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External Hard Drive

S

Shawn F.

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2009
27
0
North Carolina
Today I purchased a 500G WD My Book external hard drive and hooked it up to my new Mac Mini (new to me at least). When I hooked it up it asked if I wanted to use Time Machine Backup and I said yes thinking it was something that would back up my files one time and then still be a storage drive to store all my files, music, pictures, etc. Well now it is setup and on my desktop as the Time Machine drive. I went and selected the slider to No and selected None but still shows up and it doesn't have the file on my desktop as "My Book" anymore. Any idea how to check if it's still being used as a storage drive and not to backup my files? Also does everything I automatically download go to the drive or do I need to transfer it?
Thanks for any help guys!
 
You could use Activity Monitor to check if the process is running. The only thing is: you'll need to know the increment of time that you set up so you don't have to monitor the monitor (ha) for an hour.
 
If Time machine is off, it won't back up anymore. You can still use it as external storage, even though it's also a time machine drive.

If you don't want to use Time Machine anymore, delete the backups folder on the drive.
 
Sorry I am confused... Where do I find this monitor and what does this do? All I want to do is use the new drive just to store all my stuff, not as a back up. I'm a bit new to Apple, Mac OS, etc for personal use so am very dumb when it comes to anything like this.
Thanks!
 
Shawn F. said:
Sorry I am confused... Where do I find this monitor and what does this do? All I want to do is use the new drive just to store all my stuff, not as a back up. I'm a bit new to Apple, Mac OS, etc for personal use so am very dumb when it comes to anything like this.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Never mind about the monitor (for this situation anyway).
Look @ Sky Blue's post, I wasn't thinking clearly. :p
 
Sky Blue said:
If Time machine is off, it won't back up anymore. You can still use it as external storage, even though it's also a time machine drive.

If you don't want to use Time Machine anymore, delete the backups folder on the drive.
Click to expand...

How do I delete this backups folder? Any idea on it's location? I looked around but see no backup folder anywhere...
 
Shawn F. said:
Sorry I am confused... Where do I find this monitor and what does this do? All I want to do is use the new drive just to store all my stuff, not as a back up. I'm a bit new to Apple, Mac OS, etc for personal use so am very dumb when it comes to anything like this.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

You can use it for both, or just turn off time machine and delete the backups folder.
 
Shawn F. said:
How do I delete this backups folder? Any idea on it's location? I looked around but see no backup folder anywhere...
Click to expand...

Did you put anything else on the hard drive? If not, you can probably just wipe it clean and start again. Just don't make it your Time Machine :p
 
Shawn F. said:
How do I delete this backups folder? Any idea on it's location? I looked around but see no backup folder anywhere...
Click to expand...

It should be on your external. Did Time Machine start backing up?

Something like this:

timemachine_recovery1.gif
 
It just comes on the desktop as the orange drive and Time Machine Backup or something it says. Right now I did the eject it and it's not anywhere on there nor under devices so not sure what the heck is going on... :confused::confused: How can I just start all over? I dont see anything to delete or click on that even says My Book. I tried unplugging and restarting but as soon as I plug it in the Time Machine Backup pops up.
 
Shawn F. said:
It just comes on the desktop as the orange drive and Time Machine Backup or something it says. Right now I did the eject it and it's not anywhere on there nor under devices so not sure what the heck is going on... :confused::confused: How can I just start all over? I dont see anything to delete or click on that even says My Book. I tried unplugging and restarting but as soon as I plug it in the Time Machine Backup pops up.
Click to expand...

Just rename it. Secondary-click> Get Info> and rename it to My Book.
 
Shawn F. said:
Yes I did... Is there a way to see if there are any music files or anything on it? Like when I make a file with pictures, how do I save them to the external drive and not my desktop or such?
Click to expand...

Just double click the icon on the desktop. You did just say it was empty.
You can drag files from your local HD to the external.
 
Ok I see... So anytime I want files on the external I will have to drag them over? Only problem I see now is that there is no hard drive on the desktop now. I hit some eject button and it disappeared haha. I really appreciate the help here guys!
 
Shawn F. said:
Ok I see... So anytime I want files on the external I will have to drag them over? Only problem I see now is that there is no hard drive on the desktop now. I hit some eject button and it disappeared haha. I really appreciate the help here guys!
Click to expand...

Unplug it and plug it back in.
 
Shawn F. said:
Ok I see... So anytime I want files on the external I will have to drag them over? Only problem I see now is that there is no hard drive on the desktop now. I hit some eject button and it disappeared haha. I really appreciate the help here guys!
Click to expand...

Unplug the usb cable and plug it back in, or open Disk Utility and re-mount it.
 
Ok guys I got it all under control now thanks to you. Again I really appreciate the help, I know I sounded like an idiot and sorry to bug you with so many easy questions.:rolleyes: :p
 
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