How does time machine use the external disk space??

does time machine back up only the changed or new stuff or does it back up everything?  does this mean that if on "day one" it backed up 600 gb worth of data, the next back up on "day 2" would be 600gb+a few more things, or would it be 600gb+600gb+the few more things?  Does it back up "day one" in a whole package and "day two" in another package, or does it back up "day one", plus only the different things made from "day one" to "day two""?
similarly, does it keep stuff from the first back up ever, plus anything new or modified in the following back ups, then when it is full, does it let just the oldest files drop off?  or does it drop off everything from the initial backup?  that is, if I had 20mb of changes would it erase only 20mb of data to make the new data fit, or would it erase all 600gb from say "day one"?
thanks for the answer!
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
<Email Edited by Host>

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Similar Messages

  • How does Time Machine handle disconnected external media drive ?

    I have an external drive connected to my iMac, and backup to a Time Capsule.
    I prefer not to keep that external media drive connected all the time...
    When I disconnect that external media drive and Time Machine runs, does TM perceive this as "deleted"?
    With that drive disconnected, does TM then "release" the prior media drive backup and replace it as it needs space?
    When I reconnect the external Media Drive, does TM see it as "new" or recognize it as the prior data and (presuming it's not over-written it) simply manage it incrementally?
    Ultimately - do I need to either ensure that the external media drive is always available to use TM, or do I run the risk of screwy / uncertain behavior if it is sometimes present, sometimes not.
    Gosh I hope that was clear for you experts out there ;-)
    D

    an external drive backed up to a TM would forever be retained in the TM... never flushed,
    Correct. Except.......if the backup drive is close to becoming full, Time Machine will start to delete the oldest backups to make room for new backups.
    So, if you have been backing up the external drive for the last year, and the backup drive is running out of space, you may not be able to go back a full year in Time Machine to see exactly how the external drive looked a year ago.  You might only be able to go back 10 months, for example, instead of 12.
    Most users really don't ever need to go back more than a few weeks or maybe a month or two to pick up a file that they might have accidentally deleted, so the fact that you might not be able to go back a full year or more to see how the drive looked at that time in the past, is not really that important for most users. 
    Most of us need to know that we have a complete, up to date backup of the external drive in case it fails.
    Time Machine will warn you whenever it starts to delete the oldest backups, so if you really do need to be able to go back a year, or two years, or however long it has been since you originally started to back up the external......and you don't want Time Machine to start deleting the oldest backups of the external to make more room.....then you will need to add another backup drive and start backing up everything to that new drive.

  • I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard.  Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

    I have just upgraded to Mavericks and have been using Time Machine on an external disk with Snow Leopard.  Can I continue to backup with Time Machine on the same external disk or do I need a new disk since the operating system has changed?

    Hi there,
    I found that Time Machine in Mavericks will sort it all out for you. You shouldn't need to buy another backup drive, unless you have insufficient space left and can't afford to delete whats on there. It should just work fine.

  • HT3275 Time Machine Error: The backup disk image "Volumes/Data/My Macbook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use. (How do I correct this issue?)

    Time Machine did not back up:
    Time Machine Error; ("The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/My MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use.")
    How do I correct this issue?
    Thanks!

    You need to be careful Bob.. people might take this literally.
    Bob Timmons wrote:
    How do I correct this issue?
    Call the exterminator to get rid of the bugs in Lion and Mountain Lion.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5222487?tstart=0

  • How does time machine work when being used with a mac pro?

    How does time machine work when backing up a mac pro?
    Considering the fact that the mac pro can hold 8TB and a external (non NAS) hard drive can hold only 2TB does time machine only backup the OS disk.

    macnewcomer22 wrote:
    Considering the fact that the mac pro can hold 8TB and a external (non NAS) hard drive can hold only 2TB does time machine only backup the OS disk.
    Time Machine will backup everything by default, on every disk in your Mac.
    Choose System Preferences > Options to exclude items. You could exclude everything except your OS...but I'd think it is your data that's more important to you, if you have to make choices.
    See...
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018
    While it's true you can store almost 8TB, how much do you think you'll actually store? If you have 1TB of data you want to store then a 2TB drive can do it. Also when your TM drive begins to get full it will begin deleting the oldest backups to make room.
    You could also get a Drobo with 8 bays...
    http://www.drobo.com/products/index.php
    -mj

  • How does time machine back up separate but computers on the same drive

    Thinking about hooking up a hard drive to APBS to use as a time machine for several  macs /iPads, how does time machine keep these different devices separate? How does it keep the backup info separate? Thanks

    APBS is usually called AEBS or Airport Extreme Base Station.
    You can only do Time Machine to the newest one.. it is not supported on earlier models.
    See http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
    Look for Gory details about airdisk.
    Also it is going to help you to actually read how Time Machine works on network drives.
    What you are asking has all the answers there.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html
    ipads do not backup like macs.. there is no time machine.
    ipads backup to itunes or to icloud. The backup to local itunes can then be backed up by TM to the disk you are using.
    Please note even though Apple now says it works.. I have seen reports where the old problem has come back.. it works for 6-8weeks and then the backup corrupts itself and you have to start over.

  • I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data-1/Dan's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

    I keep getting this error when trying to backup time capsule with time machine. The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data-1/Dan’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.

    Make sure that no other Macs are backing up at the time.
    Pull the power cable from the back of the Time Capsule
    Count to ten
    Plug the power cable back into the back of the Tme Capsule
    Wait a few minutes, then try a backup again.

  • I am running 10.7.5 and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Kathy P's MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use. what do i do now?

    i am running 10.7.5 on an older MacBook and getting Time Machine error The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Kathy P’s MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use. what do i do now?

    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

  • What can I do when I get this message from my Time Machine?  The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Jeanne's iMac.sparsebundle" is already in use.

    What do I do when I get this message on my Time Machine?  "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Jeanne’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use."

    See C12.
    Time Machine Troubleshooting

  • I'm getting an error message on my time machine backup: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use." Any suggestions?

    I'm getting an error message on my time machine backup: "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/MacBook.sparsebundle” is already in use." Any suggestions?

    Excellent apple networking on Lion or ML is usually the issue.
    Reboot the TC.. if that don't fix it.. reboot the whole network.. modem.. router.. TC.. clients.. restart in that order.
    There are tools.. download the real tool if you have lion..
    For ML you are stuck with toyland.. AU 6.1 .. good luck with the plastic hammer.
    Read C12 and C17
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • How can I make Time Machine use the ethernet cable to Time Capsule instead of the wireless connection? Wireless is too slow; has been taking 40 hours to create an initial 142 GB backup.

    How can I make Time Machine use the ethernet cable to Time Capsule instead of the wireless connection? Wireless is too slow; has been taking 40 hours to create an initial 142 GB backup.

    Plug in ethernet .. in the computer.. turn off wireless.

  • HT201250 Does time machine compress the data in backup?

    I have got to replace my internal hard drive so have to back up just everything to an ext drive.
    When I use 'time machine' to back up to an external disk, does that disk have to be larger than the file size on my iMac?
    Does Time machine compress the data?( eg will 1TB fit on a 500 gig external drive?)
    Thanks

    No, Time Machine doesn't compress the data. I recently started a new TIme Machine backup, and the first backup required the same amount of space as it was backing up (actually a little bit more during the backup process).

  • How Does Time Machine Help If... iCal Data Lost?

    Hi,
    How does Time Machine help if, say, your iCal database gets messed up? Or, how does it help if you accidentally delete all your playlists from iTunes? I'd be interested to know.

    That's a very good question (although probably better directed at Apple than us). Because Time Machine is new and Apple's in house programs handle data in different ways, there are a range of different means of recovering data for different applications. Not very user friendly and iCal is one of the least user friendly ones.
    As an experiment, because I don't make much use of iCal and have no real idea how it works, I tried to find out how to restore its data. Starting with working with the application: nope, not TM aware at present. OK, where does it restore its data? Next step Spotlight where, as it happens, the obvious search "Calendars" brings up a folder in ~/Library labelled that with a whole lot of mysterious stuff in it. I'm pretty sure that restoring that folder would do the trick. No doubt, if you could figure out which Calendar belongs to what in the above folder you could restore a single calendar that was causing problems. Still, Apple's clearly got some work to do to make this more transparent. Roll on iCal4!
    (By the way Mail also restores from within the program).

  • Does Time Machine use a differential/delta file compression when copying files ?

    Hello,
    I would like to use Time Machine to backup to a MacBook Air but that computer is using a Virtual Machines store in a single file of 50 GBytes.
    Once the initial backup will be done, does Time Machine will only copy the changes in this large file or will everyday copy the full 50 Bytes?
    In other word does Time Machine use a differential/dela file compression algorithm (like un rsync)?
    If it is not yet the case, can you please file for me an application request to the development team internally?
    If others are also interested in such a feature, you’re welcome to vote for it.
    Kind regards,
    Olivier

    Ok, it looks like the current version of Time Machine cannot handle efficiently in network terms large files like Virtual Machine files and this a real issue today.
    Is anybody here able to file an official feature request to Apple to be able to use Time Machine efficiently also with large files (let's stay > 5 GBytes) ?
    I should propably mean using a differential compression algorythm over the network like the examples below:
    http://rsync.samba.org/tech_report/tech_report.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Differential_Compression

  • Time Machine Error:  "The backup disk image could not be created."  Help.

    I have two Macbook Pro's. One is able to backup to the Time Capsule with no problems. The other connects just fine to Airport Utility, but I get the following error after I attempt to backup: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
    I have reset the Time Capsule several times, so that is not the fix.
    The first thing I see when attempting to open Time Machine is the following message: :The storage location for Time Machine Backups can't be found." It gives me the option to setup the Time Capsule, which I select. The next thing I select is to Change Disk. The window that opens has the Icon with Three people on it. The name of that Icon is The Moreman Time Capsule. I select it, and enter the password I created. I then choose to Backup. Then I choose to backup now. That is when I get the error: Time Machine Error: "The backup disk image could not be created."
    Any ideas? Has anyone encountered this problem?

    You have to delete the .dmg file and start over. This happened to me 3 times already, I finally switched to Déjà Vu, works perfect and only once a day instead of 24 times a day.
    http://propagandaprod.com/

Maybe you are looking for