If I deleted a file on my Mac would Time Machine delete its copy on my external hard drive when backing up?

Yes and No. Time Mashine makes one copy of your files every hour i think. So for this hour/day, it would be deleted. However, you can go back in time (about 2 month, depending on the size of your Time Mashine HHD) and then bring the file back to the present.

Does it make sense ?!?

but I'm too scared Time Machine will delete them from my external hard drive.

Time Machine will delete the images from the Time Capsule at some time......you just don't know when. This would be an extremely dangerous way to try to save space on your computer if you images are important to you.

Even if the files stay on the Time Capsule for awhile........since the only version of the images you have will be on the Time Capsule.....you have no backups when....not if.....the Time Capsule has a problem.

So you want to manually back up your file ?!?

Im not sure if making a new folder on the same disk works. I think a Time Mashine HHD uses a special format. I think it would be best if you partition the drive, so one partition is used for your Time Mashine backup and the rest for whatever you want to backup manually.

Time Machine would leave the files alone.....but you would still only have one copy of your images...and no backup.

I'll not bore you with the story about my neighbor who tried this....you already know the unhappy ending.

If you can think of the Time Capsule as only a device to store your backups, you will be fine.

I think it would be best if you partition the drive, so one partition is used for your Time Mashine backup and the rest for whatever you want to backup manually.

It is not possible to partition the Time Capsule drive unless you open up the Time Capsule, pull the drive, place it in a separate enclosure, connect it to your Mac and use Disk Utility for the operation.

Then, you have to re-install the drive back in the Time Capsule.

Definitely not recommended unless you do things like this on a regular basis.

The other detail.....this will void the warranty on the Time Capsule.

cant you do that if you connect the time capsule directly to the computer ?!?

Not possible, even if you connect the Time Capsule using an Ethernet cable. Disk Utility cannot read a network drive.

That's why you have to pull the drive and place it in a separate enclosure, then connect the enclosure using USB or Firewire to the Mac. Then, Disk Utility will be able to "see" it.

I might just buy another external to be honest.

Now you are talking 😉

Move the images over to an external drive that is connected to your Mac by USB or FireWire.

Then....Time Machine will backup both your Mac..and..the hard drive automatically. 🙂

Good idea to check Time Machine Preferences / Options to make sure that the drive is set for backups.

Move the images over to an external drive that is connected to your Mac by USB or FireWire.

Then....Time Machine will backup both your Mac..and..the hard drive automatically.

Can you elaborate on this?

I have a 128GB McAir (mid 2011 model) with a 2GB TC for backup. I need another external hard drive to save pictures and home HD videos. I wanted to partition the TC but learned that is not recommended. So now I’m looking to get two external hard drives to store priceless files and back it up.

Your comment makes me think I only need one external hard drive and use the 2GB TC as backup. A good option since 2GB is an overkill for a 128GB notebook.

Can you please share the steps? Plug in a HDD to McAir and run Time Machine? Is that it?

Thanks.

Make sure that you get a USB or FireWire hard drive that is formatted to work with Mac. The format to specify is Mac OS Extended Journaled.

Connect the hard drive to the MacAir using the USB or FireWire cable and drag the files that you want to keep on the new hard drive over from the Mac's hard drive.

Click the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen

Click Time Machine Preferences

Click Options

Here, you will likely see that the hard drive is on the lost of "excluded" items. You do not want the hard drive to be "excluded", so click on the name of the drive to highlight it, then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the drive from being excluded.

Time Machine will now backup your Mac and the hard drive going forward.

Once you have verified that the files are on the hard drive and that they are being backed up, you can delete the original copies of the files on the MacAir to free up space.

I'm going to give this a try this weekend. I have been thinking about different options for many weeks, reading as many articles as possible and I think your solution is the most practical (for my needs anyways). Most articles and forums deal with backups of the computer, not external/extra storage that also needs backups.

I'm surprised not many people come across this issue. I think one day most homes will have NAS servers and/or cloud backup to store TBs of videos and pictures.

thanks again.

correction:

2GB TC should be 2T Time Capsule. Sorry