Time machine

I had my MacBook asleep (lid closed) with the Time Machine drive plugged in last night. It told me it made backups every hour too in the Time Machine preference pane.

It doesn't look that way now.

 

Time Machine doesn't make backups when a machine is asleep. When you close the lid, it automatically goes to sleep. If you want to make sure Time Machine makes a backup before you put it to sleep, then right click or control click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and select "Back Up Now."
-Chasen

 

I think the logic behind this is that when the computer is asleep, nothing is changing on your system, so there's no need to backup every hour. Once the computer is turned on, it automatically does a backup, though.

 

Nothing goes on when the comp is asleep. Either don't let it sleep, or just backup when it is in use.