Naive Question about Time Machine

Hi!
I've just received my MBP and it's absolutely great!
I'm planning to buy an external HD to make backups with time machine.
My question is: will the HD be dedicated only to Time Machine or I can use it also as a normal external HD and put on it data other than my backups?
Thanks and best regards!
Gio

Hi muju79;
I would suggest that you partition the drive into at least two partitions. Give one to TM and you can use the others for your own use. TM wants to use up the whole disk or partition to which it is assigned. If you are adding your own files to the same disk or partition you can upset TM.
Allan

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Questions about Time Machine back-up

Hello. I am planning to upgrade the hard drive on my MacBook Pro (probably an SSD), and I would like to install Snow Leopard on it (My MacBook Pro is mid-2009, so it came with Snow Leopard + installation CD).
This will be my first time using Time Machine, so I have some questions.
When I use Migration Assistant to transfer my files from Time Machine backup to the new hard drive, does it also transfer things like Sarafi bookmarks, sticky notes, iTune song play counts, mouse sensitivity, finder settings, menu bar apps, etc.?
Should I deauthorize iTunes before removing the old hard drive? Furthermore, do I have to re-enter product keys on softwares? (major softwares I use are Autodesk suite, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Guitar Pro 6 and MS Office 2011).
I also have Windows Vista on Bootcamp. Can I do a backup of that partition on Time Machine?
Thank you.

Everything will be transferred. Intact.
When you boot the computer with the new drive and fresh OS, you have to enter information about yourself. Early in the setup process you will be asked if you want to transfer information. At this point you can select the Time Machine back up and let the Mac do the rest.
The Time Machine backup has to be connected to the Mac, of course.
(This is Setup Assitant, and is easier to use than Migration Assistant.)

I have a question about time machine

I have time machine on a hard drive that is formated as a MBR with a NTFS partition and OSX journaled partition. The NTFS has some stuff that I had backed up from a windows system and the OSX of course has the time machine backup. I know that because of this setup, I can't boot from the time machine itself. The question that I have is that, if in the future I have to clean reload the system and I used the Option + R and access the Internet recovery system. I know there is an option to restore from the time machine. Question is, will doing this restore the full Mountain Lion operating system as I have it now or am I going to have to restore the original Operating system (Snow Leopard), upgrade to Mountain Lion and then use the time machine. From what I can tell from when I look at the time machine back up. It looks like all the system files are on the backup drive. I hope at some point in the near future to have a drive that I can clone the system to but I am not at that point right now.
In regards to cloning the drive. I know that Carbon clone is one software that people recommend using to clone the drive. Is there any reason Disk Utility can not clone the drive? I assume I would have to boot to the Recovery Disk utililty first and then use it to creat an image of the drive.
Thank you
Patrick

For TM issues, see Pondini's TM FAQs. CCC is better since you can clone the boot volume and then incrementally update the clone. DU requires a separate boot volume to replicate a source volume onto another destination volume. Also, you can only restore the entire volume, using the block-copy mode, which takes almost twice as long as doing it with CCC.

Some donkey questions about time machine!

Hi all, really quick question, money is not really flying around my house at the moment, but we really see the benefit of using time machine. You can get an 8gb usb stick now for under £15 and I was hoping this will do to backup files only from a home folder or two. Time machine doesn't require a minimum external HD does it?
Also can I backup my memory sticks to time machine, I can't figure this out?!?
Cheers all and sorry for asking dump *** questions

if your home directory is that small and you don't want to backup anything else, Time machine is not a great solution. in my experience it does require significant overhead so I'm not sure it will work at all. also by default TM backs up everything unless you specifically put something on the TM exclusion list. therefore you'll have to make sure you exclude absolutely everything besides your home directory. In particular you'll need to exclude a number of invisible folders at the top level of your hard drive.

Question about Time Machine backup on external drive containing photos

I have a Le Cie external hard drive with iPhoto '08 photos on it. I bought the drive when I started running out of room on my early 2008 iMac and moved a bunch of iphoto pictures and imovie movies onto it. Can I use this same external drive to run Time Machine backups? Or would that risk losing the photos that are already on the external drive?? Can an external drive be used for both photo storage and Time Machine backups?
Ultimately, my goal is to update to iPhoto '11, but I would like to have all my photos backed up first in case it doesn't go well.
Thanks!

Yes. You can back up your internal the external drives to the TM drive.
Here is a site that has probably all the info you will need for using and troubleshooting TM. Bookmark this to read and for future reference.
This was created by Pondini:
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

Likely dumb question about time machine

I have had some troubles with partitions and boot camp, and I want to remove all partitions and have my MBP have a normal disk with all the memory intact.
if were to back everything up in time machine, will that save my applications like photoshop and word? will I be able to restart from scratch and reformat my hardrive and then use time machine to replace everything including the apps?
thank you

Juan Guerra wrote:
I have had some troubles with partitions and boot camp, and I want to remove all partitions and have my MBP have a normal disk with all the memory intact.
if were to back everything up in time machine, will that save my applications like photoshop and word?
yes.
will I be able to restart from scratch and reformat my hardrive and then use time machine to replace everything including the apps?
yes. You can do a full system restore from TM. reboot from the install DVD, start disk utility and reformat the main drive. then quit disk utility and select "restore system from backup" from the utilities menu. follow the instructions. this will restore your entire system to the state it was in at backup time.
thank you

Quick question about Time Machine

The hard drive I use for my TM backup has failed and I need a new one.
Will pretty well any external hard drive do the job, solong as it has enough capacity?
Thanks

Apple support article:
Disks You Can Use

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

A technical question about time.

I find myself wondering what would be the total playing time of my iTunes library. How can I determine this? I could copy the total file into Excel then add up the time column, but as I have 12,000 tracks I doubt Excel could handle it. Is there a simple way to do this?

Select Library - Music and look at the botton center of the iTunes window.
Click it to change the displayed info.
A technical question about time.
T=2π √L/G

Question regarding Time Machine

I have a question about potentially backing up my iMac to two separate external hard drives using Time Machine:
Because I realize Time Machine is not capable of backing up to more than one volume, i.e. you have to keep changing the Preferences settings if you want to switch volumes, I'm wondering if it's possible (or advisable) to use Time Machine in a "staggered" method for backups.
For instance, if someone was backing up their iMac daily, they could go into the Preferences settings and choose one external hard drive for backup on one evening, then the next evening they could go back into the Preferences settings and choose the other external hard drive, etc., switching back and forth on a daily basis.
The reason I would want to have more than one backup is simply because our 2 Lacie external hard drives (which have extended warranties and are automatically switchable from the parent company if one of them goes down) have been experiencing some problems over the past year. In other words, one of them has needed to be sent to Lacie headquarters on more than one occasion. This is why I want more than one backup in place.
And yes, I realize there are more backup options then Time Machine; but when our iMac went down about two years ago, we were more than impressed with Time Machine's design in restoring the iMac very quickly. It's something we are comfortable and familiar with. So we'd like to keep with Time Machine as our backup software.
We just wish that Time Machine was capable of backing up to multiple drives instead of only being "attached" to one single drive. (This really is incredibly frustrating.)
If anyone would like to chime in on this "backup staggering" question, it would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I will add to my reply too. Not to bash any company BUT I too had issue with 2 Lacie drives myself and said that was enough. I have switch to seagate drives, I have three of them running and paired together oldest one being over 3 years old and no problem as of yet.
I truely understand the need of a backup. I have years of back ups and 4 or 5 complete system back ups of the complete operating system- Guessing this is over kill but I could run the past 4 operating systems of apple OS at anytime!

Question about Time Capsule as primary router

Hi everyone. I'm ready to upgrade my backup drive to take advantage of Leopard's Time Machine. I'm trying to decide between a simple 500 GB firewire drive or spending the extra for the Time Capsule. I have and intel iMac and an older 12 inch powerbook so I understand the advantages of wirelessly backing up my info.
My question is this - in reading reviews, its suggested that I use Time Capsule as the primary router. However, I had AT&T install U-Verse cable and DSL in my house a few months back and it works flawlessly. I'm using the 2Wire AT&T Uverse modem/router as my router. Can I easily make the Time Capsule my primary router without disrupting what is currently a very good network and is it a simple adjustment? Also, if I opt to make Time Capsule part of the network and use my current AT&T router as the primary, will I notice a significant slowdown as some reviews have suggested.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
Kory

Depends if you want the fast transfer speed of files. The wireless TC file transfer will be about 8M/sec and ethernet about 15M/sec
Firewire 400 will be about 25M/sec and so will USB2.

MacBook Pro Disk Space Question and Time Machine

Hi all,
I know this is probably a "noob" question, but I have been backing up my laptop (2009 Mac OS X 10.6.8) onto an external hard drive set up for Time Machine, and now my MacBook Pro only has 1.15 GB available of free space after the many years of usage and saving things onto it (such as images, movies, etc.). I had a question: Are these files backed up onto Time Machine and so can I delete them from my laptop without losing them? I am concerned about losing them and am not sure how Time Machine really works; if I delete these files from my laptop in order to free up space, then backup my computer onto Time Machine, will they be deleted from the Time Machine drive also?? I need to free up a lot of space on my laptop but also don't want to lose any pictures and videos from over the years.
Thanks in advance.

570ad
My question is, how do I effectively "copy over" files onto my new external hard drive? Is it as easy as connecting the hard drive via usb
Easy as drag and drop, yes indeed. Could almost do it with your eyes closed.
Entire user account, ....no, just get all your files, you created, saved, made, work on ALL VITAL DATA you "dont dare lose" etc. drag it over, make files in the HD showing where things are, etc.
There are of course a 1000 ways to organize folders and data on external HD, ..pick what suits you.
Keep it simple.

Two Questions - A Time Machine Restore, and Ipod Touch Wiping

A few days ago, my macbook started acting strangely, so I restarted it. The problem was, it never fully restarted. After a long stall on the screen with the apple logo and a very slow login process, I managed to log into my account but not load the finder. I tried to restart several times, and this was always the case. I tried removing the batteries and resetting the pram, but neither of these fixed the problem.
I had been using the latest version of leopard, with my external happily backing up periodically with time machine. However, I won't be anywhere near my leopard install disc for the rest of the summer. I did have the tiger install disc that came with the laptop, so I tried to restore from that one instead. Unfortunately, the time machine utility doesn't come with this disc, so all of my back ups were unrecognizable by disc utility. This is the only computer that I have access to during the summer, so I really need to be able to use it. Because of this, I did a fresh install of tiger with the disc and am running fine with this. I don't have any vital files, but it would be quite nice to be able to restore from my backup. Is there any way of doing this without having my leopard disc available?
This is even more pressing for me in light of an even more recent problem. I have a fresh install of tiger, which comes with a fresh install of itunes. I plugged my ipod touch into the computer to charge and sync, before I realized that I had a blank itunes library. I stupid clicked yes to the notice window, and so now I have a blank ipod with all of my music gone. Normally this would be no big issue, as I can just restore from my music library on itunes, but that is with the rest of the back ups in an unreadable time machine format on my external hard drive. Is there any way to undo my wiping of its drive, if there is no easy way to restore from my time machine back ups? I don't have any other versions of this music elsewhere, so it'd be gone for the summer otherwise.
Thank you very much for your help,
Jack

Hi Jack,
Sorry to hear about your troubles. There is no way to "unwipe" an iPod.
But the good news is that you can access your backed up files without Time Machine. All you need to do is plug your external hard disk that you were using for Time Machine into your computer. Then, open it in the finder. You'll see a folder called "backups.backupd.something" (depending on the name of your computer). Go into that folder and down at the bottom you'll see an alias to "Latest." That's your most recent backup. Go into that folder, then navigate to your documents folder, music folder, etc.
Just copy the files back to your hard disk and you'll have your files and music again. Be aware, that this can cause some permissions issues. You may have to reset the permissions of the files using the terminal. If so, come back and post here and I'll walk you through it.

Beginner's question: Using Time Machine with a WD External Drive

Hello folks,
Could someone help me with some basic questions?
I have a MacBook with Mac OSX 10.5.5. It has Time Machine but I've never used it before. I've just obtained a Western Digital External Hard Drive which is Mac compatible but, I'm told, may not be formatted for Mac.
1. If that's the case, how do I format it for Mac so that I can use it with my MacBook? Or can I just plug-and-play?
2. Once ready to use, I'd like to use the external drive for two purposes: (a) to create back-up images of my entire computer using Time Machine, and (b) as a second drive where I can just drag-and-drop selected files when needed (e.g. so that I can put photos in a photo folder on my external instead of on my MacBook hard drive). Will my MacBook let me do this, or will using Time Machine effectively reserve the entire external hard drive for Time Machine and not allow my to drag-and-drop files?
Thanks! And Happy New Year!

Question 1:
1. Launch Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utility folder.
2. Click the "erase" tab
3. Select your entire WD disk on the sidebar (the uppermost icon).
4. Format: "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
5. Name the Disk
6. Click on "erase"
Question 2:
What is the size of your drive? If it is large enough you can partition it but Time Machine backup will "grow". So if it's important to you to save all backups you'll want to give it the whole disk. If not, you can partition the disk at the same time you format it.
Follow the steps here. It will accomplish both Q1 & Q2.
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack

Quick question about Time Machineive

I can't seem to find the answer to this question: can I set up Time Machine to back up an additional external drive in addition to backing up my computer? We keep our media on a separate external drive. I'm looking into buying Leopard in part because of the backup capabilities. Thank you.

You can do what you want but Time Machine will not back up FAT32 formatted drives. This is the format that nearly all external drives ship with and is the format that many people use to share files between Macs and PCs. Reformatting the drive in the Apple Extended or Apple Extended (Journaled) format will involve erasing everything on the drive so your files should first be safely copied to another hard drive and/or CD/DVD. You then should randomly test a few of the copied files to ensure that they copied successfully.
There are good directions for formatting a Time Machine drive in this article which will work just fine to reformat your media drive if you need to do that. People with PPC Macs should substitute Apple Partition Map for GUID when following the directions.

Naive Question about Time Machine

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