I'm really confused about backing up files to an external hard drive, I have a Mac, and when I connect my external hard drive to the computer it tells me if I want to backup my Mac with Time Machine, but I don't know what it's the best thing to do.
For backup purposes, there is the built in Time Machine*, which copies everything (unless EXCLUDED, there is no option to only select what to backup, only to select what does not get backed up) to an external HDD and can help you recovering your whole system and user data.
Then there is
CarbonCopyCloner (free version 3.4.7 not officially compatible with
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion though) and
SuperDuper!, which are applications, that clone (create a 1:1 copy) your internal HDD to an external HDD. With those two applications you can select what to copy and what not to copy (more advanced than Time Machine), the process can also be scheduled for a daily backup (Time Machine runs hourly).
The advantage of a clone is also that it is bootable, which means, if your internal HDD gets corrupt or Mac OS X does not boot, you can boot from the external clone (if you have not deselected files/folders that the system needs).
Time Machine might be the best solution out of those three if you are not that technically savvy.
*
Time Machine FAQ
I want to use my external hard drive like an usb. I don't want to backup all my Mac, but a bunch of videos that I'm scared to lose if my Mac chrases someday.
Then just backing up the files you do not want to lose (if there are not that many) manually will do the trick probably.
How should I backup it? Is there a way to just selectively drag the files into the external hard drive (Like an USB). I tried by opening the file of the external hard drive and dragging the videos to the drive but it doesn't work.
The manual method is feasible.
Your HDD needs to be formatted appropriately, HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) being the best, if all you want to do with the HDD is use it with Mac OS X.
I was searching on how to manually just drag my files to the Hard Drive and found out that the reason I cant drag the files is because the Hard Drive is formatted NTFS (which means you can't add files to it from your mac.) what can I do?
You either format the HDD or download appropriate software.
See FAQ below:
____________________________________________________________
Overview of the four major file systems (called "Formats" in Mac OS X) used on Windows and Mac OS X, compiled by
GGJstudios. You can use
Disk Utility to format any HDD to your liking.
Any external hard drive will work with PCs or Macs, as long as the connectors are there (Firewire, USB, etc.)
It doesn't matter how the drive is formatted out of the box, since you can re-format any way you like. Formatting can be done with the Mac OS X Disk Utility, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder. Here are your formatting options:
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
- Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
- Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
[*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
- For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
- For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
- For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
- Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
- Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
- AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
- Maximum file size: 16 TB
- Maximum volume size: 256TB
- You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
exFAT (FAT64)
- Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
- Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
- exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
- AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
- Maximum file size: 16 EiB
- Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
- You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
- Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
[*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
- Maximum volume size: 2TB
- You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
____________________________________________________________
Also, what I may have to do is backup the videos and delete them from my Mac afterwards... (it takes up almost all my space).
Just for clarification, a backup is creating one or several additional copies of a file or folder. Copying a file/folder to another HDD and then deleting the source file/folder is not creating a backup.
I have one 500 GB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 500 GB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 500 GB HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD via
CarbonCopyCloner.
And that 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.
I'm sorry, I'm just very confused about everything.