Backing up MBP to WD My Book

[JMCHW]

Hello. Newbie posting. I just successfully backed up my Macbook Pro using Carbon Copy Cloner onto my Western Digital My Book. I know that I can reboot using the My Book drive in order to restore my computer to exactly the "way it was".

I would like to back up the enormous quantity of photos I have stored in iPhoto using the My Book as well. (I also have them on CD. I know that is only one other storage location. Feel free to judge.) My hope is to have the photos stored so that I can connect the external drive to my Mac mini (which has a newer version of iPhoto - MBP has iPhoto 09 and Mac Mini has 11) and access those photos easily. Is that possible? I know I have the storage space available on the My Book, I just don't know if I can store info in what might be 2 different manners on the same EHD. Can I just drag them over from iPhoto to the MB drive in that case? Might be a dumb question but I feel a little stuck without knowing the answer and would appreciate any help/guidance. Thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

I would make two partitions on the WD. One for the OS clone and the other for the photos. You can keep the entire iPhoto library on the external if you like.

 

[JMCHW]

Fantastic, thank you!!

Do you have any idea if future back-ups of the entire system using CCC will still be smooth? Assuming I select the proper directions, will the CCC program be able to recognize that it saved there before and just add on the new items or will I have muddled things with the partition?

 

[Weaselboy]

Fantastic, thank you!!

Do you have any idea if future back-ups of the entire system using CCC will still be smooth? Assuming I select the proper directions, will the CCC program be able to recognize that it saved there before and just add on the new items or will I have muddled things with the partition?

You will be fine. Just follow this to shrink the existing WD partition with the clone on it, then add the new partition on. The original first partition will still be there with data intact and CCC will just keep on trucking like it always did.

 

[JMCHW]

You rock - thank you!!

 

[andrewmx17]

I was gonna start a new thread, but I believe this one just about covers it.

Here's what I'm wanting to do:
I purchased a 2 TB WD (Western Digital) My Book external hard drive for Mac already formatted Mac OS extended journaled. I did not install the software that accompany's the HD, but rather used Time Machine to backup to the external HD.

Can I partition my 2 TB WD 'My Book' for Mac external HD so that I can place large files such as movies, music, photos, etc.. from my Macbook Pro, to the newly created partiton on the external HD, then delete the large file(s) (i.e.movie file, etc.) off my MacBook Pro? I assume I would need to format both partitions Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? One partition being for use of Time Machine backup of the Macbook Pro, the other partition to manually store and retrieve the large files.

Also, as I stated I use Time Machine to backup the Macbook Pro to the external HD, so I have not downloaded the WD Smartware software. Without downloading WD's software, can I manually place and retrieve the large files using the Macbook Pro's Finder I'm assumiung? And how difficult would it be to place and retrieve such files?

Is Time Machine the best utility to use to backup the Mac too? And from what it sounds like, I would either shrink the existing partition on the external hard drive that has my Mac Time Machine backup on it, then add a new partition on it. Or would it be better just to start fresh and partition and formatting from scratch as the Macbook Pro doesn't have a lot of data backed up on the external HD?

I aslo notice you said that you backed up the Mac with Time Machine incase something were to go wrong, and I know the Mac can internally backup, but when I go to turn Time Machine on to backup without a external HD plugged in, it tells me to hook an external HD up.

Sorry for all the questions, but I just want to do it the right way.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Weaselboy]

I was gonna start a new thread, but I believe this one just about covers it.

Here's what I'm wanting to do:
I purchased a 2 TB WD (Western Digital) My Book external hard drive for Mac already formatted Mac OS extended journaled. I did not install the software that accompany's the HD, but rather used Time Machine to backup to the external HD.

Can I partition my 2 TB WD 'My Book' for Mac external HD so that I can place large files such as movies, music, photos, etc.. from my Macbook Pro, to the newly created partiton on the external HD, then delete the large file(s) (i.e.movie file, etc.) off my MacBook Pro? I assume I would need to format both partitions Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? One partition being for use of Time Machine backup of the Macbook Pro, the other partition to manually store and retrieve the large files.

Yep. Just do what I mentioned in post #4 above and format both partitions to Mac OS Extended. Just be aware though that if you put these files on the external, they aren't really backed up anywhere, so if the WD dies those files are gone.

Also, as I stated I use Time Machine to backup the Macbook Pro to the external HD, so I have not downloaded the WD Smartware software. Without downloading WD's software, can I manually place and retrieve the large files using the Macbook Pro's Finder I'm assumiung? And how difficult would it be to place and retrieve such files?

Really easy. Just drag and drop in the Finder. You can even open two Finder windows if that makes it easier for you. No need to install anything from WD.

Is Time Machine the best utility to use to backup the Mac too? And from what it sounds like, I would either shrink the existing partition on the external hard drive that has my Mac Time Machine backup on it, then add a new partition on it. Or would it be better just to start fresh and partition and formatting from scratch as the Macbook Pro doesn't have a lot of data backed up on the external HD?

Time Machine works perfectly and can be used to completely restore your Mac if a drive goes bad for example. You can just shrink the existing partition and keep on using your existing backup. No reason to start all over.

I aslo notice you said that you backed up the Mac with Time Machine incase something were to go wrong, and I know the Mac can internally backup, but when I go to turn Time Machine on to backup without a external HD plugged in, it tells me to hook an external HD up.

The internal backup you are referring to is just temporary for when you are away from your external disk drive. You can read a bit about it here. It is not intended to replace the external backup because you would lose all your data if the internal drive died.

Sorry for all the questions, but I just want to do it the right way.

Thanks in advance,

No problem. It is a lot to absorb when you get a new computer like this.

 

[andrewmx17]

Very much appreciated Weaselboy!

Although I've encountered a problem attempting to partition. I've attached a screen shot of the error code. Ideas?

 

[andrewmx17]

So I tried to fix this by booting into Single User Mode via rebooting and holding down command+S during boot, then typed in the command /sbin/fsck -fy and after that got done it said system ok, then I typed reboot to reboot. And again tried to resize and partition the external drive with the same error. I do however notice in the progress bar when I'm trying to partition it always hangs up and gives me the dreaded partition failed window when the status bar says: "Incorrect permissions for private directory." Kinda stumped...

 

[andrewmx17]

Success!!!!! I used the First Aid in Disc Utility for the external hard drive and it found that the partition I was trying to shrink was corrupt, but the First Aid tool fixed it! Woo hoo!! I'm becoming a bigger and bigger Mac fan all the time after using this Macbook Pro!

On a side note, is the 'vote up' button similar to the 'thanks' and 'like' buttons on other forums, etc.?

Thanks again Weaselboy!

 

[Weaselboy]

Success!!!!! I used the First Aid in Disc Utility for the external hard drive and it found that the partition I was trying to shrink was corrupt, but the First Aid tool fixed it! Woo hoo!! I'm becoming a bigger and bigger Mac fan all the time after using this Macbook Pro!

On a side note, is the 'vote up' button similar to the 'thanks' and 'like' buttons on other forums, etc.?

Thanks again Weaselboy!

Sorry I missed your posts. Glad it worked out.

Yes, the upvote here is similar the the thanks button on other sites. Although other than it appearing in the post, it is not tallied anywhere or anything.