Time Machine and Microsoft Office

Earlier I posted a question in 'incremental' backups and my 5.6 gig hourly backup problem. It was suggested that this was caused by the Parallels virtual drive and certainly, when I dropped it from the backup and did an immediate backup this seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately a couple of backups later it was back to 5.6gig! There may well be a problem backing up a virtual drive at folder level and this I am sure will cause a problem but the fact is I didn't use Parallels so there was no change. The problem was actually the single file Entourage database (though why it is this large is beyond me). As soon as it is changed by just one email Time Capsule backs up the lot! Leave this out of your backup and all is fine. Which leaves MS Office users with a problem because their emails will not be backed up.
I have by the way, tried to switch back to mail to circumvent the problem, but Mail it seems, cannot import from Office 2008 only 2004.
As far as I can see there are three ways round this. Either one can backup this file separately on .mac, do a weekly backup with the entourage database included (which takes away the 'set up and forget' element) or go to this site
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName =hardware&articleId=9069678&taxonomyId=12&intsrc=kc_feat
where the more digitally adroit can set up an applescript workaround for this problem. I am afraid I was too much of a coward for this and have settled on doing a backup of this file on a weekly basis.
The Microsoft Entourage database is in Documents/Office 2008 Identities/Main Identity/Database
If you have other identities in use the save problem will be even worse of course. I suspect the problem also happens with Office 2004 as well because this too had a huge database.
Hope this helps someone.
Tag

Hi,
I have found that even though I do not exclude anything from Time Machine, I lost 1 month of emails in Entourage after a 10 second power failure. The screen appeared as it did on May 30, 2008. I called Apple and Microsoft. I was told that the large database in the main entity is now excluded from regular backups. The last "date modified" is not changed when new emails are added. When I looked at my backups of this database on time capsule, there were only three for the two month period. So even if I was willing to use 1GB of space for the backup, it never occurs, except for some infrequent unknown reason. So I lost about 300 emails from my inbox, folders, everywhere. Nothing could be recovered from June. And the last modified date on the database in the main identity if May 30th, even after I have sent and received many emails yesterday and today. Time Machine is not backing it back and I did nothing to stop it. Apple admitted that this is the case. I have never lost this much data and it has caused me tremendous work to complete newsletters, etc. I am switching to Apple Mail - I can't take this silly loss of data. One lightning bolt, the lights blink, and the computer shutsdown. I force a restart and June is gone!!! Oddly, this did not happen on my old IMAC G5 with Office 2004, just on the new IMAC with Office 2008. But I will admit the Entourage 2008 was open and the computer was in sleep mode. Office 2004 was closed. Very frustrating.

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Time Machine and MS Office Home Student

I attached a new hard drive to my MacBook Pro and launched TM and let it do a full back up. Upon completion I could no longer access my MS Office Home & Student version - I got a message that MS was already in use(meaning that the license was in use on another computer). I had to erase the back up, de-install MS, re-install MS and apply three layers of upgrades - and then MS worked. I also excluded applications and system stuff from TS. No bootable HD here.
The MS license allows for three installs, each with its own product id.
I have MS office on my Imac and it has a TS back up as well.
Is this problem because MS considers a TS full back up a machine and count it against the license (My IMAC, its TS drive, the TS drive on the MacBookPro?
And advice?

No, MS does not consider a backup a use of the license. You can use a license as often as you want on the same computer. The three serial numbers simply allow you to install Office on three different machines.

MacBook Pro 2011- Allowed updates to install for iTunes software and Microsoft office (I think). After rebooting, computer wouldn't progress past grey apple screen with loading circle.

I have a MacBook Pro 2011. I allowed updates to install for iTunes software and Microsoft office (I think). After rebooting, computer wouldn't progress past grey apple screen with loading circle. No progression bar ever appeared. It just sits and spins. I tried rebooting with Command + Option + R + P and hearing the chime twice....this did not work.
I also tried Command +Option+R which took me to internet recovery. From there, I chose reinstall Mac OS X Lion 10.7 but it says my hard drive is locked so I wasnt able to select it. What do I do???? Help! I don't want to lose my files and it doesnt appear that I've used Time Machine Back Up.

macbookpro2011ISU wrote:
I also tried Command +Option+R which took me to internet recovery. From there, I chose reinstall Mac OS X Lion 10.7 but it says my hard drive is locked so I wasnt able to select it.
I you upgraded to OS X 10.8, then use RecoveryHD by holding Command R at boot time (no option) and reinstall OS X over itself that way so your installing Mountain Lion.
Also Disk Uility can be used to Repair the Macintosh HD parttion.
Also you can use that RecoveryHD to format and install OS X onto a external drive, then option/alt key boot from it and access your files on the non-booting internal drive before erasing, reformatting and reinstalling OS X fresh.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Most commonly used backup methods
..Step by Step to fix your Mac

Backing up two Macs to a mirrored NAS using Time Machine, and then on to the cloud

I'm going to be moving home in the next few months, and I want to use this as an opportunity to get my home technology rig set up properly. I wrote a blog post about this at
http://state68.com/content/moving-edinburgh-sorting-out-technology-rig
A few friends of mine have read this over, and the weak link in the chain seems to be my backup strategy. As per
http://state68.com/content/moving-edinburgh-sorting-out-technology-rig
What I'd now like to do is to backup both Macs (a Mac mini that stays on my desk at home and a MacBook Air that travels everywhere with me, in case you haven't read the links above) to a mirrored NAS via Time Machine, and then have the mirrored NAS backup to the cloud. I'm aware of the potential compatability problems between Time Machine and certain NAS drives, but as for the rest, well:
Has anyone got this to work? Is there a specific cloud service that you could recommend? And what do the Time Machine files actually look like: would I be screwed if my office caught fire while the NAS was in the middle of sending data to the cloud?

Thanks, Linc. Is that a marketing decision by Apple (possibly to push sales of Time Capsule) or is there another reason why Apple doesn't support third-party NAS solutions?
All that being said, I'm happy for the fallout from a NAS meltdown to hit the vendor so I'm happy to continue this line of enquiry with regards to putting together a backup strategy. I'm also open to completely different backup strategies that will work for my scenario, if people would like to share these.

IMovie and Microsoft Office NOT WORKING! PLEASE HELP!

Just recently, out of nowhere, my iMovie and Microsoft Office stopped working; they won't turn on. I have Leopard 10.5, and they had been working on it since recently. Whenever I start iMovie, the "This program has quit unexpectedly" window comes up. Here's what I did. Firstly, I reported the problem to Apple and tried relaunching the program. That didn't work. Then, I deleted anything I had downloaded recently that may have affected it. Nothing. Next, I tried going into Library>Preferences and deleting all files with "iMovie" in the name. Nada. I then opened up disk utility and repaired disk permissions; yup, you guessed it, it didn't work. Finally, I archived and reinstalled Leopard, but it's still not working.
As for Microsoft Office, I have only reported the problem and deleted recent downloads. I haven't tried anything else (excluding the Leopard thing) to fix Office.
Please help ASAP! I need both of these applications for an upcoming project... and I may have to see a Mac Genius after this...
This is my last hope!
Thank you so much!
My AIM is tas121694 and email is [email protected]
Thanks again,
Todd

Well, that tells us that it's most likely something in your user account and not with iMovie or Office in general. If you need to get your videos edited right away and don't have time for troubleshooting, you can transfer them to the other account by copying them into the Users -> Shared folder. That would allow you to have access to them from the working account.
As to fixing the problem, you might try asking in the iMovie forum. It's possible that you have a corrupted project that iMovie keeps trying to open by default and that deleting that project might fix the problem. I'm not an iMovie user, though, so I'm not sure. Asking in the iMovie forum will probably get you more informed suggestions.
As to Office, what version is it, and do none of the applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage) launch, or is it just some and if so which one(s)?

Time Machine and equivalent of System Restore?

For years Microsoft have had (and needed) a feature called "System Restore" which lets you uninstall operating system updates that may have caused problems.
I had hoped that Time Machine would also provide this capability since uninstalling Apple updates is not really possible. I cannot see any obvious way of doing this. For example, based on the fact that to undelete an email you have to have Mail at the foreground before activating Time Machine I thought it might be logical that if Time Machine can uninstall Apple Updates you would need to first have the Software Update preference pane open. This does not work.
Has anyone else found a way to do this?
While the rest of Time Machine (for undeleting files etc.) is wonderful, a way of rolling back Apple updates (or anyones updates) would be very helpful as well.

AxL wrote:
Yes but +"any changes to any file on the system (mail, photos, documents, etc) would be lost"+ only temporarily.
They are all still on the TM backup, and you can restore them using the TM interface, and there's even an option to recreate a folder that doesn't exist anymore
(better say "that was not yet existing"...)
in the same location or in any other chosen location.
No data loss.
I have since my original post found that booting from the Leopard DVD and selecting restore from Time Machine lets you browse backups to restore from, and that it lists the version of Mac OS X for each. This would make it easy to select 10.5 if hypothetically reverting from 10.5.1 but it also suggests that hypothetically reverting from QuickTime 7.3 would be much harder since all you would have to go on would be a date/time. For this maybe the log in Software Update would be helpful.
Your answer (thanks for it) however does resolve the worry I had about such a restore also reverting user data. Now that you have pointed it out one can of course then do a second restore when back up and running just of the user data.
I would have to say though that this is not an elegant user friendly solution to this particular issue and thus not up to the standards one expects from Apple. Imagine if you are doing this on a machine with multiple user accounts (not unlikely for a home machine). You could also theoretically encounter a situation where you do an Apple update, create a new user, create data, need to remove the Apple update, have to restore the entire machine via Time Machine, and thus lose the user account, and therefore not be able to login to restore the user data. Potentially even if you recreate the user account, it may not have the same exact UID or UIDnumber and thus make restored data inaccessible (users are forgetful and you do not have control over the UIDnumber used).
I still think a more friendly approach would be for the Software Update preference machine to be "Time Machined" like Apple Mail and iPhoto have been so that if you are in Software Update and activate Time Machine it will let you just revert an update without affecting user data.

Can i download iLife and Microsoft Office?

Hi I have a Powerbook g4 with 768 MB ram 1.25 GHz, and 80 GB hard drive capacity. I was wondering if i had enough room or capability to download iLife '08 and Microsoft Office '08. I am running Leopard. Thanks.

I was wondering if i had enough room or capability to download iLife '08 and Microsoft Office '08.
You can purchase, install, and use that software, except for iMovie 08; iMovie 6 will run on your machine.
(39068)

HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Can I have two Time Capsules in the same network, use one as Time Machine and other to expand network?

I need to purchase a divice to expand my Wi-fi network. I was looking at the AirPort Extreme, but a friend has a brand new Time Capsule for sale. So, for the same price of the AirPort Extreme, I´m getting the Time Capsule.
I already own one and using it as Time Machine and wireless router. If I decide to purchase another TC would it have any conflict with the one that I already have?
Is it possible to use one as Time Machine and wireless router and the other to just expand network and storage only (not as Time Machine)?

If I decide to purchase another TC would it have any conflict with the one that I already have?
No
Is it possible to use one as Time Machine and wireless router and the other to just expand network and storage only (not as Time Machine)?
Yes. The important thing to remember is that the "extending" Time Capsule must be located where it can receive a strong wireless signal from your "main" Time Capsule.

Can I use my external HD for Time Machine and still use it for storage?

I have a 1TB external HD and my computer has yet to arrive. I was planning on backing it up via Time Machine and I'm wondering if my external HD will still be useable as a storage device once I pair it with Time Machine.
There's no way the backup will take up the full 1TB of space, so I'm hoping it doesn't just go to waste >.<

If you really only want backups of the current contents, don't use Time Machine.
It's designed to keep copies of things you've changed or deleted for as long as possible. This allows you an excellent chance to recover a previous version of something you changed or deleted in error.
It also allows you to revert your entire system to the exact state it was in at the time of any previous backup, even if that's a different version of OSX. It's rare, but if an OSX update, or installation of a kernel extension or 3rd-party app makes a huge mess, it's much easier and more reliable than rebuilding everything.
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). See #1 there for size considerations.
For alternatives, see Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

TIme Machine and iTunes

When I perform a back up using the time machine and my external hard drive, will the music in my itunes and the photos in iphoto be backed up as well? Thanks!

Everything is included unless you exclude it. How you do that is:
1. Open System Prefrences and click on Time Machine
2. Then click on Options. If you want to exclude something click the + sign and use Finder to locate it and then add it. On your next TM backup that item willl be excluded.

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

Hallo ,why is it that when I delete a photo ,which is backed up by time machine and western digital external hard drive , that I am able to restore the photo okay but not the titles and descriptions . I have a Macbook 4.1, mac osx 10.5.8 . Iphoto 7.1.5 ,

QUESTION.
Hallo , my question is ;whenever I delete a photo and restore it through Time machine and Western digital external hard drive , I am able to restore the photo but not the titles and descriptions . Western Digital inform me that it isn't their external hard drive problem and suggest that it is an Apple software problem ?
I am using a Macbook 4.1 , with Mac OSX 10.5.8 . I photo 7.1.5 , last modifie4d 01/05/2010 -universal . Should I be upgrading Iphoto ?
I hope that someone is able to help in this matter , as i have to restore 12000 photos !
Thanking you in anticipation.
Alan from Wigton

Hallo Kieth ,
I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
Thanks for your interest and advice.
regards - Alan

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on what other external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and how to configure that disk

I want to set up the Time Machine and I would love to use the Time
Capsule but since I already have a wireless router I need suggestions on
what other
external disks Apple could recommend to use with the Time Machine and
how to configure that disk.
A complication that I need to resolve is the fact that I am using Vmware
Fusion to be able to use Windows on my Mac. Now it seems that Time
Machine is not backing up my files
on that virtual Windows without additional configuration and my question
is whether you can advise me here or whether this is only a matter for
the Fusion virtual machine.

If you want to use Time Capsule you can.. you simply bridge it and plug it into the existing router.. wireless can be either turned off or used to reinforce the existing wireless.. eg use 5ghz in the TC which is much faster than your 2.4ghz.
You can also use a NAS.. many brands available but the top brands are synology, qnap and netgear readynas series. These will all do Time Machine backups although how well always depends on Apple sticking to a standard. There are cheaper ones.. I bought a single disk zyxel which was rebadged and sold through my local supermarket. It actually works very well for TM at least on Snow Leopard. Major changes were made in Lion and again ML so do not instantly think it will work on later versions. I haven't tried it yet with those versions.
Any external drive can be plugged into the mac. Use the one with the fastest connection or cheapest price according to your budget. USB2 drives are cheap and plentiful. But no where near as fast as USB3 or FW800. So just pick whichever suits the ports on your Mac. Interesting Apple finally moved to USB3 on their latest computers.
TM should exclude the VM partition file.. it is useless backing it up from Mac OS side.. and will slow TM as it needs to backup that partition everyday for no purpose.. TM cannot see the files inside it to backup just the changes.
You need to backup windows from windows. Use MSbackup to external drive.. if you have pro or ultimate versions you can backup to network drive. But MSbackup is a dog.. at least until the latest version it cannot restore the partition without first loading windows. There are about a zillion backup software versions for windows.. look up reviews and buy one which works for you. I use a free one Macrium Reflect which does full disk backups and is easy to restore.. to do incremental backups though you have to pay for it.

Time Machine and Microsoft Office

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