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How to add files into a Time Machine external hard drive?

I just got a new hard drive, and I did my first back up with Time Machine. However, I wanted to use it also as a storage device, where I would load all my data in the external hard drive instead of my internal drive. My macbook is new so so far I've been loading 98 % of my files in cloud devices like Google Drive, Copy, Skydrive, etc just to name a few. Now since I have the desktop app for these cloud devices, I wanted to move the contents into my hard drive into my pictures folder so that it would have a copy of everything. BUT I am somehow unable to do it :/ I get the message instead that says " THE OPERATION CANNOT BE COMPLETED BECAUSE BACKUP ITEMS CAN'T BE MODIFIED" 😟 what do i do? how can i fix this? HELP ~? :/

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Feb 8, 2014 9:51 PM

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5 replies

Feb 8, 2014 9:58 PM in response to kj8P

Once you dedicate the drive to Time Machine, you can't use it for regular storage. The way around that is to partition the drive so that one partition is for storage and the other for Time Machine. Keep in mind though that with a hard drive it's ALWAYS a matter of time before it fails. It's mechanical, some day it'll quit. Make sure you've got copies of whatever in at least a couple places.

Feb 8, 2014 9:59 PM in response to kj8P

A: you DONT modify your TM backup, youd just add files into the same HD, however thats no good because........


Youre trying to create a nasty choke point for data failure by putting time machine AND your files on ONE DRIVE, 😟


very bad idea, hard drives are cheap as dirt, buy another, 2 MINIMUM external redundant backups of your vital data, period.


also, cloud isnt a place for data archives, and not safe, not secure.



The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be

Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.


Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.


Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.


Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

Feb 8, 2014 10:03 PM in response to BobRz

BobRz wrote:


Once you dedicate the drive to Time Machine, you can't use it for regular storage.



Yes you can, Im doing it now on 3 diff. drives. 😊



it just puts a Backups.backupsdb folder (i.e. TIME MACHINE) into that drive


you can add whatever extra folders / data / etc etc you want to that drive.





however its a very bad idea, as mentioned above, since it creates a bad choke point failure with everything on ONE HD.


however its fine to do (as I have done) IF YOU ALSO have said data archived on other additional drives.

Feb 8, 2014 10:07 PM in response to BobRz

it will both warn you, and will not erase any data YOU put in extra


it will start to erase data inside its OWN folder (Backups.backupsdb) , not outside of it. , i.e. folder you add such as a folder named "Joes pictures"


and etc etc folder you add to that HD.


Considering most TM backups are from a 1TB or much less HD or 256GB SSD,.......and writting to a 2TB (often) external HD, theres always lots of room for other things.



TM is a system backup anyway, not a data backup (important difference) and certainly not a data archive.




The only way in which its a 'bad idea' is anyone trying to use ONE HD for 'everything', without a redundant data archive.


even time machine only, ... on ONE ext. HD, its a horrible idea


one external HD is one HD is one HD, Time machine only or not, ...... 2 ext. HD is 1, and 1 is none.

How to add files into a Time Machine external hard drive?

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