.237576] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] uas_eh_abort_handler ffff880014e13680 tag 31, inflight: CMD
[11701.253922] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] abort completed
[11701.253936] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: ABORT TASK failed (wrong tag 0/256)
[11701.253956] sd 3:0:0:0: uas_eh_device_reset_handler
[11704.252182] scsi host3: uas_eh_task_mgmt: LOGICAL UNIT RESET timed out
[11704.252196] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler start
[11704.252443] usb 5-6: stat urb: killed, stream 0
[11704.358882] usb 5-6: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci-pci
[11704.483206] scsi host3: uas_eh_bus_reset_handler success
Strange enough, the drive is listed by lsusb command as a 2TB but I don't think this is related to the problem (as the OS sees the 3 TB). This is the lsusb output:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bc2:3312 Seagate RSS LLC SRD00F2 [Expansion Desktop Drive 2TB]
I have tried the drive on other PCs and it works flawlessly. Also tried booting Windows 8 on the same PC I have Arch installed in, and in Windows it also works perfect. I have tried using ext2 and NTFS filesystems. Tried also changing the USB cable without success. And right now I'm out of ideas. Any suggestions?
Last edited by doragasu (2014-07-03 11:06:25)

looks like it could be the UAS module , check https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=183190

Using External CD Rom drive to import music from CD to Itune

I have itunes 6.0 on an XP laptop, and an external TDK DVD/CDrom drive. Itunes imports music from CDs when I use the drive on the laptop, however, only imports links (seem like URL links) when I use the external drive to import music from a CD into a playlist.
I am trying to use the external CD rom drive for importing music into Itunes, but there seems to be a problem, or I have not checked some box or the other. Can someone help??
Thanks

First, Jaguar does not come on a DVD. The standard Jaguar release comes on two CDs. What you probably have is a gray color OEM DVD or a copy that was made for a specific Mac model and will not work with your computer. Furthermore, in order to run OS X on your computer you must first install a firmware update.
You also need at least 128 MBs of RAM for OS X and at least 3 GBs of free space on the hard drive during installation. Your particular model requires that OS X be installed on a drive or partition that is less than 8 GBs. If your hard drive is larger than 8 GBs it must be partitioned such that the first partition is no larger than 7.85 GBs and OS X must be installed in that partition. The drive must also be formatted Mac OS Extended (HFS+).
Furthermore, you cannot boot OS X from a USB drive, only from a Firewire drive.
You will need to get the correct Jaguar installers. You can purchase the right package at www.applerescue.com. Your particular model is compatible with Panther thru 10.3.9. Panther would be a better choice than Jaguar because it is much faster even on your iMac. However, OS X will not be very fast on your computer because it lacks CPU speed and video horsepower. If you continue to install OS X, then you should plan to install the maximum of 512 MBs of RAM that iMac supports.

Computer crash with iTunes - Using external firewire 800 drive

I am using an external firewire 800 drive (2TB Lacie) to store all my music for iTunes... At random times this crashes the computer, the music "skips" and the computer has a grey notice telling me to shutdown immediately. I am not sure why this is happening, but think this must be some sort of conflict issue... but no clue how to resolve... Any advice would be great!! Thanks!

Oh no, sounds like kernel panics. Time to head directly to The X Lab to read the FAQs and get started with maintenance and troubleshooting. Unfortunately, this problem goes way beyond iTunes, so for additional support, you should post in the appropriate OS X forum.

Transfering iTunes files to new computer using external USB hard drive

Thought this could be useful:
If you want to transfer your complete iTunes library to a new computer preserving all your playlists and library information, but without using your iPod as a hard dive, or without burning a CD or DVD, you can do it by using an USB external hard drive following these easy steps:
1) Quit iTunes
2) Connect your USB external hard drive to your computer and acccess it thru My PC or Windows Explorer.
3) Create two new folders in your external hard drive (you can name them LIBRARY Backup and PLAYLISTS Backup).
4) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder.
5) Open another Windows Explorer or My PC window; open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
6) Copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the LIBRARY Backup folder you created in your external USB Hard Drive.
7) Close both the LIBRARY Backup folder from your USB external hard drive and the iTunes Music folder.
8) Open the PLAYLISTS Backup folder from your USB external hard drive
9) From your iTunes folder, copy the iTunes Music Library.xml to the PLAYLISTS Backup folder.
10) Close all the windows and extract your USB external hard drive from your PC ()
11) Install iTunes in your new computer.
12) Using Windows Explorer open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
13) Connect the USB hard drive to your new computer and open it using another Windows Explorer window.
14) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder and copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the iTunes Music folder in your new computer. After the copying is complete, close this folder.
15) Copy the PLAYLISTS Backup folder to you new computer’s desktop.
16) Close Windows Explorer and extract USB hard drive.
17) Open iTunes
18) From the File menu, choose Import. Navigate to the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the Desktop and click Choose. The imported playlist will show only songs located on the computer's hard disk or external media.
19) You can now delete the xml. file from your new computer’s desktop if you wish.
PC Windows XP Owner of 5th Generation iPod

Type "move itunes library" into the Google search bar.
Type "ipod touch not recognized by itunes" into the search bar at the top of this page by "Support"

Possibility of ipad using external dvd/cd drive.

Will either gen of the ipad be able to use an external cd/dvd drive? And if so what brand?

Because Apple didn't include that functionality in either iPad. They don't have USB ports. They don't allow, as I understand it for the installation of the drivers that would be required.

What size should external back-up drive be for use with Time Machine?

I am very new to Macs.
My iMac has a 500GB hard disc - not much on it yet.
I want to back the hard disc up daily and automatically to an external hard drive using Time Machine. So that I could restore everything if the iMac failed.
1. Does the external hard drive that I buy need to be larger than the iMac's hard disc, e.g 1Tb? Or is 500Gb enough in my case?
2. Should it be pre-formatted for Mac when I buy it? Or do I have to do this?
3. Should it use firewire or USB?
4. Presumably I need to leave the external drive plugged in all the time? Or will this stop the iMac from switching on and off?
I really want the easiest solution possible as I am not very techie and I want the minimum amount of fiddling with it. So I am confused between whether to choose a Western Digital My Book Office edition or Studio edition, 500Gb or 1TB, firewire or USB, or maybe a Lacie?
Would be grateful for advice.
Thanks very much.

Welcome to the Apple forums. If you have a 500G external disk, that will work fine for quite a while with hourly, daily and weekly backups, but sooner or later it will fill up, but then it begins to delete weekly backups. The same will happen with whichever size of external disk you buy: sooner or later. . . . Nonetheless, that disk will be fine for most purposes. I have 250G and use a 200G partition for my MacBook Pro and while that was fine, it tends to delete weekly backups so I have about 6 months of backups stored. (I also make other backups of all data).
It may be preformatted, but that is unlikely. Use Disk Utility (in Applications>Utilities) and use MacOS Extended, which is selected in the Partition tab (you do this even if you only use a single partition).
The system works with either Firewire or USB 2..
You do not need to leave it in all the time. If it is connected, it will make the backups, if not, nothing will happen and it will indicate that the next backup will occur when the disk is attached. To disconnect, you would highlight the disk in a Finder panel and press the Eject icon (not while TM is running of course) then disconnect the cable.
I am not able to suggest which disk is best, although my LaCie one has not missed a beat. Others may have a different idea. Try a Google search with the disk manufacturer's name and "problems" or somesuch. No disk is perfect of course.

External Back up drive disappeared

I noticed that TIme Machine had stopped backing up, so I looked to see what was happening and I was getting an error saying that the external hard drive I am using for my back up was having problems (sorry I can't remember the specifics right now) and that I needed to fix the drive or possibly erase and reformat the drive. So I reformatted the drive and started a new backup onto the drive. I'm not sure if that backup completed and now I don't see the external hard drive on my desktop. I've made sure all cables are attached and have unplugged and replugged them in but I still don't see the drive. Any ideas? Is the drive failing?

THe drive could be failing, but if it uses an AC Adapter tose seem prone to failure & needing replcement...
http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayAccesoryProductDetailsPa ge/productID.115863100/categoryID.13096000/parid.13092600/catid.13096000.
And since they're out of stock, my guess is it a hot item!

Using external back up drive

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