About time machine?
How do you know when time machine is finished with a back up?
PowerBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
When you want to check that Time Machine has finished a backup, open System Preferences > Time Machine, or select the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, and look at the date of the last backup. Also, if you go to System Preferences > Time Machine, you will see if the last backup was made successfully or if the backup process failed. Note that Time Machine makes hourly, incremental backups