Apple's "Backup" verses Time Machine?

I have several external drives, USB and Firewire, that I created backups on for specific folders as well as my home folder and library, etc. This was while I was in Tiger. I recently upgraded to Leopard. I'm not sure what to do with my "Backup" backups in light of now having Time Machine.
So far, I have not used Time Machine at all.
Can anyone recommend a next step? Do I need to trash my "Backup" backups and start new with Time Machine. Can I just ignore Time Machine and continue on with "Backup?"
noodle--head

joshz; and Kappy
Thank you both. As a matter of fact, I have always preferred Chronosync and I think I'll go back to using that since it is far less confusing when it's time to revisit previous backups. Though I have not given Time Machine a fair try as yet. This motivates me to do so. I'll do a test comparison. But what helped is getting some assurance that the latest Apple app did not make older Apple apps impossible to use.
nÔÔdle--hëad

Similar Messages

Is it possible to have two hard drives connected to my airport extreme and use one to store my itunes library/iphoto and the other to backup via time machine? Will the second (larger) drive back-up both my mac HD and my other external airport drive?

For the past year I've been using an external hard drive (HD1) connected to my airport extreme as the back-up location for time machine. This has worked fine without any issues. What I would like to do now is to move my itunes and iphoto libraries off of my laptop (space constraints) and store them on a second external hard drive (HD2) connected to the airport extreme. I have successfully connected the second hard drive using a Belkin powered USB hub. What I am wondering is if I direct my time machine back-ups to HD1 will it back-up both my mac HD as well as HD2? I apologize if this has already been answered but i've read conflicting responses on various message boards and a number of responses were dated so I wanted to make sure I received the latest information.
thank you

kosty wrote:
For the past year I've been using an external hard drive (HD1) connected to my airport extreme as the back-up location for time machine. This has worked fine without any issues.
That may be true, but you need to know that backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk. Do not be surprised if those backups suddenly turn up corrupted.
What I am wondering is if I direct my time machine back-ups to HD1 will it back-up both my mac HD as well as HD2?
No. Time Machine cannot back up from any network location. The 3rd-party utilities CarbonCopyCloner and ChronoSync may be workable alternatives.

I am running my first backup on Time Machine using a Seagate external hard drive with a thunderbolt adapter and cable. I have a MacBook Pro 2011. It is backing up 11GB, and is telling me it will take approx two days. Is this normal?

I am running my first backup on Time Machine using a Seagate external hard drive with a thunderbolt adapter and cable. I have a MacBook Pro 2011. It is backing up 11GB, and is telling me it will take approx two days. Is this normal?

Download the supplemental fix to 10.7.5
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599

Can no longer backup with time machine to WD MyBookLive.

Earlier I got the "OSStatus error 2" and now I get a message that the backup failed, "time machine couldn't back up to mybooklive. Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
I've signed in as guest, which I have always done in the past but it keeps failing.
I am using WD MyBookLive and can access my files from my iphone without issues.
Current OS X v 10.9.2. updated back in March and my last successful backup was April 13, 2014.
Am up to date with updating all software.
The following are log messages from the system log queries:
4/26/14 1:24:49.841 PM com.apple.backupd[1411]: Starting manual backup
4/26/14 8:30:09.447 PM com.apple.backupd[1619]: Starting automatic backup
I've rebooted time machine and my book. Checked settings and nothing seems amiss.
Any help or suggestions would be most appreciative.
Thanks in advance!

Start with C10 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems

Backup with Time Machine for 6 iMacs

I want to to use an external drive to backup with Time Machine my 6 iMac's. I know that Time Capsule is good for this kind of stuff but I would prefer to be able to plug my Storage Device with an Ethernet cable. And Time Capsule is offering 2 or 3 TB, I would need minimum 5 TB. Any idea what should I buy and what is good for that purpose?
Thanks a lot

Time Capsule has 3 Eth ports so only 3 iMacs via cable.
You can do it with two 3TB Time Capsules if you wish.
With 6 iMacs you may need to think about small business solution.
On Mac networks we use Gigabit switches and NAS drives such as Buffalo TeraStation III 8TB on RAID5.
Those support Apple Time Machine, have dual Gigabit Eth port which can be trunked with manageable switches and all works very well and fast.
There are many scenarios you may want to consider.
Let me know if you have any questions regarding the above setup.

HT1175 I have OSX Lion 10.7.5 and the backup in time machine is extremely slow

I have OSX 10.7.5 installed on my MacBook Pro and the backup to time machine is extemely slow. Time Machine indicates 4 days or more. Why?

Did you happen to update early in the piece.. there is a supplement.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599
Test regime for software patches is now left to end users it seems.

I recently upgraded to Mavericks and the time machine is failing to backup. Time Machine began only backing up twice a day and now has stopped.

I recently upgraded to Mavericks and the time machine is failing to backup. Time Machine began only backing up twice a day and now has stopped.

This is the error message I got:
2014-03-18 17:02:30 -0400 com.apple.backupd[4971]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.HostUUID path:/Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/Backups.backupdb/Quincy‚Äö√Ñ√¥s iMac size:37
2014-03-18 17:02:30 -0400 com.apple.backupd[4971]: Backup failed with error 2: 2

How do i get an iphone backup off time machine

good day. i have an iphone 4s running ios5.1 that has a corrupted backup using itunes 10.6.1 on my macbook pro using lion 10.7.3.
i would like to restore my iphone from a previous backup from time machine, however i don't wish to restore my whole computer for just this purpose.
i do not know the location of the time machine iphone backup.
any suggestions?
i did restore the itunes files (minus music) and this did not work.
all of this because i can't receive mms with t-mobile and i fooled with the settings, ugh!
thanks

The backup would be in your user's home directory:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
other info - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

Backups without Time Machine?

I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine. I'm a tech support guy from a way back who's primarily worked with *nix and Windows machines, and I'm no stranger to setting up networks, NAS devices and filers, etc.
This is an all-Apple setup - MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPads, iPhones, etc. There were 2 Time Capsules in the mix, but they both began to fail so we replaced them with a single Seagate 4-bay NAS attached to 2 LAN ports. This is a 10/100/100 network with N-wireless and Gigabit switches.
Both before and after swapping out the Time Capsules for the NAS, we received the "
Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.
message on the MacBooks, less often on the iMac. Post-NAS implementation, we are still seeing on the MacBooks. I've tried relaxing the backup settings to every 3-4 hours since all machines were set to backup every hour as default and I believe they were stepping on each other.
I'm not ruling out the network, or anything at this point, but it seems odd that Time Machine will complete a backup, then at some point in the future find that it's not valid and need to go again from scratch. It's not ideal to use Time Machine if it needs a new full backup every ~2 days or more.
So I'm simultaneously looking for any advice on how to resolve the Time Machine error, and/or how to perform routine backups to the NAS without Time Machine.
Thanks in advance.
MM

I'm wondering what the options are for backups without Time Machine
Time machine is NOT a data backup, its a system (/emergency) backup. (whats the difference? the system is data?!, Yes, however the difference is huge).
....and most pros (nearly all) are absolutely NOT using Time machine as a source, and never as a single source to archive important data.
Time machine by definition is absolutely not a data archive, nor a storage nexus for vital data, which is secure by definition.
here you go:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine
"you can't boot directly from your Time Machine backups"
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
#6. Cloud based storage
Drawbacks:
1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
4. *Level-0 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.
#7. Network attached storage (NAS) and JBOD storage
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to RAID failure and mass data corruption.
2. Expensive to set up initially.
3. Can be slower than USB, especially over WiFi.
4. Mechanically identical to USB HD backup in failure potential, higher failure however due to RAID and proprietary NAS enclosure failure.
Advantages:
1. Multiple computer access.
2. Always on and available.
3. Often has extensive media and application server functionality.
4. Massive capacity (also its drawback) with multi-bay NAS, perfect for full system backups on a larger scale.
5. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
JBOD (just a bunch of disks / drives) storage
Identical to NAS in form factor except drives are not networked or in any RAID array, rather best thought of as a single USB feed to multiple independent drives in a single powered large enclosure. Generally meaning a non-RAID architecture.
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to HD failure but not RAID failure and mass data corruption.
Advantages:
1. Simplex multi-drive independent setup for mass data storage.
2. Very inexpensive dual purpose HD storage / access point.
3. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
Time Machine is a system hub backup, not a data hub backup
Important data you “don’t dare lose” should not be considered ultimately safe, or ideally stored (at the very least not as sole copy of same) on your Time Machine backup. Hourly and daily fluctuations of your system OS, applications, and software updates is the perfect focus for the simple user to conduct ‘click it and forget it’ backups of the entire system and files on the Macbook HD.
Bootable clones are the choice of professionals and others in that Time Machine cannot be booted from and requires a working HD to retrieve data from (meaning another computer). Your vital data needs to be and should be ‘frozen’ on some form of media storage, either in a clone, as an archived HD containing important files, or on DVD blank archival media.
A file that is backed up to Time Machine is unsafe in that if that file is deleted off the computer by accident or lost otherwise, that file will likewise vanish from Time Machine as it reflects changes on the internal computer HD/SSD.

I Can't Backup to time machine through my airport extreme.

I Have recently paritioned by backup disks into two separate partitions and i now have the nice view of time machine because i switched to the GUID format. However, now i cannot backup to time machine through my airport extreme. Please help, it is very frustrating.

No you can't and the reason is Apple blocked the ability for Time Machine to backup over WIFI to a NAS connected to the AEBS. Though I was able to use iTimeMachine to enable the feature prior to the recent Leopard update 10.5.2 which seems to have closed this ability once again. Apple's comment to me was to buy Time Capsule claiming the feature was never supported over WIFI with the AEBS even though their advertising just prior to Leopard's release stated differently. A lot of us on this forum paid for an AEBS and NAS drive based on Apple's own advertising regarding a feature they later blocked/removed and are extremely upset with the way the issue seems to be ignored by Apple support who pretend there was never an issue to begin with.

Incremental Backups in Time Machine taking forever

Greetings all,
I have read the various posts about slow initial backups with Time Machine. I, on the other hand, had no such problem. However, now that my initial backup is complete I find it takes quite a long time for Time Machine to do its hourly thing. I mean a LONG time. The machine will sit for minutes at a time doing nothing, then copy a few kilobytes of a reported 239 MB backup. Then when it finally does complete - roughly 30 minutes later - it will sit for 10 or 15 minutes at the "Finishing backup" stage. At this rate Time Machine is running almost constantly - by the time the darnned thing finishes it's almost time to start again. It didn't do this on my G5 quad core with the same amount of data (about 850 GB). Does anyone have any ideas why this might be happening?
Thanks for your help.

Your Majesty!!
Sounds like your incremental backups are quite fast!
I have a mid 2011 iMac with SSD and 2TB HDD, and Time Machine incremental backups take anything up to 5 hours, sometimes longer. Trivial amounts of data are usually involved, but the log reports very large numbers of files.
One time I completed a Time Machine backup, rebooted and initiated another backup immediately with very few apps running (Console, Activity Monitor), and after several hours, the backup log said it had backed up over 800,000 files but only a very small amount of data.
I have a case open with AppleCare since July 1st. They have a whole lot of logs and other information being analyzed.
You will find others who have the same unresolved problem at - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3144862?start=0&tstart=0

Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Machine Backups". The backup disk is not available.

I have received an error message today - Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to "Time Machine Backups". The backup disk is not available.
I am using a WD 1.5tb Help!!! Everything is on there and the files are not showing. The WD SmartWare icon is on the Desktop but the Time Machine icon is not. When I save a file I open the Time Machine file and save it in there. What do I do? How do I get my files back?? I do not keep anything on the macbook pro. Help PLEASE!!!

Hi Yaann,
Thank you for your reply. Yes I did try that, but no luck.
After several hours of calls to a very unhelpful WD and further calls to Applecare, there was nothing anyone could do. Out of frustration when holding the WD 1.5TB hard drive, I smacked it (NOT recommended). Well, to my surprise the WD reappeared on my devices list. Let me tell you, I pulled my files off as fast as I could on to my MacBook Pro. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I confirmed that everything transferred back to the MacBook Pro fine. I spoke with the Applecare tech and he talked me through the set up on a new Lacie hard drive.
What I can say is that after further research into external hard drives and now personal experience - Lacie is the top of the line and you get what you pay for. I would NEVER ever recommend a WD to anyone. Given one, I would still through it away.
I was LUCKY.
I must say the support and understanding I received from Applecare was outstanding!! I would never own a apple product without applecare and from long term experience it is worth every penny.
All the best,

IMac with external HDD backup to Time Machine

I have an iMac with a 1TB internal HDD and have run out of space due to the number of photos in my library. I want to move the photos to a 1TB external HDD, then add a new 2TB external HDD to serve as the new Time Machine backup drive. So my setup will include the iMac and two connected external HDDs. What is the best way to set this up so the new Time Machine backup drive captures both the internal iMac HDD and the external photos HDD? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Thanks!

First of all, note that Time Machine can only make backups of drives formatted in HFS+ (known as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"), so your 1 TB external drive has to use that format before moving your photos to it. As you are using it to make Time Machine backups, it is already using that format.
There are two possibilities in order to start using a different external drive for Time Machine:
Move your old Time Machine backups made in your 1 TB external drive to your 2 TB external drive.
Start a completely new backup, deleting the old ones.
In the first possibility, you only have to follow these steps -> Time Machine: How to transfer backups from a current backup drive to a new backup drive - Soporte técnico de Apple After moving your Time Machine backups to the 2 TB external drive, remember to format the 1 TB drive with Disk Utility in order to store your photos there.
In the second possibility, just go to System Preferences -> Time Machine, and choose your 2 TB external drive as your Time Machine drive. Then, format the 1 TB external drive.
In both cases, Time Machine does not make backups of external drives by default, so after moving your photos to the 1 TB external drive, you have to go to System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Options, and remove the 1 TB external drive from the excluded items list. By doing that, the next backup will also include your 1 TB drive.

How can I see another mac backup on time machine?

how can I see another mac backup on time machine?

Bob thanks, but that didn't solve my problem, I went to question 17 and went into the Browse my Time Machine and it also didn't find or recognize the other Mac. I know it's in there because when I open the other Mac and Enter the Time Machine, I can see it through that Mac, and I have the same problem there, where I can't see my Mac.
In short, when I back up a Mac (doesn't matter which one) I can verify its backup as long as I use that Mac, but I cannont verfiy the backup on that Mac using another Mac and vice versa.
Also, I never used to have to do anything to see both on the same Mac. So I don't know what changed.
There must be another way.
Thanks

Why won't my Western Digital (2TB) My Book for Mac backup to time Machine?

This past fall (2012) I was notified by apple that the hard drive on my 2010 iMac might need to be replaced due to issues. Before doing so I was prompted to back up all of my data with an external hard drive using Time Machine. I purchased a Western Digital 2TB external hard drive and set it up easily. The setup parameters were such that the thing should backup my iMac to Time Machine on the hour every hour. This worked well and also allowed me to restore my user preferences for nearly everything when I got my computer back with its new hard drive. This was around October.
Recently (mid-March), my WD My Book no longer backs up to Time Machine. The computer recognizes the drive, allows me to access it, but will not backup to Time Machine. I have no hypotheses as to why this has started happening, but it just did. I have tried shutting Time Machine off and turning it back on to the particular external hard drive. This has not worked. I have tried to prompt a manual backup, but the computer gets stuck when preparing to back the drive up. It never actually commences the backup.
I understand that just like anything else that things fail. I also understand that sometimes things fail within the first few months of purchase (half a year-ish in my case). I just cannot understand what might be causing it. Any speculation?
Here are some screenshots associated with my current problems:

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message. Clear the text field and scroll back in the log to that time. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — anonymize before posting.

Apple's "Backup" verses Time Machine?

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