I am unable to INclude my ext hd in Time Machine backups?

[Aranka]

I have a connected external disk with my photos.
I have another connected disk for Time Machine backups.
I want to INclude my photos-disk in the TM backups. I can see the photo disk in the list with "items to exclude" under Time Machine Options, but I am not able to select it. It is greyed out. I want to select it, and then click on the '+'sign.

'-'sign works.
My photo-disk is connected and visible in Finder
My Time Machine works well and seems to make backups.
I have an iMac El Capitan 10.11.6

Any ideas?
I especially bought the backup disk, a MyPassport, for backing up my photos-disk.

 

[StevePaselli]

I have a connected external disk with my photos.
I have another connected disk for Time Machine backups.
I want to INclude my photos-disk in the TM backups. I can see the photo disk in the list with "items to exclude" under Time Machine Options, but I am not able to select it. It is greyed out. I want to select it, and then click on the '+'sign.

'-'sign works.
My photo-disk is connected and visible in Finder
My Time Machine works well and seems to make backups.
I have an iMac El Capitan 10.11.6

Any ideas?
I especially bought the backup disk, a MyPassport, for backing up my photos-disk.

Probably TM is excluding your external drive due to a format incompatibility. Did you format it as HFS+ before using it...?

 

[Aranka]

Oops... I am afraid that I don't know what HFS+ is. So the answer is no
Is it the backup drive that needs formatting? It said is was TM-ready, just needing plugging in?
Could you put me on the right track how to format it?
Sorry for the noob questions, I have no one IRL to ask it to.

 

[Longkeg]

HFS+ is the most common native format system for Mac hard drives. While Macs can read and use other formats used by Windows, you get better performance if you format the drive as HFS+, especially if the drive will only be used with Macs. When you selected the external drive to be your TM backup your Mac probably automatically reformatted the drive to HFS+, or you paid a premium and got a “Mac“ hard drive that was HFS+ out of the box. Most users here know to save a little money and buy the cheaper Windows drive and reformat it with Disk Utility.

The other drive, the one you want to back up, was probably a Windows formatted drive, which your Mac happily used until this format compatibility issue raised its head.

 

[Aranka]

Thank you for this.
I will look up how to format my external photos disk to HFS+. I am not near my Mac now but from your msg I can see that I will need to go to Disk Utility - which I assume is an app installed on my Mac.

No idea I needed to do this. I bought this external disk before I bought the iMac.

I guess I will have to move my photos to elsewhere temporarily before executing the format.
Also don't know how to deal with Lightroom. I use Lightroom for watching/editing my photos on my external disk. Can I just move the pics, then put them back after the formating: will Lightroom find them there again, If I don't touch the link to the "catalog".

Thanks again

Aranka

 

[Fishrrman]

My recommendation:

Get ANOTHER DRIVE to serve as the backup for the external photo drive.
(Yes, I realize it's "one more drive I have to handle")

Get either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to try for 30 days.

Use either CCC or SD to clone the external photo drive to its own backup drive.

Now you have AN EXACT COPY of the photo drive -- EXACT. Mount it in the finder and the backup will be the same as the original (at least the same as the last time you ran a backup). You won't even be able to "tell the difference" other than the drive name.

You might consider keeping a THIRD backup drive "off-site".
This prevents against disasters at home.

 

[Longkeg]

This is only an issue for you because of a limitation in Time Machine. Fisherman is quite right to point to more effective and secure ways to back up data.

 

[StevePaselli]

Thank you for this.
I will look up how to format my external photos disk to HFS+. I am not near my Mac now but from your msg I can see that I will need to go to Disk Utility - which I assume is an app installed on my Mac.

No idea I needed to do this. I bought this external disk before I bought the iMac.

I guess I will have to move my photos to elsewhere temporarily before executing the format.
Also don't know how to deal with Lightroom. I use Lightroom for watching/editing my photos on my external disk. Can I just move the pics, then put them back after the formating: will Lightroom find them there again, If I don't touch the link to the "catalog".

Thanks again

Aranka

You can do this: 1. Disable Time Machine in System Preferences (i know it’s scary but it’s just for a few hours) 2. Open Applications/Utility/Disk Utility, choose the former Time Machine drive from the bar on the left, use the Initialize tab to choose HFS+ Journaled/EFI partition map and initialize the drive (thus erasing quickly its contents; at times Disk Utility fails on the first attempt - unmounting the drive can take some time, just try again and it will work) 3. Copy all your files from the photos disk to the newly formatted drive (drag all the drive contents and go to bed). 4. Next morning format your original photos drive in the same way, rename both disks as you prefer and select this empty disk in System Preferences/Time Machine. Et voilà: in a few more hours you first backup will be ready. Yes, the drives roles have been inverted but you avoided buying another disk. Regarding Lightroom i just don’t know, i’ve never used it but i assume you’ll have to relink the files or rebuild you library from scratch (use Google: “Abobe Lightroom relinking files”, good luck...).

 

[Aranka]

Thank you, Steve Paselli. Sounds like a good plan. I will do this. Saves me from buying another disk.