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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,945
1,314
Hello, many years ago, I used Time Machine to backup. I recall my OS was Leopard or Snow Leopard. If I use Time Machine to back up my current system running 10.8.5, will the system get confused and mess up the backups? Will current one overwrite previous backups?
 
Time Machine does not overwrite backups. It continues to do backups until your backup drive runs out of space. At that time, Time Machine will start to delete your oldest backups to make room for your newest backups.
 
Time Machine does not overwrite backups. It continues to do backups until your backup drive runs out of space. At that time, Time Machine will start to delete your oldest backups to make room for your newest backups.

Thanks. So, I can use Time Machine to back up different Macs running different versions of Mac OS using the same external hard drive. Right?
 
Thanks. So, I can use Time Machine to back up different Macs running different versions of Mac OS using the same external hard drive. Right?

I thought you were talking about using it on a Mac that you had upgraded the OS on. Did not realize you were talking about different Macs. Pretty sure the answer is no, that the drive would have to be formatted again, but will leave that for someone else to answer as I am not 100% sure.
 
Thanks. So, I can use Time Machine to back up different Macs running different versions of Mac OS using the same external hard drive. Right?


i believe this is true. i haven't actually tried #2

in order to back up more then one mac on one external hard disk you need either:

1) A Time Capsule Wireless Router.

or

2) an external hard disk divided up to multiple partitions. one partition for each computer.

i think #2 is true. if its no longer true then it probably still is the safest thing to do. i thought os x put a token
or a file in the root dir of each hard disk and doesn't like more then one backup set on one partition

like "com.apple.time machine.supported" or something

yeah i knew i was sorta right. the time machine faq also recommends putting it in separate partitions
http://pondini.org/TM/4.html
 
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