How to Back Up Your Mac Using Time Machine

[sudo1996]

It's a bad idea to use same drive for both backups:

1. If it has hardware failure you lose all backups.
2. It creates more complex scenario for restoring files or whole system.
3. If the volume becomes corrupt good luck trying to get your data out of it...

Its much safer to have several drives for backups, if one dies no harm done.

I only have one drive at present. Of course, I'd rather have more. If I had more drives, I'd clone and Time Machine to each one since the sweet spot size for HDDs can hold both. TM backups are all in one directory that I can easily exclude from a restore if needed. I could separate them using partitioning, but that would introduce the complication of having to allocate the correct amount of space to each, and my backup policies might change which takes more space.
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Time Machine only uses a sparse bundle if you are doing a networked backup, like to a Time Capsule or NAS device. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with sparse bundles, but I have read quite a few reports form users having trouble with networked Time Machine backups on third parry (non-Apple) NAS devices. I've used Time Machine with an Apple Time Capsule for years and never had any troubles with it.

I suspect the problem with third party devices is their implementation of AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) that is required for Time Machine over the network.

I've seen weird problems backing up to a Mac running OS X Server and hosting volumes over AFP. For one, it fails with an unknown error if I try to back up over my VPN (which is hosted on that Mac server). I don't even know how the VPN could affect it; that's abstracted to the application layer anyway.

 

[Marx55]

Best TimeMachine complement for me is Tri-Backup. No other application can do what it does. For instance mirror backups with filters for daily backups vs TimeMachine full monthly backups.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Time Machine only uses a sparse bundle if you are doing a networked backup, like to a Time Capsule or NAS device. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with sparse bundles, but I have read quite a few reports form users having trouble with networked Time Machine backups on third parry (non-Apple) NAS devices. I've used Time Machine with an Apple Time Capsule for years and never had any troubles with it.

I agree and have used two different Apple TCs now for over 5 years and have never had one fail. However, because I consider TC just one of a many layered backup system, I do complete erase and start over with my TC backups occasionally (maybe that's why sparsebundles have never given me problems).

 

[JamesPDX]

While the article is nice I would like some corrections:

1. Relying on only Time Machine is bad idea, at the moment it isn't reliable enough.
2. Restoring from Time Machine is both slow and not certain to work if the drive contains backups from newer OS X version.



It's a bad idea to use same drive for both backups:

1. If it has hardware failure you lose all backups.
2. It creates more complex scenario for restoring files or whole system.
3. If the volume becomes corrupt good luck trying to get your data out of it...

Its much safer to have several drives for backups, if one dies no harm done.

This is an inconvenient truth. Thanks for posting this.
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I backed up over a TB of my media files (music, movies, and books) to CrashPlan over my Cox cable connection. Had to throttle it to keep from using too much data so it took about 4 months. Very little volatility in those files so keeping it updated doesn't take much bandwidth.

I have a CrashPlan family plan that gives me unlimited backup space on 10 computers. Cost was about $400 for 4 years of backup coverage.

I have ghetto-net, so online is not a possibility. Has anyone popped-open one of those black, rectangular 5TB USB3 Seagate drives? Replaceable drive or is it soldered in?

 

[hfg]

This is an inconvenient truth. Thanks for posting this.
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I have ghetto-net, so online is not a possibility. Has anyone popped-open one of those black, rectangular 5TB USB3 Seagate drives? Replaceable drive or is it soldered in?

If you are referring to this drive, then yes, I have opened mine and it is a standard SATA 3.5" drive inside. It is a pretty slow drive however.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0... hard drive&qid=1454543406&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1


This is what is inside:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barra...543610&sr=8-3&keywords=seagate+5tb+hard+drive

 

[audio_inside]

Pretty much this is a useless approach. The only thing it would protect you against is accidental deletion or overwriting of a file.

Useless? I keep complete TM backups on a 2TB drive and even though I've never had a flood, fire, or theft I've used TM dozens of times to restore files that I mistakenly deleted or revert to a system state prior to an "upgrade".

Having TM backups on the same drive would support all those common scenarios.

 

[glenthompson]

Useless? I keep complete TM backups on a 2TB drive and even though I've never had a flood, fire, or theft I've used TM dozens of times to restore files that I mistakenly deleted or revert to a system state prior to an "upgrade".

Having TM backups on the same drive would support all those common scenarios.

So you backup your boot drive to itself? that's what the OP was asking. Yes it allows for recovering files in some cases but is a dangerous approach. TM's local backups for laptops accomplishes the same thing. One hardware failure and everything is gone.

With disk drives being so cheap these days it is foolhardy to not have a physically separate backup.

 

[WigWag Workshop]

I appreciate these articles, very helpful to the new folks.

 

[kamikrazee]

Hi everybody. I have been using Time Machine for quite a while and have never needed it. I use a 3TB external drive to back up a 1TB primary drive, in addition to flash drives containing just Pictures/Documents/Downloads.

Right now, my TM backup is damn near full, about 2.4TB, whereas my Primary is holding fast at 0.5TB. Can I safely delete some of the backups in the middle of the time span on the TM drive, or should I just reformat the external drive and begin again?

Thanks, and no matter what your sympathies, remember to vote!

 

[Weaselboy]

Hi everybody. I have been using Time Machine for quite a while and have never needed it. I use a 3TB external drive to back up a 1TB primary drive, in addition to flash drives containing just Pictures/Documents/Downloads.

Right now, my TM backup is damn near full, about 2.4TB, whereas my Primary is holding fast at 0.5TB. Can I safely delete some of the backups in the middle of the time span on the TM drive, or should I just reformat the external drive and begin again?

Thanks, and no matter what your sympathies, remember to vote!

I would just leave it alone and let Time Machine do its thing. When the disk starts getting close to full, it will begin purging off the older backups.

 

[hfg]

I think TM Will purge only the older duplicate back ups… It will always leave one copy at least of each file. It starts doing this once the disk becomes full.

 

[glenthompson]

Hi everybody. I have been using Time Machine for quite a while and have never needed it. I use a 3TB external drive to back up a 1TB primary drive, in addition to flash drives containing just Pictures/Documents/Downloads.

Right now, my TM backup is damn near full, about 2.4TB, whereas my Primary is holding fast at 0.5TB. Can I safely delete some of the backups in the middle of the time span on the TM drive, or should I just reformat the external drive and begin again?

Thanks, and no matter what your sympathies, remember to vote!

When my TM drive filled up I put it in my fire file and bought a new drive to start again. I have all the old backups available as well as more space. I was able to buy a 2TB drive for $70 so the cost to do this is minimal.