how to backup oiptical bay drive?

[happle]

i have a secondary drive in my macbook pro where the optical drive used to reside. im trying to use time machine to back up that drive to an external drive. how can i do this?

also is there a way i can backup my ssd (system drive) to one partition of my external and backup my optical bay drive (media drive) to another partition of the same external drive?

if so how can i do one or both of these in time machine? i cant figure it out? i've also heard of carbon copy but im not sure how it works. i sort of like how time machine will add in my new songs as i add them to my library.

 

[oLNutjob]

May I ask why you want your main drive and backup to reside in the same box?


Personally, I keep backup drives quite apart from each donor. Your book gets dropped/broken/stolen..... you lose everything.

 

[vladzaharia]

May I ask why you want your main drive and backup to reside in the same box?


Personally, I keep backup drives quite apart from each donor. Your book gets dropped/broken/stolen..... you lose everything.

Go reread his post again. He's asking how he can backup his optibay drive to the same external drive (via time machine) as his main drive.

 

[happle]

yeah i have a ssd and a optibay drive. im trying to back up both of those drives onto 1 external drive using 2 partitions.

 

[riptideMBP]

You can do everything you're talking about with 'Carbon Copy Cloner'. Just make sure your target partitions are big enough, and you shouldn't have any trouble. The difference between CCC and TM is that CCC makes an exact copy (you could literally switch hard drives and get the same experience) whereas TM does its own special versioning thing with your files (not very practical IMO).

 

[garstudios]

You can do everything you're talking about with 'Carbon Copy Cloner'. Just make sure your target partitions are big enough, and you shouldn't have any trouble. The difference between CCC and TM is that CCC makes an exact copy (you could literally switch hard drives and get the same experience) whereas TM does its own special versioning thing with your files (not very practical IMO).

time machine does everything you want as well.

i used carbon copy cloner there for a while to clone drives, until one day i had to actually use a clone of a drive to replace a drive, and it was crap. then i checked, and carbon copy cloner apparently randomly messes up, so i stopped using it. its happened several times to me. so i stopped relying on it completely. however, it has worked too. so i wouldnt count on it as the only back up. plus, to back up using it, you have to wait for the whole drive to be copied, so if you have a 500gb drive, it takes forever, vs. using time machine which just backs up the altered files.

i stopped using all freeware.

if you open time machine preferences and choose options, you can choose to include or exclude certain drives/partitions. you can also choose which drive/partition you want to use as your time machine drive when you choose to click the "select disk" button. its extremely easy.

 

[happle]

time machine does everything you want as well.

i used carbon copy cloner there for a while to clone drives, until one day i had to actually use a clone of a drive to replace a drive, and it was crap. then i checked, and carbon copy cloner apparently randomly messes up, so i stopped using it. its happened several times to me. so i stopped relying on it completely. however, it has worked too. so i wouldnt count on it as the only back up. plus, to back up using it, you have to wait for the whole drive to be copied, so if you have a 500gb drive, it takes forever, vs. using time machine which just backs up the altered files.

i stopped using all freeware.

if you open time machine preferences and choose options, you can choose to include or exclude certain drives/partitions. you can also choose which drive/partition you want to use as your time machine drive when you choose to click the "select disk" button. its extremely easy.

i only see the option to select which drive i want to use to backup not which drive i want to actually back up...

 

[garstudios]

i only see the option to select which drive i want to use to backup not which drive i want to actually back up...

its very easy, i have about 4 external drives backing up other external drives while backing up the OS all using time machine.

so ill explain a little better.


you have the 2 drives you want backed up which are the main drive which will be MD and opticalbay drive which will be OD.

Then you have your back up external drive with partition 1 and partition 2.

You want MD backed up on 1 and OD backed up on 2.

To back up MD to 1 do the following.

open time machine preferences.

click "select disk" then choose 1 (the back up drive of MD).

then click use backup disk.

now you need to exclude OD and 2 from from the back up. (so that OD and 2 are not backed up onto 1.)

so, now click "options."

then click the "+" button.

then choose OD

then do the same for 2

this adds those drives to the exclude list.

then your ready to backup (only drive MD to drive 1)

You do basically the same for the other, just opposite. and yes, you will have to do this each time. time machine cant manage both of these at the same time. as in, it will only be backup up one at a time, so you will have to manually switch it to the other drive to back it up, by doing all the above again.


sorry if this is confusing.

i hope i didnt mess it up.

----------

p.s.

i would really like to see time machine be able to manage multiple backups. as in, it saves your settings and knows what to do, when you plug in certain drives.

 

[happle]

its very easy, i have about 4 external drives backing up other external drives while backing up the OS all using time machine.

so ill explain a little better.


you have the 2 drives you want backed up which are the main drive which will be MD and opticalbay drive which will be OD.

Then you have your back up external drive with partition 1 and partition 2.

You want MD backed up on 1 and OD backed up on 2.

To back up MD to 1 do the following.

open time machine preferences.

click "select disk" then choose 1 (the back up drive of MD).

then click use backup disk.

now you need to exclude OD and 2 from from the back up. (so that OD and 2 are not backed up onto 1.)

so, now click "options."

then click the "+" button.

then choose OD

then do the same for 2

this adds those drives to the exclude list.

then your ready to backup (only drive MD to drive 1)

You do basically the same for the other, just opposite. and yes, you will have to do this each time. time machine cant manage both of these at the same time. as in, it will only be backup up one at a time, so you will have to manually switch it to the other drive to back it up, by doing all the above again.


sorry if this is confusing.

i hope i didnt mess it up.

----------

p.s.

i would really like to see time machine be able to manage multiple backups. as in, it saves your settings and knows what to do, when you plug in certain drives.

thanks for this! i will try when i get home later.

any ideas on how to effectively manage and sync 2 itunes libraries? one will be on my macbook pro, the other itunes library is on my PC which is windows and hackintosh.

 

[garstudios]

thanks for this! i will try when i get home later.

any ideas on how to effectively manage and sync 2 itunes libraries? one will be on my macbook pro, the other itunes library is on my PC which is windows and hackintosh.

what do you mean by "sync"? like, keep them both synced up to each other?

if thats the case....im going through the same thing....i dont know what to do. i would like my macbook pro synced with my HTPC...so we are in the same boat here.