Simple Backing Up Question

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by Mike31121, Dec 20, 2010.

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  1. Mike31121, Dec 20, 2010

    Mike31121 macrumors newbie

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    Dec 20, 2010
    #1
    My MacBook Pro is running out of space so I recently bought an external hard drive with the intention of backing up my files and then deleting a ton of old photos/videos to free up space on my MacBook Pro. I plugged in the external hard drive the other day and completed a complete back up using Time Machine.

    My question is now that I am planning to delete many of my old photos/videos, won't Time Machine "overwrite" my library of photos/videos to mirror the new, cleaned up library on my MacBook Pro? For example, if I now have 100,000 photos/videos and I want to delete 70,000 of them on my MacBook, won't the Time Machine backup only reflect the 30,000 files left? Although I want those 70,000 files off of my MacBook's hard drive, I do want to be able to easily access them from my external hard drive if I need to pull them up in the future.

    I know this is simple, but I want to be 100% comfortable before i delete anything off my MacBook. Thank you for your help!
     
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  2. simsaladimbamba, Dec 20, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2010

    simsaladimbamba Guest

    simsaladimbamba

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    #2
    It will keep the files you backed up, as Time Machine has the purpose of recovering data, that is either lost or accidentally deleted, therefore all your 100.000 photos you backed up will be not deleted from the HDD just because you deleted them on your internal HDD.
    Btw, if those photos are worth a lot to you, think about backing them up to another HDD too, maybe one you can store somewhere else even.

    Forgot to add: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html
     
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  3. Mac Composer, Dec 20, 2010

    Mac Composer macrumors member

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  4. Eddyisgreat, Dec 20, 2010

    Eddyisgreat macrumors 601

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    #4
    You aren't really 'backing' anything up, just copying over to the other drive (with the master being on the other drive). If it's old stuff that you just don't care about then, no worry, but if those files are important to you then there's alot of stuff to consider. I think you're getting time machine's purpose mixed up.

    Time machine creates a system state backup of your current machine. You allocate certain amount of space to it (or the entire drive if you wish) and time machine backs up what's happened. The first time you perform a backup, it'll backup your entire drive and hence take a while. Subsequent backups are just whatever's changed from the volume since then.

    Basically, Time machine isn't a copying utility, it's a backup util.
     
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