Using time machine to back up additional external drives

My mac mini contains a 160 gb hard drive. Aiming to keep this free, I connected a 500 gb WD mac-specific hard drive. I also use this drive when attempting to access work files on my macbook pro. When using time machine, which backs up to a 1 TB WD hard drive (also attached to the mac mini), I cannot figure out how to use time machine to back up simultaneously the contents of the native (160 gb) drive in the mac mini and the contents of the portable external drive (500 gb). *Is there any way to set time machine to accomplish this?* Please help - I really need to continually back up the contents of the portable drive as well.

carbon copy cloner will do this. you set up a scheduled job (can be daily, weekly, etc. & even every hour!) & is free to use (donations accepted).
http://www.bombich.com/ccc_features.html

Similar Messages

  • When using Time Machine to back up to external drive, does Time Machine back up content in your Trash folder?

    When using Time Machine to back up to external drive, does Time Machine back up content in your Trash folder?

    Go to System Preferences (under the Apple menu) > Time Machine and click the Options button. Click the "+" button in the lower left. In the resulting dialog, check the Show invisible items checkbox. Go to your home folder and look for Trash. Click the Exclude button in the lower right.

  • Using Time Machine to back up an external drive?

    I have an external HD containing my iTunes library attached to my Airport Extreme Base Station. Is it possible to use Time Machine to back up the AEBS-attached HD onto a different HD? I would connect the new HD directly to my MacBook and in an ideal situation, Time Machine would create a fresh back-up of my AEBS HD (iTunes library) every time I connected the second HD to my MacBook.
    I may be making this more difficult than it needs to be. I just want to be able to back up my iTunes library to a second HD which I still have to purchase.
    Any ideas?

    Yes, just be sure the drive is online and not in the exclude list. Note that TM can only backup to one designated backup drive. If you add a second drive for backup, TM cannot use it and the currently designated backup drive simultaneously.

  • HT201250 How do I use Time Machine to back up an External Drive to another External Drive?

    Hello,
    I have two 8TB Western Digital External Hard Drives with Thunderbolt ports.  I have already set up a 500GB G-TECH Mini to use as the Time Machine backup for my MacBook Pro.  Now, I would like to set up one of my 8TB drives to be the back up for my other 8TB drive, yet I seem to only be able to back up the MacBook Pro with Time Machine.
    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks!

    Connect both 8TB externals to the computer, then do the following:
    Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
      1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
      2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
      3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
      4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
           it to the Destination entry field.
      5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
          the Source entry field.
      6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the 8TB drive to which you will copy. Source means the 8TB drive you will copy.

  • Can I use Time Machine to archive like an external drive?

    I've backed up my computer to Time Machine and everything from my computer is there, but I have a new project which needs me to archive 21 pieces of artowrk that have multiple photo images for aech, and they are large size originals. Can I upload these files to a folder in Time Machine or directly on my external drive, so I don't have to have all of these files taking up space on my main computer?

    You can, but it is not recommended.
    Apparently you cannot partition an existing Time Capsule volume if that is what you are using.
    Excerpt from ASC contributor Pondini's Time Machine FAQ:
    3. Can I use my TM disk for other stuff?
    Yes.  Time Machine will not delete anything you put there.
    But it's much, much better to partition an external drive into 2 (or more) parts, also called volumes.  Assign one to Time Machine, for its exclusive use for backups;  use the other partition(s) however you want. 
    (Unfortunately, though, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal disk.  See #Q3 in Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule for some alternatives)

  • Is it possible to use time machine to back up a hard drive?

    Is it possible to use time machine to back up a 1 hard drive onto another, then periodically update the backups just like I usually do with the Mac HD onto an external?
    Thanks!

    kidboy wrote:
    Is it possible to use time machine to back up a 1 hard drive onto another, then periodically update the backups just like I usually do with the Mac HD onto an external?
    Thanks!
    I don't know what you usually do but Time machine is a backup software. it does back up one (or more) hard drives to another. it's not a mirror utility though. it makes and keeps regular incremental backups and you can restore from any time point in the past you have a backup for. i suggest you consult pondini's FAQs at the top of TM forum
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018
    also see TM 101
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
    check out this tutorial too to see it in action
    http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics
    Message was edited by: V.K.

  • Using Time Machine to back up an external hard drive dedicated to Adobe Lightroom 5

    I recently began to use Adobe Lightroom 5 (I continue to use Aperture, as I have for years).    All of the Lightroom image files and catalogs are on one external hard drive, which I use on my iMac, my Macbook Pro, and in the digital labs of a school where I'm taking a course.
    Not yet having developed a protocoI for creating a back up of all my Lightroom image files and catalogs that I could use in the event of my Lightroom-dedicated drive's failure, I have just done a drag and drop of the whole drive's contents to another external drive (which, as it happens, I have been using for some time for my Aperture vaults).
    I am thinking of removing the dedicated Lightroom drive from the excluded list of my iMac's Time Machine (which uses yet another external drive), so that I can easily and automatically create back ups of changes to the Lightroom external drive without having to do the cumberome and inelegant drag and drop at some yet-to-be-determined frequency.  (The Macbook Pro uses a Time Capsule for its Time Machine; I envision using only the iMac's TM external drive for Lightroom backups.)
    What is the simplest and most desirable way to actually execute the backup?  I envision that it would be this: that every time I want to do a Lightroom back up, I'd mount the Lightroom external drive on the iMac (or keep it mounted if my work session has just been on the iMac) and then ask Time Machine to "Back Up Now." When the backup is finished, I'd dismount the dedicated Lightroom drive.
    A related question is what if anything would be the effect on my Lightroom work if a Time Machine back up began while I was working in Lightroom? Or if for some reason an hourly TM back up began and I needed to quickly end a Lightroom session before the backup was completed?

    Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac

  • Can I use time machine to back up computer hard drive AND contents of an external HD (contains only photos) onto another external hard drive (standalone HD for backups only)? PLEASE HELP!!

    I keep my photo files on a separate external hard drive, separate from my laptop hard drive. And I want to be able to use time machine as the back-up system to back up BOTH the computer's hard drive AND the external hard drive.... and i want all of the "back-up" information contained on a separate standalone external HD.  So in the end, I have a 250GB computer hardrive, a 1TB external hardrive, and I want to have a 2nd external hard drive that will be the location to store the "back-ups" (using time machine) which will be either a 2TB or 3TB harddrive.
    I am in dire need of help....

    Yes, just make sure that they are not excluded in Time Machine.

  • Using Time Machine to back up an external hard drive

    Hi,
    This has probably been asked a lot but i'm struggling to find an answer. I want to back up my external hard drive using Time Machine but i'm not sure how to do it?
    Is there a way that I can connect my external hdd and create a back up that is stored on my mac?
    If this was possible, does Time Machine take a snapshot or does it duplicate the data (in other words would this take up a huge amount of storage on my laptop)?
    I don't use Time Machine as I generally don't store anything on my laptop, but my external HDD holds all my photos.
    Any help is much appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Hannah

    Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac

  • Can you use time machine to back up an external hard drive?

    I haven't used Time Machine so far and setting it up now.
    Because my retina MBP has the limited hard drive size of 500GB, I'll be using a 2TB G-Tech hard drive as external hard drive.
    I'll be partitioning it, 500 GB for the MBP as a time machine back-up, the rest as a hard drive for photography RAW files.
    Can I set up time machine to back up the larger partition (the one with the RAW files) to a second external hard drive? Or does Time Machine only handle back-up from the main computer hard drive?
    thanks!

    Try reviewing this information.
    Time Machine FAQ
    You will definitely need more than 500 GB to use Time Machine - see question 1.
    Time Machine works with the main hard drive and any locally attached storage, but I don't know of any way to make it backup the second partition without resetting the Time Machine Preferences. You can do that with a cloning program.
    Clone  - Carbon Copy Cloner
    Clone – Data Backup
    Clone – Deja Vu
    Clone  - SuperDuper
    Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
    Two backups are better than one. Drives do fail.

  • Time Machine not backing up 2nd external drive, remove option grayed out

    I have two external hard drives, 300gb (firewire) and 500gb (usb). Time Machine is backing up to the 300gb. In Time Machine's options, the 500gb is excluded from being backed up, and the remove option is grayed out.
    The 300gb Time Machine Backup drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended. The 500gb drive is formatted as MS-DOS (FAT32).
    I know the backup drive needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended, but will it not even back up other drives that are FAT32?

    I am having a similar problem. I initially set it up 3 days ago and had it back up just the iMac to Time Capsule (about 120 GB) which it did no problem (I initially had my LaCie drive excluded). I then un-excluded my other drive, where all my photos and music reside (about 130 GB). Since then, it keeps trying to back up about 102 GB each time. Looking at the list of backups it does not appear that it has ever successfully backed up the LaCie. I am not aware of any error messages, but I have not been home much. I normally shut down the computer at night but I have been leaving it on trying to let Time Machine do its thing. All I can say is that every time I am at the computer TM is running and it always looks like it is in the middle of backing up 102 GB (usually seems to be near the beginning, never seem to see it more than halfway done). Looking at the TM panel it says the latest backup was 2 days ago. I'd appreciate any advice!

  • Can I use Time Machine to backup ONLY an external drive?

    I am having problems with the internal HD on my iMac and Disk Utility is telling me I need to reformat the drive and restore from backup. Only problem is that my 3TB Lacie Thunderbolt drive I was using for Time Machine recently failed (think it may have happened during an electrical storm brownout). Yep, I know, ***** to be me
    The issues with the internal HD are preventing the iMac from booting and I would prefer not to have to purchase various repair software to find one that really works such as Disk Warrior or similar ((despite it getting very good reviews). I suspect it make be HFS corruption but no way to really tell that I am aware of.
    I have setup an external drive with Yosemite and booted from that so now my old internal drive is seen as an "external drive".
    I am using Disk Utility to make an image copy to a new 3TB external drive I purchased. Writing the DMG is going to take some time.
    What I would like to do is to set up Time Machine to backup to a separate external 3TB hard drive (the second one I purchased) and have TM create a backup of ONLY the old internal drive - not the new system as well as the old internal unit.
    Is this possible and if so can anyone advise how to do this. Does not seem I can exclude the system drive I am now booted from so that it is not backed up. (This makes sense that TM would be designed this way given its primary purpose is to backup a system).
    If TM cannot be configured in this way, is there another option I can use?
    Thanks
    Andrew

    Thanks for that advice. I have heard of it but a friend who does IT support at a University nearby suggested using Disk Utility to save an image - hence this is currently underway at present. Once this is finished I will try Carbon Copy Cloner.
    I have another friend who has an older version of CCC - do you know if an old version will work ok or if only the latest supports Yosemite?
    Also once I have the clone completed from CCC, is the process then to reformat the old internal drive and then clone from the CCC external drive back to the internal and then reboot and trust all is well?
    Appreciate your help Csound1.
    Regards
    Andrew

  • I would like to use time Machine to back up to a network SMB drive. I can see the drive on my desktop but it will not show in the time machine window to be able to select it

    I currently have a mini server (OSX10.8.5, server 2.2.2) that I am using Time Machine to back up 4 external drives that are connected to the server via firewire 800. I would like to use Time Machine to back up to a windows network SMB drive. I can see the drive on my desktop but it will not show in the time machine window to be able to select it for use.
    Can this be done
    Thanks for any and all help

    The supported targets for Time Machine backups are local (direct-connected) disks, and network targets include Time Capsule, a disk hanging off the current-generation AirPort (though not earlier AirPort devices), and OS X Server systems.
    The Time Machine storage is based on the HFS+ file system, so I would not expect TM to work with SMB file services.
    While there are hacks to allow Time Machine to access network drives, I would not consider those to be reliable. Skim the forum and the 'net for related details, and for previous discussions of setting this up and the related issues that can arise.
    Remember to test the recovery with whatever you decide to use; whole point of backups is the ability to restore the data, after all.
    If you want to learn more about Time Machine, Pondini is an excellent resource.

  • HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

    I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
    When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
    In other cases, I would recommend to restore the whole backup without using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant, but a Late 2012 iMac uses a special OS X build, so the OS X version that you're using on your old Mac won't work on the new one. For more information, see > http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

  • 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.

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