backing up external hard drive

[alainr]

i want to free up space on my imac (which has slowed down) by removing my photos to an external hard drive. I use time machine for my imac.

How do i move photos from iphoto on my imac to an external hard drive?
How do i move photos that are in files to an external hard drive--just connect the hard drive and drag the files onto it?

I wld like to backup up EHD. I assume my options are buying another EHD or backing up to online storage. any recommendations?

thks!

 

[satcomer]

Before you think about Online Storage check with your ISP and see if you have a Data Cap! Plus backing up the net will take weeks for a lot of data.

Plus as long as you can mount a drive on your Mac (and is formatted OS Extended) the you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone one drive to another.

If you live in Earthquake country or fire/flood country then consider backing up to an external and send it to a relative in another state.

Now if you want to move iTunes to an external drive then read the Apple document Tunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I wld like to backup up EHD. I assume my options are buying another EHD or backing up to online storage. any recommendations?"

1. Get something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, pick one you like, doesn't have to be expensive, they all do pretty much the same thing)

2. Get a "bare" drive (or two) from your favorite vendor (I like Seagate drives from newegg.com)

3. Get CarbonCopyCloner:
http://www.bombich.com/
(it's free)

4. Hook up the dock, put the drive in it, turn it on. You'll need to initialize it with Disk Utility.

5. Use CCC to "dupe" the contents of your current external drive to the "docked drive".

5a. You can also use the dock (along with another bare drive) to create a BOOTABLE BACKUP of your "main drive". You can then boot right from the dock, as well.

You'll find this a very easy-to-use (and relatively cheap) backup solution. Having that docking station around can come in handy for other things, as well.

If you "need more speed" than USB2, Other World Computing sells the Newertech "Voyager Quad" dock with firewire 400 and 800 and USB2 -- but it's a little more expensive.