Yeah, I hope that at some point in the future they will add scalability to the feature set. Otherwise it is a great product. I think I will use TM to backup my system disk and CCC to back up my other drives and media files...and wait patiently for the apple developers to address this issue. It can't be too long until someone at Apple has the same problem.
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Time Machine FAQ
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Yeah, I hope that at some point in the future they will add scalability to the feature set. Otherwise it is a great product. I think I will use TM to backup my system disk and CCC to back up my other drives and media files...and wait patiently for the apple developers to address this issue. It can't be too long until someone at Apple has the same problem.
Using TM to backup an external HD to another
After many trials and tribulations with the "genius" bar. I have received a new MBP. I dropped my external HD during that time. And after 2 tries with 2 recovery experts its officially dead. I'm a Photographer and keep all my photos and such on a separate external. Now my question is, can i use TM on that external, and have it back up to ANOTHER external?
I'm already using on my internal, and i fear that might be limit of what the program can do
After many trials and tribulations with the "genius" bar. I have received a new MBP. I dropped my external HD during that time. And after 2 tries with 2 recovery experts its officially dead. I'm a Photographer and keep all my photos and such on a separate external. Now my question is, can i use TM on that external, and have it back up to ANOTHER external?
I'm already using on my internal, and i fear that might be limit of what the program can do
Multiple Drives to Multiple TMB?
Given I've read the entire thread, I'm guessing the answer to this is likely to be 'tough luck', but I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has any thoughts as to how it may be possible to pull this off.
I have a MacPro tower with four drives. Drive 1 is serving as my main drive. Drive 2 holds my iTunes library. Drives 3 and 4 are currently 'other data'.
What I'd like to do is replace drives 3 and 4 with new drives of equal sizes to 1 and 2 (respectively) and then configure drive 1 to TMB to drive 3 and drive 2 to TMB to drive 4.
Is that possible within Time Machine? Or do I need to look into other solutions? (I can't yet afford a DroboPro, or I'd use that instead.)
While I'm posting, I do have one other question. I have been using a LaCie portable rugged backup drive for my Powerbook G4 laptop, connecting it with Firewire800 whenever I can. (Using TMB). I know the drive is of the proper format. I thought that since the full backup was complete, I should be able to connect the drive to my Airport Extreme base station and continue TMB wirelessly for the incrementals. Right now, that's not working. It's giving me an error stating that the drive is not in the proper format (which is incorrect, obviously; it was in the right format when it was connected locally via Firewire800, and I didn't reformat it or anything). Is this just not going to work? Is there some trick I need to perform to make it work? Suggestions welcome.
Given I've read the entire thread, I'm guessing the answer to this is likely to be 'tough luck', but I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has any thoughts as to how it may be possible to pull this off.
I have a MacPro tower with four drives. Drive 1 is serving as my main drive. Drive 2 holds my iTunes library. Drives 3 and 4 are currently 'other data'.
What I'd like to do is replace drives 3 and 4 with new drives of equal sizes to 1 and 2 (respectively) and then configure drive 1 to TMB to drive 3 and drive 2 to TMB to drive 4.
Is that possible within Time Machine? Or do I need to look into other solutions? (I can't yet afford a DroboPro, or I'd use that instead.)
While I'm posting, I do have one other question. I have been using a LaCie portable rugged backup drive for my Powerbook G4 laptop, connecting it with Firewire800 whenever I can. (Using TMB). I know the drive is of the proper format. I thought that since the full backup was complete, I should be able to connect the drive to my Airport Extreme base station and continue TMB wirelessly for the incrementals. Right now, that's not working. It's giving me an error stating that the drive is not in the proper format (which is incorrect, obviously; it was in the right format when it was connected locally via Firewire800, and I didn't reformat it or anything). Is this just not going to work? Is there some trick I need to perform to make it work? Suggestions welcome.
Combine RAID and TimeMachine
Although TimeMachine may backup multiple drives, it saves the archived data to a single drive. Since this might include all of the current and changed data the TimeMachine drive ought to be as big or bigger than the sum of the drives it is backing up.
In your case you could combine drives 3 and 4 into a striped array using the Disk Utility. TimeMachine would treat this as a single large disk to which you would then backup both drives 1 and 2. A downside of using a striped disk array is that it increases the probability of drive failure, since corruption of either drive will cause failure of the array. This might be an acceptable risk if you infrequently use the TimeMachine, since it is unlikely that the TMB array would fail at the same time that you need to retrieve data from it.
Although TimeMachine may backup multiple drives, it saves the archived data to a single drive. Since this might include all of the current and changed data the TimeMachine drive ought to be as big or bigger than the sum of the drives it is backing up.
In your case you could combine drives 3 and 4 into a striped array using the Disk Utility. TimeMachine would treat this as a single large disk to which you would then backup both drives 1 and 2. A downside of using a striped disk array is that it increases the probability of drive failure, since corruption of either drive will cause failure of the array. This might be an acceptable risk if you infrequently use the TimeMachine, since it is unlikely that the TMB array would fail at the same time that you need to retrieve data from it.
i have an external hdd, but does Time Machine create a new partition, or is it just a file/files that go straight on, without messing with the partition or any existing files on the drive?
I have a 500 G wd external drive in Mac format. I used it for Time Machine about a year and a half ago. I stopped using it when I got a Time Capsule. Last night, I discovered that my Time Capsule had gone belly up and decided to start using the external drive again. No problem. All my other stuff is still there. I'm not sure what happens if you start with a drive that has "stuff" on it and tell Time Machine to use it, but I know that after a drive has been used for Time Machine, you can add stuff to it and keep using Time Machine and your extra stuff isn't touched.
I would say Time Machine's files go on an existing partition without touching anything else. The file would be something like "Your Mac.sparsebundle" If you click the file and pick "show contents" you can browse to backups that were done on a certain date and right to individual files. I like the way Time Machine works in this regard.
Just what I was wanting to hear, thanks!
I'm messing around with some partitions on my macbook (deleting two, then creating a new larger one for windows 7) and just wanted everything backed up, incase something went wrong.
Thanks again.
Edit: Woops, looks like TM doesn't like FAT32
Oh well...
Just what I was wanting to hear, thanks!
I'm messing around with some partitions on my macbook (deleting two, then creating a new larger one for windows 7) and just wanted everything backed up, incase something went wrong.
Thanks again.
Edit: Woops, looks like TM doesn't like FAT32
Oh well...
You gave more disk space to Windows 7?
: e e k :
I don't think TM can help you back up any windows partitions. You will probably have to use some sort of windows software to back that stuff up. If you find a way to make window live in a dmg (disk image) file, that can be backed up by TM with the rest of your Mac stuff. I suppose disk utility could make a dmg file for you of that windows stuff, but then you are using twice the space... You have the partition and you also have the dmg file backup of the partition... But wait. I wonder if disk utility can simply make the dmg file for you on the same drive you are using for TM? That might be the ticket. Ask disk utility to create a dmg file of your windows partition and point it to the same drive you normally use for Time Machine.
I should warn you that if the drive you are using as a destination for TM fills up, TM will start deleting older TM stuff. You should strive to keep TM volumes with more than 20% free space to avoid being asked about deleting older stuff every time TM runs.
No, not more to windows 7 really. Well, I've got 3 partitions, one mac, one windows, one linux (on a 500GB hdd). I now want to get rid of both the windows and linux partitions, to create a new partition (around 200GB) for windows 7 (I've got loads of steam games).
And I do want to back Windows up, but I wasn't really wanting that from here, just how to back OSX up with TM on my external hdd. Not surre how I will be backing windows up, probably just copying the contents of the windows partition to the external.
Still, the external is using FAT32, which TM doesn't seem to like. And I don't really want to change it, because that's the only format I know that will work with everything I have.
FAT32 is not a robust filesystem. This means it can get corrupted. On SDHC cards and USB sticks, who cares. But on a backup drive? No way!
I used to have several windows boxes lying around, all on fat32. They were running Win 2K and from time to time they would freeze. Every freeze was followed by disk corruption. I finally had to convert them all to ntfs (M$ version of a more robust filesystem) and the corruption stopped.
The very first thing I do when I bring home a new external usb drive is let disk utility turn it into HPFS (Mac) filesystem. I can understand why you want to keep FAT32 so Linux and Windows can read it, just keep in mind that FAT32 can get errors and cross-linked files. You wouldn't want errors and cross-linked files on a volume you were using to back up your stuff would you? There is probably a way to force TM to hold its nose and back up to FAT32, but I wouldn't bother. Perhaps you can make multiple partitions on your removable drive and make a small FAT32 partition for windows and linux and keep HPFS for everything else.
if no changes are made from one hour to the next, will a backup be made? My TM is skipping updates and i dont know why
If no changes are made, there's nothing to back up and TM will rest.
I don't know if that's possible. But are you aware that TM will erase all hourly backups except one after 24 hours? So I guess it works the way you want it to.
I don't know if that's possible. But are you aware that TM will erase all hourly backups except one after 24 hours? So I guess it works the way you want it to.
Thanks very much, i never realised that's how it worked.
TimeMachine backs up to multiple disks
If anyone else out there is trying to figure out how to back up their mac laptop using time machine with more than one disk (say, one at work and one at home), I've worked it out. Here's how you do it:
First, download the Do Something When application, from
http://www.azarhi.com/Projects/DSW/
this installs a preference pane within which you can define actions to be taken when a particular disk mounts, for example open an application. Mine has two actions defined--one for when the disk at home mounts, one for when the disk at work mounts. Both actions run the same application (TM.app) after a two-second delay (just in case).
TM.app is just an applescript I wrote (modified from something I found that didn't work), that is packaged as an application. Here's the script:
------
property pth : "Macintosh HD:Libraryreferences:"
property pth1 : "Macintosh HD:Libraryreferences:TM:"
property pth2 : "Macintosh HD:Libraryreferences:TM-Home:"
property d1name : "TM"
property d2name : "TM-Home"
property active : "com.apple.TimeMachine.plist"
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool false"
if (list disks) contains d1name then
tell application "Finder" to if exists (pth1 & active) then
duplicate file (pth1 & active) to folder pth with replacing
end if
else if (list disks) contains d2name then
tell application "Finder" to if exists (pth2 & active) then
duplicate file (pth2 & active) to folder pth with replacing
end if
end if
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool true"
-----
What the script does is to turn off TimeMachine, then copy a preferences file from a subdirectory of Preferences into the main directory, depending on which disk is mounted, and then it turns TimeMachine back on. To create these preferences files, you have to go into Time Machine prefs and (mount and) choose the disk and run TimeMachine once, then copy the resulting com.apple.TimeMachine.plist into the appropriate subdirectory, and repeat the process for the other disk. Once that's done, though, it runs without intervention. If you turn the laptop on and no external disk is mounted, nothing happens.
On my machine, the preferences files and the TM.app are all owned by root: TimeMachine will reset ownership of its preferences to root every time it's run, so I think at least TM.app needs to have root ownership, otherwise the copying of other files over the default preferences file won't be permitted.
By the way, along the route to this solution I discovered something many no doubt already know--that the root user is disabled by default in Snow Leopard, and you have to turn it on in order to be able to chown various things to root:
http://snowleopardtips.net/tips/enable-root-account-in-snow-leopard.html
and then turn it off again, of course....
If anyone else out there is trying to figure out how to back up their mac laptop using time machine with more than one disk (say, one at work and one at home), I've worked it out. Here's how you do it:
First, download the Do Something When application, from
http://www.azarhi.com/Projects/DSW/
this installs a preference pane within which you can define actions to be taken when a particular disk mounts, for example open an application. Mine has two actions defined--one for when the disk at home mounts, one for when the disk at work mounts. Both actions run the same application (TM.app) after a two-second delay (just in case).
TM.app is just an applescript I wrote (modified from something I found that didn't work), that is packaged as an application. Here's the script:
------
property pth : "Macintosh HD:Library
references:"property pth1 : "Macintosh HD:Library
references:TM:"property pth2 : "Macintosh HD:Library
references:TM-Home:"property d1name : "TM"
property d2name : "TM-Home"
property active : "com.apple.TimeMachine.plist"
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool false"
if (list disks) contains d1name then
tell application "Finder" to if exists (pth1 & active) then
duplicate file (pth1 & active) to folder pth with replacing
end if
else if (list disks) contains d2name then
tell application "Finder" to if exists (pth2 & active) then
duplicate file (pth2 & active) to folder pth with replacing
end if
end if
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool true"
-----
What the script does is to turn off TimeMachine, then copy a preferences file from a subdirectory of Preferences into the main directory, depending on which disk is mounted, and then it turns TimeMachine back on. To create these preferences files, you have to go into Time Machine prefs and (mount and) choose the disk and run TimeMachine once, then copy the resulting com.apple.TimeMachine.plist into the appropriate subdirectory, and repeat the process for the other disk. Once that's done, though, it runs without intervention. If you turn the laptop on and no external disk is mounted, nothing happens.
On my machine, the preferences files and the TM.app are all owned by root: TimeMachine will reset ownership of its preferences to root every time it's run, so I think at least TM.app needs to have root ownership, otherwise the copying of other files over the default preferences file won't be permitted.
By the way, along the route to this solution I discovered something many no doubt already know--that the root user is disabled by default in Snow Leopard, and you have to turn it on in order to be able to chown various things to root:
http://snowleopardtips.net/tips/enable-root-account-in-snow-leopard.html
and then turn it off again, of course....
files on external DD
Hello everybody,
My question is the following : My I-Tunes Library is on an external hardrive ; and as I refresh it regularly with new songs and playlists, I would like to save it through Time Machine on another external hardrive.
Is it possible ?
Thanks for answering me
Hello everybody,
My question is the following : My I-Tunes Library is on an external hardrive ; and as I refresh it regularly with new songs and playlists, I would like to save it through Time Machine on another external hardrive.
Is it possible ?
Thanks for answering me
Time Machine is slow to backup
If Time Machine is slow to backup, this tip will save you hours:
http://technologme.com/how-to-speed-up-time-machine-on-os-x/3032/
If Time Machine is slow to backup, this tip will save you hours:
http://technologme.com/how-to-speed-up-time-machine-on-os-x/3032/
Which drive?
OK so my MP has a 640GB drive, but I just got a 1TB to slide in. What I want to do is to have the new TB drive be the main drive and set the 640 to be the TM drive. Is this too complicated and does it even matter?
OK so my MP has a 640GB drive, but I just got a 1TB to slide in. What I want to do is to have the new TB drive be the main drive and set the 640 to be the TM drive. Is this too complicated and does it even matter?
It all depends on what you consider complicated. You'll need to install system software on the new drive and designate it as the boot drive. You'll then need to copy your other files over from the 640 GB drive.
However, your time machine will soon run out of space with this configuration. In general, the TM drive should be larger than the main drive so it can keep a full copy of the main drive, plus track changes that you've made along the way.
Thank you for sharing information. It's amazing post here. The Time Machine is a piece of sophisticated incremental backup software with strong recovery potential, and is intended to integrate Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). You can always recover either individual files or folders, or to do a full system restore from a selection of items above.
The open /Applications/Utilties/Disk Utility and run the "Repair" hard disk (on that Time Machine disk) and then see if Time Machine will finish the job.