Backing up on a Mac?

[woodbloke]

Gradually getting used to the Mac, but now I want to know how to back up to an external hard drive please? We had a 500gig external HD that was connected to the old Windoze7 'puter and which is now connected to the IMac. I can read from it and import pics and docs onto the Mac...but how to export and copy to the HD?
I've had a look at the 'Time Machine' function which seems the easiest way to back up all files, but if I use it and specify my external HD, the IMac will erase everything on it
All I really want to do is to copy new files (pics and docs) created on the IMac to the external HD...easy to do on Windoze (drag and drop) but how is it done on the IMac? - Rob

 

[Jacob]

Drag and drop.
There are programs which back up automatically but I've never used one.

 

[Harbo]

I did it the other week, pretty sure you just drag and drop.
The external drive will show on your desktop.
There is a difference in the Formatting of drives between Macs and MS but I would have to look that up as I cannot remember off hand.
I was also backing up my photos to DVDs and one way is suitable for viewing on any computers the other isn't but the Mac warns you of that and advises which one to use.
I bought a portable HD when I bought my MacBook which I use for Time Machine - it does over write things in time. But I also bought a 1.5TB HD for about £60 and use that for selective important stuff as well.
The new Lion OS does an internal backup if you don't do it yourself - and it soon mounts up - 40Gbs in a week!

 

[woodbloke]

I did it the other week, pretty sure you just drag and drop.
The external drive will show on your desktop.
There is a difference in the Formatting of drives between Macs and MS but I would have to look that up as I cannot remember off hand.
I was also backing up my photos to DVDs and one way is suitable for viewing on any computers the other isn't but the Mac warns you of that and advises which one to use.
I bought a portable HD when I bought my MacBook which I use for Time Machine - it does over write things in time. But I also bought a 1.5TB HD for about £60 and use that for selective important stuff as well.
The new Lion OS does an internal backup if you don't do it yourself - and it soon mounts up - 40Gbs in a week!

I can see if I go onto 'Finder' but there's nothing on the Desktop except a big picture of some galaxy!...the drive format is NTFS - Rob

 

[Jacob]

If your drive is connected and everything is switched on you should see a little file logo for the drive somewhere on your screen. You can drag and drop straight to it, or open it and drag and drop to other folders in it.

 

[RogerS]

Bad news, Rob.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/28 ... 0&tstart=0

I'd buy another external drive dedicated for the purpose as they are cheap as chips these days.

SuoerDuper is an excellent program ..which lets you boot from an external drive. Time Machine is a very good complementary solution to SD

 

[petermillard]

+1 for SuperDuper - also Carbon Copy Cloner is good for full drive duplication - but if you just want incremental backups then Time Machine to a dedicated external drive is good. I also use SmartBackup which an be automated easily through iCal.

HTH Pete

 

[woodbloke]

Bad news, Rob.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/28 ... 0&tstart=0

I'd buy another external drive dedicated for the purpose as they are cheap as chips these days.

SuoerDuper is an excellent program ..which lets you boot from an external drive. Time Machine is a very good complementary solution to SD

That's exactly what I thought might happen Rog ...1Tbyte ought to do the job! - Rob

 

[Oryxdesign]

I use Time Machine to back up to a Lacie drive, not really needed to use it but once I did get a drawing corrupt and I managed to fish out the relevant file.

 

[woodbloke]

I use Time Machine to back up to a Lacie drive, not really needed to use it but once I did get a drawing corrupt and I managed to fish out the relevant file.

Agree Simon, I can use the Time Machine app to back up, but if I do that with the current Maxtor that's now plugged into the IMac, it'll wipe the disc...and I've got zillions of pics and docs on it that I don't want to lose. It looks like the best option is another external HD that's read/write compatible with the IMac and then stuff the original back into the Windoze7 'puter upstairs - Rob

 

[Oryxdesign]

Hi Rob

That sounds like a plan, it doesn't need to be a mac specific drive and I think you can segment off your new drive if required.

I think I've got this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002 ... YVH39WY15G

 

[RogerS]

Hi Rob

That sounds like a plan, it doesn't need to be a mac specific drive and I think you can segment off your new drive if required.

I think I've got this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002 ... YVH39WY15G

It does need to be Mac specific if he wants to use something like SuperDuper and have the option of a bootable backup.

 

[woodbloke]

Hi Rob

That sounds like a plan, it doesn't need to be a mac specific drive and I think you can segment off your new drive if required.

I think I've got this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002 ... YVH39WY15G

It does need to be Mac specific if he wants to use something like SuperDuper and have the option of a bootable backup.

Like I said Rog, I need to get something Mac compatible or specific - Rob

 

[RogerS]

Yes...but do..do..double check as there have been manufacturers claiming Mac-compatibility but they have the wrong chipset and won't boot. If you go to the SuperDuper website/forum, there is a post about disk compatibility. Really excellent customer support, BTW, from ShirtPocket. I realised today that I'd not been scheduling a proper complete backup which was why i couldn't boot from my backup when I wanted to.

 

[Jacob]

Yes...but do..do..double check as there have been manufacturers claiming Mac-compatibility but they have the wrong chipset and won't boot. If you go to the SuperDuper website/forum, there is a post about disk compatibility. Really excellent customer support, BTW, from ShirtPocket. I realised today that I'd not been scheduling a proper complete backup which was why i couldn't boot from my backup when I wanted to.

With a mac you don't need to boot from a back up nowadays. At least we never have on any of our 5 machines (over the last few years, three at the moment). Gone are the days of scrabbling about for system discs etc!

 

[woodbloke]

Yes...but do..do..double check as there have been manufacturers claiming Mac-compatibility but they have the wrong chipset and won't boot. If you go to the SuperDuper website/forum, there is a post about disk compatibility. Really excellent customer support, BTW, from ShirtPocket. I realised today that I'd not been scheduling a proper complete backup which was why i couldn't boot from my backup when I wanted to.

I'm no expert on this sort of stuff, as you may have gathered Rog, but the plan at the weekend is to go and see the very nice people at PC World, pick some brains and possibly sort out an external HD. If of course, it don't do what it says on the tin, or what the blokie in shop said it would do then it can go straight back (having of course kept the receipt) to be replaced with something that will work - Rob

 

[Harbo]

Here's a link to the Lion "Hidden Backups":

http://toti.posterous.com/hidden-local-backups-with-mac-os-x-lion-filli

Rod

 

[dedee]

I though Time Machine was overblown for my needs. I back up weekly using Carbon Copy Cloner to a Lacie drive. When the old mac died it was easy to recover everything onto the new imac. I also backup pictures to a dvd about once a month.


Chers

Andy

 

[RogerS]

A weekly backup is not good enough for me. Daily is a must.

But Time Machine is even better as it can backup only changed files on an hourly basis. It is perfect for recovering individual files that have either been accidentally deleted or gone AWOL.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I use Time Machine to back up to a Lacie drive, not really needed to use it but once I did get a drawing corrupt and I managed to fish out the relevant file.

Agree Simon, I can use the Time Machine app to back up, but if I do that with the current Maxtor that's now plugged into the IMac, it'll wipe the disc...and I've got zillions of pics and docs on it that I don't want to lose. It looks like the best option is another external HD that's read/write compatible with the IMac and then stuff the original back into the Windoze7 'puter upstairs - Rob

What you have is a disk that is FAT32 or FAT16 formatted and while the iMac can happily read and write to it it can't use it as a time machine disk. For that you need a mac formatted disk for preference I would use GUID as then if you want to use it as a boot disc you can.

I would use time machine as it's almost automatic. A 500 gig drive is quite small, the sweet spot is probably about 2.5Tb that if the supply from Thailand has recovered.