Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Time Machine Question

S

someone28624

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
849
11
Buffalo
Ok, stupid question. I want to get an external hard drive for back up. But they're big. I don't have room to leave one on my desk all the time. I know it doesn't need to be plugged in all the time. But everything I've heard about TM says you pick a time for it to back up daily. Can I just program it to back up each time I plug the drive in?

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for an affordable, decent, drive, I'm open to them.
 
someone28624 said:
Ok, stupid question. I want to get an external hard drive for back up. But they're big. I don't have room to leave one on my desk all the time. I know it doesn't need to be plugged in all the time. But everything I've heard about TM says you pick a time for it to back up daily. Can I just program it to back up each time I plug the drive in?

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for an affordable, decent, drive, I'm open to them.
Click to expand...
WD My Book is a great external drive no matter what size (320GB+). My wife and I don't have room on our desk for it either so we put it on the floor (the USB cable is long enough). The nice thing about it is that you leave it plugged into the wall all the time. When you connect the USB cable to your Mac it powers on and when you disconnect the cable it powers off. No power button or switch. Brilliant design. It's also quieter than my notebook hard drive because it lacks a fan (the 320GB USB version at least).

You don't pick a time for TM to backup daily. Sometimes I don't plug it in for days and when I do it will start to backup it self on the hour or you can choose for it to "backup now." You can't program TM to backup at a certain time because Apple has programmed it to backup hourly. It's really the greatest backup utility because of it's simplicity yet it still has power.
 
I have Time Machine set to back-up only when I ask. I'm away from home all day and there is no reason to back up hourly when nothing is happening. Now for the week-ends I permitt it to back up hourly because I'm on and off the machine all day. NOTE: my Mac is at home while I'm at work during the week day from 7am-6pm.
 
Thanks, I picked up a 160gig MyBook tonight. How long should the initial back up take? Cause it's going really slowly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back