Here's an example … I instructed my W D external hard drive to do a manual back up of my hard drive. It contains a mere 288,684 files. It managed to back up 3,133,186 … YES that's 3 million PLUS!!! From where????
This is supposed to be technology that is to sav us time and money … now I am literally chained to this keyboard attempting to determine just what when wrong and why.
Hardly saving any time at all …………………..
I'm not sure what type of "manual backup" you are attempting, but you might just want to use Time Machine since that's what it is there for. Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support
Good evening Jay-Ray (somewhere in North America perhaps ?)
Greetings from Australia.
Firstly, thank you for your prompt response. When I purchased this Mac I was swept along by the Apple marketing which more than hinted that
non- skilled computer folk didn't really have to know what was going on behind the screen, they simply had to learn to push the right buttons to get 'amazing' results! Just like learning to fly a plane really (which I can do) … you don't have to be an airframe mechanic to get the license.
Well, I read the books and began pushing the buttons and now I really wish that I'd had a few tutorials.
Having had the machine almost 6 years I admit I have never used Time Machine and have no concept of how it worked. I did as you suggested so I must assume that something IS happening behind the screen but out front I have no sign that says it is as I would in the cockpit of an aircraft if, say the engine was overheating or fuel was running low.
Shall I assume that Time Machine simply makes another copy of all that is on the HD … back on to the HD ???
Your patience and understanding is appreciated.
Regards … David
You can check the status of the backup by clicking the Time Machine icon on the top right of your menu bar, next to the time. This should show you what it is current doing or the last backup time. What Time Machine does is in the initial backup, it copies all user specific files and settings, omitting those files created by OS X that are automatically updated, changed or otherwise created when setting up your machine or new user. After the initial backup, Time Machine saves "slices" of only the things that have changed since the last backup. So your next backup may only be 10 MB if you didn't do much, etc. Over time, Time Machine takes these slices and combines them into larger slices. If you need to recover a specific file or folder, you can enter time machine and go back in Time to do so. For today, you would notice slices about every hour or so and the further back you go in time the larger gaps you get do to auto compilation. This means that if you went back in time to 2 months ago, you may only see a backup every day, etc. There is a specific schedule and more break down in some of those Apple articles, but thats the general idea of what is happening. Time Machine will continue it's pattern until the drive is full at which point it will automatically delete the oldest slices first. I have 4 Macs backing up to a Time Capsule (3 TB) via Time Machine and I can go back nearly a year on each machine. I hope that helps understand how Time Machine works. Its a great backup for the :just in case" something happens or "just in case" I delete or change a file. This keeps you form copying all those itty bitty system files as well, making this whole huge 3 million file total.
where did you get your count of 288,684 files? The Finder will only tell you "what it wants you to know" as a "...non- skilled computer folk..."
it is not inconceivable that a manual backup (drag & drop COPY of internal drive icon to an external drive icon?) could be misleading you in terms of number of files that are really there... it should give you a progress dialog when it finally figures out what it is really copying
Applications in OS X these days are really "containers" - with sometimes 100s (many more?) 'support' files that are invisible to the user
100 apps X 100 files = 10,000 files NOT 100 apps
The system libraries have a boatload as well
My Goodness Jay-Ray …
Your reply was BETTER than ANY tutorial I could have had for Time Machine. In just a few lines of plain language you have managed to
make it abundantly clear how the whole thing works and how simple it really is.
I am truly grateful.
It makes me wonder if, given the amount of work on the computer which I do IF I really need this Western Digital External Hard Drive ?
Again … my appreciation for your kind assistance.
David
I always recommend backing up just in case even if you only do light work. You never realize what you might be missing until its gone or what you might be storing on that Mac a year from now that you would HATE to lose, like a few precious photos. If its just that one computer, you don't need a huge drive and really any standard hard drive will work, so I always recommend just a middle of the line seagate (since they are usually on the cheaper end but still reasonably reliable) or whatever is comparable in your country. Good luck to you!
Good Morning ...
Thank you even more for your thoughts to assist in the protection of material … especially many of the 14,000 photos taken of places, friends and events during my world travels. I was in the process of editing/deleting a fair few of those prescious pics when I was confronted with a message telling me I could not print any because 'Themes' were not available.
Of course I came to the 'Community' and the responses I received were most complex, one even totalling some 18+ lines of explanation of language/terminology I simply could not comprehend.
Could there possibly be a solution regarding finding these 'Themes' and getting them to work for me that could be explained in a few words of instruction?
Cheers ...
David
Are the Machines taking over !!!
