07-31-2011, 06:34 PM

I don't know if this belongs here but i couldn't find a better spot so sorry in advance,

I am planning on running time Machine to back up my files on my MBP,

My understanding is that I need to have an external hard drive to do this,

So my question is will any external hard drive work to back up my files on Time Machine or does it have to be a specific one? also if any will work which one or type do you reccomend?

Thanks

07-31-2011, 07:24 PM

Any external hard drive will work. You will need to format the drive for use with the Mac (HFS+ extended journaled). As for brands I have had drives from each of the major brands and have had few issues with any of them. Other opinions may vary though.

07-31-2011, 10:34 PM

To format the drive do you just plug it in? how do you go about that?

07-31-2011, 10:45 PM

Go to the Applications folder and choose Disk Utilities. Highlight the drive you want to format. Follow the displayed instructions. MAKE SURE YOU PICK THE DRIVE YOU INTEND TO FORMAT -Definitely NOT Macintosh HD

07-31-2011, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by Bob_Stan

Go to the Applications folder and choose Disk Utilities. Highlight the drive you want to format. Follow the displayed instructions. MAKE SURE YOU PICK THE DRIVE YOU INTEND TO FORMAT -Definitely NOT Macintosh HD

HAHA That would be bad.

Thanks!

07-31-2011, 11:39 PM

Actually I believe Time Machine will take care of this for you, so I don't think you need to do any extra steps. The first backup will take quite a while -- after that it will be very quick.

08-01-2011, 04:27 AM

Originally Posted by chas_m

Actually I believe Time Machine will take care of this for you, so I don't think you need to do any extra steps. The first backup will take quite a while -- after that it will be very quick.

This is correct. Just open Time Machine preferences and select the drive you want to use. Make sure you choose the correct one. It should ask you about formatting it if it is not already formatted.

Be aware it will use the whole drive for Time Machine, although I think you can partition a drive and then assign just one partition to Time Machine. Not tried that myself.

I think Lion even allows you to backup to an internal drive, or a partition on the internal drive. Not tried that either. Seems unwise as if your hard drive goes you have lost the backup as well, although it does give you an undelete function.

08-01-2011, 02:19 PM

After I do the Initial back up do I keep the external drive plugged in and it will update automatically or do i have to plug it in from time to time?

Also could i get a hard drive with the firewire 800 port or a Thunderbolt port to save time?

08-01-2011, 02:40 PM

Don't know of any Thunderbolt external drives other than the Promise RAID drives yet, but LaCie is working on one, as are other manufacturers, I'm sure. FW800 would definitely speed things up, but again, after the first backup, subsequent backups will only take a few minutes, and the cost difference between a FW drive and a USB drive may not be worth it.

08-01-2011, 02:40 PM

You can do either based on your personal preference. But you need to understand how the new version of TM works.

Once TM is turned on and an external drive has been identified, TM will continue to make backups even if the external is not attached. It will save those backups to your internal HD and then copy them to the external once it's attached again. Here's what I do:

I attach my external drive whenever I wish to do a TM backup. During the time my external is not attached, I turn off TM in system preferences so that it does not continue to make backups and save them to my internal hard drive. (This behavior is new in Lion, it does not do that in Leopard or Snow Leopard)

And yes, you can use a FW 800 drive or the newer Thunderbolt as the source.

08-01-2011, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

You can do either based on your personal preference. But you need to understand how the new version of TM works.

Once TM is turned on and an external drive has been identified, TM will continue to make backups even if the external is not attached. It will save those backups to your internal HD and then copy them to the external once it's attached again. Here's what I do:

I attach my external drive whenever I wish to do a TM backup. During the time my external is not attached, I turn off TM in system preferences so that it does not continue to make backups and save them to my internal hard drive. (This behavior is new in Lion, it does not do that in Leopard or Snow Leopard)

And yes, you can use a FW 800 drive or the newer Thunderbolt as the source.

So if i kept TM on while the external drive was in I would have a copy on my computers hard drive then when I plug in the external drive it will make another copy of it.

So i would have two copes of the document?

08-01-2011, 05:55 PM

So if i kept TM on while the external drive was in I would have a copy on my computers hard drive then when I plug in the external drive it will make another copy of it.

As I noted before, TM will continue making backups as long as it's turned on. That's whether or not the external drive is attached.

So i would have two copes of the document?

It appears that's what may be happening. Although I have yet to confirm that it leaves the copy on the internal hard drive or whether it removes it after copying to the external when attached. Several users have already reported that the copy remains on the internal hard drive.

08-01-2011, 05:57 PM

Are you sure the function to copy TM backups from the local machine is actually working? The last time I tried it, they DID not get copied to the external and they were never erased from the local drive. I thought I read somewhere that this function was not included in the released version of Lion.

08-01-2011, 05:59 PM

As I noted above, I can't confirm this. I have not seen any left over backups on my internal hard drive from when I kept TM turned on. But several other users have reported this behavior.

08-01-2011, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Bob_Stan

Are you sure the function to copy TM backups from the local machine is actually working? The last time I tried it, they DID not get copied to the external and they were never erased from the local drive. I thought I read somewhere that this function was not included in the released version of Lion.

same goes for me, my local backups just sit there taking up space lol