TIME MACHINE:- a seriously overlooked problem

Hi,

As a recent XP to Mac switcher I was amazed by such built in apps like time machine. As a web designer this app alone makes the mac worth it. No more time consuming back ups etc etc or the risk of appearing unpro as you've lost something.

however am I right in thinking No encryption?

I haven't tried Time Machine yet but have read no encryption many times in many reviews.

Is there any security on you ext HD with your files then? A password even.

Please can someone confirm as I don't want another copy of months of my graphic design and web building hard work lying around for someone to take away as easy as fitting a chocolate bar in there pocket.

Of all the systems I have back up over the years. I have not found a need for encryption, because I would never leave a valuable back up (important data) just laying around. There is also a good chance to forget or lose the encryption pass word.

With that said, I have not read anything about encryption and time machine. It appears that you would need a different solution. Like encrypting your data and then doing a back up.

If the original files are encrypted, are they not on the TM disk after the copy?

The following;
"Time Machine cannot create encrypted backups. However, home directories protected by FileVault are backed up in encrypted form".

was taken from;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_(Apple_software)

Yep. While regular users don't get any form of encryption, if you have Filevault enabled, you can get all the encryption you need...

However, I'd seriously suggest you work with encrypted DMGs. It's really nice. Just have to create a DMG in Disk Utility, and then mount it whenever you need it. 256bit AES encryption is it?

Hi all, thanks for replies

@ Rman

Of all the systems I have back up over the years. I have not found a need for encryption, because I would never leave a valuable back up (important data) just laying around. There is also a good chance to forget or lose the encryption pass word.

With that said, I have not read anything about encryption and time machine. It appears that you would need a different solution. Like encrypting your data and then doing a back up.

Click to expand...

isn't this exactly what you do with time machine? IE dedicate a drive to sync with the mac.

You say never left your data lying around. I know people who have never left their front door open but still got burgled.

To me encryption is a necessary form of insurace.

@ goobimama

Are you saying this method could be a good workaround? If so can you explain more. As a recent XP switcher I dont really know much about macs. Quite computer literate though.

Launch Disk Utility
- Don't click on anything. Go straight to "New Image" on your toolbar.
- It will show you a box where you can enter the size of the image (it doesn't dynamically resize disk images). 40MB is ideal for important personal documents.
- It will offer you encryption options. Select whatever. Click OK.
- It will then create the image and prompt you to enter your password.
- DO NOT FORGET this password. There's no way other than a super computer to get inside that document.
- Uncheck the "remember pass in keychain" option.

Once the image is created, you can just double click it, it will ask for password, and then mount on the desktop. After that it is a regular old disk image with write ability. Just dump stuff in there, open files, save. When you are done, unmount the image.

Thanks m8 thats great :] appreciated

EDIT:-

Am I right in thinking you would have to have your Time Machine drive connected to your mac always? Could you not hook it up once a week and hit copy or what ever?

Kola said:

Thanks m8 thats great :] appreciated

EDIT:-

Am I right in thinking you would have to have your Time Machine drive connected to your mac always? Could you not hook it up once a week and hit copy or what ever?

Click to expand...

No. Yes. No.

No you don't have to have the drive connected always.

Yes you could hook it up once a week.

No you can't hit "copy". There is no copy command. Once it's connected, TM will do a backup within the next hour. You have almost no control over when that happens. It *will* happen, but *when* is up to the machine.

mathogre said:

No. Yes. No.

No you don't have to have the drive connected always.

Yes you could hook it up once a week.

No you can't hit "copy". There is no copy command. Once it's connected, TM will do a backup within the next hour. You have almost no control over when that happens. It *will* happen, but *when* is up to the machine.

Click to expand...

wrong on #3. if you have time machine in your dock, you can right click on it, and hit "back up now"

Important note about FileVault and Time Machine:

Based on what I have read, Time Machine backs-up filevaulted home dirs only during logout. It won't backup an already-logged-out filevault account nor will it backup a currently-logged-in filevault account.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071123090741653

Also, you can click on the big button which says "Time Machine OFF". No more backups after that. When you want to, just click it again to turn it on...

I posted this TM problem before, but never got an answer, so I'll try again here. All of a sudden my TM backups stopped working, I'd get an error message and the backup would stop. My destination external drive has become full, so I'm guessing that has something to do with it, but TM had been deleting the oldest backups for a while to make space before the errors started. I even tried deleting some of the older backups manually to make room, but this didn't work. Even deleting several days worth of backups gave me almost no additional disc space. I've since turned off TM and am backing up important files manually to another drive. Anyone have any suggestions?

kgeier82 said:

wrong on #3. if you have time machine in your dock, you can right click on it, and hit "back up now"

Click to expand...

Kudos to you. Thank you! I obviously didn't know that. ^_^