When backing up macintosh hd, does it back up all 750 gb of my hard drive or just the 40 gb that I'm using?

I have a 64 gb flash drive that I'm trying to use to back up my 750 gb hard drive, but I'm only using 40 gb of the hard drive. My computer will not turn on normally so I need to use disk utility. It says it needs more space to back it up, but 40 gb should fit in 64 gb. Why?

TimeMachine will only copy the 40 GB used.
But you need an external drive that is 2-3x the size of your internal drive for a backup.

Similar Messages

  • Hi, how do I back up my iPhoto library to Lightroom, so its also on an external hard drive, where is the Back up utility?

    Hi, somehow I imported all of my iPhoto library into Lightroom, which is saved to an external hard drive, but now I cannot remember how I did that...and I am looking to update the additional photos i've put into iPhoto to Lightroom...
    Thanks for any advice...Eric

    As a mich more powerful app I think you'll find that Lightroom is also quite capable of "uploading, screening, and deleting unwanted photos."
    The point about using both is that you have an overly complex workflow -  and that leads to situations like the one you have now, where you can't recall the workflow you used.
    Put another way, it's like wrting your novel part on Word and part in TextEdit. Which bit goes where? The best advice is to pick one horse and ride it.
    Do don't "import photos to the Finder" you export them from iPhoto to the Finder. File -> Export....
    On your Mac you have Time Machine as a back up application. There are also many, many others. Search on 
    MacUpdate
    Regards
    TD

  • When I try to restore from Time Machine to a new hard drive, I get the message that the files can't be restored.  What's the problem?

    See the subject line.  Anyone know what the problem is?
    Also, the back up disk is called "time mac" but when I get to the Selct a Backup page, it says to Restore from: Macintosh HD on MarySmith2 and that is greyed out.  Shouldn't it say "time mac".  It won't let me choose anything. 
    Thanks for any help you can give.

    Hold down the option/alt key while clicking on the Time Machine menu bar and select Verify Backup.

  • HT1766 When backing up my iPhone does my calendar and all events back up as well?

    When backing up my iPhone does my calendar and all event back up as well?

    Hello Marsh1987,
    Thank you for the question.  Items that are synced through iCloud are not backed up through iCloud:
    Your iOS device backup only includes data and settings stored on your device. It doesn’t include data already stored in iCloud, for example contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail messages, notes, shared photo streams, My Photo Stream, and documents you save in iCloud using iOS apps and Mac apps.
    iCloud: iCloud storage and backup overview
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519
    If you have Calendars enabled in Settings > iCloud, they will be synced through iCloud so that you can view them on other devices that have Calendars enabled in the iCloud settings or at https://www.icloud.com/#calendar
    iCloud: Change iCloud feature settings
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2613
    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
    Best,
    Sheila M.

  • I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

    I have the new 2011 macbook pro, with lion preinstalled. I want to change the harddrive. I have backed up everything on time machine. when i put my new blank hard drive in will the lion screen startup.How do i get the lion dmg when i am already using lion

    NicholasLiban -
       When you use the Lion restore as described, it does a fresh install on the hard drive that you can select at the beginning of the process.  This provides a complete install of the very latest version of Lion, including the recovery partition.  The drive that you choose for the installation destination winds up like what you would have on a brand new computer from Apple. 
       - Randy

  • HT1553 I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error...

    I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error... Help!!

    If you have installed a new hard drive , you will need to have formatted it in Disk Utility correctly. This may explain your problem.
    Boot  into your 10.6 Install disk again at the top menubar > Utilities > select Disk utility and in there select your new hard drive, and select the tab Erase and choose to make the format as  Mac OS Extended Journaled. When that is finished look in the main window to make sure that the partition map scheme says GUID Partition Table.
    Now go to the Restore tab and reinstall from your backup.

  • HT201250 When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ?

    When migrating from time machine to my new hard drive, it migrates the first back-up I made several years ago. How can I migrate the latest back-up ? I need time machine to migrate the latest back-up. Should I delete the older back-ups ?

    As noondaywitch says, it should use the latest backup.
    Where are your backups (external HD, Time Capsule, etc.)?
    It sounds like there are two separate sets, and you're not connected to the right set.

  • HT1751 when I try to drag my Itunes into my external hard drive, I get the "no way" symbol, circ;e with a line thjrough it. How can I back up? I have lost a fortune in purchased items because I cannot back up despite following the Unhelpful help.

    I cannot drag my Itunes folder to my external hard drive, despite following the unhelpful help exactly. I get a "no way" sign Circle with a line though it. I have lost a fortune in purchased goods (audio books)  because I cant do it. Itunes have said they cant reimburse me and they dont have those books anymore, so cannot redownload them for me. Please remind me NEVER to buy apple products again.
    I am scared I am going to lose more money seeing I cant BACK ANYTHING UP.

    If you used the hard drive with another Mac then it is likely Mac formatted.  It was because you posted in the iTunes for Windows forum (kind of the equivalent to taking a VW to a Ford dealership for service) I thought you might be using a Windows formatted drive.
    Thumb drives are not universal.  There isn't a "universal" drive format.  Some work partly with both systems but are not fully compatible.
    Click once on the hard drive icon on the desktop.  Fo to File then Get Info.  It will say the drive format.
    Frankly I have never had your problem with a drive so I can't help too much except in general experience.  The prohibitory sign is pretty universal and for some reason you are not allowed to copy to that drive.
    I think if you had a Windows computer you'd be unhappy with it too and probably be posting on a forum that your machine was virus ridden and crashing and you didn't know anything about registries...  To be honest, I was doing a presentation on a friend's Windows computer and wanted to get it to display a simple image file.  There was no way we could get the .jpg image file to open with anything but Windows Explorer which is a web browser!  I mean, that's really bad, and of course he was so used to using it without knowing anything about computers that he could not help me.  I did my presentation in front of 30 people using Explorer.

  • Does the new airport extreme support backing up via time machine to an external hard drive pluged into the usb port

    Does the new airport extreme support backing up via time machine to an external hard drive pluged into the usb port

    Yes, but you might want to note that the port on the AirPort Extreme is only USB 2.0, and that it runs at about half the speed of the USB 2.0 port on a computer, so things are going to be quite SLOW as far as backups are concerned, or anything else for that matter.

  • I have Os Lion on my mac book pro, im not a fan of this because i cant run many games, i have the disk for snow leopard my machine came with but i get a error saying "unable to unmount disc" when i try erase my hard drive i just want OS SL back any help?

    I have Os Lion on my mac book pro, im not a fan of this because i cant run many games, i have the disk for snow leopard my machine came with but i get a error saying "unable to unmount disc" when i try erase my hard drive i just want OS SL back any help?
    many thanks Carl.

    You must boot from another drive in order to erase the system drive.
    Try starting up with Snow Leopard DVD inserted and C depress. That should get you booted from the DVD. Then start Disk Utitlity from DVD and erase the disk then you should be able to install Snow Leopard.
    Remember that everything will be removed from the disk when you erase it and install Snow Leopard so backup first.
    Allan

  • The computer that I original used with my ipod touch is dead, so I am now synching and backing up to a new computer.  I had to restore the software to this ipod.  I can drop and drag my tunes back into the ipod, but not my apps.

    The computer that I originally used with my ipod touch is dead, so I am now synching with another computer.  I had to restore the software of the ipod, I am able to drop and drag my tunes back to the ipod but not my purchased apps.  I have no problem doing this with other ipods that I have synced and backed up to this computer.

    Start here:
    iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows

  • I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

    I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

    Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

  • Backing up all files to an external hard drive

    I recently converted over to a Macbook Pro from PC and had all of my PC data saved to an external Hard Drive.  I can retreive the data fine, but I can't save anything to the Hard Drive.  I have plenty of room on my Macbook, but old habits are hard to break and I like to back everything up at least once a week. 
    I do not want to reformat my External Hard drive as there is ALOT of information on there that would be lost.
    So, how can I copy things over there, or drag them over to the External?  When I try, it gives me the circle with the line through it.
    And if you have time, tell me about Time Machine.  I am interested, but it seems like alot of work, because I would have to copy everything off the hard drive, let Time Machine reformat it, and then copy it back.  Seems VERY time consuming.
    External hard drive is 2TB and has approximately 90GB on it.
    Thanks for your help.

    Sorry for missing this addition:
    Drive Preparation for OS X
    1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
    Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

  • If I donwload e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need a special hard drive?

    If I download e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need to know anything special?

    I just looked into this as I was moving my iPad to a new computer for synching.  With no thanks to Kobo for any really useful information on their help site (this discussion was the most useful info I found), I think the following may address your issue with respect to Kobo.
    1. There is not easy or official way to back up Kobo books from your iPad.
    2. Kobo keep track of your personal library.  Go to the Kobo website (Kobo.com) and sign in to your account.  On the very top line is "My Library".  That contains (or at least Kobo says it does) everything you have ever bought from Kobo.  Kobo say that you may download any of this content to other devices you own at no charge.
    3. I synched my iPad to the new computer.  According to Apple, that will delete all my data as the apps are re-installed from the new compute.  While all my apps got moved around from the order I previously had (many thanks Apple), all my books are still there together with my bookmarks etc.  Looks like this did nothing to change any Kobo data.
    While I do not like the idea that I cannot create a backup on my main computer, it is probably safer in the long run that there is a backup at Kobo.  After all, I could lose all my equipment in a fire or something, and then personal  backups would be of little use.

  • HT203177 I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process ove

    I had to get a new hard drive in my 27 in IMac. I used time machine to get everything back on my computer. I just turn on time machine and its says it's preparing over 800,000 items to back-up, it never back-up, it stop and starts the process over again.

    Could be many things, we should start with this...
    "Try Disk Utility
    1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
    2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
    *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
    3. Click the First Aid tab.
    4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
    5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    Then repair the backup/TM drive.

Maybe you are looking for

  • File download via servlet doesn't work with IE via https

    I have a URL from a jsp page which points to a struts action servlet. This works with firefox via http and https. With IE it works via http but it doesn't work via https. The error message I get is "Internet Explorer cannot download ...File_name.doc

  • Time Machine deleted ALL my backups

    I was using time machine for quite a while to backup my hard drive and then stopped it for a while. When I turned it back on today, it backed up my ENTIRE hard drive (50 GB) and deleted ALL the old files & time machine backups. The files and informat

  • Help with creating a simple fade in/out slideshow

    I have Flash MX (not pro). I simply want to have a front page with about 5 or 6 rotating photos that fade in and out on a loop. I know this must be dead simple, basic stuff - but can someone point me in the right direction (total newbie obviously).

  • How to extract the date and date format from user reponse

    In BOXIR2 WebI, I have one requirement. 1) My users will change the infoview interface locales as per their geography ( uk, usa, japan, india etc.) 2) Users will enter/select the date in a date prompt in the locale specified format 3) Now my requirem

  • Phone is just showing a apple  will not power off or on .

    showing itunes and will not power on or off .