What do you guys use for Time Machine?

MossyUK

MossyUK

MossyUK

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Ok, so looks like I am going to be dipping my toes in to the waters of Apple this week with a Mac Mini (the 2.53 one).

Now my main reason for going Mac is Time Machine. But right now, I don't know much about how it all works. My mini will come with a 320gb disk. I want a second disk for TM, rather than all on one disk.

So, how do you use TM at the moment? Any advice - links to products etc most appreciated.

Thanks
 
I have mine set up to use my Time Capsule - but prior to that I had a 500GB external drive I used.
 
I just connect an external hard drive in a caddy to my MBP via USB. TimeMachine does the rest. Simple as plugging in the external hard drive. It's built in to the OS.

If I want to restore something then go to the TimeMachine icon with the hard drive plugged in and it loads the space-style view with a slider for dates.
 
I use a 1TB (split into 400/600) WD Studio drive that I attach every so often. TM can cache the changes for a week and when you next plug in it will do the missing files.

As Kemik has said - to restore a file just select the folder window and go into TM. If you want todo a complete restore then select the install disk option to restore from TM.
 
I already had a Synology NAS which is connected to my wireless router. So, with two Macs in the house (my MBP and my wifes iMac) it seemed sensible to use this for TM. That way it doesn't matter where the machines are, they can be backed up wirelessly. As my router supports VPN I'll shortly be setting it up so that I can backup over the internet for when I'm away on work trips.

If you use a NAS then you'll need to search around for the commands to set it up (or drop a question here and I'll try to rememner how I did it).
 
I just use a WD MyBook Essential (500GB) via USB, nothing fancy - seems to do the job nicely. If I was likely to be moving around the house i would want a wireless backup solution though, fortunately I have an iMac.
 
I use my Time Capsule but prior to that I had an Airport Extreme base station which had a hard drive connected and that was used for my time machine backups.

You can plug any external drive into your Mac and use that.
 
I use a 1GB Seagate, plonked into an Akasa USB/eSata external enclosure. Works a treat. I just think that 1GB is perhaps too large given that I have 800GB remaining after a lot of TM backups. I must have about 100GB or so data on my uMacbook at a guess.
 
Don't bother with Time Machine.

All my data is kept on external drives, and copied to offsite backup such as iDisk.

Don't need the hassle when restoring.. simply drag my files back off an external disk; done.
 
I just use a standard external 400gb drive and set it to back up documents, pictures and music only.
 
cheers all, I have blagged a freebie drive off my bro. Its not huge at only 80gb, but for now it should be enough to get my head around TM's storage requirements.
 
MossyUK said:
cheers all, I have blagged a freebie drive off my bro. Its not huge at only 80gb, but for now it should be enough to get my head around TM's storage requirements.
Click to expand...

How big is your hard drive? The TM hard drive must be at least equal to the hard drive in your machine to be effective.
 
Got a Time Capsule, but never really use it

I really should but it's just used as a wireless router at the moment
 
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