Backup your Mac.

[oldscribe]

Hi Diana,

When I try to do another more recent backup, it says there is not enough room....so do I erase the hard drive and start over,

If this is an external drive then no, when you next use TM it will remove the oldest back up to make room for the new one.

 

[AndrewW]

Not that I am the expert, BUT...

I run Super Duper on to two partitions alternately on one external 2TB HDD and Time Machine (yes, I still battle on with it!) on the networked WDMyCloud 4TB external HDD. (The latter is my personal "cloud" accessible from anywhere in the world with my permission). Super Duper seems very well behaved.

Time machine then faulted 65days ago but waited 59 days before telling me my most recent backup was 59 days old. I tried "Back up now" and it told me it had succeeded then went back to telling me the most recent backup was 59 days old. Trying again, it told me that my "sparse bundle" was being accessed by another application. Time machine would not work.

I had to re-set my connection with the networked drive because the password I had recorded for admin access would not work (MY fault I guess...). Time Machine is working again BUT ONLY FROM THAT MOMENT OF RESET. So I can't access any of the old file versions prior to re-set (not too bothered about that...).

BUT, I guess that if you made a copy of today's "Sparse bundle" file on a separate external HDD, label it and pop it away on a shelf, Time Machine would continue overwriting old stuff on the connected HDD but would be able to access the info on the archived drive if needed...

 

[honestone]

I also have never used Time Machine, and for my purposes, Super Duper is perfect. I use it to back up each of my machines to two external hard drives once a week (usually on Saturdays). Also, prior to going on a trip, I use Super Duper to back up my Mac Book Air to a portable, external hard drive that I take with us (also has movies and TV series on it).

 

[Kaveman]

TimeMachine is very sensitive to any Network problems, as it should be. And while it is very much a set and forget thing, it's important to keep an eye on it to ensure it's working. Esp. with mobile laptops. I don't think backing up is an either/or situation, I use both. My very important drives are mirrored with CCC every Wednesday night AND our working computers are TM'ed all the time.
Being able to go into a document, roll back the clock and see past edits has saved me on more than on occasion.
I love TM's ease of use and integration.

Also with CCC or other cloneing types of backups it's easy for lost or overwritten files to propagate into the backup, so in some cases they only save you for a week.

As to a system that gives a full archive that will last the test of years, hmm

 

[honestone]

Also with CCC or other cloneing types of backups it's easy for lost or overwritten files to propagate into the backup, so in some cases they only save you for a week.

Understand. As I said, for my purposes, the once a week cloning/backup via Super Duper suits me just fine.

 

[tompatrick]

For me Time Machine works perfectly. It never let me down. I too clone my Startup drive with Stellar Drive Clone and also schedule weekly backups. In all everything is backed up .

 

[honestone]

I have been using a "free" version of SuperDuper! for quite some time to backup both my Mac Mini and Mac Book Air to two external drives, and it works great! In fact, about 2 months ago, it "saved" my bacon, so to speak, on my Mac Mini, as I was able to do a full restore from the most recent SuperDuper! backup taken two days earlier.

The reason I say "free" version is that one can download SuperDuper! and use it for free, but it does lack two things:

1. Scheduled backups.

2. Does not backup the Recovery HD partition.

The paid version does have those features. The lack of Scheduled backups does not bother me, and there is a third party, free product called Recovery Partition Creator that does exactly what it says: create the Recovery partition/software. It's now at version 3.8, but not yet compatible with Yosemite. An update is expected real soon.

I perform cleaning/maintenance/backup processing once a week (usually on Saturdays) for both my Macs. The products I use are Onyx (now at version 2.8.8), TechTool Pro (now at version 7.0.5, and Yosemite compatible), and SuperDuper! (now at version 2.7.3). Such products keep my Macs in good to excellent shape, and of course, I have the bootable backups.

 

[JimA]

I've always backed up my computer with Time Machine but have never had to retrieve anything. How do you do it?

I upgraded to Mavericks a few months ago and discovered after much confusion that the "Mail downloads" folder completely disappeared. I can't download files that came attached to e-mail messages to anywhere but the regular "download" folder; whereas when I had Snow Leopard I could save them to anywhere I wanted. I know these two questions are related.

If I go back through the Time Machine to the point where I still had Snow Leopard, I can find the whole "mail downloads" directory. Is there a way to get it back through Time Machine without losing everything I've done on my computer since then? I don't know how to retrieve things from Time Machine, having never had to do it.

Jim A.

 

[honestone]

I don't use Time Machine (much prefer SuperDuper!), but within this link, it explains how to retrieve files/folders from a Time Machine backup:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

 

[sophi]

You can take back up before update OS X in Mac using this.

 

[Alixtrol]

Hi,
Time Machine not only keeps a copy of everything on your backup disk, it also saves “local snapshots” of files that have changed on your internal disk,When I use Time Machine on a portable computer, so that I can recover previous versions.Therefor, if you accidentally delete or change a file, you can use Time Machine to recover it.

 

[Alixtrol]

Hi,
Time Machine not only keeps a copy of everything on your backup disk, it also saves “local snapshots” of files that have changed on your internal disk,When I use Time Machine on a portable computer, so that I can recover previous versions.Therefor, if you accidentally delete or change a file, you can use Time Machine to recover it.Casesam Samsung Galaxy S6 leather case

Any news from here?

 

[cbinfl]

I have a WD "My Passport" hooked to Time Machine, but can't seem to go back to previous backups. Attached are three screen shots to show what I see. What am I doing wrong ? The last SS with the 5 folders leads me nowhere ? I am trying to go back to find a photo saved with layers in the past and then deleted ? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Where was the photo originally?

You may want to navigate to the folder it was in, then enter Time Machine itself, and scroll back in time to that date. It should then show you the file, which you can then restore. Navigating the Time Machine structure manually isn't advised, unless you are very experienced.

C

 

[cbinfl]

Thanks for the reply. I never realizedTime Machine was a program to be searched. I thought it was just a way to backup and the they would be accessed in the backup folder on my "Passport". I have the idea now, and the original photo !! I went back to the date created of the flattened photo and there it was. Many thanks. Senior moments all day long 1

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries...glad it's sorted.

C

 

[Bill Bargagliotti]

Backup Backup Backup


So why should you back up.

There are many reasons why backups are extremely important and should not be considered a time consuming chore. You are a Mac owner and Apple have made this procedure extremely very easy for us to do. Take a minute to think about all your important life memories,images, letters,emails,films etc, as well as general and work files, plus all your loaded applications that you have on your Mac. How would you feel If you booted up one day and some had disappeared?

Therefore by investing in an external drive and a very small amount of your time you can create a backup system that will save you possibly many hours of frustrating issue solving thus giving you a little peace of mind knowing that your system is secure.

So now I will run through three types of backup procedures, one of which will be applicable to you IE ease of use.

1) Cloud backup

A very often overlooked backup setup is the cloud backup. This has become increasingly popular for one main reason.
External drives are very reliable but what would happen if it fails, or it were stolen.
Many of us now take our Macs with us, to get through the daily work load. So worse still what if both your Mac and external drive were stolen.

Well this is where the cloud backup system comes in to its own, as it will allow you to backup the contents of your Mac to a cloud-based storage solution. Your backups are encrypted, and then sent to the cloud, then once there stored encrypted on their servers. It is considered an extremely secure service.
There are many companies offering this service one such is here.
http://onlinemacbackups.com


2) Time Machine

The first OS X to include the Time Machine utility / module was Leopard 10.5, Apples Time Machine is what is called an incremental backup, because at specified times your OS X will backup any file changes to your Time Machine drive if you have it permanently connected. You can also encrypt the TM backup disk, there's actually a preference for it when you select your drive in the TM setup preferences (as long as the drive was partitioned using a GUID Partition Table). Very handy.

In my opinion Time Machine is by far the easiest and cheapest backup option, and remember if this drive becomes full it will automatically start to delete the oldest backups and replace with the new ones.
This really should be one of the first things you do when you get a Mac.

Here you can find out more information on Time Machine, and how it works.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427

And here you have downloads, manuals and video tutorials.

http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/


I heartily concur with all of the above!

Watch out for Online Backup on line programs ! !

iDisk for the Mac is well advertised, ever "Rush in the promo box and get it or $5.00 a month"
Ok sounds good for $5 I get 1T, and my ISP is 60 MBS, sounds good so far.
EXTRA CHARGE IF YOU GO OVER 1T
So, I tried it, 250gb from startup drive,50gb from second drive and another 300gb from the Time Machine Drive.
Two evenings when the machine was not being used, it backed itself up
At the end of the process I explored the backup, and it was all there
Two days later I get a message something like YOU HAVE EXCEEDED YOUR 1T and these will be extra charges
It was obvious that I should have just backed up the Time Machine!
I was 400gb over and the charge would be $147.00, ouch
So, I started deleting, in mass one of the three drives files on the backup.
Well at best I could only delete about 100 files at a time , and after 2000 files gone I checked the size of the backup
It was still 1.4T , IU was deleting the files correctly/

So I called tech support, the lady said I have heard about this on the Mac software, And she Attached her self to my iDisk and did some admins trative power user user stuff. I stayed on the line and she came back about every 10 minutes and said she was still working on it
At 40 minutes I looked at my capacity and I still had 1.4T
I politely replied, I am OUT OF HERE, I will Do the starter option and quit iDrive completely.
I called tech support again and said I could not find CANCEL MY SERVICE ANYWHERE!
Well this time a man told me how to erase everything! The process was there but not obvious.
I was not refunded the year in advance payment, but I did cancel auto pay for next year.

I am a very advanced user and should not have had all those problems.

What I do for backup now.......
Time machine
I have a 1T system and application drive, a 1.5T data drive and a 3T Time Machine drive ( not the apple TimeMachine drive but it is a regular HD running Apple Time Machine Software and that is FREE.
One las thing...... I also have a 4T drive that I attach about every two months, make a copy of the Time Machine and remove it to a safe place in my Mother in law's garage

I obviously do not recommend iDrive!.[/QUOTE]

 

[linneacd]

It's ok to back up my Mac on a USB stick? would it be safe to do that?

 

[tompatrick]

It's ok to back up my Mac on a USB stick? would it be safe to do that?

I cannot think of any reason to use USB flash drives for backups. First off, read the reviews of the most popular 128 GB USB flash drive on Newegg and ask yourself if you want to use that for backups: Read More My own backup hard drive is encrypted and cloned to a 2 TB external hard drive using Stellar Clone utility. Of course I have Time Machine backup too. These days one cannot rely on a single source of data backup.

 

[linneacd]

I cannot think of any reason to use USB flash drives for backups. First off, read the reviews of the most popular 128 GB USB flash drive on Newegg and ask yourself if you want to use that for backups: Read More My own backup hard drive is encrypted and cloned to a 2 TB external hard drive using Stellar Clone utility. Of course I have Time Machine backup too. These days one cannot rely on a single source of data backup.

thanks for the explanation. So an SSD is a better option for backup?