I want to back up my hard drive to an external drive. Time Capsule seems to make that very simple. However, I'm just worried that it is going to erase other stuff on my external drive. Does Time Capsule do that? Hopefully it will just what is on the external drive intact and back my HD contents up to a folder on the external disk.
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Backing Up with Time Capsule
- Thread starter Kruddler
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Why would it erase anything?
If you're really worried, or just for the sake of organization, create a separate partition for TM.
If you're really worried, or just for the sake of organization, create a separate partition for TM.
Time Capsule won't erase anything, least of all the files on your main hard drive. Time Capsule merely makes a replica of all the files on your main hard drive so that in the worst case scenario, nothing will damage the files - They will all be backed up, therefore out of harm's way! Hope you found this helpful!
Matt Thompson
XcodeCrazy
June 30, 2011
Matt Thompson
XcodeCrazy
June 30, 2011
Last edited by a moderator:
"If you're really worried, or just for the sake of organization, create a separate partition for TM"
What? Doesn't partitioning a disk erase all its contents? That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.
"Why would it erase anything?"
I'll answer this question with a question:
Why would iTunes delete all my music from my iPhone?
"Time Capsule won't erase anything, least of all the files on your main hard drive"
OK. So it WON'T erase anything on my external (backup target) drive? Obviously, it's not going to erase anything on my hard drive.
Last question though:
Will it back the contents up in to a folder on the external drive? I don't want the contents of my hard drive being dumped in to the root folder of the external drive. This is sometimes the problem with Apple's design philosophy. If this were a Windows app, it would ask me which folder I want to back up to, but MacOS doesn't ask me that question so I can onjly guess where it is going to dump the contents.
What? Doesn't partitioning a disk erase all its contents? That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid.
"Why would it erase anything?"
I'll answer this question with a question:
Why would iTunes delete all my music from my iPhone?
"Time Capsule won't erase anything, least of all the files on your main hard drive"
OK. So it WON'T erase anything on my external (backup target) drive? Obviously, it's not going to erase anything on my hard drive.
Last question though:
Will it back the contents up in to a folder on the external drive? I don't want the contents of my hard drive being dumped in to the root folder of the external drive. This is sometimes the problem with Apple's design philosophy. If this were a Windows app, it would ask me which folder I want to back up to, but MacOS doesn't ask me that question so I can onjly guess where it is going to dump the contents.
Last edited:
After backing up for the first time, a folder titled BackupDB is created. As successive backups are made, that folder contains individual folders, each with a date of a backup. Arranged in chronological order.
Time Machine asks for a lot of elbow room. If, however, you get to a point where the external drive is full, Time Machine will erase the 'oldest' backup folder to make room for the new. This is automatic.
It is OK to have other files on this drive. In fact, even on the same partition.
Time Machine asks for a lot of elbow room. If, however, you get to a point where the external drive is full, Time Machine will erase the 'oldest' backup folder to make room for the new. This is automatic.
It is OK to have other files on this drive. In fact, even on the same partition.
With respect to your overall question, I think garycurtis explained it pretty well. With respect to the matter of the partition, yes, the act of partitioning erases everything. But I think what Mr.Pink meant is that once you have a partition set up, you know it'll be restricted to that, and the data on your other partition is fine. Not that it really matters...