Oh, I've definitely hosed things and needed a backup. Most recent was when I discovered that a bunch of fonts I'd squirrelled away and put into an iCloud Drive folder got corrupted by the syncing process. I was able to peel off a copy from an old Time Machine backup. This time I put them all into the safety of a .dmg disk image before putting them back onto iCloud Drive...I have a Seagate slim USB drive (no external power required) attached to my desktop iMac and use Time Machine (and TimeMachineEditor) for desktop backups. It's interesting, in the 15 years that I've own Mac-based computers, I've never had to refer to files on my TM backup. (but I know that the day after I were to stop using it, I'd have a vital need for it)
On my second iMac that serves as a Plex server, I have an 8TB external drive as the primary media drive. I have two additional 8TB drives that serve as backups to that primary drive, which I perform periodic backups in an alternating fashion using the "Sync Folders" app.
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What do laptop people do for time machine?
- Thread starter mikepro
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I was planning on waiting for Synology‘s 2022 offerings, but Amazon had a deal on the Synology DS 220+ yesterday that I couldn’t refuse.
So for now I've been using an external. One thing i wasn't expecting, but apparently has been a thing since Catalina is time machine generally wants you to reformat your drive to use APFS and make it a backup volume group. Previously you could use an HFS+ disk, and it would store the time machine backup structure in a folder, and you could use the disk fir other stuff (This had the downside of time machine could eventually fill up the entire disk).
Now if you want to use the drive for time machine and general file storage, you need to add a second volume to your external disk, and you size the partitions how you want. So say you have a 5TB external, you can dedicate 2TB to exclusive time machine use, and 3TB to regular file storage. This was new to me, and having to reformat my external caught me a but off guard. The link below explains it pretty well:
forums.macrumors.com
Now if you want to use the drive for time machine and general file storage, you need to add a second volume to your external disk, and you size the partitions how you want. So say you have a 5TB external, you can dedicate 2TB to exclusive time machine use, and 3TB to regular file storage. This was new to me, and having to reformat my external caught me a but off guard. The link below explains it pretty well:
Unable to create a new folder on external hard drive
What's needed is to add a volume via Disk Utility to your external drive so that you can use it for non-Time Machine files too. Here's an explanation from MacWorld: "You can share the Time Machine container with volumes that aren’t being used for backups. Apple notes in its Big Sur guide on a...
forums.macrumors.com
I used to use a time capsule but last year time machine started giving me errors and wouldn't back up to the drive but since then ive just scrapped using time machine and just used iCloud Drive and OneDrive sync for most off my stuff. Photos, Documents & Desktop stored in iCloud, all my music is Apple Music and what I used to have before that is backed up on other drives because I never clear out. School work is stored on One Drive, I don't have anything left that I need a backup for thats not cloud based, anything missing can usually be redownloaded and isn't critical.
Right now, even though I have a Synology NAS (I've had one since 2013), I'm backing up my MBA to two different sets of external USB drives, with one of those drives being taken offsite in case of something happening to my first drive, and something happening to my house, so I would have all my vital records stored elsewhere in case of disaster.
Now, when I get the next Mac, I'll be able to use the TB4 port to connect to Gigabit ethernet, so I'll back up via TM to my NAS, then use HyperBackup to back that up to an external disk and take that offsite.
But one thing that can not be stressed enough: You can back up data all you want; but your backups are not safe or reliable until you TEST THE RESTORE. If the restore fails (due to corruption, bad disk, etc.), your backups are a useless waste of space.
BL.
Now, when I get the next Mac, I'll be able to use the TB4 port to connect to Gigabit ethernet, so I'll back up via TM to my NAS, then use HyperBackup to back that up to an external disk and take that offsite.
But one thing that can not be stressed enough: You can back up data all you want; but your backups are not safe or reliable until you TEST THE RESTORE. If the restore fails (due to corruption, bad disk, etc.), your backups are a useless waste of space.
BL.
I tried Time Machine, it's just way too slow. I think it's nice to have per hour copy, but I look at how I use my laptop and careful with files. I prefer using third party software like ChronoSync to my external SSD and also setup a weekly Monday sync to my home NAS server as well.
Double backups and it is way faster.
Cloud storage is nice but it is costly and iCloud took age to download 700GB+ files. I'm on fiber internet 500/500.
Double backups and it is way faster.
Cloud storage is nice but it is costly and iCloud took age to download 700GB+ files. I'm on fiber internet 500/500.
I have a 5TB WD Red drive using an external USB3 enclosure, which I use for both mine and my wife's MBP Time Machine backups. Realistically, we backup about once every 2 weeks or so.
We also use our shared iCloud drive (share the 2TB plan) to store most of our important documents.
We also use our shared iCloud drive (share the 2TB plan) to store most of our important documents.
I’m going to reconsider my strategy. I’m sending TM to both a Synology NAS and a WD external HDD. I am also backing up all machines to iDrive cloud. And iCloud. I keep another external HDD with my design portfolio, photos, and music somewhere offsite.
I have mine on TrueNAS. Of course it's based on FreeBSD, not Linux, but I have done it on Linux before.
Create an APFS-formatted sparsebundle:
Code:
hdiutil create -size 8000g -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname "TM" -fs APFS -imagekey sparse-band-size=262144 -verbose -encryption -stdinpass timemachine.sparsebundleCopy it to your SMB share, and then mount it.
Set it as the TM target:
Code:
sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/TMVoila.
I run Time Machine on a GTechnology mini drive at least once a week and copy Capture One Sessions and paperwork to two external drives when I finish a shoot. In the past decades, I have accumulated a short stack of drives on the desk and in a fireproof lockbox so I'm fairly confident that I can find just about every image and document from early in my career. The Time Machine backups overwrite previous backups as the drive nears its capacity though.
Are you backing up to the Synology over WiFi? If so, that will be a small problem.. where "problem" = time and network speed. By going WiFi, you're limited to the highest negotiable speed your router can handle for WiFi. If that is 802.11g, for example, you're limiting the transfer speed to no more than 54Mb/s. That's slow, depending on how much data you're backing up, especially compared to if you're going over something ethernet. Even USB will be faster than that.
That's why despite my having a Synology as well, I'm backing up to an external USB HDD. When I order a new Mac, I'll be going Gigabit ethernet to my router, then can back up to my NAS.
BL.
Yes, but what speed are you connected to it at? Does the client support .11ax?
My MBP is usually connected at somewhere between 870mb and gig to my .11ac Airport Extreme.
You got it.
I use iCloud storage to keep files on/off device. Very important source code and documents are stored additionally within github. I use an iMac at work and carry a MacBook to and from work. If one device fails (gets lost, stolen, ect), the second device will already have a copy of the important file I'm working on.
Data is stored on two physical machines that I have immediate access to and a remote one (iCloud) in case of catastrophic events. (remote github as well for double cloud backup)