backing up external drive with time machine, cannot select external drive

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backing up external drive with time machine, cannot select external drive

I had to move my music app library to external drive connected to my Mac Mini because I have the small HD in the mini (251 GB). Despite some bumps along the way, it's done. However, I can't back up that library with Time Machine. The drive appears in the window in Time Machines options, but is grayed out, just like the external drive for the backups.

Years ago, I had backed up a firewire external drive via Time Machine on my old iMac (iTunes library). I've seen various videos and articles describing the process of including an external in Time Machine backups. Nothing I've experienced or seen mentions the problem I'm having, the inability to select the drive at all in Time Machine System preferences. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have a lot of old CDs that I imported into my old iTunes library. If the external drive would fail, I'd lose that. And I don't want to buy a third hard drive to just back up the music library. Running LaCie drives for both music and Time Machine

thanks in advance

Mac mini, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

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210,255 points

Oct 31, 2022 3:12 PM in response to mdarnell

How is the drive formatted that you put your music library on? I must be Mac OS Extended (journaled) or APFS if Time Machine is to back it up.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

83,929 points

Oct 31, 2022 2:48 PM in response to mdarnell

You will need a third drive.

Consider this, if your data is only on the external drive, who is backing them up? Old scratched CDs?

Remarkably platter based drives may live longer than solid state drives. I was shocked when I learned this.

So do consider how you use each one to lengthen the life.

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Answer 3

mdarnell Author

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6 points

Nov 1, 2022 6:47 AM in response to Old Toad

That's the problem. Apparently, when I set up Time Machine on the one LaCie hard drive, it reformatted it to APFS. I had assumed, wrongly, that the LaCie set up had done this. So, the music library disk is exFAT, thus unable to be backed up. Now the question is do I try to redo all this.....

Thanks.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

210,255 points

Nov 1, 2022 11:22 AM in response to mdarnell

You'll have to somehow copy the Music files to a separate drive, reformat the LaCie to APFS and then copy the music back.

Or, to shorten the process get another EHD, format it APFS and copy the music library to it from the LaCie. You ca then erase and reformat the Lacie and use it for additional external storage.

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Answer 5

mdarnell Author

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Nov 1, 2022 12:46 PM in response to Old Toad

Right. I'm only reluctant to do so, because I had a rough time moving the library to the external drive in the first place. I'm not sure why. My wife's library moved over easily and worked from the moment I tried it. Mine, however, didn't. Not sure why. I was surprised that the library inherited all the old custom permissions from 2011-12 from when it was on my iMac. No matter, the music files are safely stored in cloud storage if I need them. Some time in the dark of winter, when life is dull, I'll try reformatting the drive and recreating the library. :-)

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

210,255 points

Nov 1, 2022 1:46 PM in response to mdarnell

The exFAT format is not Mac friendly and you will have problems on down the line. For one you won't be able to backup any file on that drive.

You should have no problem dragging the files from the exFAT drive to an APFS drive.

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Answer 7

mdarnell Author

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6 points

Oct 31, 2022 2:46 PM in response to mdarnell

Additional info - if I click the plus sign, I get the whole range of folders/drives, but I if I select the HD with the music library on it, the "exclude" button is not available.

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