few time machine questions

[thedommer]

Hey!

buying a mac pro this weekend and need to know a few things about time machine.

can it be an internal drive? Ive heard it cant but can the new mac update allow that?

does it backup multiple drives? and can you have multiple time machine drives? I'm planning on buying a 1T drive for time machine but might like to expand it in the future.

does it backup more than one drive?
I just need documents/pictures/audio sessions and a few other things. that will get it close to 1 TB. however I have other things. like obscene amounts of drum samples that I DONT need backed up. If its just imaging every drive it might waste a lot of time backing those up and need a good 2TB of space. If it does multiple drives then I could have it back up main drive / my personal drive (pics, email, documents etc) and my projects drive (audio and some video) and leave the sample drive alone.

Ive heard it might be more expandable in the next version...

basically I just need to know if Time machine isnt going to work for me and I have to go 3rd party.

 

[thedommer]

hey. No one seems to be replying. would really like to know if I should be using time machine or a third party solution. I know there is info on their site about time machine but it doesnt clearly cover my specific situation. thanks in advance for your replies!

 

[cdcastillo]

About TM

Hi there, I'll try to answer most of your questions, however, I'm sure there'll be plenty of more experienced users out there to answer you.

1. I'm pretty sure the time machine disk can not be an internal one. At least not right "out of the box" (google is your friend)

2. Yes, it does backup multiple drives, and you get to specify which of your external-internal drives you want to backup, and which ones you don't. This also applies to folders your user owns, I mean, you tell TM what you DO want to backup and what you DO NOT want to backup (check the picture attached to this post.)

3. I think you can not have more than 1 TM disk, however, I'm not sure about networked drives (that supposedly, are coming in soon). On the other hand, several macs can share a single TM disk, whether it is the same partition or different partitions, without any problems.

Please bear in mind that soon you'll have the ability of wirelessly backing up, without the need to physically attach an external drive to your laptop, however, if you use humongous sets of data, you'll probably be hooking external drives to the MBP, anyway.

Also, now Supper Dupper is Leopard compatible. That's good news, you should check it out.

For more specific details, you can check out these reviews of TM

http://www.macworld.com/article/60668/2007/10/leopard_time_machine.html

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14

http://www.electronista.com/reviews/leopard-review-time-machine.html

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044339


And these "tweaks" for TM may be useful for what you need:

http://www.macworld.com/article/131534/2008/01/tmeye.html

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080122132452565

 

[thedommer]

hey thanks for the reply! thats exactly what I needed to know! looks like time machine will probably fit my needs. a 1 TB backup drive should be fine.