Time Machine is Apple's built-in backup software. Time Machine was first introduced on OS 10.5 Leopard.
5
votes
2answers
595 views
Can I access TimeMachine data from a machine other than the one that was being backed up?
I have an iMac with a dead internal drive. And I have it's TimeMachine drive. I'd like to know that the TimeMachine-based data is safe and sound so I'd like to restore it to my MBPro. But not over top ...
5
votes
3answers
4k views
Disable Time Machine hourly backups
Can the hourly backups by Time Machine be stopped? I'm on Lion and if it matters, each hour it tries to backup about 30GB (I don't know where this 30GB comes from, as today I've only modified a few ...
5
votes
3answers
582 views
Can I use a time machine volume to store additional data?
I have a large external hard drive that I am using as a time machine backup volume. Since I don't need all the storage space for backups, I'm considering storing additional data on the drive. Is there ...
5
votes
4answers
985 views
How / is it possible to compare files on your hard drive with those in your time machine backup?
I have snow leopard and have been using time machine to regularly backup files.
How / is it possible to compare files on your hard drive with those in your time machine backup?
I know you can ...
5
votes
3answers
3k views
How would enabling FileVault alter my system and TM performance?
What are the pros and cons, performance-wise, of enabling and using FileVault? Is there any at all, or does it slow a computer down significantly or on the contrary speed it up? Also, what effect will ...
5
votes
2answers
3k views
Warn if a Time Machine backup is still in progress before shutting down or sleeping a Mac
Before I shut down or sleep my Mac, I want to be warned if a Time Machine backup is still in progress.
Is there such a thing? Or at least something that makes it very obvious that a backup is in ...
5
votes
2answers
206 views
Restoring one system file from Time Machine backup
I have this file that I want to restore, that is a system file, normally stored on /tmp.
If I open Finder, and select GO > GO TO FOLDER
I type /tmp on the window and it opens /private/tmp (???? why ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I get Time Machine to back up the contents of a File Vault while logged in?
Disclaimer: this question and answer are targeted to the Snow Leopard implementation of FileVault where the user home folder is only encrypted in a bundle. Lion's implementation of FileVault doesn't ...
5
votes
3answers
426 views
Is AFP (specifically Time Machine) encrypted on the wire?
I've been hunting for the answer to this, but I have not found it. When I back up my laptop using Time Machine to a remote Time Machine server (Time Capsule, or Mac Mini with an external drive), is ...
5
votes
2answers
4k views
Making Time Machine Backups while Mac is in Sleep Mode
I'd like my Mac to be able to save a Time Machine backup even when I have it in sleep mode. Is there a way I can have my Mac wake up at a certain time automatically in order for Time Machine to run?
5
votes
3answers
215 views
Time Machine doesn't backup folders with same name as user
Let's say my OS X user's folder is called Attila and I have a folder with the same name in a folder, e.g. ~/Xcode/Attila/. Now, if I do a Time Machine backup, the ~/Xcode/Attila/ folder won't be ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How to delete a folder, even in every backups of Time Machine?
I just noticed that a folder containing personal documents was still on my main disk. I copied to my personal disk (password protected), but I want to also delete the copies which are stored in the ...
5
votes
1answer
429 views
10.7 FileVault & TimeMachine
I would like to know if turning on FileVault affects TimeMachine Backups; if yes how?
(E.G. Do the backups become encrypted? etc.)
5
votes
2answers
889 views
Use a network Time Machine drive locally
I typically backup over a network to a networked hard drive on another machine. For some unknown reason, backups tend to get incredibly slow over the network (the first few backups work fine and ...
5
votes
1answer
975 views
Can I use Time Machine to restore to a smaller disk
I have used Time Machine to restore my MBP to a larger HDD with great success, but am about to purchase a smaller SSD for it.
With the obvious caveat of not having more data than the SSD can hold, is ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
MTMFS consuming an entire CPU core and fans running full bore with Lion
You may be aware that Lion introduced MTMFS, the Mobile Time Machine File System.
I've had a couple of instances now where MTMFS has been chewing up an entire core of my dual-core (mid 2009) MacBook ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I make Spotlight stop indexing my Backup drive?
I have a 2TB external drive I use for Time Machine. At random intervals, it will decide to spin up and my entire UI freezes until it's finished. This is incredibly annoying.
It appears that this is ...
5
votes
2answers
3k views
Is there a faster way to copy time machine files from one disk to another?
I'm trying to move my time machine backup files all under Backups.backupdb to another drive. I initiated a file copy overnight (b/c I saw that it took OSX forever to prepare for the copy...it ...
4
votes
4answers
1k views
External Disk Capacity for Time Machine
I have a 500 GB hard drive in my iMac, and I am planning to buy a new external hard drive to use for Time Machine. I don't know if Time Machine synchronizes, or something else.
What size external ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
How do I encypt Time Machine with Mac OS X Lion?
I am thinking about upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, because it offers full disk encryption.
However, if I use Time Machine with on an external hard drive, will the Time Machine backups be encrypted ...
4
votes
2answers
5k views
Fastest way to delete all Timemachine Backups for a machine
What is the recommended way to get rid of a whole TimeMachine archive (aka Backups.backupdb)?
Using Disk Utility to erase the whole disk is not an option.
I moved everything to the Trash, but ...
4
votes
4answers
234 views
Time Machine External Drive
What factors are important when selecting an external hard drive for time machine backups?
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Should I use time machine to migrate from one mac to another?
I have had my blackbook for a little over 4 years now and think it's time to upgrade to a new macbook pro. I'm currently running leopard on the blackbook with time machine. I'm wondering if time ...
4
votes
4answers
748 views
Can I use Time Machine to back up data to a Windows shared drive?
How can I do "Time Machine" from my Mac OS X 10.6.4 to my Window share drive? I'd also prefer to encrypt my image, so it's "safe" just in case :-)
4
votes
2answers
89 views
Time machine for hd upgrade
Does time machine work well for hd upgrades? Looking to go to ssd but don't want to lose things like custom plist settings, init.d items, .profile items and all my brew installed items. Is times ...
4
votes
2answers
450 views
Time Capsule and multiple Macs
Does the Time Capule support Time Machine backups from multiple macs out of the box?
4
votes
2answers
547 views
Time machine wants to backup too much
Time Machine stopped this morning, stating it has too little disk space left. It wants to back up 200 gigs, but my local hard drive has 240 gig used and 150 gig are excluded in the Time Machine ...
4
votes
2answers
5k views
How do you access the user library on a time machine backup
With Lion 10.7, how does one access the user library on a time machine backup through the Finder?
4
votes
1answer
70 views
How can I find exactly what files are included in my last Time Machine backup?
I find that my Time Machine backup never passes an hour without backing up files, even if I haven't used the Mac. I've excluded .Trash and Downloads under my user folder. A typical hourly backup is ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
Will installing Mountain Lion require a complete refresh of my Time Machine backup?
I currently have my Time Machine backup on my network and access it wirelessly. This means a complete backup of half a terabyte of data can take a significant amount of time. So, I'm concerned that ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
What happens with my external drive upon using Time Machine?
So I got a USB drive I want to use with Time Machine. This USB drive has some files of mine.
If Time Machine creates the backup in it, what happens to such files? Are they deleted?
4
votes
3answers
685 views
Using Time Machine with Virtualization (Parallels, VirtualBox, VMWare, etc…)
Since a single small change to a VM file should (I think) cause the entire multi-gigabyte file to be backed up again, are there any ideas I can use to more effectively backup my machine?
Assume that ...
4
votes
2answers
678 views
How do I stop my Mac from attempting Time Machine Backups?
I have a 2005 PowerBook running 10.5.8 that, in its previous life, was my personal, full time machine that I used all the way through graduate school. It has been relegated to very light duty in the ...
4
votes
1answer
3k views
How does the new “local snapshots” feature of Time Machine in Lion work?
Apple's advertising for Lion highlights a new "local snapshots" feature of Time Machine:
OS X Lion lets you take the Time Machine experience with you when you’re away from your Time Capsule or ...
4
votes
4answers
299 views
What would I lose if I needed to reinstall from a Time Machine backup?
Is there a list somewhere of the areas of the hard drive that aren't backed up by Time Machine? And does reinstalling from Time Machine install everything from the backup or just parts of it?
I like ...
4
votes
3answers
865 views
Western Digital external hard drive is constantly ejected
I have a 1TB Western Digital external hard drive that I use for Time Machine backups, and recently my iMac has started to randomly eject the hard drive, preventing backups. It tends to happen while ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Time Machine Backup freezing computer
Time Machine on my computer is trying to backup onto a external hard drive, but the only thing I get is the famous beach ball of death which makes my computer extremely slow.
When I go to cosole.app ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Can I use my Time Capsule with other OSes?
I have two Macs at home which use Time Machine to back up to a shared Time Capsule. Does anybody know of any tools or methods for other operating systems to perhaps make use of that back-up facility? ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
How do you access the content of the iPhoto bundle from Time Machine?
I would like to access the files of the iPhoto library bundle to retrieve just some of the files to help solving this question about corrupted iPhoto db files properly.
In time machine mode there is ...
4
votes
2answers
606 views
Migrated to new Lion, how to share Time-Machine?
I just got a new MacBook Pro since I was due for a new machine and needed Lion for the new Xcode. I also got an Apple TV with the idea of centralizing all the digital media in my house by hosting it ...
4
votes
2answers
146 views
Backing up to an internal drive of another machine
I have a mac laptop that I want to back up to an internal drive on my Mac Pro. The drive I want to back up to is blank and not the OS drive. They are connected via ethernet, but I do not see the drive ...
4
votes
1answer
91 views
How do I copy a TimeMachine backup to an encrypted disk?
I want to replace my current TimeMachine backup disk with a new disk, but I also want to copy the existing contents to the new disk after encrypting the new disk.
How can I best do that? Are there ...
4
votes
1answer
68 views
Does TimeMachine has an higher priority than the sleep delay?
When a long backup will soon occur or is running, will it go on and end even if the enter-sleep-mode settings is foreseen earlier?
4
votes
2answers
760 views
Time Machine says disk is full, but it was fine before!
I have a 4TB external Time Machine disk. There are three internal volumes totaling 3.3TB that have been actively backed up to that external drive for a few weeks.
I was troubleshooting something and ...
4
votes
2answers
176 views
Will Time Machine backup portions of my file system that come from mounted drives?
I have used the mount command to mount non-primary drive storage in to my the file system on my primary hard drive. So the path /remote-mounts/some-directory actually places me on a USB-attached drive ...
4
votes
2answers
377 views
Time Capsule and multiple backup drives
Right now we have a single iMac in the house and I have two external hard drives.
One is connected to the iMac and used for TimeMachine backups. The other is a few miles away (thanks Mom!) to act ...
3
votes
3answers
7k views
How do I use time machine to restore my entire computer, rather than a file?
Is is possible? What is the easiest (most hassle-free) way of accomplishing this?
3
votes
4answers
9k views
Repair Time Machine sparsebundle that will no longer mount
I messed up my Time Machine backup in some way. I'm no longer able to mount the sparsebundle file as I get an error stating that there are no mountable filesystems.
I used the hdiutil command to ...
3
votes
4answers
3k views
how to get Time Machine backup overnight instead of every hour?
My (older) iMac runs 24/7 and it seems like it's constantly doing Time Machine backups which slows down things considerably. My wife is always complaining about beach balls.
Is there a way to ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Time machine backup on another mac in my network
In my network I have:
a Macbook Pro (running Lion)
an iMac (running Lion)
and I want to use the internal drive of the iMac as a Time Machine "target" for my Macbook Pro.
What I did is
create a ...
