Once I have backed up on my external h/d can I safely delete from my iMac?

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Level 1

8 points

Once I have backed up on my external h/d can I safely delete from my iMac?

I am having trouble understanding my external hard drive.

Is it possible to store movies on my hard drive and then delete on my computer to allow more space.

This is worrying me as I don't want to delete anything on my computer thinking that the next time Time machine backs up it will notice no Movies on my computer and then back up without movies. I do think they will be there in last months backups but I still am having second thoughts .... but more importantly I have photos that maybe I could do the same thing.

I think I am having problems with 'backing up' what is on my computer or 'storing' on the external hard drive

Could anyone give me a hand to understand this?

Thanks Chelleywell

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3), using Aperture 3

Posted on Jul 1, 2012 12:20 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

727,163 points

Jul 1, 2012 12:22 AM in response to Chelleywell

If you're moving the files to a drive other than the one Time Machine is backing up to and the drive you're copying the files to isn't excluded in the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, you shouldn't run into any additional problems.

(67534)

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Answer 2

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Jul 1, 2012 12:25 AM in response to Chelleywell

Welcome to Apple Communities

You can do it, but caution with Time Machine. When your external drive is full, Time Machine deletes your old backups. The best way to store your movies in your external drive is to do a second partition in it

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Answer 3

Sep 25, 2012 9:39 AM in response to mende1

mende1, I just purchased a larger Time Capsule and have similar questions (I filled my smaller TC up). You mentioned partitioning...is that possible with a Time Capsule? If so, please elaborate as I have not been able to find instructions anywhere. Now I fear I have purchased a 3TB data backer-upper, when I was hoping to reserve at least third of that to partition off for general storage purposes. *Sigh*

Also, how to transfer data (consolidate) from smaller TC to larger TC? I tried drag-and-drop, but get the message that neither disc may be modified.

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