Filed under: Leopard
24 hours of Leopard: Time Machine
Feature: Time Machine
How it works: Plug an external hard drive into your Mac and Leopard will automatically detect it and ask if you want to enable the Time Machine back up option. Select yes, and you're done. Time Machine will automatically back up your entire hard drive but if you want to skip certain files or folders, simply tell it what to do in the preference pane.
Time Machine is also handy for that dreaded "Why did I hit delete?" moment. If you accidentally trash that presentation you've been working on the night before you need it, just flip back through the files on the back up drive until you find what you need. Apple assumes that this will happen to everyone at some point, so they'll thoughtfully provided access to Time Machine right in Finder.
Got more than one Mac? No problem. Multiple machines can be backed up onto one drive via your wireless network.
Who will use it: Anyone who hates losing files, folders, documents, or media unexpectedly. So, pretty much everyone.
More Q&A on Time Machine at our earlier post here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Absent One said 7:11PM on 10-25-2007
Any word on the Airport Base Station HDD support?
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Emil Hedaya said 7:11PM on 10-25-2007
Yes, but tell us something we DON'T know -- does it work with Airport Disk / Airport Extreme?
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john russell said 7:16PM on 10-25-2007
Can Time Machine create a bootable backup? If I lose a single file, I bet Time Machine would be great—and with a slick interface, to boot—but what if my Hard Drive snuffs it? Can I just boot into the Time Machine backup and get right back into the game?
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Lisa Hoover said 7:18PM on 10-25-2007
Emil - yes, I know it works with Extreme - at least according to the Apple CSR I spoke with earlier to day to get that very information. GMTA :-)
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Lisa Hoover said 7:26PM on 10-25-2007
Ben, good question. It really depends on how far back you'll need to go. If you're a home user backing up photos and files, you won't need as big a drive as if you're running a graphics-intensive small business. Time Machine will always delete the oldest back up if you start to run short of space on the drive, but it will let you know first. You'll need to decide how much info you need to keep, and in how many iterations.
For example, I'm not worried about backing up my home drives too much so maybe a week's worth of data is good there. For work, on the other hand, I'll need a daily backup with about a week's worth of space so I can backtrack if Something Bad happens.
As a frame of reference for what's available, Apple is offering an iOmega 500 GB hard drive on promo right now for less than $200 (Not endorsing the product, just sayin'). For casual use, that should be plenty.
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Absent One said 7:26PM on 10-25-2007
@3 Ben
General rule would be 2x the HDD that you are backing up.
70gig drive - I would go no less than a 160gig.
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Macroy said 7:28PM on 10-25-2007
I've got a 500gb USB drive that I keep at home for media storage. Can I use this with Time Machine? How much free space should I keep available?
I use my MBP at college, as well. Is that going to screw with my Time Machine settings? Or will I just lose versions of things that I change while disconnected from the drive?
So many questions. :(
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HazKid said 7:32PM on 10-25-2007
As someone who is running 9A581 now (the GM-Release build) I can tell you that backing up to a network drive is no longer supported, airport, nas, anything. Nothing works, and it's a bummer.
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Anthony said 7:33PM on 10-25-2007
@ Macroy - WHen you disconnect your drive, TM will remember what files have changed while away from the drive. When you plug back in, all those files will be backed up.
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Rubbinz said 7:40PM on 10-25-2007
HazKid is correct, Ars has a writeup about it. I also tried to do a NAS drive with Time Machine with my retail copy I got early and no go.
It should be noted, Time Machines default setting is to backup your entire system. You can change this in the options and select folders you wish to exclude if you wish.
For me, I'm too set in my normal backup routine were I keep my own weekly cloned backups and intermittent backups and DVD hard copy's. So I wont be using Time Machine. But it is a great program to include for those that don't do backups. And there's a lot of those people out there.
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ernest said 7:57PM on 10-25-2007
@1
I'm also very curious about this. I keep reading conflicting reports that I can't plug a drive into my APBE and use that for time machine.
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albanyco said 8:03PM on 10-25-2007
How does it handle multiple users and/or fast user switching?
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123crazygonuts said 8:09PM on 10-25-2007
This is kind of a Time Machine question.... What's going to happen with Backup? I mean, I've got tons of information in there, and I may want to get to it. In fact, I would dearly love to do a full clean install of leopard and then pull in only the stuff I want, like my iPhoto library, iTunes library, and files. I want to be able to access those backup files because other stuff won't be so obvious, like some preference file that I didn't realize I needed.
Am I going to be able to do this or am I going to have to spend a ton of time redoing my existing hard drive into a drive image rather than the full hard drive backup I already have via Backup?
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Rob said 8:10PM on 10-25-2007
Do you need to format the drive first?
Or does TimeMachine automatically format virgin drives?
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Sean said 8:52PM on 10-25-2007
Everything I have seen mentions external drives, but does Time Machine work with an extra internal drive? I have a 500GB drive that I purchased for my NAS but have yet to put it in. If I just add that to my MacPro can I use it for Time Machine?
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Ralph said 8:56PM on 10-25-2007
For the average home user, who never backs up, this is fantastic. I have a few clients who "keep meaning to" set up a backup routine but never do. Now it's part of the system (if I can convince them to upgrade).
Me, I'll stick with SuperDuper and a rotating trio of external HDs (two on site, one always off site) and the occasional client file DVD burns. (On that note, c'mon Blu-ray drives & 50GB capacities.) From everything I've read, Time Machine isn't for me.
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Dan Parmelee said 9:20PM on 10-25-2007
With the prices of hard drives falling these days, I'd say just get a freaking huge one and be done with it. 500GB is under $200, and even on a 160GB internal drive you can maintain a LOT of backups.
I just snagged a LaCie Quadra 500GB for $189 at NewEgg.
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David Fischer said 10:09PM on 10-25-2007
"Got more than one Mac? No problem. Multiple machines can be backed up onto one drive via your wireless network."
"Emil - yes, I know it works with Extreme - at least according to the Apple CSR I spoke with earlier to day to get that very information. GMTA :-)"
"As someone who is running 9A581 now (the GM-Release build) I can tell you that backing up to a network drive is no longer supported, airport, nas, anything. Nothing works, and it's a bummer."
So what's the deal with Time Machine and network- and AEBS-connected hard drives? Even with Leopard apparently in the wild, there's no straight answer.
Lisa -- did you test Leopard & Time Machine, or is this just a copy/paste of Apple's website? Can you test TM with an AEBS? Anyone else at TUAW that can try this? Thanks!!!
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Rick Stratton said 10:33PM on 10-25-2007
I sure hope it works with the AEBS disks. As a home with two MacBooks, both sitting on the couch, it seems ridiculous to think that I have to wire up an external hard drive to do backups. Especially when you consider the amount of bandwdith available via the AEBS 802.11n and the fact that, as a typical user, the amount of data backed up each hour should be quite small. I agree that the initial full backup will take a while and consume a lot of the wireless bandwidth, but that's something I'm willing to sacrifice in order to have a full time, wireless backup setup. Without wireless backup support via TimeMachine, I'll definitely hold off on buying Leopard - not much else compelling enough to justify running out and buying it on the 26th.
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Simon Arch said 10:36PM on 10-25-2007
I've tried it. It's neat, I guess, but for now I'll stick with making a Super Duper clone every week the way I have been for the last several years. Does anyone know how to make Time Machine stop nagging me every time I mount a new drive?
Time Machine is like the Dashboard and Exposé. It's interesting in theory, but it doesn't really fit the way I work.
And have fun using those Time Machine backups on anything other than Leopard. I don't know how it keeps all that crap straight under Leopard, but when you mount the same volume under Tiger, it's a real mess. Lots of folders and aliases of folders. It's a mess and a half.
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