Time Machine Question

[Crotonmark]

I back up my Mac SSD and an external storage drive to a time machine drive
When I didnt have access to my storage drive and I went into Time Machine the storage drive part of the finder window was greyed out
Does this mean if I ever really lose access to my external storage drive that I dont have a time machine backup to restore from?
Or am I just confused?
Can anyone straighten me out?
thanks

 

[zooland]

In Time Machine preferences you can set which drives (or folders) you want to back up to Time Machine. Maybe you didn't add your external one?

 

[Crotonmark]

I did add it and when the external drive is plugged into the Mac I can restore to it
When the external drive isnt plugged into the Mac the folders on the external drive are greyed out for each backup

 

[JustMartin]

I think what happens is that you have to have an external disk with the same name plugged into Mac for restoration. I accidentally reformatted, renamed and repartitioned the wrong external hard drive on my iMac. I could not restore from backup until I reformatted the drive with its original name. So, if your current external fails, you can get your stuff from backup onto a new external with the same name

 

[Lee_Bo]

I think what happens is that you have to have an external disk with the same name plugged into Mac for restoration. I accidentally reformatted, renamed and repartitioned the wrong external hard drive on my iMac. I could not restore from backup until I reformatted the drive with its original name. So, if your current external fails, you can get your stuff from backup onto a new external with the same name

I think you are correct. If you backup to an external drive, you have to have that same external drive connected to your Mac to back up or restore.

 

[curmudgeonette]

When the external drive isnt plugged into the Mac the folders on the external drive are greyed out for each backup

FYI, if the Time Machine interface won't let you restore a file, you can always just access the TM backup directly via the Finder and locate your file. You have to mount the server, drill down several layers of folders, select the backup date with your data, and then navigate down the folder hierarchy of your drive's backup.