Macbook + time machine

J273 · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:06

Hey guys...Should be getting my macbook soon.

Now leopards got time machine and you need an external hard drive for this to work.

Whats the case with a macbook....obviously i wouldnt have the external hard drive connected at all times only when im at home say.

how will the backps work :confused:

As anyone else time machine setup on there macbooks and does time machine work ok...with an exteranl hard drive not connected at all times.

Sorry may be a dumb question....

Thanks

WotDa · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:07

Does a backup when you connect it iirc.

theheyes · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:09

As far as I know it backs up as soon as you connect the external drive, so you'd have to do it regularly.

Can anyone clarify if Time Machine keeps a local incremental backup? Or is Time Machine disabled altogether when an external drive is not attached.

WotDa · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:14

Mr Jones · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:37

theheyes said:
As far as I know it backs up as soon as you connect the external drive, so you'd have to do it regularly.

Can anyone clarify if Time Machine keeps a local incremental backup? Or is Time Machine disabled altogether when an external drive is not attached.

AFAI can tell, it only does the backup when plugged in - when no backup drive, it doesn't do an internal incremental backup - I've been using it since Leopard is out and I've only got 3 "days" of backup on Time Machine - all 3 are when I plug in and successfully backed-up.

theheyes · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:54

Thanks Doctor.

It would be good if it cached changes locally then backed it up when you reconnected the drive but alas, you cant have everything.

WotDa · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:55

theheyes said:
Thanks Doctor.

It would be good if it cached changes locally then backed it up when you reconnected the drive but alas, you cant have everything.

Did you miss my screenshot, or did what you intended to type come out wrong?

Mr Jones · 7 Nov 2007 at 08:01

WotDa said:
Did you miss my screenshot, or did what you intended to type come out wrong?

Obviously the picture didn't tell a thousand words...

Beepcake · 7 Nov 2007 at 08:12

There's certainly a lot of mis-information about Time Machine and how it works.. unfortunately it's not as amazing as some people seem to make out.. it's just a basic backup tool with a fancy pants interface

Useful certainly, but not the real time backup/restore solution I'd hoped for when it was announced.

Deleted member 651465 · 7 Nov 2007 at 18:15

It takes 1 mega copy of your system initially, from then on it just "snapshots" the changed files every hour (regardless of having an external drive attached or not).

When you connect the drive it just copies the changes across.

Mr Jones · 7 Nov 2007 at 19:57

EVH said:
It takes 1 mega copy of your system initially, from then on it just "snapshots" the changed files every hour (regardless of having an external drive attached or not).

When you connect the drive it just copies the changes across.

Not how it works on mine - I did a test of my own. I did the full backup first time - disconnect the drive after. 2 days later, reconnect, only 1 backup point is made in that hour of that day. 2 days later, I reconnect my drive and leave it for 6 hours and 5 backup points were made in that 6 hours.

So in my observed test, I'd say it only backs-up when connected (and every hour there after if the drive is still connected)

WotDa · 7 Nov 2007 at 20:02

Dr Jones said:
Not how it works on mine - I did a test of my own. I did the full backup first time - disconnect the drive after. 2 days later, reconnect, only 1 backup point is made in that hour of that day. 2 days later, I reconnect my drive and leave it for 6 hours and 5 backup points were made in that 6 hours.

So in my observed test, I'd say it only backs-up when connected (and every hour there after if the drive is still connected)

Which is what EVH said happens...?

SoapSurgeon · 7 Nov 2007 at 20:07

WotDa said:
Which is what EVH said happens...?

nah, he said it takes snapshots whether its attached or not, then just copies them across

WotDa · 7 Nov 2007 at 20:09

SoapSurgeon said:
nah, he said it takes snapshots whether its attached or not, then just copies them across

Because it does?

It does the snapshot of files changed, and then when you connect it to the drive it backups up the changes that the snapshot recorded.

Mr Jones · 7 Nov 2007 at 21:15

What EVH claimed is that it takes a snapshot hourly and thus when you connect your external device, Time Machine will log it down hourly - which is not the case as I've said in my previous post... it only does it *when* it is connected (and does it hourly).

So it isn't as amazing as what people initially thought - but I'm not complaining, it does what it should, making backup easy and rather fun

WotDa · 7 Nov 2007 at 21:20

Oh right, ok. Silly confusing thingy.

Deleted member 651465 · 8 Nov 2007 at 18:27

I didn't say it would create multiple snapshot points.

I said it would track all the changes, but I meant only 1 visible "point" would be created.. a amalgamation of changes, so to speak

In other words, it knows files a, g, x, and f were modified over 5 hours, but it says "ok, these file changes happened since I last backed up; group them next time I'm connected"

I should have been more explanatory in my post, sorry.

Mr Jones · 8 Nov 2007 at 23:06

Fair enough - because from your previous post, it sounded like e.g.

A full backup is done. Desktop at 00:00hr has no files. Desktop at 01:00hr has a 2MB .jpeg. At 02:05hr, user delete .jpeg file and empties trash. At 03:00hr, user connects Backup drive and Time Machine creates a visible point.

Now will the desktop in that visible point holds the change that happened before the back up drive was plugged in? From what happened, no. That 2MB .jpeg in Time Machine never existed.

So I wouldn't say an amalgamation of changes were logged, but when plugged in, it will keep track of all changes hour by hour.

Beepcake · 9 Nov 2007 at 06:27

Dr Jones: I'm glad someone else understands how it works

It's no different really than a standard differential backup using the archive bit, but a lot of people seem to think it's more like a real time shadow copy of the files. I think the confusion is down to Apple pretty much describing it as the latter initially, and I do think it will turn into that eventually, but version 1 is very basic.

J273 · 11 Nov 2007 at 21:43

Say if i was to buy a 500gb extrenal hardrive for time machine...Is that all the hard drive can be used for?

or could i install say my music on there?

Does timemachine need the whole of the disk space?

Thanks

Macbook + time machine

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