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Time Machine and Library

R

RainCityMacFan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I was wondering, for Time Machine and Library folders, what do I back up?

Do I back up the Library file on the main hard drive or exclude that and only back up the Home Library?

For Applications?

What do you guys do?

What I have currently excluded -
My Torrents
Video (encoded dvd files)
DVD files (un-compressed and not encoded)
Desktop
VMs
Application
Developer
Incomplete
Downloads
System Files and Application (Does that include the App folders or something else?)

Thanks,
KJmoon
 
Personally, I wouldn't exclude any system files or folders (including Libraries, Apps, etc.).

In the event of a hard drive failure, you can use Time Machine to automatically restore everything to a new hard drive, but this won't work if half the files are missing.

As for the large video files that could easily be replaced by re-ripping, I suppose excluding those makes sense.
 
just let TM do the work. what you have excluded there is fine. excluding system files and applications will not backup the system folder and the default Apple apps. but the main library and the user library is backed up. the invisible unix folders and files will also not be backed up if you chose to do this after you excluded system files and applications.
 
EricNau said:
Personally, I wouldn't exclude any system files or folders (including Libraries, Apps, etc.).

In the event of a hard drive failure, you can use Time Machine to automatically restore everything to a new hard drive, but this won't work if half the files are missing.

As for the large video files that could easily be replaced by re-ripping, I suppose excluding those makes sense.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, but I have a few questions if you don't mind.

Couldn't I install the system files from the Leopard CD incase of a hard drive failure but keep the Library since that's where the preferences are kept?

Would Time Machine keep copying the App files over since they change every time you use them (cache, etc)? Or are they stored some where else, or is TM smart enough to not include those?

richthomas said:
just let TM do the work. what you have excluded there is fine. excluding system files and applications will not backup the system folder and the default Apple apps. but the main library and the user library is backed up. the invisible unix folders and files will also not be backed up if you chose to do this after you excluded system files and applications.
Click to expand...

Alright thanks.
 
i havent done a recovery from TM yet but i presume if you have system files and applications excluded you could reinstall Leopard from the install DVD, then boot from into the install DVD again, choose TM from the utilities menu and do a recovery from there.

if the system files and applications are needed you could use migration assistant which supports migrating from a TM backup.

im pretty sure the sytem files and applications arent needed as they are on the install DVD. if anyone has done this ill be interested to know.

KJmoon117 said:
...Would Time Machine keep copying the App files over since they change every time you use them (cache, etc)? Or are they stored some where else, or is TM smart enough to not include those?...
Click to expand...

TM is smart enough to not backup caches and other irrelavent files. but your application's preference files are definitely backed up. the pref files are very small and are only changed very slighty when you use the application. that is why if you havent done any work on documents, photos, music, videos etc or installed any new apps the backups are very small and very fast.
 
So Thomas, where exactly are these pref files stored? In the Library or in the Application package itself?

If it's stored in the Library, I'm guessing it would be the user's library, right?
 
yep the pref files are stored in the user library in ~/Library/Preferenes (~/ means your home folder). the pref files for all users are stored in /Library/Preferences.
 
richthomas said:
yep the pref files are stored in the user library in ~/Library/Preferenes (~/ means your home folder). the pref files for all users are stored in /Library/Preferences.
Click to expand...

So then what's the point of backing up Application beside the fact that you don't have to completely reinstall them. Or is that the main point?
 
yep thats the main point. the preferences folder holds all the information for your apps. without the preference file an app would go back to its default settings which can be annoying.

also lots of settings for the finder, network, power management, smb shares are kept in the preferences folder in the main library.

if you have system files and applications excluded from TM backups your third party apps are restored and so are their preference files so they will be just as you left them. the preference files for the Apple apps and for your system are also restored as the main library and your user library are backed up.
 
Thanks man

Although I'm still not sure if I should back up my Application folder seeing that I could always just take a SN of my Application folder and save myself 10GB and Application changes.
 
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