Time Machine

[NStocks]

I'm getting a iMac in the near future, it will probablly be the 3.06ghz one, otherwise the one below with upgraded graphics. My question is, since I'm new to Mac's and time machine, how many of you would say it's worth getting a external HD for this? I never backup anything which i know i should but i do'nt own a External HD as of yet. What sort of size would be required, is there a ' bear minimum ', or does it just boil down to the bigger HD the longer it will last - since you won't have to delete old files.

I really want to make a thing with each feature on the Mac, and snow leopard will be just as exciting for me, as it will for the rest of you... So should i get a HD or not

Thanks

NStocks

 

[bigrell486]

Time machine is useful for people who have things that they want to keep safe in the event of something goes wrong. i.e. Projects, Reports, Photos, Videos, Music.

You don't have to spring for Time Machine if you don't feel that you will need it.

 

[chas0001]

The minimum size of the external hard drive should ideally be equal or greater than the size of the internal hard drive. Time Machine stores historic hourly backups so it can fill up very quickly especially if you make lots of changes to data on your hard drive. An alternative to Time Machine, if historic data is not important to you, is to use a disk cloning tool like SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner. This software makes a complete image of the internal hard drive and means that if the internal disk fails you can immediately boot the computer from the clone and carry on working.

External Hard drives are relatively inexpensive so bigger is always better.

 

[NStocks]

Well I suppose it can be useful for me, I mainly use my Pc for Photo Editing, and yesterday I made an error to a Photo but could'nt revert back to it - ( before I made the changes ) so it could have being usefull then, ( if i was on a Mac ).

I have watched the Video from Apple about leopard, its ays it back's up the HD every hour. So for example; I have a photo I edited then saved it, then went back to it to change it again would it only save the last change that was in the timeframe when Time Maching was going to do the back up. Am I right in saying it dos'nt back up every single change to a Photo I edit, and none of the versions will be deleted or altered by another, or is this just a dream feature, so ultimateley it wil just save the most recent change not every single change.

Does it backup the HD every hour of everyday, or is there a weekly backup too - what would this include, how the Hd looked this time last week for that day or this time last week for a whole week. Are these backup's not as accurate as teh hourly ones, I'm a bit confused

Any help is greatly appreciated, i just want to make sure I know how it all works beforehand.

NStocks

 

[chas0001]

You will only be able to recover from the last saved Time Machine backup of the file. The oldest timeframe being 1 hour.

I suppose it depends upon which photo editing program you will use. Most should create backups of the photos, if not at least make it possible to recover to the original.

 

[chas0001]

This may help you regarding your last question

'At midnight, or as soon thereafter as your computer is on and the backup drive available, the most recent hourly backup will be saved as a daily backup, and earlier hourly backups will be deleted to save space. Each daily backup is maintained for a month. After a month, Time Machine converts one of those daily backups into a weekly backup that it preserves indefinitely (or until your backup drive becomes full).'

 

[NStocks]

This may help you regarding your last question

'At midnight, or as soon thereafter as your computer is on and the backup drive available, the most recent hourly backup will be saved as a daily backup, and earlier hourly backups will be deleted to save space. Each daily backup is maintained for a month. After a month, Time Machine converts one of those daily backups into a weekly backup that it preserves indefinitely (or until your backup drive becomes full).'

Right, so for example; I have a word document i created and saved at 1pm today. I then changes something within that document 3 days later, could I then go back to the original document? How lond does it keep the hourly backup's for?

NStocks

 

[chas0001]

Right, so for example; I have a word document i created and saved at 1pm today. I then changes something within that document 3 days later, could I then go back to the original document? How lond does it keep the hourly backup's for?

NStocks

You would be able to restore from the last backup made at the end of the day three days ago i.e. If you changed the file multiple times 3 days ago you would only be able to restore to the last change on that day.

As it states, at the end of each day all the hourly backups are merged into a daily backup.

 

[NStocks]

Ahhh, I think I get it now. Can ypu ' Force ' a backup, for instance you know you will be changing a file so if you force it to backup you will have all the different versions of it. Or if you was going to turn the Mac off i would'nt automatically make a backup again would it ?

NStocks

 

[chas0001]

Yes you can force a backup, just select 'Back up Now' from the Time Machine Menu.

If you sleep or shutdown the computer a backup will not take place. If it is in the process of backing up when you sleep or shutdown the backup will halt.

 

[reclusivemonkey]

If you are wanting to record each of the changes to certain documents or folders, it sounds like you need some sort of revision control rather than backup.

 

[NStocks]

If you are wanting to record each of the changes to certain documents or folders, it sounds like you need some sort of revision control rather than backup.

No, I think I'll just stick with Time Machine, but maybe this is something Apple could add in the future?

Any reccomendation's of which external HD to get? I was comtelplating on the Westerd Digital Passport one because it ultra portable and it only uses one cable. But after seeing it in person I don't think it's that good. So one what it less the £60 would be great, but needs to only have either a USB or Fireiwre cable to power and connect.

Thanks

NStocks

 

[BarryS]

Time Machine is part of Leopard

Time machine is useful for people who have things that they want to keep safe in the event of something goes wrong. i.e. Projects, Reports, Photos, Videos, Music.

You don't have to spring for Time Machine if you don't feel that you will need it.

No one has to 'spring' for Time Machine as it's an integral part of Leopard. Maybe the meaning is that no one has to buy an external hard drive, but backing up as much as possible is good and since external hard drives can be bought cheaply it would be strange not to make use of Time Machine. I currently use a WesternDigital passport portable hard drive, it's fine. I understand there are problems with other WD models but I find this one works no problem with Time Machine. I will be using Time Capsule within a few months to have more storage and a wifi base less big ass and butt ugly than my old desktop PC.

 

[Sousa203]

i plan on a time machine in the future. it's so much easier than plugging in an external like a Lacie or WD. i love the wifi capability. i would "spring" for it definately if you have a lot of files (which eventually you will have) or if you wish to avoid a catastrophic crash (which is not a matter of "if" with computers but more of "when"). Then again, Macs are some of the most stable computers out there...

 

[BarryS]

Time Machine and Time Capsule

There seems to be some confusion in this thread between Time Machine and Time Capsule.

Time Machine is software in Leopard which enables automatic back ups onto an external hard drive.
Time Capsule is a piece of hardware from Apple which connects with a Mac or a PC with an ethernet cable or wirelessly. It has 500 GB or 1 TB of capacity. It can be used as a wifi base, that is it can be connected with a router to establish a home wifi network.

As Time Capsule is rather expensive, it's probably only worth getting if you want to use it for both backing up and as a wifi base. It's possible to get high capacity external hard drives (e.g. WD and Buffalo) and wifi bases (like Apple's Airport Express) cheaper. As far as I know there's nothing which does both unless you use a PC or a Mac as a back up drive + wifi base.

 

[messedkid]

As Time Capsule is rather expensive...
...It's possible to get high capacity external hard drives ... and wifi bases (like Apple's Airport Express) cheaper.

Does the Express station even support USB harddrives? I thought it was for printer sharing only.

PS. Prove to me that an Express station will let me use a harddrive, and I'll order one by tomorrow night. *scouts honor*

 

[BarryS]

Airport Express and Time Capsule

Does the Express station even support USB harddrives? I thought it was for printer sharing only.

PS. Prove to me that an Express station will let me use a harddrive, and I'll order one by tomorrow night. *scouts honor*

I suppose the Apple website is the place to check these things. I don't have any intention of getting Airport Express, and I haven't checked it out properly, but as far as I can see from pages like this http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/sharing.html
it can be used for network sharing by a number of computers, not just for printing. I don't really get the point about supporting USB drives, they're connected to the USB portals on a computer, wireless networking doesn't come into it unless there is such a thing as a wireless usb hub.

As far as I understand these things, if you want to connect wirelessly to an external HD that needs to be set up through an ethernet cable. Time Capsule has a number of USB portals which I suppose could be used to connect a computer wirelessly with a number of external HDs or printers or anything else using a USB connection.