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Time Machine Question

J

Jigsawjammer

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 29, 2009
233
1
NYC
Hey- I just have a quick question.
I'm about to set up time machine but was wondering something. If I have a folder on my computer with docs then say I remove it- will it be on the time machine backup after a few months or what I'm hoping-forever. I'm assuming after time machine fills the drive and needs to start going over files- if the folder isn't there then it will be overwritten- yes?
 
The larger drive you have, the longer time backups will be able to be stored. But when the drive completely fills up, it will start deleting the oldest backups first to clear out space. So if you want to keep files for a long period of time. How big is your internal HD and how big is your external? The external is supposed to be at least 1.5x the internal. But if you want to keep backups for a longer time, then I would suggest getting a bigger drive.
 
touchdownjesus4 said:
The larger drive you have, the longer time backups will be able to be stored. But when the drive completely fills up, it will start deleting the oldest backups first to clear out space. So if you want to keep files for a long period of time. How big is your internal HD and how big is your external? The external is supposed to be at least 1.5x the internal. But if you want to keep backups for a longer time, then I would suggest getting a bigger drive.
Click to expand...

The external is 500 GB and internal is 160GB. I 'm taking a Windows formated HDD and puting it in an enclosure. I wanted to run Time Machine to reformat it and do a backup. I would like the option to have an area where I could just drag files to be permanantly stored and a certain section to back up with time machine prob weekly. Is that possible?
 
Jigsawjammer said:
The external is 500 GB and internal is 160GB. I 'm taking a Windows formated HDD and puting it in an enclosure. I wanted to run Time Machine to reformat it and do a backup. I would like the option to have an area where I could just drag files to be permanantly stored and a certain section to back up with time machine prob weekly. Is that possible?
Click to expand...

You need to partition your hard drive to be able to that.
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
You need to partition your hard drive to be able to that.
Click to expand...

I've never done this on my Macs so could you tell me a little bit of the process?
How do I reformat the drive to be now Mac in an external enclosure- make a partition- then have time machine only record to a partition?

Thanks in advance
 
Thanks for that.
New question- will my MBP be able to see a windows formated hard drive in the enclosure so I can format it? Also- do I have to delete the windows part of the drive?
 
Jigsawjammer said:
Thanks for that.
New question- will my MBP be able to see a windows formatted hard drive in the enclosure so I can format it? Also- do I have to delete the windows part of the drive?
Click to expand...


Yes, you won't have any problem seeing the hard drive in Disk Utility, whatever the formatting or partitioning.


What do you mean with the "windows part of the drive"?

You will also be able to format one of partitions for windows (the formatting is called MS-DOS in Disk Utility), in case you need to keep using it with a pc. The nice thing is that you will be able to access that partition from the mac too.
 
misterredman said:
Yes, you won't have any problem seeing the hard drive in Disk Utility, whatever the formatting or partitioning.


What do you mean with the "windows part of the drive"?

You will also be able to format one of partitions for windows (the formatting is called MS-DOS in Disk Utility), in case you need to keep using it with a pc. The nice thing is that you will be able to access that partition from the mac too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help- I'm going to try this tomorrow.
 
OK- I put the windows formatted HDD in the enclosure and hooked it up to my MBP but there is no information for it in disk utility- someone please help...
 
Are you sure the drive is working fine with your pc? Are you sure the enclosure is working?

And you have to provide more informations if you want to get more help. What kind of HD? What kind of enclosure? What for a model?
 
misterredman said:
Are you sure the drive is working fine with your pc? Are you sure the enclosure is working?

And you have to provide more informations if you want to get more help. What kind of HD? What kind of enclosure? What for a model?
Click to expand...

I'm sure the drive is fine because I backed up everything off it right before I took it out. I also put it back in the PC to see what I could do to delete it.
The HDD is a WD Caviar (spelling?) 500GB drive that I bought 3 years ago. There is probably 200 hours of use on the drive so it should be ok as a backup.
The enclosure is a POS I got off eBay just your standard 3.5" sata enclosure. It seems to work because it lights up but I guess that doesn't mean anything. I was thinking of buying the Macally that looks like a macpro instead suspecting that this cheapo enclosure I bought was a bad idea.
Either way- I should see the drive no matter what though- right? The drive is formatted NTFS and macs can read but can't write so it must be the enclosure I assume or could it be something else?
Thanks
 
Well, the drive should show up under Disk Utility, regardless of the formatting.

As you said NTFS drives should be visible in OS X directly and be readable.

There could be many reasons for it not working:
-hard drive broken (if it was working just before in the PC, it's quite improbable)
-broken enclosure (you should try to test this one with another drive)
-broken USB (you didn't mention the interface) port on your mac (use another one or test with another USB device)
-enclosure doesn0t provide enough power to the drive


By the way, is the enclosure powered with an AC adapter? And do you hear the drive spinning when you connect it?
 
misterredman said:
Well, the drive should show up under Disk Utility, regardless of the formatting.

As you said NTFS drives should be visible in OS X directly and be readable.

There could be many reasons for it not working:
-hard drive broken (if it was working just before in the PC, it's quite improbable)
-broken enclosure (you should try to test this one with another drive)
-broken USB (you didn't mention the interface) port on your mac (use another one or test with another USB device)
-enclosure doesn0t provide enough power to the drive


By the way, is the enclosure powered with an AC adapter? And do you hear the drive spinning when you connect it?
Click to expand...
The drive is back in the PC working- the enclosure is wall powered but I don't hear any HDD noise when connected. My USB connections are ok because my flash drive work properly in them. What you think- enclosure then?
 
I'd say the enclosure is the problem then. Could be that it doesn't supply enough power, but it's probably not worth spending more time investigating.

Best thing is to get another one! ;)
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
TM keeps everything until the drive fills up, then it asks to delete some old backups when the drive is full.
Click to expand...

This is not true, as far as I know.

It makes backups every hour for the past day. One day later, only one of those backups will remain, as it deletes the other 23. Of course this actually goes on in real time (one backup made every hour, and one removed).

As far as I understand, it doesn't consolidate those backups.
 
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