Does time machine back up everything???

Hi guys im fairly new to macs, just made the switch a couple of months ago and i was just wandering if it is necessary to back up my itunes and iphoto libraries separately or is time machine a one in all solution that backs up my entire hard drive including photos and music/movies??

If you look into /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist you'll find what's excluded. It is in three parts: ExcludeByPath; ExcludeByVolume; and SkipPaths.
I find that in ExcludeByPath non of the items are ones I told it to exclude.
Also there is a SkipSystemFiles boolean which is set to 'no'.
I've heard that VMWare fusion exclude it's files "automatically" - presumably by writing the plist during installation. It certainly makes sense as the Windows "disk" file is large and changed constantly which will quickly fill up the backup disk.
There are a number of other types of files that one should exclude. For example I exclude my Lightroom catalogs and Previews databases as they are large and change any time they're opened. Since they contain the history within them, conventional backup is better suited for preserving them.

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    b_sheridan wrote:
    does using time machine back up everything, include my Leopard OS?
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    EDIT: Snapped by Paul
    -mj
    [email protected]
    Message was edited by: macjack

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    Franklin Osgood wrote:
    I'm backing up my MacBook to an external hadr drive using Time Machine in the apple part of my partioned MacBook.
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    How far back does Time Machine back up? Thanks.

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    Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences and verify that the drive isn't excluded. Drives in some formats, such as FAT32, can't be backed up by Time Machine.
    (74490)

  • Does Time Machine back up other users?

    My wife and I share the same computer. We each have our own user accounts. Does Time Machine back up both accounts? It appears that the amount of disk space used on the computer is about equal to the amount on the external hard drive that I use for backup. So I am assuming that both users are backed up in case of a crash. I hope this is the case! Sorry that this is slightly off topic.
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  • Does Time Machine back up iPhoto pix?

    Does Time Machine back up the contents of iPhoto? If so, how do I access it?
    Thanks.

    1. Yes, unless it was told not to; if the library is on an external drive, that drive needs to have been removed from the exclusion list.
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    (120661)

  • Does time machine back up my photostream?

    Does Time Machine back up my Photostream - I'm referring
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    no
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  • I have just started using Time Machine. I was thinking about deleting old E-Mails on my Mac to clean. Does Time Machine back up the E-Mails , if so how can I find them in Time Machine ??

    I have just started using Time Machine. I was thinking about deleting old E-Mails on my Mac to clean. Does Time Machine back up the E-Mails , if so how can I find them in Time Machine ??

    If you back up your mac before deleting your emails, Time Machine should back up your e-mails.
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  • HT3275 does time machine back up email?

    Does time machine back up all the emails in your apple mail?

    Yes, assuming of course, that you have not specifically excluded Mail from backups.

  • Does Time Machine backs up also the format of the volume?

    Since many softwares cannot be installed on case-sensitive volume, so I erased the whole volume and install OS X Mountain Lion with format of OS Extended(Journaled). Then I use Time Machine backing up to the new system.
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    Thanks.

    As well as doing backups and other things, you can use Disk Utility to create RAID volume sets. 
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