backup photos on external h.d.

Question

Level 1

4 points

backup photos on external h.d.

I have a 4tb Seagate backup plus. On time machine, it appears only the desktop stuff from long ago is there. When I click on pictures or movies, I just get a window that says there are 28g of photos--I can't see what was on it on that old date and it opens the photos that are on of my computer today.

I'm afraid it's not backing up all my movies & photos (since this happened to a friend). nothing is excluded from the backup and I am not using the cloud as a backup location. software is up to date. using imac, el capitan v10.11.6.

I took the h.d. to view on another mac and they couldn't see any pics, just that the size of photos file was 28g.

To alleviate the fear that the h.d. is not backing up my photos, how do I see the photos and everything else on the h.d. itself?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 13, 2017 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 13, 2017 10:56 AM in response to pattee

To alleviate the fear that the h.d. is not backing up my photos, how do I see the photos and everything else on the h.d. itself?

To answer that we have to know what you have and what you are doing

What OS do you have (you say you are up to date but then say you have El Captain which is over two years out of date - the up to date software is High Sierra 10.13.2)? How are you backing up to the Seagate drive? What format is the Seagate drive and ow is it connected?

And note there is no iCloud Backup for a Mac so that is not an option

LN

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Answer 2

pattee Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2017 5:11 PM in response to LarryHN

Yes, I know El Capitan is old, but I meant the Seagate ext. HD software is up to date.

Backing up using Time Machine.

format Is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" per info, tho I don't know what that means.

Ext. HD is connected via usb.

oh, I thought u could buy iCloud space.?

the Seagate backup mentions cloud options (which I did not take).

when I click pictures on ext. HD & go to an older date, a window opens, I choose Photos Library.photolibrary. Then, Photos on my computer opens to the most recent pic I downloaded on my computer.

that is the worry--How do I know if these pics on are the external drive if it's opening the pics on the computer to which it's attached. Like I said, when I attached HD to another's Mac, they saw size, but not the pics themselves.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Dec 13, 2017 5:18 PM in response to pattee

Check the Time Machine status - you can not look at files in the backup without restoring them using the TimeMachine application

You certainly can buy more iCloud space - but you can not use it as a backup for your Mac, you can use it for syncing between devices (its main use for Photos) , for backing up IOS devices (not Macs) and a few other things

LN

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Answer 4

pattee Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2017 6:56 PM in response to LarryHN

Thanks but I don't understand what u mean when you say "check status of time machine." And I can see the files, but only the desktop ones are in the ext HD. And if I restore, I was under the impression that would erase the more current backup.

I know there are no pics/movies in the HD and I don't know how to get them to be part of the backup. Guess I'll call Seagate.

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