Changing Options For Time Machine

I am wondering if I can change the settings for TM so it does not back up my system every hour. I have a Mac Book Pro and I only want to back up my system when I connect my external HD. Any way of doing this? I have went thru the preferences for TM and I did not find an option to change it.

BillyJack wrote:
I have a Mac Book Pro and I only want to back up my system when I connect my external HD. Any way of doing this?
Time Machine won't try to backup to a drive that isn't connected so that much requires no preference setting. You can manually force a backup when the drive is connected with the "Back Up Now" option available from the popup menu on TM's dock icon.
BTW, unless you change a lot of files between backups, each new backup should take very little time & use very little additional drive space, so you need not worry about leaving the drive connected for a few hours after forcing a backup.
TM actually works best if you just let it do its thing whenever it discovers that the designated backup drive is connected.

Similar Messages

Changing disk for Time Machine.

Can I just move the existing Time Machine files from the old to the new drive and then assign the new drive as the one I want to use for Time Machine?
I just want to make sure I have the old History also on the new drive.
Thanks

What's the best process to create a bootable backup?
Is there a system tool that will create one or is there a commercial program that is recommended?

Hardware options for Time Machine?

Background
I'd guess that if Leopard topped 2 million sales in the first weekend that probably means there are about 1.9x million of us (self included) looking for a neat drive arrangement in order to keep Time Machine running sweet. I'd further guess that a percentage of those 1.9x million of us seek a good practice solution as detailed below.
Solutions?
My initial searches suggest that e-sata is the way to go (any corrections or advice on this will be appreciated by my self and I am sure by a wider community).
With a Mac Pro there seem to be two possibilities for the e-sata route:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=E9B89841&fnode= home/shopmac/macaccessories/storage&nplm=TN741
(link to PCI Express e-sata card)
or possibly
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?productid=17983&categoryid=59
(link to an e-sata backplate and, of course, it relies on a spare SATA point somewhere in the machine).
The above is possible at least in theory.
*Best practice solutions?*
For all of us seeking a good external hard drive with best option transfer rates are there any best practice solutions?
It seems a composite type question that relies on software and hardware combined solutions that will live well under Leopard (and in my case also with XP Pro in Boot Camp)
*Future proofing solutions?*
(Sometime down the line I can imagine some sort of virtualisation on this machine as well in order to jump between some important software tied in to Windows.)
Apologies
Apologies if this post should be directed into a hardware forum but the composite skills and critical factors seem to be shared equally between Leopard, Time Machine, present hardware and best practice proposed hardware solutions.

Howdy,
I think firewire is fine without any need to add a new card to your Mac. I've been using the Lacie triple interface hard drives extensively with good results. This being said it looks like they have Quadro drives now (added esata): http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=10894; you could go esata later if you really wanted to. Like I said, Firewire 800 should work great.
+R

Can't find battery power option for time machine

I'm semi new to macs. I've been messing around with my wife's for the last week or so.
I first upgraded her OS to 10.5. After the initial upgrade I was given both the
a) battery power option and
b) time machine in menu bar option.
Unfortunately after messing around with her sparesimage I corrupted it and had to do a clean install last night. After this clean install these two time machine options are missing.
Can anybody lead me in the right direction on how to restore both of these options?
Working with a Macbook with an intel processor. Pretty sure last night did all the software and OS updates, so I should be running 10.5.5.

a) I don't need my laptop's battery status... I want the option to disable time machine backups when my computer is running on battery power.
b) As my original post states, that option is no longer on the Time Machine preferences screen. It has disappears since I re installed the OS.

Changed disk for Time Machine -- delete old backup folder?

I got a bigger external drive for backups so I can use the smaller drive for data. I changed disk for TM in System Prefs, and all seems to be well; it's backing up to the new drive. Can I delete the previous TM backup folder on the smaller drive? Or does the new backup location need it for some kind of reference?
Thanks!

If you change TM destinations, it will restart from the beginning (or, resume if a previous backup was started on that volume in the past for the computer in question). In other words, you are safe to delete the old backup.

What makes the color of the icon for my external HD change to the color of the icon for Time Machine?

What makes the color of the icon for my external hard drive change to the color of the icon for Time Machine?

Perhaps when you first connected the drive you were asked if you wanted this to be used for TM. If you clicked yes it remembers that.

Changed Hard Disk for Time Machine

I have a question, I've searched and can't find the answer (maybe I'm just not good at searching).
I ran out of room on my external HD for time machine backups, so I added another external HD and changed the time machine location to the new HD. I did not copy any backup files to the new HD, I figured that I'd just keep the old ones on the old HD and start from scratch.
I am using an old iMac G5 that has one (yes, one) USB2.0 port, the other USB ports are the old, slow ones. I have the new HD plugged into the USB2.0 port and the old HD plugged into one of the other ones.
Then I selected "back up now," and it's been backing up for more than 12 hours and it's only about 1/3 of the way done according to the progress report (37.4 GB of 96.9 GB).
Question -- does time machine automatically copy my old back up from the old HD to the new HD? That's the only thing that I can think of that would make this back up so slow. It shouldn't take 12 hours to back up 37 GB, right?

Thanks. I think I need to just wait until it's done and then check things out. I let it run all day while I was at work, and it's another 1/3 of the way to the end. I don't want to stop it and then find out that I just need to let it run its course.
Here is the backup log from the time machine widget:
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb
2010-06-22 18:33:57.446 FindSystemFiles[1245:713] Querying receipt database for system packages
2010-06-22 18:34:02.962 FindSystemFiles[1245:713] Using system path cache.
2010-06-22 18:34:03.335 FindSystemFiles[1250:713] Querying receipt database for system packages
2010-06-22 18:34:04.293 FindSystemFiles[1250:713] Using system path cache.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Storage Central
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Alternate Storage
No pre-backup thinning needed: 116.45 GB requested (including padding), 376.49 GB available
Copied 11 files (0 bytes) from volume Storage Central.
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Storage Central

Cannot install Yosemite as hard drive is used for Time Machine Backup, How Do I Change This?

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro and when I attempted to install Yosemite the MacBook Pro Drive is greyed out and a message appears that read,"drive is used for Time Machine Backup." How do I change this to install Yosemite?
Thanks,
Scott

Well, if you don't want to use that drive for Time Machine anymore, then you should format it using Disk Utility. Then you can install Yosemite on it.
You should, of course, have another full backup somewhere. I really can't state this strongly enough: You should have a full and complete and up to date backup of all your data before you upgrade to OS X Yosemite.

External drive use for Time Machine change to "Read Only"

I have an external hard drive set up for backing up with Time Machine on my Mac. It has been working well. Now when time machine tries to back up it tells me the external disk is read only. The hard drive does mount to the computer and will let me open the Time Machine folder. When I am in disk utility it also sees the external hard drive but will not let me click on repair disk permissions. Under the drive info's sharing & permissions window it said " You can only read." , After unlocking everything is grayed out, but the permission is set to read & write. Any thoughts on how to get this drive back to read and write? Its a 2TB drive with 1.79TB on disk. The drive has not been ever used on a windows machine or use on any other computer and is use only for Time Machine backups. One day it was read/write next day read only. Thanks!

The backup drive has malfunctioned and corrupted itself. If that has ever happened before, or if it ever happens again, replace the drive. You may want to consider replacing it anyway for the safety of your data.
You should start another backup now, on another drive, if you don't already have one. One backup is never enough to be safe.
If you choose to keep using the problem drive, turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane, then launch Disk Utility, select the backup volume, and run Repair Disk. This operation may take several hours. If the volume can't be repaired, you'll have to erase it and start over. Don't do that unless you have at least one other complete backup. Remember to turn TM back ON.

HT4848 Is it possible to partition an external hard drive that is already being used for Time Machine backups without it being erased?

I'm want to use my current external hard drive, which I use for Time Machine Backup, as a recovery disk for Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2. From what I have read, the recovery disk assistant will erase all data on the external drive unless it is partitioned. Can I partition my current backup drive without erasing it, even though it is already being used for Time Machine?

It's very simple to test. Turn off your computer. Have your time machine backup plugged in. Hold option and turn it on, keeping option held. Do you see your time machine drive? If so, select it and press enter. You'll end up in recovery. If it works, there you go. Then just click the apple and restart to get back to your regular desktop. Then you'll know for when you're ready to do the deed.
Edit...
I'm not sure if time machine will think it's an entirely different computer, though, when a hard drive changed, making an actual restore not doable. Either way, you could still reinstall mt lion fresh and then just migrate after, skipping the need for SL.

Brand-new 2TB WD external for time machine

Hi, all, and thanks for the help in advance.
I've got a 1-month old iMac backing up currently to a 500GB external, which I am planning to replace with this new 2TB drive. It is going to connect via firewire, and I am planning to use the whole thing just for time machine.
A couple of questions:
1) I've never had a drive this big, and was planning just a single partition - are there strong reasons why I shouldn't do that?
2) This drive is "supposed" to be ready for Mac use, but I have no confidence, and all the info is pre-loaded on the drive. Once I plug it in, can I just go through the standard disk utility steps to reformat/ repartition?
3) Have others used the large MyBook drives in this fashion? I'm batting 50% currently on bringing over my 500GB drives from the PC and really need this new one to work more smoothly.

Apple sells MyBook drives at the Apple Store, so they must work, at least most of the time.
I would also look at some options from a Mac-specialist vendor, such as OWC.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
(1) If you need the full 2TB size for the Time Machine backup volume, then it should be one big partition. If you only need about 1.5TB for Time Machine, it may be useful to have a separate partition (volume) for general storage use or as scratch space. Note: You can use the Time Machine volume for storing other files and folders.
(2) Mac-ready just means it is pre-formatted for Mac, using +Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)+. A drive that is formatted for Windows can be made Mac-ready by using the Partition tab in Disk Utility.
Once I plug it in, can I just go through the standard disk utility steps to reformat/ repartition?
Yes, with one exception - if this drive is a RAID that uses two 1TB drives.
If it is a normal single drive external drive, just go to Partition tab in Disk Utility. Reset the +Volume Scheme+ to the desired number of partitions. Click on the Options button to make sure +GUID Partition Table+ is selected. Back on the main window, name the volumes and set their format to +Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)+. Apply the change. It should take less than one minute.
If you are having issues with one of your PC-formatted drives, and you did not do all the steps noted above, you should try it again.
(3) As I mentioned, I have seen these WD MyBook drives (versions that come with Mac formatting) being sold at the Apple Store, so Apple must have tested them. For a FireWire drive, I tend to trust the Mac-oriented vendors more (OWC, LaCie, Macally, etc.). For USB 2.0 drives, just about any drive should work fine with a Mac.

I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine. I'd like to get a wireless HD and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5 year old WD drive. Can I start over?

I have a mid2009 MacBook Pro running Mavericks for which I have been using a USB WD HD for Time Machine. I'd like to get a wireless HD and start a new Time Machine backup for this Mac and retire the 5 year old WD drive. Can I start over?

no archive/ backup is perfect, HD clones can be set to make incremental additions, same as time machine however, though they are more time involved in doing so.
See the + and - of all data backup/ archives below and "spread it around".... or the "dont put your eggs all in one basket" philosophy.
Peace
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.
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.

New larger disk drive for Time Machine ..having trouble using it.

I must be missing something simple here. My Time Machine drive was getting pretty full so I went out and bought a larger drive. I assumed I could copy everything on the old drive to the new one ..then start up Time Machine and point it to the new drive and be in business. Not so. When I tried to copy the contents from one disk to the other the process locked up after about an hour. All activity stopped and I had no files on the new drive. To troubleshoot I simply copied a small folder from the smaller Time Machine drive to the new one..and it copied fine. However I noticed the date on the copied file was current so I assume my process is not a good one anyway as all the dates will be lost. Guess that will screw up Time Machine (after all what is time if its all the same ?). So ..how do I use a new larger drive for Time Machine..without loosing all the old stuff that is already saved. If I just select change disk from the Time Machine panel I assume I will only get backups from now ...and nothing older (from the old disk). I do not want to keep the older disk connected. So what am I missing here ??

Pondini wrote:
And I forgot to add: Disk Utility will do it.
I missed your post this morning.
I looked around and found the keys to get Disk Utility to do it. No $$ needed.
Thanks for the info.
For the rest of the viewers:
*How to change the Time Machine backup disk and migrate the current data to the new disk*:
This procedure performs block transfers, not file-by-file transfers. It avoids all the extended attribute, ACL and hierarchical problems. It just works - it's a Mac!
System Preferences:
..1 - Time Machine:
....1.1 - Turn OFF
..2 - Spotlight:
....2.1 - Privacy:
......2.1.1 add current TimeMachine volume to prevention list
......2.1.2 add new TimeMachine volume to prevention list
Disk Utility:
..1 - Select the target drive in the left pane
..2 - Select Partition tab
....2.1 - Volume Scheme: *1 Partition*
....2.2 - Options: *GUID Partition Table*
....2.3 - Select Apply -> Partition
..3 - Select Restore tab
....3.1 - Drag source Volume into Source window
....3.2 - drag destination Volume into Destination window
....3.3 - Check box: *Erase Destination* ( +this is the critical step+ )
....3.4 - Click Restore button (Wait for transfer to complete, minutes to hours depending on size & disk connections)
The source and destination volumes will now have the same name. Change the volume name(s) as desired.
System Preferences:
..1 - Spotlight:
....1.1 - Privacy: add new TimeMachine volume to prevention list
..1 - Time Machine:
....1.1 - Turn ON
Done!

Ideal size of back-up drive for Time Machine

Hi there,
I have decided to start using Time Machine after using SuperDuper for years.
A couple of questions.
How big a drive should I use? I currently have a 250GB internal, with about 180GB in use. Is a 320GB external drive big enough?
Can you partition a bigger drive only for time machine? If so, how big should I make the partition given the size of my internal drive and the amount of space I'm using?
All help is greatly appreciated.
-Matt

aberlin wrote:
but i got about 4 TB attached to my mac that i would all like to be backed up. so far i have been using ChronoSync… but with a purchase of a new iMac plus a 2TB time capulse i wonder how to get 4GB backed up by TimeMachine… can a Time Capuse Join Together connected drives as one backup volume ?
No.
or can i join multiple local drives for TimeMachine to backup onto ?
Yes, you can make a "concatenated RAID set," also known as a JBOD ("Just a bunch of disks") that is treated as a single volume, and use it for TM backups. See Disk Utility's Help for instructions.
That may not be your best solution, though. If any one of those disks fail, you may lose all your backups. And the initial backup will take a very long time.
Depending on what's on the various drives, you might want to use Time Machine to your Time Capsule for your boot volume, and perhaps some others with data that changes frequently.
If you have a lot of fairly static data on some of those other drives, however, it might make sense to back them up separately, and less frequently, to locally-attached disk(s) via another app.
That would also give you the option of disconnecting the externals and moving your Mac around the house but still back it up wirelessly, as long as it's in range of your TC.

Have 2 externals; one for time machine. can time machine back up the other?

I have 2 externals, one for media and large files, and the other exclusively for time machine. I went into time machine options and removed the other external from the omit list. Time machine wouldn't back up the drive then; so i guessed maybe it was too big, so i went through and omitted all but one small file, less than a GB. Is it possible to use the time machine system to back up files on another external?

From just looking in the Time Machine preferences, I think the problem is a little different than what your thinking. It looks as if you can indeed back up one external to another using TM.
The issue seems to be that you cannot have TM backing up more than one hard drive to one other hard drive using only one computer. A.K.A. If you have TM backing up your internal hard disk, then, as far as I can see, you can't select your other external for back up with TM. And, if you select your other external, then your internal won't be backing up.
One possible solution is using a free back up utility like Carbon Copy Cloner (http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13260). You could set your non-TM hard drive to be backed up every hour (the same interval as TM does) to the TM hard drive, and keep your internal backing up the same way it is now. You would end up with TM constantly keeping your main files on the computer up-to-date, and your other external would have the same "safety net." It does appear that CCC it may replace every file in each back up with the new one regardless of changes to the file (same as in every version to date), though I haven't used this updated version of CCC very much yet. But, if you don't need things updated every hour, you can set it to run a backup script on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis as well.
NOTE: One thing to keep in mind is that you should Uncheck the box that says, "Erase the target volume" in the main window of CCC so that you don't loose everything that's already on there when CCC does the back up.
-Joel

Changing Options For Time Machine

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