What is not needed for first time backup to Ext. Hard Drive

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Just installed a new external hard drive device on my iMac. During the setup, it asked what I wanted Excluded from the backup. I excluded nothing. It is now baking up everything from the iMac. Do I really need to back up everything like applications, iMac HD, etc?
 
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I'm New to Mac-Forums and relatively new to the Mac world.
My question is - when backing up my iMac for the first time, should I do a complete backup of my computer including Operation system, applications and iMac hard drive, or do those files need to be excluded? The new external hard drive is a 2 TB G-Technology drive.

Thank you for your input.
 
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I'm New to Mac-Forums and relatively new to the Mac world.
My question is - when backing up my iMac for the first time, should I do a complete backup of my computer including OS X Operation system, applications and iMac hard drive, or do those files need to be excluded? The new external hard drive is a 2 TB G-Technology drive.

Thank you for your input.
 
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MBP 17" 2011, 2.3GHz Intel Quad-Core i7, 8GB RAM, MacMini 2011, 2.7GHz Intel Dual-Core i7, 8GB RAM
Here is my own opinion, coming from 16 years of networking.

My MBP has a 500GB drive. I have a 1TB drive connected to my AirPort Extreme dedicated to Time Machine for the MBP.
My MacMini also has a 500GB drive. I have a 1TB drive plugged into it dedicated to Time Machine for the Mini.

Let Time Machine do the work. It will do a full backup once, then incrementals after that once an hour. you will find you forget it is even running, until you need to get in and restore something. I have had to multiple times and it has worked flawlessly. I highly recommend having a dedicated drive twice the size of the system drive. Eventually, the drive will fill up and it will start overwriting older backups. That is normal, and to be expected.

enjoy the Mac.
 
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Attach the ext HD and run Time machine and let it do its thing.
If you want to do a complete image thats bootable Carbon Copy Clone on a separate drive.
I use both.
 
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"Let Time Machine do the work. It will do a full backup once, then incrementals after that once an hour. you will find you forget it is even running, until you need to get in and restore something. I have had to multiple times and it has worked flawlessly. I highly recommend having a dedicated drive twice the size of the system drive. Eventually, the drive will fill up and it will start overwriting older backups. That is normal, and to be expected."

I fully concur with this. Just let Time Machine do everything.
 

chscag

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Yes. How else are you going to restore your hard drive's contents if it fails and you have to replace it? Besides, Time Machine only does a full backup the first time you use it. Subsequent backups are made only on those items that have changed.
 

chscag

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@m&mboys:

You've posted this same subject many times in our forums. Only post a thread in one forum and continue to post to that same thread. There is no need to "shotgun" your post in several forums. Since the subject is the same keep it in one spot and continue from there. I have removed and merged all your extra posts.

Thanks for your future cooperation.
 

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