Apple Time Machine

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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Using Time Machine

I know the idea behind it, its supposed to back up your data periodically right? But before I start using it, I want to set it up right from the start so I don’t need to change it a month down the line. Just wondering what is the best way to do this.

I have a iMac with 640G HD inside, do I use it to store data too? With windows, I keep my OS HD small, like 120G and put only the OS and programs on it and store my data physically on separate HDs. But with the build in HD so large, it seems a lot of space to waste.

I have 1 spare 500G external HD, now do I:-

1 – Put the data inside the Mac and use the 500G as backup?
2 – Put the data in the 500G and get another External HD to back that up?
3 – Scrap all that and get a drobo?

I am really trying to limit the number of power cables, my PC had this problem of way too many wires and I like the fact that now my Mac has 1 power cable and that’s it and want to use as number amount of plugs as possible.
 
If you want to limit the cables, transfer all your data to your mac and use the 500G as backup.

I have a 500GB drive in my MBP, and use a 400GB 2.5" USB powered drive for Time Machine backups.
 
Time machine is a mechanism to cover for an "oops" situation.

TM will quietly *delete* old backups that fall off the end to make room for the new back up. It's NOT there simply store data as an archive.

Think of it this way - TM basically allows you to recover your machine in the event it goes bang or gets stolen to it's current state. It may be a little while before you think "actually I need that file.." and it cover that too.

What I did was to split my 1TB FW800 drive into two areas - one volume for static data that is just manually copied across and the other volume is a time machine back up. I minimised the TM incremental sizes by excluding the static area on my mac's HD.

I would recommend that you still maintain a static third backup done every half year for the large static data etc. Just incase you loose the TM backup drive..
 
ok, going to use Time machine to back up my main HD, and get a drobo in a few months and then store my data on that, for now, time machine will do fine :)
 
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