Backup Software

[birdieb]

Okay basically I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction here.

I currently have a Macbook with a 110gb hdd and then an external hdd that is FAT32 and 320gb. Yesterday I picked up a 1TB drive for backups, connected it up and reformatted it to HFS+ for backups. Then I find out TM can only backup from HFS (I had assumed already it could only backup to a mac formatted drive). So I just let TM do its thing with my internal drive, but now I need a solution for the external. Any apps out there that will do what I'm after? Or a way to make TM backup from FAT32?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

 

[DoFoT9]

you cannot backup the external drive via Time Machine unfortunately.

you will have to find another solution including butnot limited to:

1. create a .dmg image of the entire partition in Disk Utility

2. use a cloning program to backup the partition

3. manually copy each folder over.

 

[birdieb]

Okay was only asking as I know it is possible to force TM to backup to a FAT32 drive using Terminal.

Any alternative apps?

 

[DoFoT9]

Okay was only asking as I know it is possible to force TM to backup to a FAT32 drive using Terminal.

Any alternative apps?

again i dont think so - TM can only backup the OS drive, not any attached drives. other software would be cloning software, or the other stuff i mentioned etc.

 

[skip2]

again i dont think so - TM can only backup the OS drive, not any attached drives. other software would be cloning software, or the other stuff i mentioned etc.

That's BS. Time Machine can backup external drives just fine. I dunno if they have to be in HFS+ though as I haven't tested with external drives formatted as FAT32.

 

[Fishrrman]

You can use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

Either will work fine, even for copying one backup drive to another.

In fact, I would recommend using CCC or SuperDuper over Time Machine for your primary-to-backup drive, as well. It will create a bootable backup (TM can't do this), with files immediately available in finder format.

The only downside is that you have to remember to backup at periodic intervals. It _may_ be possible to set up an automated backup routine with CCC and/or SuperDuper, but I've never needed to do that.

 

[DoFoT9]

That's BS. Time Machine can backup external drives just fine. I dunno if they have to be in HFS+ though as I haven't tested with external drives formatted as FAT32.

interesting. care to walk me through?

 

[skip2]

interesting. care to walk me through?

Go to Time Machine preferences and remove the connected external drive from the "do not backup" list. I can't give better details right now as I broke my Mac about a week ago and haven't yet bought a new one.

 

[TonyK]

ChronoSync with ChronoAgent (a separate program) can be used to make timed backups and works very well. There is also iBackup, CarbonCopy Cloner and some others.

 

[DoFoT9]

Go to Time Machine preferences and remove the connected external drive from the "do not backup" list. I can't give better details right now as I broke my Mac about a week ago and haven't yet bought a new one.

righto ill try that when i get home

how on earth did you break it!!! tsktsk

 

[skip2]

how on earth did you break it!!! tsktsk

Poured about 3 dl of Pepsi Max on the keyboard.

 

[Jason Beck]

Go to Time Machine preferences and remove the connected external drive from the "do not backup" list. I can't give better details right now as I broke my Mac about a week ago and haven't yet bought a new one.

I think I have been backing up my thumb drive this way for a few weeks now.

 

[DoFoT9]

Wirelessly posted (nokia e63: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.2; U; Series60/3.1 NokiaE63-1/100.21.110; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413)

how on earth did you break it!!! tsktsk

Poured about 3 dl of Pepsi Max on the keyboard.

Ooohhhh nooooo! ! I couldn't imagine doing that... I would die! Poor thing

Does it turn on at all?

 

[skip2]

Wirelessly posted (nokia e63: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.2; U; Series60/3.1 NokiaE63-1/100.21.110; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413)



Ooohhhh nooooo! ! I couldn't imagine doing that... I would die! Poor thing

Does it turn on at all?

It doesn't. I took it to an authorized Apple service to get looked at and the final conviction was that it's not possible to fix it. My insurance should cover it though, so I'm now waiting for the money from the insurance company. Good thing I had backups in order though.

 

[birdieb]

Thanks for all the suggestions, will look into them all when I get home tonight.

 

[DoFoT9]

It doesn't. I took it to an authorized Apple service to get looked at and the final conviction was that it's not possible to fix it. My insurance should cover it though, so I'm now waiting for the money from the insurance company. Good thing I had backups in order though.

gah that sucks man.... lucky you had backups!

Thanks for all the suggestions, will look into them all when I get home tonight.

goodluck! let us know how you go