Using my external hardrive question!

Ok, so I'm a little computer challenged and probably not nearly as knowledgeable as most of the people here. Anyway, I'm sorry if my question sounds stupid! I bought a 250GB external hardrive today to back up all my music and pictures. When I plugged it in, it automaticaly opened Time Machine and asked if I wanted to backup my computer on it, so I hit yes. Now, my question is, if I unplug it from my computer, will it rebackup everything again when I plug it back in? I also looked around in it and was unable to find all my music and pictures so I copied all that onto the external hardrive again. This is probably a really stupid question, but I'm paranoid! Thanks!

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I also looked around in it and was unable to find all my music and pictures so I copied all that onto the external hardrive again. This is probably a really stupid question, but I'm paranoid! Thanks!
Were you using Finder to look around the drive or did you use the Time Machine program?
If you gave Time Machine enough time to actually do the backup, and left it on for a couple of hours, you should be able to see several restore times that you can go back to. To see music files - launch iTunes first, then Time Machine. To see iPhoto picture library files - launch iPhoto first, then Time Machine. To see emails - launch Mail first, then Time Machine.
For other files in folders or on your desktop you just go to the folder where the file used to be, and then launch Time Machine. You can also get back different versions of the same file, based on when it was re-added to the Time Machine backup. Everytime a file changes, Time Machine makes another copy of it.
Time Machine Demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdkfCwd4qU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n055CqFnjyo
And for a little fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofWnyUHwoYI&NR=1

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