The underlying operating system for the Mac is Unix.

Unix has a concept called a symbolic link. Similar to the idea of ‘aliases’ but a bit more robust.

Creating a symbolic link on the Internal Hard drive that points to the external hard drive _might_ fool carbonite into thinking the files are on the internal drive.

Do the following:

1. Open the Terminal application
2. type: cd / (that cdforward slash. press return.
3. type: ln -s /Volumes/<>/ <>. Press return.

Example: ln -s /Volumes/my_drive/ /backmeup

If you look on your hard drive you will see a file that has been created called ‘backmeup’. This is a symbolic link. Don’t be fooled by it saying that it is a ‘alias’…it’s technically not.

To see what the symbolic link is pointing to do the following:

1. Open the terminal application
2. type: cd / press return
3. type: ls -la | more

In the list that appears, look to the right side of the screen. Look for the name of the symbolic link you created above. You should see something like: backmeup –> /Volumes/my_drive/

Try the carbonite backup.

Thanks for your input. These are great questions. Keep them coming. John

You requested suggestions for future posts. I would like to see information about lighting and setting up an inexpensive in-home studio for family/friend portraits – nothing elaborate – think “amateur” – but one that will provide adequate lighting and backdrop.

Also, are there diffusers that can be used for outdoor portraits to soften sunlight? I really don’t know where to begin for softbox lighting etc for the non-professional photographer. So maybe some posts about equipment and suppliers etc for non-professionals would be helpful.

I’m glad the post was helpful. I know the Drobo device isn’t cheap but check it out for a RAID solution…. it’s really slick. Also, Carbonite works primarily with internal hard drives. The way I get around this is with an esata drive (but then again I’m using a PC). One work around would be to pull the files over from the external drive to your internal drive and back them up from there. I’ll see if I can work on a better Mac solution and get back to you. John

p.s. Keep stopping by and if you have any suggestions on what you would like to read in future post let me know.