Time Machine; First Time User Questions

[Robert4]

Hello,

Have bought a new 2 TB external HD, and am using it with Time Machine.
At least, I think I am.
In my 80's now, so please bear with me a bit.

a. Do most of you folks who use it say that it works "just fine," or do you get hangups, incomplete,
and find the program has "quirks"

b. Went to the Finder to see if i can examine exactly what it has backed up to the external HD.
I imagine it should pretty much be a duplicate of what the Finder already shows as to what is on
my normal internal Mac HD.

*But, all I get is the spinning ball; apparently forever.
Why ?

c. If I go to "Time Machine for Mac" (ext HD Name i gave it) in the Finder, I have the following structure (Folders):

Backups.backupdb
Robert iMac
2019-12-10-09064
2019-12-10-09249
MacIntosh HD
and: 2019-12-10-131937.inprogress

Can someone please explain what all these Folders are, and what is, or should be, in them ?

*The last one always shows ".inProgress", hour after hour, after hour... Why ? (never changes)

Why can't I open any of them up to inspect what's been saved ? (that rotating ball problem)

Much thanks; really appreciate the help.

Would like very much to understand this program, and whether or not I should continue to keep using it ? Thoughts ?

Regards,
Bob

 

[STxMacUser]

I first used Time Machine years ago but had the same questions and doubts that you might have right now. I will also be interested in comments on this subject as I am not certain as to the the details of Time Machine but I just purchased an iMac Pro and will need to back up my trade in, (a 2013 Mac Pro), to add back to the new computer.

From what I understand the backup files are not items that you would just jump into to view but are set up so that when you do need to restore your computer or dump info onto anothe3r computer you would restore the backup from the new computer or computer that you are currently using. The backup would restore onto your computer and from there you would be able to use the files just as before as of the moment that you completed the backup. If this is not correct, I would like to hear what others have to say.

 

[niteflyr]

Here is a pretty good explanation of how it works and what you can do with it.

https://macmyths.com/time-machine-on-mac-how-it-works-best-practices-and-faq/

 

[HDFan]

Time Machine is superb for restoring files/folders from a specific backup date. However it should not be your only backup.

If you look at a folder the files may have been created at different times. Rather than copying each file at each backup interval, time machine creates a pointer to the older files that have not changed, rather than copying them. This results in a complex file structures which can get corrupted. You also need a disk or folder clone backup.

So for critical files make sure that you follow a 3-3-3 or 3-3-2 backup policy. 3 backups on 3 different media types in 3 locations. Only one should be Time Machine.

 

[konqerror]

a. Do most of you folks who use it say that it works "just fine," or do you get hangups, incomplete,
and find the program has "quirks"

Never had a problem with direct storage Time Machine or Time Machine over an Apple Airport. Using Time Machine over third-party routers is problematic.

Time Machine runs regular verification and will fix problems it detects. You do not need to go messing with the file structure and doing so can cause corruption. If you want to check your files, access them from the Time Machine app.

 

[Brian33]

a. Do most of you folks who use it say that it works "just fine," or do you get hangups, incomplete,
and find the program has "quirks"

I have a love/hate relationship with TM. When it works properly (which is has for many years, for me) it is absolutely great. When something goes wrong (my current situation, too) it is frustrating. I use both TM and Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC). I currently find TM more reliable when used with a directly-attached external drive (as you are) as opposed to a network-attached drive.

b. Went to the Finder to see if i can examine exactly what it has backed up to the external HD.
I imagine it should pretty much be a duplicate of what the Finder already shows as to what is on
my normal internal Mac HD.

*But, all I get is the spinning ball; apparently forever.
Why ?

This indicates a problem of some sort! Something is "hung up" and not responding.

c. If I go to "Time Machine for Mac" (ext HD Name i gave it) in the Finder, I have the following structure (Folders):

Backups.backupdb
Robert iMac
2019-12-10-09064
2019-12-10-09249
MacIntosh HD
and: 2019-12-10-131937.inprogress

Can someone please explain what all these Folders are, and what is, or should be, in them ?

*The last one always shows ".inProgress", hour after hour, after hour... Why ? (never changes)

Why can't I open any of them up to inspect what's been saved ? (that rotating ball problem)

Backups.backupdb contains a folder for each machine (here, Robert iMac), which contains "snapshot" folders; each snapshot folder's name is a date and time stamp (e.g., Dec 10th 2019 at 9:06:40 -- I think you left off a zero on the timestamp). Within the timestamped snapshot folder is a folder for each volume (i.e., disk drive) included in the backup. You've just got one called MacIntosh HD. Within the volume folder you should be able to see the files/folders that were at the top level of that drive during that backup.

You should be able to open these things using Finder -- the rotating ball seems to be indicating something wrong accessing the files on the backup drive.

Note: while it's OK to browse the TM backups with Finder, and even copy files from the backup, don't delete or re-arrange any of the files or folders within Backups.backupdb! There is a Time Machine "interface" which you're meant to use to restore files (although as I said you can use Finder) and delete files/folders from the backup database if necessary.

So, to sum up, yeah, something seems to have gone wrong. Unfortunately I can't tell you what. If it were an old hard drive, I would suspect something wrong with the drive and/or cable, but you say it's new. The rotating "beachball" when you try to access files on the external drive makes me think there's something hanging up the process trying to read the filesystem on that drive... you should certainly be able to browse it with Finder.

I don't suppose you have or could borrow another external drive, just to try TM backing up to it and see if it works OK?

 

[Robert4]

Hi,

The trying a different external HD is a good suggestion.
Will see what I can come up with.

Will keep you advised of (any) progress.

Thanks again for interest and help,
Bob