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Time Machine and External HD question


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Time Machine and External HD question
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luxuryreplica
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: New York
 
2008-06-21, 15:54

Hello,
I set up my Time Machine Backups several weeks ago and it runs smoothly backing up my computer's internal HD to an external Lacie HD without a hitch.

The issue is, I am trying to back up another firewire Lacie Hard drive using Time Machine, as to keep a separate copy of my 60+GB itunes library as well as other crucial files.
I enter Time Machine preferences and the other connected external drives appear greyed out.
There is the option to check the + symbol to exclude a drive, and the - symbol to include it. So I hit the - symbol and Time Machine fails to back it up. I have a spacious 750 GB external hard drive for this purpose, and currently I am using about 50GB from my computers internal HD, and the other one I want to back up is about 150 GB. So storage should not be an issue. Is there something I am overlooking? The help section seems kind of vague.
Hopefully this makes sense, and I would appreciate any feedback and thanks in advance.

My Machine is 2.4 GHZ MacBook Pro, running Mac OSX 10.5.3
Time Machine Backup drive: Lacie External USB/Firewire 750 GB
The other drive I want to back up in addition to my internal hard drive is a Lacie External 150 GB.
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ShadowOfGed
Travels via TARDIS
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Earthsea
 
2008-06-21, 16:23

What's the format on the 150GB drive with your iTunes music on it? There are only a handful of reasons Time Machine will automatically exclude a volume from backups:
  • The volume is an unsupported format (i.e. NTFS)
  • The volume resides in a disk image (you should back up the image itself)

Not really sure why else it would be excluded. So…

Apparently I call the cops when I see people litter.
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luxuryreplica
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: New York
 
2008-06-21, 16:33

The format of the 150 GB drive is MS-DOS (FAT 32)
Additionally, the drive is shown as the actual volume not the image
I restarted as well. Not really sure why Time Machine will not back it up.
Thanks for the feedback.
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ShadowOfGed
Travels via TARDIS
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Earthsea
 
2008-06-21, 17:06

Quote:
Originally Posted by luxuryreplica View Post
The format of the 150 GB drive is MS-DOS (FAT 32)
Additionally, the drive is shown as the actual volume not the image
I restarted as well. Not really sure why Time Machine will not back it up.
Thanks for the feedback.
FAT-32 isn't a supported format for backup volumes, because that particular filesystem does not make available information that Time Machine needs to perform its backups. Thus, you'll have to use HFS+ if you'd like to back up the contents of that volume.

Apparently I call the cops when I see people litter.
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luxuryreplica
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: New York
 
2008-06-21, 17:30

Thanks ShadowOfGed for the clarification.
So I imagine I cannot change the format of the said drive without reformatting and deleting all the files? thanks again for your help.
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FFL
Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2008-06-21, 21:38

manually copy the files to your backup drive, reformat your external, and then copy them back.

It's a great way to kill a half-dozen hours or so!
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ShadowOfGed
Travels via TARDIS
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Earthsea
 
2008-06-21, 23:22

Perhaps a slightly better way is to use Disk Utility to create a disk image of the volume, and store that somewhere. Then, "restore" the image onto an HFS+ formatted volume without erasing the target volume.

Apparently I call the cops when I see people litter.
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luxuryreplica
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: New York
 
2008-06-22, 00:57

Thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated.
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