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Jeff Joyce

Q: Can I use Time Capsule to backup an external hard drive?

My MacBook Pro is backed up to a Time Capsule via Time Machine.  My iTunes library is stored on an external hard drive (WD My Passport formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) that is connected to the MacBook Pro.  Can I also back up the iTunes library to the Time Capsule using Time Machine?

Posted on May 24, 2015 1:13 PM

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Q: Can I use Time Capsule to backup an external hard drive?

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  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 24, 2015 1:21 PM in response to Jeff Joyce
    Level 10 (312,640 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2015 1:21 PM in response to Jeff Joyce

    Yes. Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences and remove the external drive from the list of excluded items.

     

    (127824)

  • by Bob Timmons,Solvedanswer

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons May 24, 2015 1:24 PM in response to Jeff Joyce
    Level 10 (105,062 points)
    Wireless
    May 24, 2015 1:24 PM in response to Jeff Joyce

    Yes you can, assuming that the WD drive is connected directly to your Mac using a USB or FireWire connection. (Not sure if the WD drive has a FireWire port or not).

     

    Your next question might be "how" to do this.

     

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

    Click Open Time Machine Preferences

    Click the Options button

     

    Here, you will see a list of items that have been excluded from your Time Machine backups. Your WD drive should appear here, if it connects directly to the Mac.

     

    Click on the WD drive to highlight it, then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the box to remove the drive from the list of items that are excluded from backups.

     

    Time Machine will back up both your Mac and the WD drive on the next pass. 

     

    Depending on how much data you have on the WD drive, the backup may take some time, since Time Machine will back up everything on the WD drive. Once that is done, Time Machine will only back up any changes that might have occurred on your Mac or the WD drive, so subsequent incremental backups will usually only take a few minutes for each backup in the future.

  • by Jeff Joyce,

    Jeff Joyce Jeff Joyce May 24, 2015 1:38 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 24, 2015 1:38 PM in response to Niel

    That works.  Thank you.

  • by Jeff Joyce,

    Jeff Joyce Jeff Joyce May 24, 2015 1:39 PM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 24, 2015 1:39 PM in response to Bob Timmons

    Thank you for the solution.