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Time Machine and a new MBP.?.

S

SiggSigg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 7, 2012
8
0
Cedar Rapids
I just got a new MBP and I was using Time Machine on my old MBP which ran Snow Leopard. I've done some research and from what I have read I don't think you can just plug it into the new MBP and let it go, I may be wrong...If so what are you supposed to do with all the files, do you have to format the drive?
Thanks in Advance!
 
It should create a new sparse image file for your new laptop and back that up as a separate backup - provided you have space to hold both.
 
maflynn said:
It should create a new sparse image file for your new laptop and back that up as a separate backup - provided you have space to hold both.
Click to expand...

The external drive is 500GB so it is not huge but it will do. So you are saying I can just plug it in and let it go, I don't need to do anything?
 
You shouldn't but it may present an error if the free space on that drive is insufficient to back up your new laptop.
 
SiggSigg said:
The drive is full but my understanding is that it overwrites older files as needed, will this be an issue?

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I just found a doc that helps out a little bit but it doesn't explain it fully. Here it is incase someone else has this issue.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh35732.html
Click to expand...

AFAIK, it will only over-write (read delete) older backups from the same machine. So it is my understanding that it may not touch the older backups from our other machines. I've never done this, so I offer that as a caveat.
 
no problem. I didn't to steer you in the wrong direction and then have something happen that you were not expecting.
 
partition a part of the drive for time machine. i have 50gb and only back up apps and OS stuff. just take what you need and double it and there should be no reason it ever gets full. personally i turned time machine off and i back up manually.
 
bdodds1985 said:
partition a part of the drive for time machine. i have 50gb and only back up apps and OS stuff. just take what you need and double it and there should be no reason it ever gets full. personally i turned time machine off and i back up manually.
Click to expand...

The external HD is 500GB and it is already full, I could resize the partition using ipartition which I might do until I can get another drive. I was looking at this drive Iomega 1TB eGo Desktop Hard Drive, Mac Edition but the reviews scared me away. I think a drive b/t 500GB-1TB with Firewire 800 would be sufficient but I don't want to spend a fortune on a backup drive.
 
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