What exactly is Time Machine?

I am fairly new to Apple sytems and software having progressed from PC to iPad and now to Pro Mac Laptop.. A lot of times in passing Apple, whether at their store or in emails talk about things like Time Machine and Thunder something or other and lot of other lingo and I really do not know what they are talking about. The literature available on websites does not go into sufficient detail to tell me exactly what these things are so I can evaualte whether I need them or not. Can anyone direct me to where I can learn some of this stuff?

This Time Machine Tutorial should answer you questions. If you are serious about backing up Time Machine is good place to start. However in backup it's wise to have redundancy if you are serious about backing up. A popular method of redundant backup in addition to Time Machine is creating a Bootable Clone on another EHD. Both Carbon Copy Cloner & SuperDuper! will backup by creating Bootable Clones. Many people on these forums (including myself) use both TM and a Bootable Clone, I happen to use SD however many are very happy with CCC. Basic rules of thumb are
NEVER user the same EHD for TM and a Bootable Clone, the reason being is if that drive dies (and they all do eventually) you have lost ALL of your backup!
NEVER use the same EHD for storage that you use for backup. This is for the same reason as #1. In other words never store data (music, photos, important documents) on a EHD that you use for backup.

Similar Messages

What exactly does Time Machine back up?

May seem a basic question. I've always assumed my home folder which, at the moment, weighs 120 Gb, give or take a kb. So why does TM report that it cannot complete backup to a 180 Gb external drive as it now needs 220 Gb, despite having done so for a number of years without a hitch?

Time Machine backs up your entire system (except for some things like system work files, most caches, trash, etc.), unless you specifically exclude things.
It sounds like your TM drive is too small -- it usually needs 2-3 times the space of the data it's backing up, to keep a reasonable "depth" of old backups.
It may also be trying to do a new, full backup. Some possible reasons for that are listed in #D3 of the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
If in doubt, see #A1 there. Download the TM Buddy widget and copy and post the messages here. That may clarify the situation.

What is causing Time Machine to momentary freeze my system?

Every 60 minutes when time machine starts its backup routine my entire system momentarily freezes. Audio stops, cursor freezes, then a few moments later the system is running as usual. I have disabled drive sleep, display sleep. The backup drive is an internal drive. Memory is usually between 45% and 65% capacity - not maxed out. CPU usage is minimal. Most of the time I am programming, so this is happening during basic text editing, not during cpu/memory intensive audio/video/3d processing. I'm on a late 2008 mac pro with 10gigs of ram, and a new radeon 5770 video card. It was also happening with the stock video card that died on the reboot after I updated to 10.8.3 :-{.
3/27/13 8:10:42.488 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Starting automatic backup
3/27/13 8:10:43.076 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Spruce/Backups.backupdb
3/27/13 8:11:00.900 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Using file event preflight for Pine
3/27/13 8:11:01.090 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Will copy (4.1 MB) from Pine
3/27/13 8:11:01.092 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Found 117 files (4.1 MB) needing backup
3/27/13 8:11:01.113 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: 1.04 GB required (including padding), 1.3 TB available
3/27/13 8:11:40.093 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Copied 4413 files (48.9 MB) from volume Pine.
3/27/13 8:11:40.119 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Using file event preflight for Pine
3/27/13 8:11:40.123 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Will copy (341 KB) from Pine
3/27/13 8:11:40.124 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Found 14 files (341 KB) needing backup
3/27/13 8:11:40.125 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: 1.03 GB required (including padding), 1.3 TB available
3/27/13 8:11:42.876 PM mdworker[25875]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
3/27/13 8:11:43.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(25876) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
3/27/13 8:11:44.725 PM sandboxd[25876]: ([25875]) mdworker(25875) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
3/27/13 8:11:46.272 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Copied 709 files (3.1 MB) from volume Pine.
3/27/13 8:11:46.886 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Created new backup: 2013-03-27-201146
3/27/13 8:11:48.315 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Starting post-backup thinning
3/27/13 8:11:55.958 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Deleted /Volumes/Spruce/Backups.backupdb/Pine/2013-03-26-191143 (17.8 MB)
3/27/13 8:11:55.958 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Post-back up thinning complete: 1 expired backups removed
3/27/13 8:11:56.095 PM com.apple.backupd[25861]: Backup completed successfully.
I beleive this has started since the 10.8.1 update. It is happening every hour on the hour so to speak - exactly when time machine is starting. It has become very intrusive - just in the middle of some important coding and then I'm frozen. I'd prefer to set a timer to take a break instead of being forced to do so!

The log shows nothing unusual.
Some "eco" or "green" drives may spin down when idle regardless of the Energy Saver setting. The application "KeepDriveSpinning" from developer Jon Stovell may help in that case, or there may be a way to change the behavior in the drive's firmware settings.

What happens when Time Machine starts to fill up a drive?

Using Time Machine on a partitioned External HD has been an absolute snap! I love the app. My main disappointment with it is that it has no literature on HOW it works, and no real ways for me to set different controls for it other than on and off.
My question is that what happens when a drive starts to get full? I have about 30 gigs left on the partition, and I am wondering what Time Machine is going to do. Does it just delete the oldest material, or does it simply fill up and tell me to look at everything on there and decide to clear it all off. I hate that I don't know what will happen.
-Jon

From what I've read (I've not gotten a drive full so I can't speak from experience), when the TM drive gets full, it will notify you that it's going to start deleting the oldest backups to make space for the new ones. This general behavior is mentioned in the Mac Help for Time Machine, though it makes no mention about notifying you before it deletes the old backups, so I'm not sure about that part.

What is my Time Machine Backing up

I've gotten quite interested in clicking on my Time Machine menu icon when it starts running recently. I've noticed what I think are large amounts of data being backed up, particularly considering I've just started using the machine a few minutes previously. For example, I've been on my computer for about 30 minutes now. I was writing a 1 page Word document for a class I'm taking, and then I started surfing. My Time Machine says it is backing up 51MB of data. Where did this come from? I've seen times when it has been several hundred MB of data, with very little actual files created on the system being backed up (i.e. I'm not working with my iPhoto library or editing a movie, etc).
I'm confused as to what is actually being backed up, and would love to hear some thoughts.
Thanks.
Nabby

Nabby wrote:
My Time Machine says it is backing up 51MB of data. Where did this come from?
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
Read item 7 of this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018

What drives are time machine compatible?

I'm trying to purchase a NAS or NAS Enclosure and I'm finding that some devices are compatible with time machine, while others are not. Only a couple of the manufacturers do a good job of highlighting if they are compatible or not and I'm driving myself nuts reading up on each drive via 3rd party sites to see if anyone has commented that this drive or that drive works with TM. So, does anyone have a tip for me on how to spot a time machine compatible NAS (or NAS enclosure)? Perhaps a specific tech spec that would indicate TM compatibility? [I'm looking for a 2TB drive or drive enclosure (single drive or dual 1TB with RAID/1) that is TM compatible and allows Web access to files.]

My experience with TimeMachine and a tethered USB or FireWire drive has been quite good - with TimeCapsule and other networked solutions not so good. When I first read about TimeMachine and TimeCapsule my immediate thoughts ran to network reliability and how that would affect the reliability and speed of both the backup and restore process. After more than 6 months of testing both TimeCapsule and other network attached drives with TimeMachine I gave up in disgust. After a few days, weeks, and in one case several months I received a backup failed error and nothing I tried would get TimeMachine backing up again. Oh, there were fixes that worked some times but never all the time and eventually my only recourse was to erase the backup and start over. Not what I had in mind for TimeMachine.
The other thought that crossed my mind early on was about how one could test the validity of the backup. Basically it is not possible you simply trust that it is. You check to see if there was an error during the backup and if there was not you hope the backup is actually good. On more than one occasion I've attempted to restore a file (or more) and experienced a failure. This has happened more often with a TC or network TM than one tethered. In fact, I've only had it happen once with a tethered drive. A backup that won't restore is as bad as no backup at all - worse since it provided a false sense of security.
The final problem is speed. TC is not fast at backing up or restoring. Of course the hourly backups aren't generally a big deal but that first one, or a backup after installing a new program or an OS update can be a biggie. Be ready for an overnight backup. In short, I strongly urge against TC or NAS drives with TimeMachine and so far Snow Leopard has not changed my mind.

What happens to Time Machine if my backup drive isn't connected?

I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.
What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive, or does it only keep one increment between the last backup and the current one? Does it still automatically back up, or do I have to prompt it?
I understand that Lion has a feature that keeps local backups until it sees the backup drive again, but it's not clear to me (because Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS...) whether something like this happens in Leopard.

Sockatume wrote:
***I've got Time Machine set up to back up a MacOS Leopard Macbook to an external drive. Because of the way this computer is used, it's usually not plugged into the backup drive.***
Time machine will recommence back ups from the last point backed up.
***What does Time Machine do in this situation? Does it keep track of all the changes since it last saw the backup drive.
Apple updates the Time Machine support documents to reflect only the latest version of the OS.***
It should scan and pick up alterations to previous back ups as a matter of course.
For all matters dealing with Time machine Google 'Pondini' and a variety of options about it will appear.
For trouble shooting ...Time machine. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

What is in Time Machine's older back ups?

Okay, so Time Machine keeps a weekly version after a few weeks, rather than a daily or hourly version.
Which files is it keeping? Is it the last version of document that week? If a file was trashed and deleted early in the week, does it show up in that week's backup?
Is there a document somewhere that says how Time Machine makes these calls?
Thanks

Time Machine progressively deletes the hourly backups it makes, keeping the first backup (if any) of any day for about 30 days and then the first backup of each week thereafter until the disk is full.
Knowing which backup will be held as the 'daily' is easy enough but, in my experience, if Time Machine doesn't make a backup on the day that would otherwise represent the 'weekly' backup, the following 'weekly' backups become a little unpredictable for a week or to as to which 'daily' will be retained.

What is this Time Machine?

Hi All,
I currently have a 24" iMac C2D and have a LaCie FW HD partitioned to backup my entire volume and my Home folder. I use Silverkeeper and the Backup volume is completely bootable. I thinking of upgrading to Leopard and wonder if Time Machine will take the place of this backup routine, or do I still need to do this. I have had my hard drive crap out and wonder if you'll be able to recover everything if your HD goes with Leopard.
Thanks
Nano

You will still need Silverkeeper to make bootable backups (once it is verified for Leopard.) Time Machine creates multiple backups of your system (changed files) every hour for 24 hours, every day, etc. Time Machine backups are restorable by time and can keep multiple copies of the same changed files.
Regards,

What does this Time Machine error message mean?

Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: -1
Here is the full log:
Thu Jul 14 14:47:42 Starting standard backup
Thu Jul 14 14:47:43 Backing up to: /Volumes/F3/Backups.backupdb
Thu Jul 14 14:48:04 No pre-backup thinning needed: 471.8 MB requested (including
padding), 1.25 TB available
Thu Jul 14 14:51:46 Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: -1
Thu Jul 14 14:51:46 Copied 7900 files (346.9 MB) from volume Frie.
Thu Jul 14 14:51:56 No pre-backup thinning needed: 100.0 MB requested (including
padding), 1.24 TB available
Thu Jul 14 14:52:06 Waiting for index to be ready (-1 < 0)
Thu Jul 14 14:52:21 Waiting for index to be ready (-1 < 0)
Thu Jul 14 14:52:32 Bulk setting Spotlight attributes failed.
Thu Jul 14 14:52:32 Copied 211 files (1.7 MB) from volume Frie.
Thu Jul 14 14:52:33 Starting post-backup thinning
Thu Jul 14 14:52:33 No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Thu Jul 14 14:52:33 Backup completed successfully.
I am running 10.5.8 and backing up from the startup disk to a separate internal disk.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike

mkb789 wrote:
Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: -1
That's a problem writing to the Time Machine drive.
As BDAqua says, verify your internal HD and repair the external, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If that doesn't help, try the things in the green box of #D2 there.

What exactly IS Time Stamping?

Hi,
I'm building a web application in an effort to create
something not only practical to use, but to also improve my
programming abilities.
At the moment, I store records in a database with separate
columns for Time and Date.
What I want to know is, is this a good way about doing
things? I have tried to research the best way to store dates and
times but can't find much on the subject for a beginner like me.
I have often seen the format:
{ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}
...floating around on the web - is this the proper way to
maintain a time stamp?
I simply want to do things properly from the ground up so
would appreciate your advice and guidence on how to handle the
storage of dates and times. If you could spare a minute to explain
the best practice and pitfalls of this it would be much
appreciated.
Apologies if I sound really stupid!
Thanks,
Mikey.

Kapitaine wrote:
> Hi, thanks for the reply.
>
> So would it actually sit in my DB column as:
>
> {ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}
>
> Then do CF functions like this? e.g:
>
> <cfset variables.test = "{ts '2008-04-10 20:13:00'}"
/>
> <h2>#dateFormat(variables.test,
"dd/mm/yyyy")#</h2>
> <h2>#timeFormat(variables.test, "hh:mm:ss
tt")#</h2>
>
> Seems to work, but is this correct? Should the date and
time be stored toether
> like that? Why does it need curly braces and a "t". Is
this some kind of
> convention?
>
> Thanks,
> Mikey.
>
Well, no, that is a string that ColdFusion typeless automatic
conversion
is allowing to work for you. You exact example would probably
be better
down as:
<cfset variables.test =
createDateTime(2008,4,10,20,13,00)>
Now you have an actual date-time object variable that is
easily
accessible for all date-time functions, calculations and
formating.

What is a Time Machine Server?

Sounds a bit obvious, but I am not clear about what it REALLY means.
I have read that Leopard Server can act as a TM Server, yet on my XServe all I can find is that I can specify a Share Point to be usable for TM backups. Is that all that is meant by the term "TM Server"?
Assuming it is, what does it actually do. Any Share Point can be used by any clients to store files, what is different when the SP is specified for use by TM?
In particular, I believe that the SP should be advertised via Bonjour for use as TM destination, yet having set up a SP for TM use, it does not show up on any client Mac in TM preferences. So, does that volume (i.e. the SP specified for TM usage) HAVE to be mounted first on the client before you can select it for use by TM? Does it have to be permanently mounted for TM to perform its duties?
This is all trivial stuff, but so far I've not been able to find out about this basic TM functionality. In fact, there's a real lack of TM documentation generally, so answers to the above would be gratefully received.

I have the same problem. Were you able to figure out what this is. I hope nothing malicious running on my machine.

What size for Time Machine

Hi, I am backing up my iMac to a WD Mybook with 500 Go space.
The iMac hard drive has 235 Go on it right now.
I have been backing up with TM since June and the Mybook is now full.
Is this normal?
I seem to remember before, TM did not take up so much space so quickly.
Thanks.

Russa wrote:
.. you might want to limit the folders that are included in the back-up. For instance, I only back-up my user folders. I do not back-up application or system folders. (I acknowledge TM only does incremental or "what's changed" back-ups.) You can accomplish this by selecting "exclude these files" in the TM setup on our Mac.
That's not a good idea. Excluding system and application folders won't save much space (under about 10 gb), but it will make doing a full restore from your TM backups impossible.
When your internal HD fails (and they all do, sooner or later), you'd have to first install the OS from your Install disc; set-up your users, configuration, network settings, etc.; migrate or restore your data; download and install the "combo" Software Update to bring your OS current; and reinstall any 3rd-party software (possibly having to re-enter license codes); then hope you didn't miss anything. Major hassle for minor space saving.

Help with some time machine doubt

Hi!
I recently backed up all the files from my aluminum macbook using Time Machine because I'm thinking re-formatting my macbooks hard drive because I have too much junk on it and it have some software issues, so heres my question..
What exactly does Time Machine backs up?..If my goal is to put my mac like brand new, do you recommend me to restore all my files using time machine? Or is better to just copy paste the files into a external hard drive?
Thanks!

jorge_1030 wrote:
Hi!
I recently backed up all the files from my aluminum macbook using Time Machine because I'm thinking re-formatting my macbooks hard drive because I have too much junk on it and it have some software issues
Unlike some other operating systems, that's rarely required on OSX, and rarely accomplishes much (well, nothing positive).
If you have stuff you no longer need, delete it.
If you have performance or application problems, address them directly.
As Kiraly, a frequent poster here says, "If your kitchen faucet drips, start by replacing the washer, not tearing out and rebuilding your entire kitchen."
What exactly does Time Machine backs up?
By default, everything on your system, except for some things that don't need to be backed-up, such as system work files, most caches and logs, and trash.
If my goal is to put my mac like brand new, do you recommend me to restore all my files using time machine?
No. If you restore everything, your system will look exactly like it does now.
If you try to restore selectively, you'll have a large mess. At a minimum, you'll have to reinstall all your 3rd-party apps from the original discs (or re-download them), and re-enter registration keys/serial numbers.
Or is better to just copy paste the files into a external hard drive?
No.
Work on the actual problems. Post the biggest one, with full details, in a new thread in the appropriate forum.

Time Machine backup created on Mac with a large hard disk. What happens when restore to MacBook Air with small SSD drive?

What if a Time Machine backup was created on a Mac with a large hard disk, e.g. 500GB iMac - and I buy a new MacBook Air with a small SSD hard disk e.g 128GB. What happens when I need to use the larger Time Machine file to set up the new MacBook Air? What happens to all those files that can't fit on the smaller SSD drive?

It is not the HD size, but rather the size of the data it contains. If you right-click your 500GB drive and select "Get Info" you can see how much is actually being used.
Naturally if you are using more space than the new drive has, then you have to make some choices about what you want to keep and what you want to keep archived.
I don't know what options are available but you may simply have to do a manual restore of files you want, in groups.

What exactly is Time Machine?

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