Backing up of your IOS devices is the best preventive maintenance in case the device was stolen and damaged. By default your devices writes the backup on the Operating System’s default installation drive. Well, on certain times you can use the icloud in which a free 5 GB data storage is available for you, that’s in case you only need 5 GB, in excess to this you will need to pay for the additional icloud storage. So most certain, if you prefer to just have the backup on your local computer on a separate data disk here’s how you can link the existing device backup path to a different disk/location(usually a portable external storage).
external backup device
OS X
1) Make sure that iTunes is closed.
2) You will now move your folder called ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ to the drive you want to back up to. For instance, an external drive or secondary drive within your computer. Whichever works for you.
3) Launch Terminal Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type in the following command line:
ln -s /Volumes/DriveName/Backup/ ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup
In the above example, ‘DriveName’ would be the name of the new backup location.
(Credit: Link)
Windows XP
1) Ensure that iTunes in closed.
2) Download Junction ( Or you can use MKlink for Windows, which will make things a little different in the command prompt)
3) Unzip Junction.exe to your username folder, which is usually found in C:\Documents and Settings\
4) You will now create a folder for the your backups where you want them to save. From there, you will move your current backup folder to that new location.
a) The default location of that backup folder is here: C:\Documents and Setting\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync
b) You will now put it in the new location you want your backups to save to, such as an external drive.
5) Now run the Command Prompt and type the following:
junction “C:\Documents and Setting\\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “H:\Backups\iPhone Backup”
In the above example, “H:\Backups\iPhone Backup” should be your own file path leading to the backup location you want to use.
6) Close the Command Prompt and open iTunes and backup.
(credit: Link)
Windows Vista and Windows 7
1) Ensure that iTunes is closed.
2) Move the C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ to the drive you want to back up to. Let’s say Drive H:\ again
3) Open a command prompt and create an NTFS junction point something like what’s shown below:
mklink /J “C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “h:\Backup”
(Credit: Link)
Have a happy time cleaning up your main disk.
