LaCie External Drive

Question

LaCie External Drive

Sorry if this is the wrong category (or forum for a 3rd party product).

I bought a LaCie external drive to use a backup and as additional storage. The backup side of things seems to be working fine - everything on my Mac (G5 iMac, OSX) is mirrored on the LaCie hard drive.

But I can't seem to store anything separately or independently from what's on the Mac's hard drive. If I delete a file on the Mac it ends up deleted in the Lacie. If I add something on the Mac, it ends up in the LaCie - again, that's great in terms of back up, but I want to clear some things off the Mac hard drive and just keep them on my external LaCie (which about 3 times the capacity as my Mac).

When I originally set up the LaCie I used the easiest option for set up. Now that I'm reviewing the manual again there's a lot of stuff about partitioning the drive.

Does anyone know what I'm missing or any ideas that would point me in the right direction?

Thanks

G5, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Jul 21, 2007 10:57 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Graham K. Rogers

Level 5

5,431 points

Jul 21, 2007 11:25 PM in response to Fletcher-Blaxland

What software are you using for the backup (e.g. Silverkeeper)?

And what settings are you using. Turn off scheduled backup or backup on startup?

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Answer 2

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 21, 2007 11:27 PM in response to Fletcher-Blaxland

I suspect that you used whatever software that came with the LaCie and it's setup to continually update the backup so to mimic the original source. If you don't want that behaviior, then dig into the manual again. Otherwise, use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to make controllable backups. You can always erase and partition the LaCie so that one partition is about 1 1/2 times the size of your source and holds your backup. The other partitions as needed for pure data (files, movies, music, etc.).

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Answer 3

Tom Older

Level 2

350 points

Jul 22, 2007 5:23 AM in response to baltwo

You don't need to switch to SuperDuper or CarbonCloner at all. Silverkeeper will do anything they can, and is free. You have set it apparently to do a mirror clone which is its default Go into the Options box on the Silverkeeper setup to set "never remove files" which will stop mirroring function; or use the "Exclusions" function to list those files you want to exclude from the backup.

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Answer 4

Jul 29, 2007 9:00 PM in response to Fletcher-Blaxland

So far I've found everyone's replies helpful.

I'm currently digging into the manual and it suggests I need to partition my drive. However so far I've been unable to - an error message says the drive cannot be or needs to be unmounted.

I'm haven't been able to find out yet how to do this (or what it means?).

Thank you for all your help so far. I welcome any comments.

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 29, 2007 10:42 PM in response to Fletcher-Blaxland

It probably can't be unmounted because something on it is pointing back to the boot volume. Boot the machine with your OS install disk, select your language, and, when the menu bar pops up, select Utilities->Disk Utility->select the LaCie, erase and partition it if you think it's necessary. If you want multiple partitions, one for a bootable backup/clone of your internal HD, make it at least 1 1/2 times larger than the internal's used space. When that's finished, quit Disk Utility and select Utilities->Startup Disk->internal boot volume, and click on Restart.

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Answer 6

Sep 21, 2007 11:15 PM in response to Fletcher-Blaxland

I've decided not to partition my drive for the time being - but that said, I think that will be the best solution when the time comes. Thanks for your patience and your help !!!!

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