Used Time Machine for the first time tonight

[Matt T]

Tonight has been the first night I ever used Time Machine. I've had it setup since getting Leopard last year but have never needed to use it. I actually briefly considered last week turning it off so I could use my external for some other files, but decided I'd keep it going just in case - "you never know..."

So anyway, this evening I was cleaning up and deleting some of my files and emptied my trash to free up some space on my main drive. I went to eat dinner, watch some TV, have a shower, and came back a few hours later and noticed a folder on my desktop was missing. This folder contained all the work I had done today - nearly 2gigs of Photoshop and InDesign files.

Panic set in for a few seconds before I remembered Time Machine. So I fired it up, found the folder I needed (Time Machine says I deleted it about 5 hours ago which seems right), hit restore, and 6 seconds later it's back on my desktop safe and sound.

Thank you Time Machine!

 

[GoCubsGo]

Personally, I am unsure how I got by without TM before.

 

[Steve-M]

Apple got it right with Time Machine. Simple, easy to use, and yet powerful enough to do a complete system restore.

 

[NewSc2]

Used Time Machine for a few months, then stopped. I guess I'm fairly organized, and didn't like how Time Machine kept backups of things I really did want to delete. I keep several external hard drives for backup, too, so most of the time Time Machine was backing up things unnecessarily.

It's easier for me to think, "This hard drive for photos, this hard drive for music/movies, this hard drive for applications, and important documents get stored on Gmail."

Different strokes, I suppose =)

 

[devburke]

Used Time Machine for a few months, then stopped. I guess I'm fairly organized, and didn't like how Time Machine kept backups of things I really did want to delete. I keep several external hard drives for backup, too, so most of the time Time Machine was backing up things unnecessarily.

It's easier for me to think, "This hard drive for photos, this hard drive for music/movies, this hard drive for applications, and important documents get stored on Gmail."

Different strokes, I suppose =)

Different strokes indeed! I can't for the life of me figure out how "This hard drive for photos, this hard drive for music/movies, this hard drive for applications, and important documents get stored on Gmail" is simpler than "This hard drive has everything backed up."

 

[1ne]

I like TM. I got a Ext 2.5 500G HDD thinking I would be fine 'cause my internal is only 500G. But no so according to apple.

1. How big a drive do I need for Time Machine?

A general "rule of thumb" is, TM needs 2 to 3 times as much space as the data it's backing-up (not necessarily the entire size of your internal HD).

But this actually varies greatly, depending on how you use your Mac. If you frequently add/update lots of large files, then even 3 times may not be enough. If you're a light user, 1.5 times might do. Unfortunately, it's rather hard to predict, so if in doubt, get a bigger one!

Also, there are some OSX features and 3rd-party applications that take up large amounts of backup space, for various reasons. See question #9 for details.

This is a trade-off between space and how long TM can keep it's backups, since TM will, by design, eventually use all the space available. But it won't just quit backing-up when it runs out: It starts deleting the oldest backups so it can keep making new ones. Thus, the more space it has, the longer it can keep your backups.

Now I am kinda confuse about TM. I have always thought after the big initial backup it would backup the changes.

I did see my EXT HDD backing over 120G after the initial backup. But most time it only backup the changes.


_

 

[devburke]

I like TM. I got a Ext 2.5 500G HDD thinking I would be fine 'cause my internal is only 500G. But no so according to apple.

[/i]

Now I am kinda confuse about TM. I have always thought after the big initial backup it would backup the changes.

I did see my EXT HDD backing over 120G after the initial backup. But most time it only backup the changes.


_

It does only back up the changes. But if you make changes to big files often, your TM drive will start filling up kinda quickly. You don't need more space, but it allows you to have more backups.

 

[Bill Gates]

Time machine is indeed very convenient to use. I haven't needed it yet, but I've got a 500GB G-Drive Mini just for Time Machine. It would be nice if there were an exclusions list that offered a way to exclude files of a certain type from certain folders. I would then exclude dmg and avi files, for example, from my "Downloads" folder.

 

[ian.maffett]

I agree - TM rocks. It's great when you tune it for intentionally neglected folders, though - I use certain folders for 'temp' storage of large files that will NOT be backed up so as not to take a chunk of my storage for a file that won't be in use very long. IE - multimedia files as I might move them from one machine to another and don't want / need them backed up, etc.
Not your main point, I know, but a different form of TM practice for those reading and interested.

 

[devburke]

Time machine is indeed very convenient to use. I haven't needed it yet, but I've got a 500GB G-Drive Mini just for Time Machine. It would be nice if there were an exclusions list that offered a way to exclude files of a certain type from certain folders. I would then exclude dmg and avi files, for example, from my "Downloads" folder.

You can tell it to exclude certain files and folders, but you can't make a rule like all of a certain file type.

 

[NewSc2]

Different strokes indeed! I can't for the life of me figure out how "This hard drive for photos, this hard drive for music/movies, this hard drive for applications, and important documents get stored on Gmail" is simpler than "This hard drive has everything backed up."

The problem comes when you're trying to access the backed up files -- you have to start to remember which date, if it were moved somewhere in between Time Machine backups, etc.

If I want to access, say, a backed-up movie, I turn on a hard drive, and it's all neatly sorted in one giant folder. If I want to play an old Radiohead concert, I scroll to Music -> Radiohead -> Concerts and find it. No need to scroll back in time, no need to use any programs.

Yes, I know Time Machine does work well with Spotlight and all, but it's still not as visual as having everything laid out in front of you.

It's probably because I do go through gigabytes of files in a week, and I DO want some things permanently deleted, which then TM becomes a hindrance more than help.