Back-up external drive with another external drive?

Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi. I have a iMac 5,1 with 250GB of space on the hard drive. Most of that space (220GB) is taken up with apps of the remaining 70GB - 20GB is taken up with my stuff.

At the moment I have an external drive of 500GB which is partitioned into two - one a disk copy of the Mac when I bought it and after I'd loaded all the software. The other partition is my Time Machine back up.

This situation is working really well at the moment.

Now what I would like to do is to copy all my files (work, pix, music,etc. about 20GB) to another external drive and leave the Mac with just system software and applications. But if I do that, how can I back up my stuff? Can you back-up external drive with another external drive using Time Machine?

I would appreciate any comments / ideas.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
Yes. Time machine offers you the option to back up other drives, not just your internal. Better make it a big drive though.
 
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
3,308
Reaction score
58
Points
48
Location
Whangarei NZ
Your Mac's Specs
27 iMac+Thunderbolt, iMac 21,
I have just gone to this Voyager Q drive dock (Review) with 2 1TB drives so i can do an off site bootable back up rotation. That way if my iMac fails i can just continue working off of the back up.
 
OP
R
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thank you for your answers, Collin Bl and baggss. I should have said, another thing I was thinking of was to buy a MacBookPro and use an external for work and back it up on another external when at the iMac. Great news that this is possible! :)
 
Joined
May 18, 2008
Messages
3,612
Reaction score
95
Points
48
Location
Amberley, Canterbury, New Zealand
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini 14.3, 8.1 & 4.1, OS 13.5, 10.14, & 10.11 & 10.6; Macbook Pro 8.2, OS 10.12.
In addition to the answers already provided, and if your two external drives have firewire connection, have you considered simply daisy-chaining them? Both will mount to either of your computer's desktops. You can drag and drop to your heart's content.

Portability might prove the stumbling block, as USB-powered external drives can't be daisy-chained, nor do Mac USB ports provide sufficient grunt in many (reported) cases.
 
OP
R
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Good point, hughvane, I always think firewire drives are a better bet than USB anyway.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top