Back Up External HD onto Time Capsule

[willorrock]

I need to back up my external USB hard drive onto my Time Capsule. How can i do this?

(without manually transferring the files from the ext HD to my MBP then to TC)

Thanks

 

[Luap]

Simple.
Go to your TimeMachine prefs and click 'options' In there you'll see all connected external drives, that by default will not be backed up. If you highlight the drive that you decided you do want to have backed up, and delete it from the list (use the minus button).. Then it gets backed up along with everything else

 

[willorrock]

not to simple.

yeah i assumed this, but as soon as i select the HD from the list of drives (under options) the '-' is greyed out meaning i cannot delete it

any ideas?

 

[bombtrack]

I don't think it is possible, quite unfortunately. I have a 1TB external plugged into my 1TB TC and the only way I can get Time Machine to back up the external is to plug the external into my Macbook. Very frustrating. On top of that, my Time Machine froze several months ago and has not worked since. I guess I need to hit the genius bar.

If anyone has suggestions on either of these issue, please divulge. Thanks.

 

[Luap]

yeah i assumed this, but as soon as i select the HD from the list of drives (under options) the '-' is greyed out meaning i cannot delete it

any ideas?

I've only been using TimeMachine for about a month.. So im not ultra qualified on it! But in my experience, the only drives it wont back up, are PC/Dos formatted drives and partitions.
I have a Dos partition (For bootcamp/Windows Xp use) and TimeMachine wont back that up either. I get the same greyed out minus thingy in options.
I would suggest checking which format your external drive is in.

Most external drives are supplied as a Windows/Dos formatted drive. Fortunately, macs can read and write to them just fine (But TimeMachine wont play ball with it). But ideally, the drive should be formatted to one of the more Mac native formats before use. Not everyone remembers to do that though I think, which may possibly have led to the issue you have there.

Just an educated guess mind!

 

[willorrock]

ok, thanks for your thoughts,

i think i may do my music manually (in finder: time capsule, open the folders and drag and drop the music.folder from the EXT HD (plugged into the TC directly) and copy it across (updating every album every so often)) saves me transferrng it onto my mac,

not ideal but ok,

the next question tho....

Can i stream music wirelessly (or wired) from the TC to my Mac reliably and at high speed?

Thanks

 

[Le Big Mac]

The other thing you might look at is whether that external is considered a time machine backup for some reason.

In principle you should be able to do what you're saying. I am able to do so, and the only difference is my external is connected by firewire (and possibly has a different format).