HT201250: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Learn about Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Q: Does Time Machine only back up new information in order to conserve space?
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Dec 27, 2013 2:00 PMby mende1,What Time Machine does is to make an initial backup, and then, all backups are incremental, so only new and modified files are backed up.
On the other hand, note that when your Time Machine drive gets full, it will delete the oldest backup automatically until you have enough space for a new backup. To prevent this, get a bigger external drive
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Dec 27, 2013 2:04 PMby Kappy,It backs up changes to existing documents but it also keeps all older versions, so it does not conserve space, rather it uses up space over time until the backup drive is full. It is then that Time Machine starts pruning older and deleted documents to obtain space for new backups until that no longer works, then you get a Disk Full alert.
If this is not what you want to happen then you need to use a different backup utility that offers different backup strategies. But as long as you wish to keep your oldest backups forever, then there is no strategy that prevents the backup disks from being filled up over time.
Suggested Backup Software
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
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Dec 28, 2013 8:54 AMby FatMac>MacPro,If all you want to have is a backup containing your oldest files, just get an external drive large enough to hold the current contents of your boot drive and clone the boot drive to it, then put it away for posterity.
If you want more current permanent file backups for files added since your oldest files were created, get a large external (3 TB drives are getting remarkably cheap) and partition it with partitions slightly larger than the contents of your internal drive. Give each partition a consecutive name (Clone A, Clone B, etc.) and starting at the top, clone the internal to consecutive partitions at regular or logical periods. Stick a Post-It note with a list of partition names on it and when a clone is made, post the date. When you finally fill up the external, get another external and repeat, just changing the partition names slightly. Since it should be a long time between clonings, eject the drive and power it off when you're not actually using it.
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Dec 29, 2013 11:10 AMby tambolyn,Thank you for this valuable informatiom. I am afraid that I am out of my element when it comes to this type of thing. I would like to do as you suggest--all that you say here, but I do not even know how to make a clone or a post it note, partion, and so forth. If I am able to do this, would I use TIme Machine, to access the clones on the new external hard drives when needed? Also the external hard drive that I have these Tima Machine back ups on, as well my laptop itself, do not have the space to make a clone (if I am understanding the term, clone, correctly). Sorry to be so ignorant. I hope to learn as I go through these issues with the knowledge shared in these communtiies. Thank you.
***I tried to insert a couple of images, but they don't show up. The information I wanted to convey is from the Time Machine preferences. It says the available space I have is:
AVAILABLE: 394.82GB of 2 TB
ESTIMATED SIZE OF FULL BACK UP IS 746.73
I don't want a full back up if that means it will back up even things I already have backed-up. I can't find an option for anything else.
Message was edited by: tambolyn
Message was edited by: tambolyn
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Dec 29, 2013 11:04 AMby mende1,tambolyn wrote:
I would like to do as you suggest--all that you say here, but I do not even know how to make a clone or a post it note, partion, and so forth.
In that case, just use Time Machine. It is easy to use.
tambolyn wrote:
If I am able to do this, would I use TIme Machine, to access the clones on the new external hard drives when needed?
Time Machine is used to make backups of your OS X partition with all your files onto an external drive. It has nothing to do with clones. As you are confused, forget about clones and use Time Machine only. Follow these steps to set up Time Machine > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
