Automating backups from external SSDs to another external HD on Macbook

I use an app called BackupList+. It's a GUI for rsync which performs many copy and backup operations. You can set up a scheduled job to copy or synch files and folders between any two drives that it can see.

If you're happy around Terminal, scripts and cron jobs then you could do the same yourself with rsync, but the switches are legion and the app sorts it all out. Other apps are available, I'm sure. I'm not affiliated with BackupList+ but I've been using it for years and the Dev responds to questions. If you do use it check the settings first - the most annoying one is that it defaults to creating a special directory on the source disc, which you don't need.

Time machine copies the data from every Mac-formatted drive on your Mac, and can restore it to the exact folder that it was in originally.

<< with only the relevant data back upped on each disk. >>

how do you define that?

if you mean only the data that has been added or changed since the last backup, that 'incremental backup' is exactly what time machine does.

Time machine keeps your data in a database of what was backed up and when. It can restore the last-saved state (as any of these Utilities can), but it can also restore the state of your machine as of mid last week, if you need that. VERY handy after an Oops event or troublesome installation that only gets discovered much later.

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Time Machine saves, and can re-create, ANY Moment in time for which it still holds backup files.

Example: a user posted that they had installed software that messed up their files. it was installed mid last week. They had done an ordinary restore to recover, but that restored to yesterday, and the problem was still there.

Readers were able to guide them to Time Machine.APP (not to be confused with Time machine preferences). This allowed them to look at the state of the major folder involved, back in time through each previous backup, until right BEFORE the bad software was added -- mid last week-- and restore as of that moment. They were thrilled.

<< I thought that Time Machine could take care of everything back-up related from now on, but that's apparently not the case. >>

Time Machine backs up your whole computer -- all Macintosh-formatted drives connected to your computer. When it runs, it saves ONLY the changes (incremental backups), after the initial full backup.

As long as you take care to initialize your drives to a MacOS format when new, and do NOT depend on the factory NTFS and third-party Utilities, Time machine will back up changes to all drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done. It does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.

¿Is there some way this falls short of your needs?

dBApple wrote:

On my previous Mac I used Carbon Copy Cloner but the source was always the internal HD, not an external which is now actually my expanded workspace. Thanks for suggestions.

Why not continue using CCC if you liked the app? CCC should be able to backup your external media as well. You can create multiple custom backup tasks with CCC.

dBApple wrote:

What I mean is: I only want data from external SSD Soundbanks or external SSD Audio/Video going to the specific back-up HD's called Soundbanks ** and Audio/Video ** respectively. To me it seems that Time Machine backups everything based on time (when), not on specific destination (where). But I can be totally wrong here.

Use CarbonCopyCloner to do this, not TM.

+1 👍for using CCC for this purpose.

You can automate backup/copy tasks and it can do incremental transfers of only what has changed since the last backup task.

Time machine stores everything in FOLDERS on up to ONE logical drive. if you want stuff stored separately on multiple drives, depending on its source drive, then time machine is not your tool of choice.

(Time machine can have multiple backup destinations, but these are just additional versions of the same mega-backup -- not broken out into separate drives depending on source.)

Also, people like to use tools that are familiar, and that counts for a LOT.