03-31-2010, 12:54 PM

currently doing a backup of HD in time machine to a wired external HD on my MBP.

this is the first time ive used time machine, so when its finished doing its thing can i just toggle off time machine till the next time? (i plan to back up once a week) but i dont want time machine backing up everytime i connect the external HD to my MBP..

then when i do want to backup, toggle time machine on and connect the drive?

03-31-2010, 02:25 PM

Yes you can only turn Time Machine when you have your external drive hooked up. That is exactly how I use Time Machine. And I back it up whenever I want/need to. You are not forced to leave your HD plugged in and to regular backups. I do not.

If you're really worried about this you can just go into your system prefrences -> Time Machine and turn Time Machine off. And only turn it on when you want to backup. And turn off after the backup.

03-31-2010, 02:29 PM

Exactly. It will remind you that you have not backed up weekly I believe. Once you turn on the TM drive it will start automatically. Remember that the next backups will be incremental not a full back up (First BU is a full backup).

I have chosen to only do full backups so every time I run TM, I format the TM HD and then the whole machine gets backed up. Just my style.

Another thing to know is it seems TM does a sector by sector backup so if you do heavy editing / Photoshop work, your drive will get messed a bit and I run iDefrag prior to MONTHLY backups to get the files back in good order (defragged). TM on a FULL backup records the HD exactly as it is and will return it that way.

I am using Leopard right now 10.5.8 and have not upgraded to SLeopard.

03-31-2010, 03:14 PM

Although you can use Time Machine this way I wonder if something like Super Duper might not be better for this kind of backups. An iCal reminder could be set to make sure the backup is not forgotten.

03-31-2010, 03:28 PM

Cheers gents, backed up fully and turned Time Machine off (disable auto backup) and answered my own question

which brings me onto another question....

can i plug my usb EXT HD into my airport express usb port and access it wirelessly?

03-31-2010, 03:53 PM

As far as i can tell the USB controller in the Airport Express only supports printer sharing. I thought I had seen a description at one time about how to do this but cannot seem to find it. The USB port in the Airport Extreme and Time Machine both support attaching external hard drive.

03-31-2010, 04:12 PM

yea doesnt work lol

03-31-2010, 06:19 PM

I suppose backing up in this way is better than nothing, but I feel I should remind you gents that you are actually defeating the PURPOSE of Time Machine by using it this way.

03-31-2010, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by chas_m

I suppose backing up in this way is better than nothing, but I feel I should remind you gents that you are actually defeating the PURPOSE of Time Machine by using it this way.

how else do i go about it then?

03-31-2010, 08:14 PM

Think about what you want to accomplish. Time Machine not only functions automatically but provides a degree of version control. If you make a mistake on a document you can revert to a previous version. When working automatically it will back up hourly then consolidate those into a daily backup. Additional consolidation occurs in the production of weekly and monthly backups. ATPM 15.03 - How To: Time Travel: Introduction to Time Machine

If you want a more traditional approach to backups check out SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner - Features.