Question

MACBOOK: Time Machine Backup to external USB Hard Drive.

Asked by: pacumming

My girlfriends daughter is away at college with her Macbook. She has a USB thumb drive to copy critical files (school work) to as needed. I bought her a 1TB WD external USB hard drive.
She has formatted the external drive properly for use with the MAC (I sent her instructions I found on the Web).
She set up Time Machine on her Macbook and it backed up an image of her entire drive.
(Note I am a Windows guy and not a MAC owner at this time).

After it was done she shut down Time Machine (prob did not turn it off-not sure) and unplugged the hard drive.

What are the steps necessary (step by step, options to select, keep TM all time, turn off when done, etc..) for me to tell her regarding plugging in the external drive weekly and letting Time Machine perform an incremental backup?

She does not want to keep the hard drive plugged in 100% of the time to perform a backup of changed files.

Thanks so much for a detailed and accurate answer form experience.

Sincerely
PC

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Asked On
2009-09-19 at 18:32:08ID24746201
Tags

Mac time machine backup external drive

Topics

Apple Operating Systems

,

Snow Leopard (OS 10.6)

,

Mac OS X

,

Apple Software

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2
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Answers

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:39:47ID: 25375597

Well, Time Machine will make backups each hour.  If the storage location (in this case, the WD hard drive you proided) is not available, the backups will be skipped, but Time Machine will keep trying as long as it's enabled.

However, she needs to know how to check for the last successful backup.  Up in the top-right, there is a Time Machine icon (a clock).  Click that, and the last successful backup date and time will be displayed.  If she never has the hard drive plugged in long enough for a backup to complete, then it will be like never having a backup at all (or the last complete backup will be too old).  So, if she sees the clock spinning, and a backup mounted on her desktop, shoud should wait for it to finish at least once a day.  It's safe to interrupt a backup, but once in a while, she should make sure one finishes before shutting down or unplugging.

 

by: mutahirPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:42:44ID: 25375600

http://ask.metafilter.com/110980/How-should-I-go-about-using-an-external-hard-drive-for-Time-Machine-and-other-things

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1091577

As MaffoClock has explained ; it is a fairly simple process

the links might help you get some more understanding of the process ; but as Maffooclock has said that as long it is disconnected it will keep trying till it connects back.

You can just safely remove the hard disk by ejecting it when done.

Just for your reference ; Restoring from time machine backup is explained in detail at :
http://blog.duncandavidson.com/2008/01/restoring-from-time-machine.html

 

by: pacummingPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:47:26ID: 25375608

Thanks, I will have her look for the icon.

Can she turn off time machine and then turn it back on perhaps at the end of each week or when she remembers to do it (might be 2 weeks, ID don't know) and hten plug in the external hard drive (do that first) and have time machine resume an incremental backup?

All in all, I want to figure out how she can plug in the hard drive when she wants and have time machine make an incremental backup based on its last successful backup.
How is this achieved? Turn TM off and then one day turn TM back on after plugging in hard drive? Or some other way or select certain options and have TM do an incremental manually if at all possible?

Thanks so much
Peter

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:52:06ID: 25375614

I would recommend leaving Time Machine turned on.  It won't complain about the drive not being connected -- it'll just quetly skip it and try again later.  This was by-design -- Mac's are user-friendly!

Here's an idea: perhaps she ought to have a Time Capsule.  It's a Wi-Fi router with a built-in hard drive.  This thing is PERFECT for Time Machine because it will do backups over the air as long as her laptop is on and within range.  No more remembering to plug in!

http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/

I know you already bought her an external hard drive, but I'm telling you, the Time Capsule is a WORTHY purchase!

 

by: pacummingPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:54:15ID: 25375617

Okay. I did read a few articles but missed the peachpit one.
Peachpit article had a paragraph that said:
If your designated backup drive is not connected to your computer (as is often the case with portable Macs), Time Machine will perform a backup as soon as the drive is connected and available. It is a good idea to connect your backup drive to your computer at least once a day to ensure backups are kept relatively current.

Good we are 50% there.

**SO as not to use up resources, can she turn off Time Machine when the Hard Disk is not connected and have it perform a good incremental when she attached the external and turns TM back on?
--or--
Does she have to leave TM on ALL the time (for a proper incremental) EVEN when the hard disk is not connected, and then plug in the hard drive weekly (no specified day or time) and let TM do its catch-up?

Thanks
PC

 

by: pacummingPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:55:29ID: 25375620

Cannot afford Time Capsule. Complicated enough for her. No one to set it up and so on....
Thanks
Peter

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:56:31ID: 25375622

It is perfectly safe, and recomended, to leave Time Machine enabled.  She really isn't gaining anything by disabling it.

 

by: mutahirPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:59:24ID: 25375625

Yes as soon as she connects the disk, time machine will kick in ; or she can go in system preferences and click on time machine from there.

if she leaves the time machine on and the disk isn't connected it won't backup anything, as time machine is setup to backup to that disk ; she can change the disk if she wants to via sys preferences

time machine will only be switched on when the disk connects or it runs as a service to see when the disk is available to be used as the backup device..

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-09-19 at 18:59:26ID: 25375626

I can understand the cost being a road block.  However, if she were to have one, they are easy to set up.  This is not Windows -- Mac is user-friendly!  But I get your point, so I won't bother you about that again.

Sounds like you already have a solution.  Tell her that she needs to remember to connect the hard drive frrom time to time, and leave Time Machine enabled.  Do this, and she should be well-protected.

 

by: pacummingPosted on 2009-09-19 at 19:07:22ID: 25375641

Thanks both of you.
One last question. I assume (and hope) that Time Machine will not write anything or not use much space when left on and external HD is not connected. I assume it has a DB perhaps of whats changed to write to external HD, but I do not want it to sue much of her internal HD space.

I also found there was something called a Time Machine Editor that someone created so you can change the interval to just about anything you want. However it has some issues with Snow Leopard and it may default to hourly if any OS updates come down. So I will forget this for now.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26704

With Windows I use Acronis but Macs I do not know but am glad she and her sister have one.

Thanks again
Peter

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-09-19 at 19:11:17ID: 25375647

No, you won't have to worry about Time Machine between backups.  I don't think Time Machine uses a database, but rather, uses each files' last modified time (as most backup applications do).

Time Machine (and most other Mac applications) was designed to be simple, easy, and reliable.  You've done all you need to do, my friend : )

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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