Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Time Machine/External Question
- Thread starter bc008
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Time Machine is not a 'straight backup' or mirror of your hard drive -- it is a rolling backup. Every hour / day / week it snapshots your drive and records the changes. So if you download (hypothetically) 10 gigs of porn on Friday night while Time Machine is running, it will back up that data even if you delete the movies on Saturday. It will keep Friday's snapshot of your evening... so your Time Machine volume will grow much more quickly than your hard drive since it records changes and not just mirrors.
Eventually TM will run out of space and start by deleting the oldest snapshots. If you have data (like your porn directory) that shouldn't be covered in the rolling backup because it changes too much and you don't care if it is snapshotted, you can exclude it from Time Machine.
Eventually TM will run out of space and start by deleting the oldest snapshots. If you have data (like your porn directory) that shouldn't be covered in the rolling backup because it changes too much and you don't care if it is snapshotted, you can exclude it from Time Machine.
nice example haha.. but the thing is i dont think i have even downloaded one GB of anything in the last couple days, let alone 25! does Youtube and Hulu "count"? i know youtube technically downloads videos then deletes them or something..
Yup, anything on the drive is fair game. Even if it sits in your temporary folder, if it is new data, it will be backed up. I would bet it was your hulu-watching that did it. I'd find where those videos are stored (downloads dir? browser cache dir?) and exclude it.
Different ways to use TM
I hate that TM records everything, so I keep it off and just right click it now and then and choose Back up Now. I assume it will record new stuff, but anything I have saved/deleted in the interim will be left off. Is this a smart way to use TM, or am I missing something? My preference would be that anything I delete--even if it was once saved by backup--gets deleted entirely. So should I use a different backup program? Suggestions? Thanks.
I hate that TM records everything, so I keep it off and just right click it now and then and choose Back up Now. I assume it will record new stuff, but anything I have saved/deleted in the interim will be left off. Is this a smart way to use TM, or am I missing something? My preference would be that anything I delete--even if it was once saved by backup--gets deleted entirely. So should I use a different backup program? Suggestions? Thanks.
also when backing up manually will TM backup all files from the internal drive or just the updated ones? I guess what Im asking is if I manually backup on monday then change my os x around on tuesday then backup again will i have a choice of restoring to monday or tuesdays settings?