time machine question

[Sicutz]

hey guys,

I want to use time machine, because the macbook from a close friends died (coffee + macbook = not good), and he lost his HDD, it´s just dead.


I´m using my macbook like 95% at home, but if I use my macbook somewhere else and work, or something like that, do I just need to plug in my 500gb external hdd and time machine copys the new files and all is just fine?

And is it ok for time machine to plug in the external hdd just every 2-3 days?

The additional cable is maybe annoying, I don´t want to save every second from my macbook, I just want to save 99%, so in case of an accident I just loose 1 day data or something like that.



So my main question is: Can I plug in/out my external storage at every time I want to and time machine starts copying everything since the last plug in or is this a problem for my macbook?

Greetings.

 

[bobdamnit]

That is exactly how I use Time Machine.

I have a 500Gb external USB hard drive that I use for Time Machine. When I want to run Time Machine to backup, I plug in the external drive and Time Machine will automatically begin backing up my Mac.

However, my Mac is not mission critical. So I only backup with Time Machine about once a month. I have another external hard drive that I use to backup all of my important data like music, movies, pictures, etc... That way if my Mac ever dies, I at least have a copy of everything thats on it. (Both in my Time Machine backups, and on the other backup drive.)

 

[Sicutz]

Thanks, I will test it.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

So my main question is: Can I plug in/out my external storage at every time I want to and time machine starts copying everything since the last plug in or is this a problem for my macbook?

Yes. Time Machine will create a "Local snapshot" on your hard drive ever 24 hours, which will then get updated to the Time Machine disk when you connect it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878

Also you'll get a pop-up reminder if Time Machine has been unable to update to disk after 10 days.