Apple Time Machine

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Raymond
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Using Time Machine

I know the idea behind it, its supposed to back up your data periodically right? But before I start using it, I want to set it up right from the start so I don’t need to change it a month down the line. Just wondering what is the best way to do this.

I have a iMac with 640G HD inside, do I use it to store data too? With windows, I keep my OS HD small, like 120G and put only the OS and programs on it and store my data physically on separate HDs. But with the build in HD so large, it seems a lot of space to waste.

I have 1 spare 500G external HD, now do I:-

1 – Put the data inside the Mac and use the 500G as backup?
2 – Put the data in the 500G and get another External HD to back that up?
3 – Scrap all that and get a drobo?

I am really trying to limit the number of power cables, my PC had this problem of way too many wires and I like the fact that now my Mac has 1 power cable and that’s it and want to use as number amount of plugs as possible.
 
I use a Time Capsule to wirelessly back up. Your first backup take a long time to do as it backs up your whole system. Once this is done it then backs up every hour and it quite quick and works in the background.

If you delete a file by mistake you can then use time machine to go back to before you deleted the file and restore it.

Back in Jan my Macbook Pro needed to be replaced, when i got the new one i hooked it up to Time Capsule and it restored the new Mac to exactly how i'd left the old one.
 
One thing i didn't mention, before your first backup it's possible worth deleting anything you don't want or need as this would be backed up and take up space on your external.
 
You can also tell time machine what you want backing up.
I only have a small external drive, so Time machine only backs up my documents on an hourly basis.

I have backups up until May and still have 30Gb of 160Gb free.

I know if something goes wrong I'll have to install my programs and OS, but at least all my documents are safe.
 
I set it to exclude large parts of the system areas of the OS even though I'm using a 1TB Time Capsule.

You can also set the delay between incremental backups to suit yourself. I've set it to a 24 hr period.

I've found it great for recovering the occasional file or even folder but I wouldn't want to use it for recovering an entire system. I don't even know how, tbh, as I would always reinstall from scratch if there was ever a major problem - like *** I had 2 wks ago.
 
2blue4u said:
I've found it great for recovering the occasional file or even folder but I wouldn't want to use it for recovering an entire system. I don't even know how, tbh, as I would always reinstall from scratch if there was ever a major problem - like *** I had 2 wks ago.
Click to expand...

To cut a long story short i dropped a broke my Macbook, i sent it off to the insurance company for them to inspect it and they replaced it rather than fixing it. Courier picked it up Monday morning and the new one arrived on the Thursday morning. 2 hrs later it was fully restored from time machine all programmes and file intact. The new one came with iLife 09 installed which wasn't replaced with the older 08 version that was backed up. It worked a treat for me and saved a lot of hassle.
 
I keep all my data on my internal drive and use TimeMachine to back that up to an external one.
I also have a second external drive that I copy the contents of my TimeMachine drive onto each weekend. This is then stored off site (my desk drawer at work, nothing fancy). This means that should anything nasty happen at home (fire etc...), I shouldn't lose more than a weeks worth of data.

I'm not sure if TimeMachine will backup external drives, I thought it just did your internal "system" disk.
 
Good call, forgot to mention the offsite backup.

Yes, it will backup external drives connected to you Mac. If you go into TM preferences when there's an external plugged in it will be selected to ignore the drive. If you remove the drive from the list it will include it in the backup.
 
Jim.R said:
I keep all my data on my internal drive and use TimeMachine to back that up to an external one.
I also have a second external drive that I copy the contents of my TimeMachine drive onto each weekend. This is then stored off site (my desk drawer at work, nothing fancy). This means that should anything nasty happen at home (fire etc...), I shouldn't lose more than a weeks worth of data.

I'm not sure if TimeMachine will backup external drives, I thought it just did your internal "system" disk.
Click to expand...

Well, i don't know if 500G will last long (may be 9 months?) then what do i do then?
 
As long as your backup drive is bigger than the drives your wanting to backup then your fine as TM will just overwrite older weekly backups.
 
I use TC as a backup of my day to day OS/emails etc but wouldn't consider it for my picture library. That is backed up on an external firewire drive and DVD's.
 
Edtog said:
I use TC as a backup of my day to day OS/emails etc but wouldn't consider it for my picture library. That is backed up on an external firewire drive and DVD's.
Click to expand...

That reminded me, do you user Aperture on the Mac?
If you do, Aperture and TimeMachine don't play well together, you'll need to use Apertures vault system to backup your library.
 
goffski said:
As long as your backup drive is bigger than the drives your wanting to backup then your fine as TM will just overwrite older weekly backups.
Click to expand...

You can also clone your timeMachine drive onto a newer, larger disk and use that moving forwards, retiring the original.
 
2blue4u said:
You can also set the delay between incremental backups to suit yourself. I've set it to a 24 hr period.
Click to expand...

:thinking: ... how does one do that then Blu... :shrug: ... mine automatically set itself up to do hourly, daily and weekly back-ups and I do not see any way of changing this in Preferences... :suspect:



Thanx... :D






:p
 
Venomator said:


:thinking: ... how does one do that then Blu... :shrug: ... mine automatically set itself up to do hourly, daily and weekly back-ups and I do not see any way of changing this in Preferences... :suspect:



Thanx... :D






:p
Click to expand...

I'm not too sure on this one. I thought you needed a shareware prog to be able to do this.
 
Go for Option 1.

Exclude certain folders from the backup. For example I exclude my download directory and the folder that contains my Virtual Box virtual disks (otherwise each time it runs it backs up the whole drive of 6Gb)

I also keep 2 separate copies of my lightroom and itunes libraries, one on the NAS, one on another HDD. Belt, braces and a safety pin ;)

Time Machine Editor is what you need to adjust the intervals
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26704/timemachineeditor
 
Or,

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 86400

the last figure is the number of seconds delay.

Or just edit the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist file
 
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