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 FAQ
- Thread starter atszyman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hello all - new to mac here - just got an iMac - love it. ive got a few questions about external hard drives (as they relate to the new time machine):
1. if i get a Fire Wire drive do i need to plug it in to an outlet?
2. can the drive be left on all the time or will that destroy it?
3. if the iMac goes to sleep will the external drive also go to sleep?
4. if i turn off the computer while the hard drive is connected and forget to "eject" it - will it (the content) be damaged?
5. if i loose power (which has only happened once in my lifetime in nyc) and the dirve is connected - will it get damaged?
6. how are you guys/gals going to use external hard drives/ time machine?
7. which drive do you recommend - "my book" looked good to me?
Thanks for your help.
1. if i get a Fire Wire drive do i need to plug it in to an outlet?
2. can the drive be left on all the time or will that destroy it?
3. if the iMac goes to sleep will the external drive also go to sleep?
4. if i turn off the computer while the hard drive is connected and forget to "eject" it - will it (the content) be damaged?
5. if i loose power (which has only happened once in my lifetime in nyc) and the dirve is connected - will it get damaged?
6. how are you guys/gals going to use external hard drives/ time machine?
7. which drive do you recommend - "my book" looked good to me?
Thanks for your help.
Other members can correct me if I'm wrong or supplement my answers below....
With Firewire I don't believe you would have to, but with USB 2.0, yes, I believe you would. For drives which have dual interfaces, not sure how that works to be honest.
Shouldn't harm it - that would be no different than leaving your computer on all the time. In fact, many people say that you wear out a a drive more by powering it on and off, as the greatest chance for something to go wrong or get damaged is during the power up and power down cycles, i.e. when the drive heads engage from scratch. It's the same as starting a car engine really.
Not sure about sleep mode wrt ext HDDs...
The content should not be damaged, although it may depend on the drive you're using. The MyBook you've cited for instance employs "Intelligent Drive Management" whereby the drive turns itself on and off in tandem with your computer. In general though, you may need to disconnect and reconnet the drive for your computer to acknowledge it again if it loses it during sleep mode, but I doubt the content should be compromised.
There is a possibility, but none greater IMO than with any other electronic appliance you might have which gets abruptly shut down due to a power loss or power surge.
Specifically with regards to the MyBook you are looking at, I believe it also has a "Safe Shutdown" feature which supposedly prevents the drive from being powered down until all the data has been written. In a power outtage though, I'm assuming all bets are off. I'm assuming other drives have similar features to this as well.
Also, it's "lose" not "loose". It's a pet peeve of mine when people continually misspell simple words.
I will be partitioning an external drive into 3 partitions - one for my MacBook Pro, one for my future iMac and one for backing up data in general.
I have read several bad reviews regarding the MyBooks so cannot recommend them myself. When it comes to hard drives, I always highly recommend Seagate.
Hope this helps a bit....
With Firewire I don't believe you would have to, but with USB 2.0, yes, I believe you would. For drives which have dual interfaces, not sure how that works to be honest.
Shouldn't harm it - that would be no different than leaving your computer on all the time. In fact, many people say that you wear out a a drive more by powering it on and off, as the greatest chance for something to go wrong or get damaged is during the power up and power down cycles, i.e. when the drive heads engage from scratch. It's the same as starting a car engine really.
Not sure about sleep mode wrt ext HDDs...
The content should not be damaged, although it may depend on the drive you're using. The MyBook you've cited for instance employs "Intelligent Drive Management" whereby the drive turns itself on and off in tandem with your computer. In general though, you may need to disconnect and reconnet the drive for your computer to acknowledge it again if it loses it during sleep mode, but I doubt the content should be compromised.
There is a possibility, but none greater IMO than with any other electronic appliance you might have which gets abruptly shut down due to a power loss or power surge.
Specifically with regards to the MyBook you are looking at, I believe it also has a "Safe Shutdown" feature which supposedly prevents the drive from being powered down until all the data has been written. In a power outtage though, I'm assuming all bets are off. I'm assuming other drives have similar features to this as well.
Also, it's "lose" not "loose". It's a pet peeve of mine when people continually misspell simple words.
I will be partitioning an external drive into 3 partitions - one for my MacBook Pro, one for my future iMac and one for backing up data in general.
I have read several bad reviews regarding the MyBooks so cannot recommend them myself. When it comes to hard drives, I always highly recommend Seagate.
Hope this helps a bit....
Hard Drive manufacturer preference seems to be a very subjective thing - Read some reviews of the drive you are considering purchasing to satisfy yourself.
Saying that, between myself and my friend we have 6 MyBook drives in various sizes and specs (some are standard MyBook drives, some are Pro) and we haven't had a problem with any of them, they've worked flawlessly since the day we bought them. Do be aware however that they are hardwired to spin down after about 10 minutes of inactivity to conserve power. This may be a welcome feature to some, a curse to others. I have added a little job to my crontab in order to keep the drive from spinning down. They are extremely quiet and very robustly built.
Thanks for the feedback on your MyBook drives, it helps keeps a balanced perspective on things. You are going from your experience (positive), I am going from multiple reviews I have read (negative), so as you say, the individual needs to make their own decision. It's just important to keep in mind that there are pros and cons with any piece of technology and nothing is perfect.
You are going from your experience (positive), I am going from multiple reviews I have read (negative), so as you say, the individual needs to make their own decision. It's just important to keep in mind that there are pros and cons with any piece of technology and nothing is perfect. Other members can correct me if I'm wrong or supplement my answers below....
I will be partitioning an external drive into 3 partitions - one for my MacBook Pro, one for my future iMac and one for backing up data in general.
I have read several bad reviews regarding the MyBooks so cannot recommend them myself. When it comes to hard drives, I always highly recommend Seagate.
Hope this helps a bit....
cool - thanks for the info.
Yeah, it's the away from home part I'm thinking about - say that I am away from home and working on a paper or something. I'd love to be able to use Time Machine to be able to step back in time for various versions of it, but I am worried that it wouldn't back up those revisions while I was away from whatever drive I was backing stuff up to.
If it's possible to create a partition (so that a MacBook or MacBookPro could have a separate dedicated partition for Time Machine), that seems like it would address my concern.
-Zadillo
Maybe, just maybe, it would make use of the network attached drive to back up to wherever you are. Something like that Linksys Network Storage Link might be needed for a USB drive. You can access your files from anywhere. That feature may be built in with Airport Extreme.
I'm actually thinking of getting one, along with one of those Seagate Free Agent drives. I got an email saying they're up to 25% off right now. I just don't know if I can justify that right now, when I'd rather have a larger hard drive and 2GB of RAM.
I'm actually thinking of getting one, along with one of those Seagate Free Agent drives. I got an email saying they're up to 25% off right now. I just don't know if I can justify that right now, when I'd rather have a larger hard drive and 2GB of RAM.
thats what i was thinking - have a separate partition on the computer and then have an external drive to back it up for disaster recovery.
So i was thinking... I've got a couple large (8-10+gb) .sparseimage files that i keep on my MacBook's HDD... will time machine be able to just backup those changes? or will it need to make a new copy of it every time i change its contents?
Does anyone know if Time Machine can back up multiple internal drives....
...eg
MacPro with two internal HDs... ..can TM back up both these drives (possibly to a 3rd internal HD in a MacPro???)
I would really like to use Time Machine to back up my boot drive and my data drive to one other partitioned internal HD does anyone know if this is possible????
...eg
MacPro with two internal HDs... ..can TM back up both these drives (possibly to a 3rd internal HD in a MacPro???)
I would really like to use Time Machine to back up my boot drive and my data drive to one other partitioned internal HD does anyone know if this is possible????
Does anybody know how much space this will take up? E.g. if i have a 120gb internal drive, what is a good size external drive to use with it?
Also, can you choose to not have certain files copied by TM? because i copy large (5gb) files onto my computer and then burn them to dvd's and delete them. i don't want TM moving them onto my external. can i just say no?
Also, can you choose to not have certain files copied by TM? because i copy large (5gb) files onto my computer and then burn them to dvd's and delete them. i don't want TM moving them onto my external. can i just say no?
Okay quick question. If I have a 500GB drive I want to backup with Time Machine and want a fairly large history of files. How much larger would you say the backup drive needs to be assuming the 500GB drive is near full? Would 750GB be sufficient?
That depends on what you back up.
When Time Machine backs up it only backs up what has changed.
When Time Machine backs up it only backs up what has changed.
I found out last night that trying to use an older timemachine backup with a later seed doesn't work very well. It ends up hanging timemachine.
If you upgrade to another seed, blow away your timemachine backup. (Format the drive, I had trouble unless I did)
If you upgrade to another seed, blow away your timemachine backup. (Format the drive, I had trouble unless I did)
Sorry if this was already asked, but if I'm using TM with a MB and an external HD, I don't need to be connected to the HD all the time, do I?
Which Airport?
I didn't see this answered in the first post summary, but maybe it hasn't been updated.
I've read that Time Machine will work with a drive hooked up to an Airport Extreme, but will it work with the express as well? When I purchase a MacBook, I'd like the audio out on the Express, but I also want to use it for Time Machine.
I didn't see this answered in the first post summary, but maybe it hasn't been updated.
I've read that Time Machine will work with a drive hooked up to an Airport Extreme, but will it work with the express as well? When I purchase a MacBook, I'd like the audio out on the Express, but I also want to use it for Time Machine.
You can't backup your files by sending them to an express 'cos it doesn't have a nas feutre like the extreme...so you'll have to buy the airport express and the extreme if you want to do both things wirelessly.
No you don't, every time you plug it in it will back up your checked items.
Thanks for the reply, but what is a "nas feutre"? A typo? I did a Google search and the only result was your post.
I would personally recommend having a drive at least double what you are trying to backup. If you have a 120GB drive, you should have at least 200GB for backups.
Keep in mind, it creates a baseline (which from a fresh install is 16GB). Then it takes snapshots of the changes hourly. Sure, it consolidates those changes ... but, lets say you download a 6GB file. Even if you delete it, its going to be in the backups until you start to run out of space.
I am buying a 1TB drive, going to attach it to my server ... this way my laptop and my girlfriends laptop has plenty of backup space and I don't have to worry about cleaning out the backup drive.
The price of external drives has come down a lot. You can get a 1TB external drive now for less then $300.
If you have too small of a drive, timemachine will start to complain hourly that you don't have enough space for the snapshot, which is really annoying.
Keep in mind, it creates a baseline (which from a fresh install is 16GB). Then it takes snapshots of the changes hourly. Sure, it consolidates those changes ... but, lets say you download a 6GB file. Even if you delete it, its going to be in the backups until you start to run out of space.
I am buying a 1TB drive, going to attach it to my server ... this way my laptop and my girlfriends laptop has plenty of backup space and I don't have to worry about cleaning out the backup drive.
The price of external drives has come down a lot. You can get a 1TB external drive now for less then $300.
If you have too small of a drive, timemachine will start to complain hourly that you don't have enough space for the snapshot, which is really annoying.
Though I have no experience with Time Machine yet, I'm sure you could set this up fairly easily. The trick is to go into Disk Utility and put all your smaller drives together as a "Concatenated Disk Set". It's one of the options under the RAID tab in Tiger. This joins them together into one large logical "disk" that OS X then sees as a single unit. I'm sure Time Machine will then use that just as any other disk. It shouldn't care at all.
I'm guessing it was supposed to be "NAS feature" where NAS stands for Network Attached Storage.
http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/sharing.html
You can hook up a disk to an Extreme to share, creating a kind of NAS (network attached storage). You can't do that with the Express, it can only share printers.
B
http://www.eaglebit.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=EB-240-00114&Click=14
with
http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_drives/sata_500gb.htm
x 2
Total price before tax, about $250.
I am trying to find it, I had a flyer from one of computer stores around that had a sale on 1TB drives. (This was like last month, so doubt I have it anymore) Prices are coming down a lot.