I'm trying to figure out the best backup strategy for my new Mac Pro. What I'm considering is buying two identical external FW800 drives and keeping one connected at all times for Time Machine while keeping the other in a safe off-site location. Then every week I'd switch the external drives, taking the one that was connected to the off-site location, and connecting the previously off-site drive to my Mac. This way I'd always have a local real-time current backup, and a full off-site backup that's at most a week old. So, worst case scenario my office burns down and I lose at most a week of data.
Will this work? My concerns are:
1. Will Time Machine work this way? When I switch the drives will it automatically start an incremental backup on to the new one of everything that's changed in the last week? Or will Time Machine get confused when I unplug the current up to date TM drive and plug in a new one that's a week behind? I'm hoping that TM is smart enough that this will all just work automatically.
2. I'll have multiple hard drives in my Mac. Can I back them all up to the single external TM drive, assuming the TM drive is as large as all of the other drives combined?
3. My main internal drives will be very fast RAID setups. Will setting up Time Machine on a slower single external drive slow down my system while it tries to back up everything to the TM drive in real time as I'm working? I'd hate to spend money on super-fast drives only to have my slow external TM drive bottleneck everything.
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Will this work? My concerns are:
1. Will Time Machine work this way? When I switch the drives will it automatically start an incremental backup on to the new one of everything that's changed in the last week? Or will Time Machine get confused when I unplug the current up to date TM drive and plug in a new one that's a week behind? I'm hoping that TM is smart enough that this will all just work automatically.
2. I'll have multiple hard drives in my Mac. Can I back them all up to the single external TM drive, assuming the TM drive is as large as all of the other drives combined?
3. My main internal drives will be very fast RAID setups. Will setting up Time Machine on a slower single external drive slow down my system while it tries to back up everything to the TM drive in real time as I'm working? I'd hate to spend money on super-fast drives only to have my slow external TM drive bottleneck everything.
Thanks for any help you can provide!