Time Machine & Hard Drive Spinup Question

For years I've used a manual, whole-disk backup--usually once a week. I backup all personal files daily. I've used Dantz Retrospect, Synchronize X Pro and now I use MimMac. All have functioned well.
I'm considering switching to Time Machine for my backups; however, I was wondering if the following would occur should I use Time Machine with a physically or wirelessly connected USB or Firewire drive:
After a few minutes, an external drive that is mounted on the desktop will spin down--like it should. But...each time a "Save" or "Save As..." dialog box is opened in any application, things will grind to halt for a few seconds while the external drive spins up--even though I will not be saving files to that drive. I've always hated that, which is one reason I've always done manual backups.
Does that happen with Time Machine (either with a drive physically or wirelessly connected via Export Extreme) and is there any way to avoid that? I know that the external drive will spinup each hour when Time Machine does its backups, but it's all the other spinups that I want avoid.
Is it possible to manually turn on and turn off Time Machine (and the external drive) so as to only do manual backups like I'm doing now? I don't really care about looking up a prior version of file that I've changed. I just want a reasonably current whole-disk backup.

Scott Newman wrote:
After a few minutes, an external drive that is mounted on the desktop will spin down--like it should. But...each time a "Save" or "Save As..." dialog box is opened in any application, things will grind to halt for a few seconds while the external drive spins up--even though I will not be saving files to that drive. I've always hated that, which is one reason I've always done manual backups.
Does that happen with Time Machine (either with a drive physically or wirelessly connected via Export Extreme) and is there any way to avoid that?
It happens with TM. I am not sure of any convenient work-arounds. You can of course eject the drive and reattach it when you want to make a backup, but that's a bit inconvenient, IMO.
Is it possible to manually turn on and turn off Time Machine (and the external drive) so as to only do manual backups like I'm doing now? I don't really care about looking up a prior version of file that I've changed. I just want a reasonably current whole-disk backup.
Yes, TM has an on/off switch. Just turn it off until you want a backup. It will simply continue where it left off. It will not create a completely new backup.

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Time Machine only shows the current copy of the file I am trying to restore. There is none of the time machine backup histories shown. I am running OSX 10.7.5. I see the backup files on my external Time Machine hard drive. Help

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Can I clone my Time Machine hard drive, to another HD, and store Off Site?

Good day All, I love my new Macbook, but am trying to come up with a foolproof method of backing up all my data, documents, and business.
I have become very nervous about BACKUPS, and want to have an OFF-SITE week old backup done on a external Hard Drive?
I presently have a 200 gig Time Machine backup/archive, and have a daily clone with Super Duper & Carbon Copy Clone. However these hard drives are at home, so should the building burn down, or should we get broken into, there goes my business and digital life.
My thought is to buy an external hard drive and clone my current Time Machine hard drive to the external on a weekly basis, and store it off-site or at a friends house.
Would I be able to do a clone of my TM HD archive, and have it still useable / bootable / recoverable should a tragedy happen?
I would like to upload it all up to Mozy, or BackBlaze, or similar offering, but 200 gig is way too big.
Is anybody cloning a Time Machine hard drive and able to restore from it?
Thanks for reading my post, and am lookin forward to all of your comments, IAN...

Hi Ian,
Sorry I missed the discussion last night. I'll tell you how I'm accomplishing the backup task and you can let me know if this is what you're trying to do.
I now have 2 external HDs. A 1TB Seagate and a 250 GB LaCie. The LaCie used to be my TM backup drive, but it was the same size as my internal iMac drive. I knew I'd eventually need a bigger drive so I bought the 1TB Seagate yesterday and cloned the LaCie drive onto it using SuperDuper. The only thing on the LaCie drive was TM backups. Now the TM backup are on the Seagate. I unmounted the old TM drive and changed the name of the new drive to "Time Machine". I activated TM and it picked right up where it left off. I did test it by restoring an old file. I also changed a current file and made sure TM was still operating as advertised. Everything worked as expected.
Now I simply used the 250 GB drive to clone my system HD using CCC. It is a bootable backup and can be used to run the system should my internal drive become unusable. I will update this drive once a month with any changes to the system drive using CCC and keep it off-site in a safe deposit box in the meantime. Using this methodology, I don't see why you'd want to swap the drives weekly/monthly. Just let TM run on the large drive and keep the other drive as current as you like. I've decided monthly is good for me. I'm mostly worried about photos, but I keep them on the camera longer than a month, so there's my cover for the month.
Nano

If I add another profile, will that person's content automatically be saved to my Time Machine hard drive or do I need to take further action to ensure that this is saved?

If I add another profile, will that person's content automatically be saved to my Time Machine hard drive or do I need to take further action to ensure that this content is saved? Thanks for any and all help with this.
Dave N.
Holliston, MA

Time Machine creates a back up of the entire Hard Drive, with the exception of Boot Camp or exceptions you have created. So in other words after you create the profile run Time Machine, and a backup of the other user profile will be added to your Time Machine backups.

Erasing Time Machine hard drive after formatting for both PPC and Intel

Ok, I made a mistake. First I formatted a Western Digital 500 gig hard drive for both my wife's PPC G4 laptop and my own Intel MBP laptop, so we could both use Leopard's Time Machine for backing up to the same drive. That wasn't my mistake though, it's been working fine. I formatted my partition using the GUID option and hers using the Apple Partition Map option (I think that's what they are called, I'm going from memory).
Here's my mistake: I needed some extra space to store some files and read that I could Re-Partition the drive without erasing anything using Disk Utility. Sounded great. I first tried to partition my wife's partition, since she had more extra space, but then I realized that was a bad idea since I had formatted her partition with using the Apple Partition Map, so I stopped and then tried to Re-Partition my side. It worked for about an hour: my Time Machine backup drive appeared, my new partition appeared, but then... her partition disappeared! Usually whenever one of us plugs in the hard drive using the firewire cable, both partitions appear, Time Machine Goes to work, and that's that. When we need to disconnect from the drive we have to eject both drives, but no big deal. Now her drive isn't appearing.
So... I tried to repair it, no good. Tried to erase both her partition and mine (to just start over): no good. I can't do anything to either of these partitions now, from either computer. Tried everything I could think of in Disk Utility, from both computers. Won't erase, won't re-partition. Not a hardware issue: it all started when I did this stupid Re-Partition. Help!!!!
I want to erase the drive and start over. Can anyone advise??

Jasonmo,
First, let's talk about the various partition schemes. A partition scheme applies to the entire drive. Specifically, these are different maps written to the drive, within which volumes are created. As such, this is an either/or thing; your drive is partitioned using either the GUID Scheme, or the Apple Scheme, not both.
"Live" partitioning or re-sizing of existing volumes is supported only under the GUID Partition Scheme. If the drive wasn't using this scheme, you would not be able to re-size as you were attempting to do. Even re-sizing under the GUID scheme requires that the drive's maps and directory structures be in very good shape, if it is to work without hitch.
Are you absolutely certain that there isn't some physical problem with the drive, or with its interface (cables and such)? If it is operating normally, you should be able to re-partition it without problems. In DIsk Utility, select the drive (not a named volume that will appear indented underneath), then click the "Partition" tab. If you wish to be able to re-size volumes later, you must choose the GUID scheme from the "Options..." dialogue sheet. Set appropriate sizes for the volumes, then click "Apply." Doing so will destroy all current volumes and data on the drive.
Scott

Time Machine and drive permissions question

I'm using Time Machine on a MacBook with two admin accounts (let's call them admin1 and admin2). admin2 is the account used daily. admin1 is the account used very infrequently.
Things were set up with admin1. I noticed today when I was logged in as admin2 that TimeMachine reported that the last backup was more than 2 week ago (when things were set up), and that the last backup failed because the user didn't have privileges.
I did a Get Info on the drive, and it seemed to confirm that (admin 1 had read/write privileges, but admin 2 had only read access).
To get around the problem I logged in as admin1 and turned Time Machine off. I then logged in admin 2 and selected the disk from there, and turned Time Machine on.
My question is - is this normal behavior? Or if there's something wrong, how to fix it?
Thanks...

Scott Newman wrote:
After a few minutes, an external drive that is mounted on the desktop will spin down--like it should. But...each time a "Save" or "Save As..." dialog box is opened in any application, things will grind to halt for a few seconds while the external drive spins up--even though I will not be saving files to that drive. I've always hated that, which is one reason I've always done manual backups.
Does that happen with Time Machine (either with a drive physically or wirelessly connected via Export Extreme) and is there any way to avoid that?
It happens with TM. I am not sure of any convenient work-arounds. You can of course eject the drive and reattach it when you want to make a backup, but that's a bit inconvenient, IMO.
Is it possible to manually turn on and turn off Time Machine (and the external drive) so as to only do manual backups like I'm doing now? I don't really care about looking up a prior version of file that I've changed. I just want a reasonably current whole-disk backup.
Yes, TM has an on/off switch. Just turn it off until you want a backup. It will simply continue where it left off. It will not create a completely new backup.

Stolen Time Machine Backup drive - security questions

Hi,
I had my Time Machine Backup drive stolen out of my bag at the airport. My question is, is there any security on the drive? i know its not encrypted, but i'm wondering if someone can plug the drive into another computer and have full access to all of my files w/o any need for password etc?
thanks,
-g

Yes is the short answer.
If you were using File Vault, I think your backups would be encrypted too, but I don't use File Vault so I don't know for certain.
What I do is create a small encrypted disk image and store all of my sensitive information such as passwords, etc. on it. Your keychain on MacOS X is similarly encrypted, so those passwords are automatically safe. But any documents you had or e-mail messages, or address book info is all available.

Time Machine hard drive need to be reformatted?

I upgraded from Leopard about 6 hours ago and so far I haven't had any issues with Snow Leopard and it is noticeably faster and more stable. However, when I just plugged in my Time Machine backup drive I got a message saying the "disk was unreadable by this computer". That never happened until I installed Snow Leopard. Does my time machine backup HDD need to be reformatted to work with Snow Leopard??? Is there a chance that version 10.6.1 will fix this little issue soon?

If you're sure you've got all your data on your Mac now, and it's solid, you could erase your external drive and do a backup right off.
I also would search as I thought I saw someone with a simple fix for a similar issue here.
Scott

Time Machine hard drive is not sleeping.

I have been using a 1TB Maxtor Basics (Seagate?) external USB hard drive for Time Machine on my iMac for over a year now without any problems, until recently. Between backups, the Time Machine HD does not go to sleep anymore. I am certain that until recently it would automatically go to sleep between backups and wake itself for each scheduled hourly backup. The USB HD is now running constantly when the iMac is awake. Has anyone else had this issue? Can anyone confirm that their "Time Machine" does in fact sleep between backups?

tuttle1150 wrote:
Hey Pondini. It appears my Internal HD is not sleeping either.
Since you've already replaced the preferences file (the first suspect), there may be something using both disks. If you're running any anti-virus software, turn it off (or uninstall it). Exclude both from Spotlight Indexing, if you haven't already, via +System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.+
If that doesn't help, use the +Activity Monitor+ app (in your Applications/Utilities folder), to see what's running. When it starts, select either +All Processes+ or +Active Processes+ in the toolbar, and sort the list by the +% CPU+ column, so the highest numbers are on top, and select the CPU tab towards the bottom. Some system processes run more or less continually, so it's not easy to see what's using the disk(s), but you may find something. If the process(es) involved aren't familiar to you, post their names here (and/or check this out: http://triviaware.com/macprocess/all)
I would like to do an "Erase and Instal"
That's extreeeeeeeemly unlikely to change anything, unless you have some software that you loaded for the Maxtor (if so, just delete it and Restart).
As another poster (Kiraly, I think) says, that's like fixing a dripping faucet by tearing out the kitchen!
but although I know my Documents are backed-up, where are the other things like all my emails and stickies, favourites, notes etc. filed?
What are you contemplating? Erasing your HD, installing OSX, applying the "combo," and selectively restoring things? If so, that's a large project, with very little chance of success.
First, make a second full backup on a separate external HD, via the Restore tab of Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like. It's rare, but on occasion a backup drive fails during a restore, and everything is lost.
Then, here's what you'd be looking at:
|
• Erase your internal HD, per the yellow box in #1 of [Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Using Snow Leopard+ forum).
• Quit Disk Utility, and install OSX from your Snow Leopard Install disc.
• Set up a temporary User Account (different from any on your backups).
• Go through the set-up procedure for your Internet connection(s), power settings, and other system-wide settings and preferences.
• Download and install the "combo" update, to get back to your current version of OSX.
• If you've upgraded either OSX or iLife since purchasing your Mac, find the disks with iLife and restore those apps.
• Find all the discs for 3rd-party apps and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
• Find the websites for all downloaded 3rd-party apps, download and install them. Re-enter any purchase keys.
• Restore whatever data you saved. See #28 in [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) for some common data.
• Re-enter all your Users' preferences and settings, including email accounts: account info, passwords, server names, etc. (if you didn’t save them).
• Wonder what you missed, and find out the hard way . . . for months . . . or longer.
|
Is it really worth all that?

Time Machine hard drive back-up. Is it gone?

Hi,
I just bought a My Book 3T to backup my macbook pro 2009 (OS X). It asked (and I agreed) if it would be my Time Machine and I agreed. I didn't realize that Time Machine would actually erase files if the hard drive gets too full. I don't need this as I already have Blackblaze to provide backup in this form. I just need a hard drive to keep my files safe there so I can erase them from the mac which is running out of space (this would be backed up less often, but also backed up on Blackblaze).
Sooo... AFTER installing time machine and backing up the whole thing I went and did a partition on the hard drive so I could use it as time machine in 1 T, clone in 1T and keep the other 1 T for future use.
Obviously I did so successfully because I can no longer see the time machine drive. My question is is it gone or is it saved somewhere using up space in the hard drive? Can I now safely back up as Time Machine and Clone in those compartments?
Thx

If you partitioned using the normal disk utility you will have deleted your old TM backup. You will now need to start a new one.

Time machine hard drive for transfering files from 2010 MBP to rMBP

Hello!
I have a couple of questions here!
I will be getting the rMBP in the next few weeks so want to do a bit of housekeeping before transferring across.
1) What is the best way to clear my current MBP of files and applications that i dont use and are just taking up space? I currently have a 256GB hard drive with 8GB free - there should be no reason for this as my large audio/ Raw photo/ video editing files are on an external hard drive. So i think there must be a lot of flotsam and jetsam on there that needs to be removed as i don't want to carry that from computer to computer!
2) Is Time machine the best option for this kind of service?
3) Can anyone recommend an external hard drive for the job? I don't want to rely on thunderbolt ones at the moment so would it just be any usb hard drive seeing as Apple has sodded of firewire?
Cheers
K*

OK, I'll bite:
1) you can just delete the documents that you don't use by throwing them in the Trash. To delete apps and all associated files (and some will disagree with me or suggest another application) I recommend using AppDelete. I believe it's $13 or so but I have used AppZapper and AppCleaner as well but find that AppDelete finds all associated files.
2) After you've rid yourself of your 'junk' files, I recommend using Time Machine on a dedicated or partitioned hard drive for backups. When you get your new machine, you can just use Time Machine to restore all of your settings, apps, documents, etc. For everything you ever wanted to know about Time Machine, see http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html.
3) A USB drive is definitely the way to go. I would recommend the G-Drive series from Hitachi here. They have all sorts of connections, including USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. When Apple (finally) releases their Thunderbolt>FW800 adapter, you'll be ready. Others might recommend USB 3.0 drives for the speed but I've seen too many posts of, in particular, Western Digital USB 3.0 drives that have problems with the 2012 Macs to go the USB 3.0 route right now. Maybe someone will jump in and recommend a USB 3.0 drive that they actually have working on a 2012 MBP?
Good luck,
Clinton

Old Time Machine Hard Drive - Can't access files?

Hi
I have just put an external hard drive I have not used for a approx a year into a spare bay in my Mac Pro. It has HD video on it, but was surprised when I rebooted my machine to see it is a Time Machine drive (green and white desktop TM hard drive icon). There is just under 400GB free space of the total 1TB drive, but can only access approx 260GB of that free space.
So, I am wondering if the remainder of the drive - approx 140GB is an old Time Machine backup from either Lion or Snow Leopard.
Time Machine can not see the files nor can I access them via Finder. I only have Mountain Lion on my machine at present, but could partition my Boot SSD drive to add Lion or Snow Leopard on to it.
Is there any reason why I can't access these TM files if they do existing, or could there be other reasons why this is happening.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

Sorry, I think it's the way I replied to your last question.
TM remains switched off from doing last clean install and have not used it this time. I now use an SSD for my boot drive and all my important files I use as and when needed are stored on other hard drives.
TM at the moment is swtiched off, but with the paddlock open it is asking me to Select Backup Disk - is this what you meant in your last post? Just wanted to clarify - thanks

Can I unplug my time machine hard drive from my airport extreme and plug it direcly on my MacBook pro without having to do a new back up?

I want to bring my back up hard drive on a trip, but now it's attahced to my Airport Extreame.
If I unplug it and plug it directly on my MacBook Pro, it'll keep updating or I'll lose all my back ups and have to restart again?

Leo666 wrote:
I want to bring my back up hard drive on a trip, but now it's attahced to my Airport Extreame.
If I unplug it and plug it directly on my MacBook Pro, it'll keep updating or I'll lose all my back ups and have to restart again?
Yes, but you'll probably have to manually "mount" the sparse bundle containing your backups. See the blue box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #17 for details.
Also, I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.

Safe to delete file from Time Machine hard drive?

Is it safe to delete a file from an external hard drive that's being used for Time Machine backups? The file is not a backup -- it's a .dmg from the manufacturer of the hard drive. Other than that one file, I don't use the drive for anything other than Time Machine.
I'm just concerned because I don't want deleting the file to affect Time Machine in any way.
Thank you.

I have done it without issue.

Time Machine - hard drive failed, isn't recognized by Finder

Hi,
Yesterday I went to plug in my Time Machine external hard drive to my Macbook Pro (Mid 2010, running Mountain Lion 10.8.2). The hard drive is a 320 GB Toshiba hard drive that I salvaged from an old laptop. The EHD is in a Kingston enclosure and connects to my Mac through USB (1 cord for everything). I have been using this setup for probably about a year at least.
Anyways, when I plugged it in yesterday, it did not show up in Finder. The blue light on the outside of the enclosure was still lit, and I could hear the hard drive spinning normally. I tried a couple other USB cables, but to no avail. The USB ports work with other things (e.g. my flash drive). I turned off Time Machine, and restarted my computer several times. Nothing worked.
I went into Disk Utility, and noticed that the hard drive itself appears, but the Time Machine partition is greyed out right underneath it. DU says on the bottom that the Time Machine is Not Mounted, and gives the format (Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)) and the capacity (320 gb).
When I try to eject through DU, it gives me this message:
The disk “Time Machine” could not be unmounted.
Make sure that all applications and files are closed on this disk.
BUT, it isn't even mounted!
I figured that I would just try to erase the hard drive, since it's only a time machine backup. Nope! It hanged right at the very beginning trying to unmount the disk that isn't even mounted.
I've looked on Google and on these boards and haven't found anything that could help me...so...
Help?
Thanks!

No luck.
I clicked on the hard drive itself (Kingston 320 GB) and clicked "Erase". I waited about an hour with the only activity being a striped bar at the bottom of DU saying "Unmounting".
So I tried just erasing the Time Machine partition. I immediately got this message (or something along the lines of it): "Disk Utility cannot erase the disk. Cannot open disk."
I tried mounting and unmounting the time machine partition, but would get messages saying that the disk cannot be unmounted, and that the disk cannot be mounted. Rather contradictory!
I tried ejecting the hard drive through DU by clicking the "Eject" button, but it said it could not eject the disk because it was in use, or something along the lines of that.
Any other advice?

Time Machine & Hard Drive Spinup Question

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