Can't Seem To Backup External Drive With Time Machine

[stefanie7055]

Hi, I'm fairly Mac literate (15+ years using), and have searched high and low online to try and find an answer, but have had no luck - hoping someone here can help me out.

Here's my setup:

Mac Mini (late 2012, running 10.8.4, 1TB)
External "Wayne" (3TB - used for videos, photos, and anything I don't use day-to-day on my internal drive)
External "Garth" (4TB - Time Machine)

All are formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)


So, I've been running Garth as my Time Machine backup for just over a month now, and have had no problems with backing up my internal drive. However, the idea behind getting a 4TB drive was so I could backup the 1TB internal, and the 3TB external (neither will ever be full-full, so there'll always be 'working room' for Time Machine to do its thing - I've never seen the 'space limit' warning that other people talk about).

I have removed "Wayne" from the Excluded Items list in TM System Prefs, so that isn't the problem.
No amount of toggling TM options, rebooting, reformatting...seems to work.

Any suggestions so I can backup both hard drives onto one disk?
Thanks!

 

[BrianBaughn]

How is "Wayne" formatted?

 

[stefanie7055]

All drives I own are formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

 

[Fishrrman]

"Any suggestions so I can backup both hard drives onto one disk?"

Partition the 4tb drive into two partitions using Disk Utility.

Use one partition for the internal drive.
Use the other partition for backing up the 3tb external drive.

STRONG SUGGESTION:
For backing up the external drive (which probably doesn't change much from one day to the next) DO NOT use Time Machine. Use either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner instead.

Reason: the best way to backup nonchanging files is in plain old finder format. Makes them INSTANTLY accessible and readable (you don't need an app to "restore" them).

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
Partitioning the drive will wipe out data that's already on it.

If all you're currently using the 4tb drive for are TM backups, I would just wipe the drive clean and start over.

Unless you have-to-have up-to-the-minute records of every file change you've ever made, TM backups are ridiculous -- the same files backed up over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Going out on a limb here, but I sense that all most folks need is "one version" of backed up files.

So just wipe the drive, partition it, and do fresh backups.
My guess is that you'll be fine.

 

[BrianBaughn]

All drives I own are formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Should have included in my question: with what partition scheme?