Can OS 10.7 limit the number of Time Machine backups

I'm using a 2TB Western Digital My Book Live to backup my 2011 MacBook Pro on a home network that's shared with Windows 7 machines. Can I limit the size of my Time Machine Backup to 500GB or limit the number of backups?

Falcon27453 wrote:
re: samberl's suggestion;
You can limit the size of the TM backup by using this automator script.
http://code.google.com/p/backmyfruitup/downloads/detail?name=CreateBackupVolume. zip
Has anyone else either used this suggestion... or can offier any input? Pardon the comment... but the mod worried me a wee bit.
No. Hacks worry me in general, and the deeper inside the OS they dig, the more I'd be worried. Here's why. It's not a matter of if they become a problem, it's when. The OS will continue to change. That's a given. As it does, they absolutely do not take into consideration accomodating hacks. In fact, there have been circumstances where they have gone far out of their way to make sure hacks do not work in future updates. Trusting your data backups to that scenario??? No thanks. And yes, the same continuous update situation is true of any software (it doesn't even have to be third-party, as we've seen many times), but software apps more in the mainstream continue to be updated, while hacks . . . .

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Can I limit the amount of Time Machine backups?

Is it possible to limit the amount of Time Machine backups? I have a 2 tb drive to store back ups...it's nearly full. I'd like to use the drive for other things as well.
Hope this makes sense.

Ohhh, no way!!
Pondini died?????? I just talked to him a couple weeks ago it seems.

Specifying number of Time Machine backups

I assume that Time Machine keeps only a particular number of backups in order to conserve hard drive space, but perhaps this is an erroneous assumption. I've been backing up my MacBook Pro to an external hard drive using Time Machine and I'm wondering whether old backups eventually get purged. Does Time Machine automatically limit the amount of storage space allotted to backups on an external drive or the specific number of Time Machine backups? If so, is there a way to change the settings so that (1) only a particular number are saved or (2) so that particular backups are never purged? In reference to (2), is it best to simply move (or copy) backups I wish to never purge (or a subset of files within) outside of the Time Machine folder and into the root of the external drive? Thank you for your assistance!

Entropee wrote:
Does Time Machine automatically limit the amount of storage space allotted to backups on an external drive or the specific number of Time Machine backups?
Time Machine keeps making backups until the external drive is full. When your disk is full, it starts deleting old backups automatically until it has enough space to make backups.
Entropee wrote:
If so, is there a way to change the settings so that (1) only a particular number are saved or (2) so that particular backups are never purged?
As far as I know, they are not possible. If you want to use your external disk to store more files, you can create a second partition on the external drive, so you can use a partition for Time Machine and another one to store files, although it's better to use a drive for Time Machine and another drive to store other files.
Entropee wrote:
In reference to (2), is it best to simply move (or copy) backups I wish to never purge (or a subset of files within) outside of the Time Machine folder and into the root of the external drive?
It's much better, as Time Machine won't delete them

HT1338 Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Can I do a clean install after using time machine backup?

Hi, if I understand correctly yes, but may I ask the purpose of doing so?

Is there any way to limit the number of times that a PDF can be opened?

I run a small publishing company and we want to provide exam copies of our books to professors. At present our exam copies have the words EXAM COPY as a water mark on every page and we've also made the files so that they can't be printed or easily copied. However, we'd like to also restrict these PDFs so that they can only be opened 5 times. I've read about FileOpen but that approach seems a bit more complex than needed. Is there any other way to restrict the number of times that a PDF file can be opened once it is downloaded? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

DRM soltions like FileOpen are your best bet for PDFs. Others include Adobe's LiveCycle Rights Managment, LockLizard, Armjisoft PDF Security OwnerGuard, etc.
They all work and are priced differently, but there's really nothing for what you want to do that is both simpler and secure.

Retrieve mac serial number from Time Machine backup

I recently had my 2007 Macbook stolen and I have no record of my serial number to report to police/insurance. I've tried looking it up from my apple ID but it's so old that the mac outdates any apple ID I've ever had. Is there any way to retrieve the serial number from a Time Machine backup?

Hi Roxpat,
It is possible to export and import selected mailboxes with the Mac OS X Mail application, and that would allow you to select only the mail that you want. Am I right that is what you want to do?
This article explains how you can do what you want -
Mail (Yosemite): Import or export mailboxes
Export the mailboxes from your older Mail application on the previous computer, then move the exported mailboxes, then import them into the new Mac's Mail application.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

How can I restore my EQ settings from a Time Machine backup?

I recently reinstalled Mavericks, and restored my user account from a Time Machine backup. In doing so I appeared to have 'lost' my personal EQ settings in iTunes, of which I had perfected quite a few to suit various headphones and speakers I've found myself using over the years.
I have a pre-reinstallation copy of the com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file (found in /Users/username/Library/Preferences) that I believe contains my EQ settings; opening it in Textedit I can see references to the EQ settings I created.
Having tried restoring this particular file from Time Machine and restarting and finding iTunes doesn't recognise the [old] custom com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file, does anyone know a way I can re-import my old EQ settings, or do I have to try and manually create them again? (gah)
Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

Enter your Time Machine backup (via the TM icon in the menu bar) and find this file
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
and hit Restore.
It didn't reflect in iTunes immediately, but after a restart it appears to read the new (old) plist file. You should have your old EQ settings back.
Let me know if it worked for you...

Why can't I see a slideshow in a Time machine backup ?

I have created a slideshow which works fine, and shortly afterwards did a weekly backup using Time Machine.
I then made a small change to the slide show that changed the order (or rather the arrangement) of the pictures in the Sliding Panels themed slideshow. (annoyingly the change happened by simply un-ticking the 'show title slide' setting in slideshow settings). I want to return to the picture/panel arrangement that was in the original version, which happens to be better (I assume the selection is purely random) but when I look at the Backup in Time Machine I cannot see my slideshow, or any slideshow for that matter. So I have two questions:
1) Does Time Machine backup slideshows ?
2) If 'yes' how do I see them / restore them ?
(I have iphoto version 8.1.1 now, but this is because an automatic update has just kicked in. The slideshow was created using the previous version to this)
Thanks

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. You can use TM to restore individual photos/album or events or the entire library. When you restore the entire library you will get all books, slideshows, calendars, etc. that were there when the backup was made. You can also select to keep your existing library (depending on space available) in case the recovered library doesn't have everything you need.

Can't boot my Mac after attempt of Time Machine backup

So guys,
I just bought new Macbook Pro and it came with Yosemite. It is one thing that I specifically asked not to get with it, but I did. Anyway, since I didn't want it, I instantly went to Time Machine backup my previous Mac to the new one.
I booted my new Mac in recovery and started the time machine process. It went trough, found a backup that I wanted, asked me for my password and all looked nice. When the process started, it said something is wrong and rebooted. Now each time I want to start time machine backup process, I get the same message that says "searching for disks" when it comes to the moment of finding the system drive in the lap top. It will not boot any longer to the system. When i wanted to reinstall Yosemite, it doesn't see the drive that is supposed to see to install it. It sees only some small recovery drive. When I go to disk utility, I see Machintosh HD and some disk 1 drive that has sub group OS X Base System. Non of the options on drives like erase, format or similar are available. I basically can't do anything.
Someone has any idea what should I do?
Thanks in front!

Please install OS X on an external device (USB/FW/TB/Flash disk-16GB) using OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume - Apple Support and boot from it.
Post the output of the following command from OS X Terminal when booted from this external device. Enter your password when prompted, and it will not be echoed back.
sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

Can't open iPhoto because it is a Time Machine Backup

So I am trying to find some pictures, that have gone missing. They are showing up on the Apple TV, through Photo Share, but I can't find them anywhere on my MAc. I go to my External Hard Drive and try to find them from back ups, and when I click on iPhoto, I can;t open it becuas it is a Time Machine Back Up.
I am going nuts trying to find these dang picture's.....any idea on how to track them down? they are obviously somewhere, since they are still showing up on the Apple TV........
Argh!

Nope....still get the same picture's that were already there.
At one point, I changed the destination folder if memory serves...I had to replace the hard drive, and got all of my pictures back from the External Hard Drive, so I knwo they are there somewhere.....it is driving my nits thati can go downstairs, see the pictures on the TVm but can't find them ANYWHERE!!!!!!!

Can't install - my disk is used for Time Machine backups

I only have one hard disk. And it has Time Machine turned on. Mountain Lion won't let me install on this disk, saying
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I'm ASSUMING this means that I cannot install ML on a Time Machine disk.
Is this right?
So, do I turn off Time Machine to get ML to install?

I deleted Backups.backupdb.
Now, the ML installer says simply "OS X cannot be installed on <my drive>"
What the ???

HT201250 It say can not open because it is in a time machine backup?

How to open time machine it tells me I can not open because it is in a time machine back up ?

You can't open files in a TM backup. What are you trying to do, restore a file?

Does Migration Assistant use the most recent time machine backup?

About to transfer my old macbook pro harddrive to my new imac..and when im in migration assistant it allows me to select ALL applications (not individual ones unfortuantely) to transfer from my time machine backup...curious, does it transfer all apps I have ever had on all my backups? - there is probably 20 different backups. I have cleared a ton of useless apps off my MBP and did a fresh backup hoping those would be the only ones to get transfered?
Thanks

Only one version is transferred, the last saved one.

Limit the size of time machine back ups

I would like to limit the size of my time machine back ups on time capsule. How can I do this? I am running the latest OS with the new time capsule.
Please help!!
Thanks,

Try setting the max size of the sparsebundle.
http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html

HT201250 Can I change the schedule of time machine backups?

Time Machine is great but is there a way to change it so that it backs up at the end of every day (instead of every hour). I have found some software available that will edit the setup (free online) but would rather use something Apple 'guaranteed'!

Ohhh, no way!!
Pondini died?????? I just talked to him a couple weeks ago it seems.

Can OS 10.7 limit the number of Time Machine backups

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