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How to Back Up Your Mac Using Time Machine

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Apr 12, 2001
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Finding a reliable backup solution for the Mac that runs in the background and isn't a drain on system resources was once considered a challenging prospect.

With the arrival of OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple changed that preconception by introducing its native backup solution, called Time Machine. This article explains the benefits of using Time Machine and runs you through the setup and restore process.

Benefits of Using Time Machine

Time Machine has won over many Mac users due to its automated scheduling and intuitive recovery process, along with its ability to run in the background without affecting overall system performance.

The application achieves this by making an initial full backup of your Mac's system disk and then stacking subsequent changes to the volume in a chronological hierarchy. Hourly backups, daily backups and weekly backups occur automatically, while the oldest backups are overwritten with new ones as the external backup disk reaches full capacity.

This creates a layered snapshot system that's reflected in Time Machine's navigable timeline and makes the recovery of individual files and folders a simple affair.


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Article Link: How to Back Up Your Mac Using Time Machine
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/time-machine-back-up-mac/
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If you're using a Mac notebook running OS X Yosemite or later and you move away from the backup disk, Time Machine will save daily backups to your Mac's startup disk and even manage these local snapshots to ensure you still have storage space available.
Click to expand...

Just a correction Tim, local snapshots came out with Lion. http://pondini.org/TM/30.html

Well written article. Thank you.
 
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I love Time Machine but I've never actually "Entered Time Machine."

I use it to back up my computer and when I restore my system or get a new computer I just mount it in the finder and Backups -> Latest -> Use -> ##### -> and then just drag over the contents of the Documents, Music, etc. folder.
 
This doesn't offer any way of backing up the hard drive to itself, does it?

I mean... surely that would be more useful than nothing, wouldn't it?
 
I love my time capsule wifi which also has time machine for backups. Although I've never had to go back and restore to a prior days backup. It's an easy way to backup your system and all those precious photos.

I bought a SuperDrive at the same time and of course after 1 yr the SuperDrive skips when trying to burn CDs. Contacted apple and they won't fix it out of warranty. Cost me $99.00 I'll never buy another SuperDrive nothing super about it just junk.
 
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Ironic seeing as Time Machine keeps doing the 'verification has been completed, please start again' error with my MyCloud NAS drive. Beyond a joke now.
 
Matthew.H said:
I use a 128gb USB stick for TM. Works fine. Just a shame that doing encrypted backups takes so long.
Click to expand...
I tried the same thing with a USB key and it was dog slow. Same encrypted backup to an external SSD is very fast. I think the low end controllers in USB keys just choke with the extra overhead of encryption.
 
Weaselboy said:
I tried the same thing with a USB key and it was dog slow. Same encrypted backup to an external SSD is very fast. I think the low end controllers in USB keys just choke with the extra overhead of encryption.
Click to expand...
Ok that's for the info. I'll have a look round for external SSD's.
 
Time Machine is a great thing, everyone should be using it :)
 
MacRumors said:



hero_timemachine.png
Finding a reliable backup solution for the Mac that runs in the background and isn't a drain on system resources was once considered a challenging prospect.

With the arrival of OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple changed that preconception by introducing its native backup solution, called Time Machine. This article explains the benefits of using Time Machine and runs you through the setup and restore process.

Benefits of Using Time Machine

Time Machine has won over many Mac users due to its automated scheduling and intuitive recovery process, along with its ability to run in the background without affecting overall system performance.

The application achieves this by making an initial full backup of your Mac's system disk and then stacking subsequent changes to the volume in a chronological hierarchy. Hourly backups, daily backups and weekly backups occur automatically, while the oldest backups are overwritten with new ones as the external backup disk reaches full capacity.

This creates a layered snapshot system that's reflected in Time Machine's navigable timeline and makes the recovery of individual files and folders a simple affair.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: How to Back Up Your Mac Using Time Machine
Click to expand...
I think it's a great feature. I've just put an 8TB disk into my time capsule which now allows me to backup my iMac, its attached thunderbolt drive, my son's iMac and my MacBook with plenty of room to spare.
 
Love TM. I have a Synology NAS with a USB attached portable HD. "Regular"' storage on the NAS, with backups from my MBA, wife's MBA and my Mac Mini going to the portable HD.
 
I love Time Machine, it's a great application! It does have some bugs and problems, but it's fairly minor thankfully and maybe they were already fixed by the time I haven't used a Mac.

Now if only Windows and Linux got a built-in semi-functional program similar to TM that I could use...
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
This doesn't offer any way of backing up the hard drive to itself, does it?

I mean... surely that would be more useful than nothing, wouldn't it?
Click to expand...
Pretty much this is a useless approach. The only thing it would protect you against is accidental deletion or overwriting of a file. Almost any other disaster scenario would leave you without a backup. Think fire, theft, flood, etc.

Best practice for backups is to have at least 3 copies of your data with one of those copies being off-site.
 
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garirry said:
I love Time Machine, it's a great application! It does have some bugs and problems, but it's fairly minor thankfully and maybe they were already fixed by the time I haven't used a Mac.

Now if only Windows and Linux got a built-in semi-functional program similar to TM that I could use...
Click to expand...


I think rsync is what you are looking for in Linux.
 
Crosscreek said:
SuperDuper runs every night on my Mac so I always have a fresh bootable copy from external WD drive.
Click to expand...
Even better is using both ;)
I've got Carbon Copy Cloner cloning my stuff to the same volume as my Time Machine backups. That one volume is both bootable and providing Time Machine. Ideally, I'd also want all of THAT cloned over the network to somewhere off-site.
 
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