Backing up my external Backup

[pilotkid]

Hey everyone. I have a 1TB My Studio external HD and I have it partitioned, 600GB for Time Machine and 400GB for my iTunes(I keep 100% of my iTunes library on this partition). Is there a way to backup this entire hard drive with another hard drive that I have laying around? I want some redundancy and especially since I have thousands of dollars work of iTunes stuff all in one place and nowhere else. Also, I wouldn't care or want to have it backed up like Time Machine(constantly updating) but it would be nice if once a month I could just do one back up, that way if I ever had a problem and lost a hard drive I would only be out a months worth of stuff.
Thanks for your help and have a great night!

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I use iBackUp to back-up my non-Time Machine back-up drive. Carbon Copy Cloner seems capable of doing this though.

 

[pilotkid]

I use iBackUp to back-up my non-Time Machine back-up drive. Carbon Copy Cloner seems capable of doing this though.

Will that work for backing up your Time Machine back up drive as well?

 

[Tomorrow]

...I have thousands of dollars work of iTunes stuff all in one place and nowhere else.

I'm confused - the thread title is "Backing up my external Backup," implying that you do have another copy on your computer's HD. Is that not the case?

Generally, unless you're using enterprise-level stuff, one "main" copy and one "backup" copy is sufficient. Your likelihood of losing both drives at the same time is miniscule.

 

[-tWv-]

You could probably just make a disk image with disk utility of the partition that has all your itunes stuff on it, then just restore the disk image to a new disk if that one ever fails, then just once a month overwrite the old disk image with the new one that you make. You can also encrypt disk images made with disk if you want to keep that data secure.

 

[pilotkid]

I'm confused - the thread title is "Backing up my external Backup," implying that you do have another copy on your computer's HD. Is that not the case?

Generally, unless you're using enterprise-level stuff, one "main" copy and one "backup" copy is sufficient. Your likelihood of losing both drives at the same time is miniscule.

Sorry, I got myself confused!LOL. Ok, so I have my iMac, it is backed up to a 1TB My Book Studio External HD. I want to back up my 1TB My Book Studio onto another external hard drive.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I'm confused - the thread title is "Backing up my external Backup," implying that you do have another copy on your computer's HD. Is that not the case?

Generally, unless you're using enterprise-level stuff, one "main" copy and one "backup" copy is sufficient. Your likelihood of losing both drives at the same time is miniscule.

I think he meant by 'one place', its all in his house. Carbon copy cloner would let you duplicate to another disk which you could keep away from the house.

 

[MacDawg]

User has...

iMac HD -> backed up to TM on external HD
External HD -> with TM back up AND all of iTunes (not on iMac at all)

Wants to...

Back up external drive to have an extra backup AND a backup of iTunes

I think you could probably use Carbon Copy Cloner for this and it is free

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[pilotkid]

User has...

iMac HD -> backed up to TM on external HD
External HD -> with TM back up AND all of iTunes (not on iMac at all)

Wants to...

Back up external drive to have an extra backup AND a backup of iTunes

I think you could probably use Carbon Copy Cloner for this and it is free

Woof, Woof - Dawg

Yes, this is right. Thank you!!!!!! Carbon Copy Cloner it is!

 

[Tomorrow]

Sorry, I got myself confused!LOL. Ok, so I have my iMac, it is backed up to a 1TB My Book Studio External HD. I want to back up my 1TB My Book Studio onto another external hard drive.

Why do this at all?

If you have the MyBook as a backup to your iMac, then the iMac is the backup to your MyBook.

 

[MacDawg]

Why do this at all?

If you have the MyBook as a backup to your iMac, then the iMac is the backup to your MyBook.

The point is... the iTunes is NOT backed up, it is only on the external and not the iMac

See my post above

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Tomorrow]

The point is... the iTunes is NOT backed up, it is only on the external and not the iMac...

...and no iPod, I presume?

 

[BayouBengal]

A Drobo is good for those that really want some hardcore backupedness.

 

[Mugwumper]

My $0.02 . . .

Here's my config:

- 1.5TB external FW800 HD that contains my TimeMachine backups (this drive
has a 2nd 500GB partition with music and photos)
- 750GB external USB2 HD that contains a "clone" of my 500GB internal HD
(I use Synchronize Pro X, and have used Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper
in the past)

I do TM updates a few times a day or every few days, depending on what
I'm working on, and at least a weekly clone.

FWIW, YMMV, etc. ;^)

Mugwumper

 

[pilotkid]

...and no iPod, I presume?

No I have a iPod Touch 2nd Generation. The problem is, is that yes, all my songs and two or three movies would be on there but what about the other 145gbs.LOL

 

[thegoldenmackid]

Carbon Copy Cloner def. will do this. I just checked.

 

[pilotkid]

Here's my config:

- 1.5TB external FW800 HD that contains my TimeMachine backups (this drive
has a 2nd 500GB partition with music and photos)
- 750GB external USB2 HD that contains a "clone" of my 500GB internal HD
(I use Synchronize Pro X, and have used Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper
in the past)

I do TM updates a few times a day or every few days, depending on what
I'm working on, and at least a weekly clone.

FWIW, YMMV, etc. ;^)

Mugwumper

That sounds like what I'm wanting to do. Except I dont really need a clone of my iMacs internal HD because thats what Time Machine is for, I just want to back up the external HD that Time Machine Saves everything to. Someone mentioned something about a disk image of my iTunes library and putting it on another separate external HD. Does that sound like it would work and work well. I dont need it to be updated everyday, or even every week. Maybe like once a month.

 

[Mugwumper]

Maybe not . . . ;^)

That sounds like what I'm wanting to do. Except I dont really need a clone of my iMacs internal HD because thats what Time Machine is for, I just want to back up the external HD that Time Machine Saves everything to. Someone mentioned something about a disk image of my iTunes library and putting it on another separate external HD. Does that sound like it would work and work well. I dont need it to be updated everyday, or even every week. Maybe like once a month.

The reason I do a clone is that if/when your internal hard drive fails, you'll
have a *bootable* copy on an external drive that can get you back up and
running in the minimum amount of time. Yes, it may be a little out of synch
with the internal HD, but *that's* what TimeMachine is for. (IMO)

In other words, get back running with the clone, copy it to your new internal
HD, then use TM to bring the copy up to whenever your last TM backup was.

My only experience in this happened about a year ago on a G5 iMac, and I
had a similar setup (2 external 250GB HDs). When the internal drive failed,
I had the Apple guys replace the drive (it was still under AppleCare), then I
came home and booted from the external clone and copied it back to the
new clean drive, and was back to where I left off in about 2 hours.

And another experience I had was updating the G5 to my current C2D iMac.
Using TM as the source for my files did *not* work well - it did not find the
current backed up versions of many apps, and never did find my iTunes
library (9000+ songs/audiobooks/podcasts). Thank goodness those were
on my bootable copy HD - after reinstalling the apps, I merely copied the
library files, and was up and running in minutes.

Hope this helps . . .