Can the Time Machine backup drive store other files too?

[jent]

I am backing up to an external USB hard drive and was wondering if, in addition to using it for my automated Time Machine backups, I could store other files on it to. As long as I keep them out of the Backups.backupd folder, it won't interfere with Time Machine, will it? Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, your assumption is correct.

Time Machine FAQ

 

[old-wiz]

I would prefer splitting the physical volume into two partitions; one for time machine and one for data. If it's all in one partition, time machine will eventually fill the volume and you will have no space for your files. Splitting the volume will keep time machine backups to a reasonable size.

 

[Bear]

I am backing up to an external USB hard drive and was wondering if, in addition to using it for my automated Time Machine backups, I could store other files on it to. As long as I keep them out of the Backups.backupd folder, it won't interfere with Time Machine, will it? Thanks!

You can, but they won't be backed up of course.

I would prefer splitting the physical volume into two partitions; one for time machine and one for data. If it's all in one partition, time machine will eventually fill the volume and you will have no space for your files. Splitting the volume will keep time machine backups to a reasonable size.

Whereas if you keep it one partition, you can move the files off when you need more space for Time Machine. Also, remember old Time Machine backups can be manual deleted if more space is needed on the drive for files.

 

[jent]

Also, remember old Time Machine backups can be manual deleted if more space is needed on the drive for files.

Does this permanently remove the unique files on the manually-deleted Time Machine backups?

Is there a way to consolidate Time Machine backups into a single up-to-date backup to save space on the external USB Time Machine hard drive? Although it's a great feature of Time Machine, I rarely need to recover intentionally deleted files or older versions of files—I just like having a seamless backup of my current system.

 

[Bear]

Does this permanently remove the unique files on the manually-deleted Time Machine backups?

Yes, it does the right thing and removes files that are no longer part of any backup.

Is there a way to consolidate Time Machine backups into a single up-to-date backup to save space on the external USB Time Machine hard drive? Although it's a great feature of Time Machine, I rarely need to recover intentionally deleted files or older versions of files—I just like having a seamless backup of my current system.

Well you could manually delete backups, however, since you should really only have Time Machine backups on that drive, you shouldn't need to worry about manually deleting backups. Another reason to go to an older backup is some something corrupted preferences or other files on your system disk, so keeping a months worth of backups at least is a good idea. Also, remember Time Machine will delete old backups when it needs more space.

 

[pasadian]

Time Machine

I have a 2TB external drive that has been partitioned into 2, the first partition is 3GB the for storage and Time Machine is 1.7TB. I have 1.58TB available after system backup - Time Machine Buddy tells me that it has deleted an earlier xx backup from my drive because it has expired? What the heck, it's a new drive. Half my backups are now gone.


10.8.2 Mountain Lion,16GB

 

[Bear]

I have a 2TB external drive that has been partitioned into 2, the first partition is 3GB the for storage and Time Machine is 1.7TB. I have 1.58TB available after system backup - Time Machine Buddy tells me that it has deleted an earlier xx backup from my drive because it has expired? What the heck, it's a new drive. Half my backups are now gone.


10.8.2 Mountain Lion,16GB

It keeps the hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for a month. Those are probably the expired ones you're seeing.

 

[pasadian]

Thanks Bear

It keeps the hourly backups for 24 hours, daily backups for a month. Those are probably the expired ones you're seeing.

The backups were about 2 to 6 days old. Do you think I need another drive?

Thank you
-Pete

 

[switon]

RE: TM backups...

Hi all,

Précis: So, in a nutshell, those files that you intentionally delete will eventually be deleted from your TM backups, but only after your entire TM backup partition is full. The size of your TM backup partition determines how much of the "history" of your boot drive is saved in the TM backups. If your TM backup partition is twice the size of your boot drive, then a fairly long "history" of your boot drive will be saved in your TM backups. And, let me reiterate, you will never loose anything that is currently on your boot drive, but you will eventually loose files that you intentionally delete or are automatically deleted (such as old versions of apps) from your TM backups. Basically, as a User, you don't need to worry about this process, TM takes care of it for you.

Hope this helps,
Switon

 

[switon]

RE: another drive? ...

The backups were about 2 to 6 days old. Do you think I need another drive?

Thank you
-Pete

Hi Pete,

Your TM partition is 1.7TB and after your initial backup you have 1.58TB free. This means that your initial backup of your entire boot drive was roughly 120GB. Your TM partition is roughly 8 times this size. Now I don't know what type of work you do and thus how fast you will be generating new/modified files, but given that your boot drive was only 120GB then it is safe to assume that you are not working on very large data sets and consequently your rate of generating modified files that take up large amounts of new TM backups will be fairly small. Thus a TM partition that is roughly 9 times the size of your boot drive used space will most likely last you years before anything is deleted form your TM backups. In my opinion, you do NOT need a new drive for your TM partition!

...just my two cents worth of free advice, and, as always, you get what you pay for...

Regards,
Switon

 

[switon]

RE: TM partition and other files...

I am backing up to an external USB hard drive and was wondering if, in addition to using it for my automated Time Machine backups, I could store other files on it to. As long as I keep them out of the Backups.backupd folder, it won't interfere with Time Machine, will it? Thanks!

Hi jent,

Thus it is best to partition your TM drive into two partitions, one for the TM backups and one for any other files you wish to store on the TM drive. This way the TM sparsebundle can expand, without being encumbered by other fragmented files, to fill its partition fully. And the second, non-TM, partition you can use to store your other files.

Regards,
Switon

 

[pasadian]

I finally got it, thank's

Hi Pete,

Your TM partition is 1.7TB and after your initial backup you have 1.58TB free. This means that your initial backup of your entire boot drive was roughly 120GB. Your TM partition is roughly 8 times this size. Now I don't know what type of work you do and thus how fast you will be generating new/modified files, but given that your boot drive was only 120GB then it is safe to assume that you are not working on very large data sets and consequently your rate of generating modified files that take up large amounts of new TM backups will be fairly small. Thus a TM partition that is roughly 9 times the size of your boot drive used space will most likely last you years before anything is deleted form your TM backups. In my opinion, you do NOT need a new drive for your TM partition!

...just my two cents worth of free advice, and, as always, you get what you pay for...

Regards,
Switon

P.S. If you look at my previous posting entitled "RE: TM Backups...", you will see that you haven't lost anything from those 2-6 day old backups being automatically deleted by TM (TM only stores the last 24 hours of the hourly backups). You can return to any of the daily TM backups and recover what was on your boot drive that day (for the last month of daily backups).

I wasn't to knowledgeable about TM
Thanks for the lesson.

-Pete

 

[pasadian]

I took your two cents of free advice and changed it...Thanks

Hi Pete,

Your TM partition is 1.7TB and after your initial backup you have 1.58TB free. This means that your initial backup of your entire boot drive was roughly 120GB. Your TM partition is roughly 8 times this size. Now I don't know what type of work you do and thus how fast you will be generating new/modified files, but given that your boot drive was only 120GB then it is safe to assume that you are not working on very large data sets and consequently your rate of generating modified files that take up large amounts of new TM backups will be fairly small. Thus a TM partition that is roughly 9 times the size of your boot drive used space will most likely last you years before anything is deleted form your TM backups. In my opinion, you do NOT need a new drive for your TM partition!

...just my two cents worth of free advice, and, as always, you get what you pay for...

Regards,
Switon

It turns out the LaCie D2 Quadra had been returned by someone before me [thanks Amazon]. I ordered the 2TB LaCie Porche Design P'9230 from NewEgg and have never had the problem again. THANK YOU!