Change Name of Time Machine Backup Hard Drive

Question

Change Name of Time Machine Backup Hard Drive

I just hooked up a brand new Western Digital MyBook 500 GB HD and without even turning it on, Time Machine somehow turned it on and then asked if I wanted to use it as the Time Machine backup disk. I clicked YES and my Mac automatically labelled it "Time Machine Backups".

I hadn't set Time Machine to running, but the ON switch was already on and the hard drive appears to be doing something. Am I now stuck with this name, "Time Machine Backups" or can I change it?

I also have that question regarding my regular internal and other external hard drives. I was told never to rename it.

Thanks.

iMac Core 2 Duo 1.83/160/1.5Gb RAM, ibook G4 1GHz/640 MB RAM/40Gb HD, Mac OS X (10.5), LaCie 160 Gb, Acomdata 250 Gb, Western Digital 500 Gb external Harddrives, external DVD writer

Posted on Oct 30, 2007 6:03 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 30, 2007 6:06 PM in response to west coast woman

Yes you can rename your TM backup Volume name any time you choose. It will not cause any problem.

On the Desktop icon simply change the name and if you have the TM pref panel displaying you will see the name change reflected there within a moment or two.

I would advise not doing this however, when TM is actively backing up data - could confuse something I guess.

Message was edited by: BarryXSharp

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Answer 2

Oct 30, 2007 10:34 PM in response to BarryXSharp

Thank you Barry.

It did solve my main dilemma. But does that apply to my internal HD too? I once changed the name and then my website design program (PageMill at the time) could not find any of the graphics. I think it messed up another program too, but it's been so long I can't remember.

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