Can I use Time Machine for just the boot drive?

Is it possible for me to set up Time Machine so that it ONLY backs up the boot drive and not any of the other drives? If so, how can I do that?

Sure, just go to System Preferences -> Time Machine and click Options, then add the drives you don't want to back up to the list by clicking the + button.

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Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive

Can you use time machine on a networked hard drive?

See if this helps: Using Time Machine with a networked hard drive

Using Time Machine for an external startup drive

I've never used Time Machine; I just kept on using my older backup startup drive software when starting with Leopard three years ago.
My husband is getting a new iMac with an external drive for backup because I convinced him that Time Machine is so easy to use. Yes, I have a lot of faith that Apple knows what it is doing.
However, I don't know how Time Machine works for making an external drive bootable. If it's not super easy for that purpose, I'm thinking that it might be easier to partition his external in setting things up for him, and putting SuperDuper! on one of the partitions.
What do you think? Would Time Machine all by itself be super easy if he needed to startup from the external drive? Do you have to do anything other than to hold down the option key during startup to boot from an external drive backed up by Time Machine?
He's getting an iMac with a 1T drive and an external Iomega 2TB eGo Desktop Hard Drive.
I'm assuming that his new iMac will be coming with Snow Leopard, but it hasn't arrived yet and I don't know for sure about that. But I think if it doesn't come with Snow Leopard, I'd upgrade it for him before installing anything else.
Thanks for any help!
Mary

Thanks so much to you for taking the trouble to help me learn something about Time Machine. I think I've learned enough now to get it set up for my husband without doing anything particularly stupid.
Dave, there's no chance my husband would swing for a second external drive. I had to talk him into having one at all. He's not into managing a computer and doesn't want to think about stuff like backups. Once in awhile I'm in synch with that kind of orientation too, but then I recall the times I've been overjoyed to have good backups for myself... and my backup software is extremely reliable and easy to use.
Pondidni and Thomas, thanks so much for all the links. I've spent enough time reading them that I think I've made up my mind to go with a SuperDuper! partition for the expected way to boot from the external drive. It's also a great reassurance that it would be possible to use a Time Machine backup partition for restoration via an install CD if SuperDuper! should fail, though. SuperDuper! did fail for me once, but fortunately I had another partition with a SuperDuper! backup.
If the single backup drive fails, of course, that would be a nasty inconvenience. On the other hand, at this point I doubt that the actual losses in that unlikely event would impact my husband so horribly as it might for many who have work or school-related necessities stored on their computer. This is mainly a fun computer that he has at home, and if there ever are particularly important documents that he can't afford to lose, extra backups of those files could go onto a CD, DVD, or keychain drive. The chances of needing that are pretty slim.
I know that eventually the backup drive will fail if it's used over a long enough period of time, but he seems ready to follow my advice to only even connect and turn on the external drive once a week and leave it connected only during the time it's actually actively making backups. (Unless some very important work is going on, in which case he knows to keep it connected during that period of time.) An external drive will likely last a good while longer than average under that kind of very limited use.
Thomas, I do also believe in having extra backup external drives and hope to get one for my own computer in the near future. I noticed in shopping for my husband how much less expensively you can get a large external drive now than just a few years back.
Thanks again so much to all for helping me to think through how I can help him get started with his own backups.
Best wishes,
Mary

Can I use Time Machine with a Network Storage Drive?

I just picked up this drive http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Macally/NSA2S350NAS/ and I would like to use Time Machine for backups, and also use a different location on the drive for sharing files on our network. But this article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html says that network server must use AFP. How do I set that up? I just have a simple network using a 4 port wireless router. I have no idea what protocol the network is. I just use the "Network" option to connect to my new drive at smb://192.168.1.105.
Is this going to be possible or do I need to buy some other backup software???

On a Mac G4 I'm running OSX leopard with Time Machine. I have my other Mac (8600)networked. The 8600 was upgraded with a G3 Sonnet and IDE card, so it'll support OSX and large hard drives. I want TM to back up to the 8600, is this possible?
Thanks

Can I use Time Machine on two different Hard Drives?

Hi, I have a Time Capsule on which I make my Time Machine back up every time, but I also want to back up all my data on another external HD using Time Machine as well... how can I do that? Thx

Alfonso, let me give you a warning. What you want to do should work, but does not work well for me. Here's my story:
I have Time Machine (TM) backing up a MacBook Pro to a Time Capsule (TC) on my home wired network. First backup (BU) took 24 hours. Subsequent incremental backups were very fast and convenient. All was working well.
About 6 weeks setting up TM/TC, I had to take my MacBook in for repairs. Being paranoid, I wanted a second backup, so I connected the computer to an external LaCie drive via FW800. Second BU also took 24 hours, even over the MUCH faster firewire connection. That really hacked me off, so I got CarbonCloner and made a bootable image on another external LaCie drive over FW800. That took only 2 hours.
I got the computer back from Apple after repairs and directed TM to start backing up to the original TC drive (no changes to the drive during repair). The TM software decided it had to do another initial backup! As I write this, it's been running 36 hours and has completed only 19 of 76 GB. This is MUCH MUCH worse than the first initial backup.
I want to like this TM software because of the convenience, but it is really crap and unusable in my opinion. With my setup, I simply cannot switch to a second backup drive without triggering another lousy initial LONG BU process. Frankly, I really regret buying TC and trying TM.
I used to use Retrospect with great success with the two external LaCie drives, but they went into the toilet when EMC bought them and spun them out. The quality of the software has really suffered and it is very buggy now.
So, unfortunately, it looks like my best strategy is to use CarbonCloner and the two LaCie drives.

Can I use Time Machine when replacing my Boot Disk

I am running out of space on my main Boot HD. I was wondering if I were to back it up with Time Machine then change it out with a larger one, can I then bring everything back to the new drive with Time Machine. I am trying to avoid the tedious task of reloading all my applications and files one at a time. If this is not a solution, what is?
Thanks in advance.

Which is better really depends on your needs. Some differences between TM and CCC you should be aware of:
With TM, if you delete a file from your HD, TM will only keep it's copy for 24 hours.
With CCC, you can set whether such files should be kept & archived until you remove them.
TM, because it uses some of Apple's internals, is far quicker (and uses much less CPU) to figure out what's changed.
Unlike TM, CCC can make a bootable clone. I've partitioned my external; one for TM and one for a CCC clone.
You can mix and match for whatever is appropriate for your situation.
You can even run multiple CCC tasks on similar or different schedules: say one to update your bootable clone, and another (to a different partition) to back-up the files in a particularly-critical folder, retaining anything changed or deleted until you manually remove them.
One other suggestion: External drives are great for your primary backups, but they may not protect you from fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. Do something to get important data off-site occasionally. Depending on size, DVD/RWs, portable external(s), or the internet.

Can I use Time Machine for data recovery?

Hi All,
This might seem a bit confusing at first, so please be patient - and thanks in advance.
I'll try to make this as simple as possible:
1) I had an external HDD that (i stupidly didn't back up) that I used to free up memory on my MB Pro. I knocked it off my desk and it's now unrecoverable - there is a 'might be able to get some data back. but it will cost up to $2000' option.
2) To free up said memory, I moved all the big stuff - photos, movies, documents, iTunes libray to this HDD.
3) Now, before I did this, I was already - and still am - using ANOTHER HDD for my Time Machine back ups.
4) Does anyone have any idea as to whether I could salvage the above mentioned data from an old TM snaphot (?) - assuming it hasn't been over written already?
5) And, if it's possible, can it be done without rolling back the MB to the appropiate date??

Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the quick response! But I didn't think I explained myself very well :s
I originally had everything on the MB internal HDD, and only had 1 HDD which was / is still, my TM HDD.
I then moved all the photos, music etc to the 2nd HDD, to free up memory on the MB HDD.
I dropped the 2nd HDD and it's beyond recovery.
What my thought is - given that originally all the data would have been backed up on the TM HDD, can I recover it from there? (If it hasn't been over written of course)
I'm unsure if the 2nd HDD was included in TM backups. It was usually connected to the MB when TM was running...

Can I use Time Machine for Subversion?

I need a free, simple way to back up files in a programming project so that I can archive older files and roll back to them if needed.
-I am working by myself.
-I want to manually decide when to back up.
-I expect to submit multiple days worth of backups at the same time to an actual -SVN repository (subversion archive).
-I need to only back up a small number of folders.
-I would prefer my repository to be local, as in on the same hard drive. Externals are a little inconvenient but I could do those too. Online storage is a bad idea.
-I prefer saving only modification differences between files, but full copies of modified files is ok too.
Can Time Machine do what I'm looking for? If not, are there any free, simple ways to make a repository on my local machine?

I would suggest that if you really want a subversion-type app, you actually use subversion, particularly since you want to be able to upload to a larger subversion archive as well. There are several GUI front ends for subversion, some free and some shareware. I haven't used any so I can't make recommendations, but if you search MacUpdate or VersionTracker for "subversion", you'll find them.

Can I use time machine for backup but also keep my itunes library on my external and not on my MacBook Pro?

I have two 1TB external drives that I planned on using for backup of my MacBook Pro (Not actually sure how to use them both as duplicate backups but I'l have to figure that out later). What I'm wanting to do is use the external as a backup but I'd also like to keep the majority of my music on the external drive so I can keep the space free on my MacBook. Is this possible?

Possible, but not advisable.
You would be using the same drive for backup & normal (live) uses at the same time. That pretty much negates the whole purpose of backup, at least as far as that single drive would be concerned.
Better to devote 1 drive to backup (TM or otherwise) and a 2nd drive for online (live) usage.
One more thing ... you don't really have effective backup until you have at least 2 separate backups on 2 separate drives, neither of which is connected to your Mac except for backup & restore operations. Three is even better.

Can I install clone of system on same HD as Time Machine for a repair boot drive?

Can I install clone of system on same HD as Time Machine so I can use the external as a second boot?
I have an external connected to new iMac and installed Time Machine on it. I then realized that I cannot boot from TM so can I clone my system onto the same HD as the TM is on? For purpose of rebooting so I can use Disk Warrior or other diagnostics?
Thanks.
Jeff

I did try that but the only options I was ofered were:
Restore from Time Machine Backup
Reinstall OS X
Get Help Online
Disk Utility
I didn't want any of those options. I just wanted to boot from the external.
You used recovery option - that is not what you need for this. Follow lowluster's suggestion to create another partition on your external drive, then format it using Disk Utility if necessary (in your applications folder). After that, use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone on the external while booted from the internal.
Didn't know TM was to be installed on internal boot. Thanks.
Isn't there an advantage to having it on an external as well?
Time Machine is an application program and installed on your internal by default. You activate it from there and it works on its own to create backups on an external drive. It backs up everything.

How to use Time Machine for new Macbook Internal Drive

I need to replace my almost-full 80G internal drive. 1) After I install the new internal drive, what steps do I follow with TM to transfer all to the new internal drive? 2) After completing this transfer, will the external back-up drive and new internal drive "work together" - i.e., will the external drive recognize the new internal drive and just continue to accumulate more TM backups?

After you replace the old drive you first need to prep it as follows:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When formatting is completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with the OS X installation. Be sure your backup drive is connected and running. You will be offered the opportunity to restore from a TM backup. Your TM backup should be a full system backup, i.e., not excluded system files.
If you prefer to reinstall OS X for a fresh system skip the initial option to restore and do a new OS X installation. Once in the Setup Assistant you will again have the option to restore from a TM backup. This time you would just restore your Home, Application, and other support folders.

Can I use time machine to get rid of Lion?

Lion has been a total disaster for my iMac. After installation, everything went very buggy very quickly. Now it is freezing every few minutes. I just want rid of it. Can I use time machine to restore the old system? If so, how? Will my files be OK? thanks.

I point you to Pondini's TimeMachine restore page however you should also printout my instructions as something may go wrong and you need to do it the hard way.
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
Back to Snow Leopard from Lion install method
Read and print out these instructions, your computer is going to be offline and you wil be cutoff from help until your machine is restored.
Clear the Desktop, Downloads and Trash of anything you wish to keep by placing their files in the respective Documents, Music, Pictures, Movie folders.
Disconnect other drives except the sole backup drive.
Backup ALL your Users folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music etc) manually (drag and drop methods) to a (not TimeMachine) external powered drive (HFS+ journaled formatted in Disk Utility) and disconnect, your going to be wiping the entire boot disk of ALL DATA.
(warning, everything will be gone and not recovered, OS, programs, files, Windows etc all gone.)
Note: You might want to hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and use Disk Utility to format the new blank external drive instead of using OS X Lion if that's hosed. Then reboot into Lion and copy files, may be safer that way.
Here we go!
Hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk that comes with your computer and second screen in just STOP there, don't install OS X yet.
Look at the Utilities Menu for Disk Utility.
On the left is the name of your hard drive maker, click it and Erase (format HFS+ Journaled), give it the same drive name as before, and click Erase...
(note: if you want to "scrub" the drive of old files that haven't been overwritten yet, then use the Security Option > Zero Erase, takes a lot longer)
This should wipe the drive of ALL partitions (GUID, OS X and 10.7 Recovery, Windows if present)
When it's done, quit and install OS X 10.6. Then install all your programs from fresh sources and validate/update.
When you setup a first account, use the same user name as before, this way you can simply drag and drop the content of your previous Users folders from the external drive right back into the new Users folders and everything should work peachy. Links in iTunes to music, playlists and iPhoto links especially.
Update OS X to 10.6.8 using the Combo Update for best results.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
(Note: If your original machine had 10.5 and you want the free iLife that comes with the disks with the computer, then you'll have to install 10.5 first using the same c boot/erase/format methods as above, then update to 10.6 via the disk, then Combo Update 10.6.8)
Final step optional but highly recommended.
A lot of people use a Carbon Copy Clone of their boot drive to a new HFS+Journaled external drive (used only for this purpose) as a "hold the option key" bootable backup in case something goes wrong with their boot drive or need to restore to a previous OS X version.. (in addition to TimeMachine drive for more immediate backups.)
It's not advised to have a Bootable Clone and a TimeMachine partition on the same external drive, as two drives gives hardware protection in case one fails.

Can i use time machine instead of restore discs

alright so i bought a g4 imac 1.25 ghz 1 gb ram, and it has leopard on it right now from the previous owner. i have the panther restore discs but id rather have leopard. so my question is if i use the restore discs on my mac mini(new 09 model, leopard) and restore it to new then can i use time machine on my external hard drive and then plug it into my imac and use that data and make the imac with a fresh install of leopard? sorry if its hard to understand it is hard for me to describe. please help! thanks

John.Kitzmiller wrote:
Time Machine backups are not necessarily computer specific, however TM does not back up the OS
Yes, it does, unless you've specifically told it not to. That's how you can do a full restore of an entire system from a TM backup, even if it's a previous version of Leopard.
, so there's really no way to do what you're trying to accomplish.
That's not the practical issue. As pointed out earlier, the practical issue is, the TM backup for one type/model of Mac won't run on another, as the hardware drivers, etc., are different. Worse, the 2009 Mac Mini has an Intel processor; a G4 has a PPC processor.
Plus as already pointed out, it would be a violation of the EULA.
Correct.

Can we use Time Machine to back up data on Time Capsule from the outside of network?

I have Time Capsule at home. Can I use Time Machine to back up data of portable nootebook when I am working at office?

If you mean over the internet, you can but it will be so slow and more than likely so unreliable it is a poor method to use. Remember all internet is limited to upload speed.
Lion does a temporary backup onto local hard disk.. which is useless of course if the hard drive is damaged.. but helps if you delete an important file. Then when you go back home and it discovers the TC is available it will then backup again from where it left off.
I think it is only a major issue if you are away from home for major lengths of time, weeks or months.

Can I use Time Capsule for Time Machine and a place to put my iPhoto Library

Can I use Time Capsule for Time Machine and a place to put my iPhoto Library?

Only if you partition the Time Capsure into two partitions, one for TM and one for the iPhoto LIbrary. But you won't be able to backup that library as it will be on the same drive as the TM backups.
It's not recommended. An alternative solution is to get another EHD, move the library to it and run it from there. Then TM can backup both your boot drive and the working EHD drive.
OT

Can I use Time Machine for just the boot drive?

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