Can I back up an external drive TO Time machine?

[nelix]

I had to buy a new Mac, and since I was in a hurry I could only get one with a small capacity SSD (256 GB).
Since this is too small to accommodate all my documents, pictures and music, I put them on an external drive.
I would like to back up all these files to Time Machine but this new external drive is excluded from backups.
I can't remove it from the excluded list because it's grayed out.
Is there any way to do that?

 

[chscag]

Not with Time Machine, however, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to copy or clone everything to another external hard drive. I do that very thing with data that I have on an external drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner: www.bombich.com

SuperDuper: https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

 

[MacInWin]

Also, Chronosync, from Econ Technologies.

 

[nelix]

Not with Time Machine, however, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to copy or clone everything to another external hard drive. I do that very thing with data that I have on an external drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner: www.bombich.com

SuperDuper: https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Thanks. It's definitely something to look into.

 

[Slydude]

@nelix Please clarify something for me: Are you trying to make a Time Machine backup and put that and your files on the same external drive? If that's what you're trying to do, I'd advise against it. IMHO that defeats the purpose of a backup. If the external drive fails, you could lose your primary files and the backup simultaneously.

 

[IWT]

Just for my interest and curiosity, have things changed with macOS Catalina and macOS 11 Big Sur (BS)?

Up to macOS Mojave, which I currently run, I can go into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options where a small window opens allowing me to "Exclude these items from backup" and that is where I input any attached EHDs that I don't want TM to backup - the implication being that TM will backup an EHD if not excluded in this way.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

I believe you would need to reformat the external drive to HFS+ or APFS. I believe the drive came formatted for winOS, and is not compatible with Time Machine.

 

[MacInWin]

Just for my interest and curiosity, have things changed with macOS Catalina and macOS 11 Big Sur (BS)?

Up to macOS Mojave, which I currently run, I can go into System Preferences > Time Machine > Options where a small window opens allowing me to "Exclude these items from backup" and that is where I input any attached EHDs that I don't want TM to backup - the implication being that TM will backup an EHD if not excluded in this way.

Ian

Works the same in Big Sur, Ian. By default external drives are excluded but you can remove them from the exclusion list.

 

[nelix]

@nelix Please clarify something for me: Are you trying to make a Time Machine backup and put that and your files on the same external drive? If that's what you're trying to do, I'd advise against it. IMHO that defeats the purpose of a backup. If the external drive fails, you could lose your primary files and the backup simultaneously.

I was trying to back up an external drive with TM but it will only back up from the internal drive. So I used Carbon Copy Cloner, and it works fine.