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backup strategy problem

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susanL

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to prevent my laptop (macbook pro) from becoming filled with photos, i am downloading them onto a "my passport" 4 TB drive. i had already been using another "my passport" drive for my time machine backups, and when the new one arrived for the photos, i said do not use it for Time Machine backups. my plan was to tell time machine to include the new drive (which had renamed so it did not have the same name as the original backup drive) in the TM backup.

the next time i hooked up my regular Time Machine backup drive, it died - it started making clunking noises, and i soon had a message that Mac cannot restore the drive. so it is now officially dead.

i have ordered a new one (this is my work machine), but i don't know what to do about the photos - do i risk killing yet another drive by confusing it because time machine is on both? should i have a different strategy and backup the photos to a separate drive with a synch program like chronosync? what would you do?

tia
susan
 
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I don't see how you would risk another drive simply because Time Machine is on it, but I would dedicate a separate drive for Time Machine and one for your photos, just I your original plan was.
 
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that is still the plan, but do i dare back up the photo drive with the new time machine drive? will it be confused by the (unused) time machine software on the photo drive? can i just delete the unused TM software on the photo drive?
 
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susanL said:
that is still the plan, but do i dare back up the photo drive with the new time machine drive? will it be confused by the (unused) time machine software on the photo drive? can i just delete the unused TM software on the photo drive?
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I'm not sure I understand you fully, but I think you are seeing problems which aren’t there. Why would you not dare to backup the photo disk with Time Machine? What do you think might confuse Time Machine?
 
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these were two identical "my passport" hard drives, both equipped with Time Machine software. i had already told "mac" (my laptop) to ignore the Time Machine software on the photo drive, where i also had changed the name. the other hard drive has been my TM backup since i bought this laptop 6 months ago. maybe i am imagining the problem... but it seemed odd since i have never had such a problem with backup drives in 15 years of backing up... or whatever it might be:)
 
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Time Machine is an Apple product, and is part of your System software. It does not come with My Password drives. I assume you mean that these drives have some third party backup software on them, but there is no compelling reason to use that or even to keep it on both drives. I also assume that this is just an installer anyway. If you do want to use this software, you have to install it first and then it runs from your Applications folder on your internal disk, like any other application.
 
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hmm. you are right - i checked the photos drive and that is its own proprietary software, which i don't use. ok, i will try this again and hope all goes well! thank you for patiently answering my question...
 
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susanL said:
hmm. you are right - i checked the photos drive and that is its own proprietary software, which i don't use. ok, i will try this again and hope all goes well! thank you for patiently answering my question...
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A suggestion, even if it is from a Windows user. If you don't use the backup software now or plan to in the future, that came with a WD Passport or other external HDD, then just delete it. You will recover some space in the drive and you will avoid potential confusion on your system.
 
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