Hi All,
I have a mac pro where i have an SSD and normal HD. I use time machine to backup both drives to an external drive. There is a decent amount of duplicate files across the drives.
What i am wondering if the same file on my SSD and HD will time machine actually store the file twice or will it see its the same file and back it up once ?
Thanks.
Yes if you have the same file on different partitions or drive, TimeMachine will make a duplicate backup.
However the TimeMachine "states" don't duplicate files from a previous state, instead a placeholder is there that links back to a unaltered copy in a earlier state.
This is why TimeMachine restores take a incredibly long time.
I highly advise against saving two or more drives to one TimeMachine volume, your not getting enough hardware protection with that method.
Read here about diversifying your backups, TimeMachine drives are not bootable, which if your boot drive fails takes your computer with it.
Employ clones, they are bootable and can run the computer just like before.
Yes it will. It makes a backup of the files on each drive, whther they are the same or different. In fact if you had duplicate files on just one partition it would make backups of all of them. That is what it is supposed to do.
Hi All,
Thanks for the information.
Ds_store i actually stumbled across your guide while trying to find the answer to this in google. Why would you advice against using time machine to backup two drives to one ? What difference does backuping up two drives to one make, other than if your backup fails its failed for both drives. ?
Thanks
alexhello wrote:
Why would you advice against using time machine to backup two drives to one ?
Because one also needs hardware backup in addition to software backups.
What difference does backuping up two drives to one make, other than if your backup fails its failed for both drives?
The object is to have multiple, seperate hardware backups in seperate locations to prevent any disaster.
Say someone broke in and took your MacPro and TM was on a internal drive (or a external drive) and they took everything?
What if you get malware and it's hopped to everythng phsically connected?
What if you got a fire or lightning strike?
What if you had a problem with your MP and wanted to restore from TM, only to drop the TM drive tripping over the cat or dog?
TimeMachine is nice and easy, but it's nearly always connected, so it's vulnerable and it's been known not to restore accuratly or reliably.
What if you don't get a Mac next time when the one you have breaks? But have to get a PC and now need access to the TimeMachine drive? Good luck!
Don't place all your software eggs in one hardware basket and diversify your backup stragedy.
Time Machine copies the files by partitions, so you have the backup of one disk and the other
Does time machine deduplicate files ?
