do I need an external HD for Time Machine?

Davyboy4603 · Nov 15, 2009

lol..i have had my imac for about 3 days, and i am in love with it...just have a few questions though....time machine? do i need a external hard drive..when i go to set it up..i see no drive there...so i am kinda lost on that...and any tips or tricks as far to operating it would be greatly appreciated..1 more thing what kinda application do i need just for regular system clean up? After i download there is a icon that comes up on my screen that says eject? how do i get rid of that?? THANKS!

PsYkOoOoO · Nov 15, 2009

Davyboy4603 said:
lol..i have had my imac for about 3 days, and i am in love with it...just have a few questions though....time machine? do i need a external hard drive..when i go to set it up..i see no drive there...so i am kinda lost on that...and any tips or tricks as far to operating it would be greatly appreciated..1 more thing what kinda application do i need just for regular system clean up? After i download there is a icon that comes up on my screen that says eject? how do i get rid of that?? THANKS!

1) Yes, you need an external hard drive for Time Machine to operate. Just plug it in and launch Time Machine, and it will walk you through the steps.

2) OnyX would be what you are looking for to do system clean ups. It fixes disk permissions, clears caches, and all that kinda stuff. Free, too.

3) Just drag the icon towards the trash, and you will see the trash turning into an eject icon. That will eject the disk image.

yamawho · Nov 15, 2009

When you plugin a new external hdd time machine will start.
Then you will be able to format it and use it from there.

There are a few hacks to use time machine to backup on a network but I have not tried this ... yet.

nabl · Nov 15, 2009

1. Yes, you need an external drive for Time Machine. Once you have one connected, it should be pretty straightforward, but you can check out this Apple page for more information about Time Machine and other features of OS X.
2. You don't really need one as much as under Windows; things tend to stay in their place more often. However, there are some files that you can clean up, and Onyx is widely recommended to clean them up.
3. What did you download? If it was an application, it might have been downloaded in the form of a Disk Image. When you open a Disk Image, it is mounted to your Desktop so that you can see the files on it. When you are done, you can drag it to the Trash icon (it will turn into an Eject icon) to get rid of it.

Edit: Haha, I was typing this in the Quick Reply field before there were any replies; Psyko already gave almost the exact same answers.

Davyboy4603 · Nov 15, 2009

that's awesome...thanks for the input guys....i am just gonna have to get to know my machine a little better.....i haven't really tested much out since i got it....only downloaded a few applications....and just been surfin a little gettin used to the little things....

dtravis7 · Nov 15, 2009

If you think about it, if Time Machine did the backup to the main drive, what happens if the main hard drive fails and you need your back up? That is why TM wants an external drive.

Bahja · Nov 15, 2009

Davyboy4603 said:
lol..i have had my imac for about 3 days, and i am in love with it...just have a few questions though....time machine? do i need a external hard drive..when i go to set it up..i see no drive there...so i am kinda lost on that...and any tips or tricks as far to operating it would be greatly appreciated..1 more thing what kinda application do i need just for regular system clean up? After i download there is a icon that comes up on my screen that says eject? how do i get rid of that?? THANKS!

I’m a new start to MacBooks too mate. I have asked this question too. They are pretty good eh!!!

Davyboy4603 · Nov 15, 2009

i just simple love it so much cause of a few simple things...1 no need for virus protection and pc viruses can't hurt the mac

....2 i have yet to see a error message...with a pc 3 days i would have probably seen 4 window errors...lol....no question is a stupid one IMO...its stupid if you don't ask

Dave-O · Nov 17, 2009

I got the exact same mac as you a couple weeks ago and am also new to the mac world. It's been a blast so far and I'm just getting started! Haha...cheers!

Collin Bl · Nov 17, 2009

Dave-O said:
I got the exact same mac as you a couple weeks ago and am also new to the mac world. It's been a blast so far and I'm just getting started! Haha...cheers!

Some good stuff here and here

Davyboy4603 · Nov 17, 2009

Collin Bl said:
Some good stuff here and here

ya so far i am loving the switch..still adjusting a bit..learning new curves..but it's awesome!

MattL · Nov 17, 2009

Partition

Does Time Machine let you back-up to a separate partition on main drive? I realise this will not protect against disk failure but should protect against data deletion and allow rollback?

thanks

Bahja · Apr 10, 2010

Is it wise just to use the external HD for back ups only or can i put other folders in it like my music folder???

mrcorless · Apr 10, 2010

External Hard drive questions,

Hey all,

New to the mac world so far so good seems to be a great system and fairly straight forward. My few days of having it have brought a couple questions which maybe you all can help with.

If i had an external hard drive before on a PC do i need to reformat the hard drive for the mac? and how and what do i do with the info thats on it already that i want to keep. i.e pictures files etc??

Can i use or should i use my EHD to store all music and pics? does itunes and iphoto recognize that as an option? or is it necessary?

If yes for the option how would you bring pictures to the mac for editing? or just edit from the EHD? i like to have a few copies just in case (used to the gloom and doom of PC failures and lost pics) so i will back the hard drive up to DVD just the pics.

any and all help would be great the tutorials seem limited in there teachings about that stuff.

Thanks
Mark

DarkestRitual · Apr 10, 2010

yamawho said:
When you plugin a new external hdd time machine will start.
Then you will be able to format it and use it from there.

There are a few hacks to use time machine to backup on a network but I have not tried this ... yet.

What hacks... I just plug it into my airport extreme and using the bonjour protocols I can use it to back up wirelessly.

DarkestRitual · Apr 10, 2010

MattL said:
Does Time Machine let you back-up to a separate partition on main drive? I realise this will not protect against disk failure but should protect against data deletion and allow rollback?

thanks

Not without greatly reducing the performance of your boot drive.

Slydude · Apr 10, 2010

@Baja you can put other files/folders on the same drive as your Time machine backup. It won't complain a bit set up that way.

@mrcorless If you have an external drive that is formatted for the PC you will need to reformat it to use with Time Machine. Time Machine is expecting a drive to be formatted HFS+.

I have used an external drive to hold my iTunes music with no problems. You just have to make sure that the drive is on and mounted before trying to play any music on that drive.

You can back up using a network drive. In that case Time Machine saves the backups to a type of file that called a sparsebundle.

@anyone interested check out some of my thoughts about Time Machine at ATPM 15.03 - How To: Time Travel: Introduction to Time Machine. It doesn't cover everything about Time machine but might prove useful. It does mention some files that can cause a backup to become huge if they are not excluded. I'd certainly welcome any comments/ideas for a follow-up Time machine article if folks think it is needed.

Bahja · Apr 14, 2010

Slydude said:
@Baja you can put other files/folders on the same drive as your Time machine backup. It won't complain a bit set up that way.

@mrcorless If you have an external drive that is formatted for the PC you will need to reformat it to use with Time Machine. Time Machine is expecting a drive to be formatted HFS+.

I have used an external drive to hold my iTunes music with no problems. You just have to make sure that the drive is on and mounted before trying to play any music on that drive.

You can back up using a network drive. In that case Time Machine saves the backups to a type of file that called a sparsebundle.

@anyone interested check out some of my thoughts about Time Machine at ATPM 15.03 - How To: Time Travel: Introduction to Time Machine. It doesn't cover everything about Time machine but might prove useful. It does mention some files that can cause a backup to become huge if they are not excluded. I'd certainly welcome any comments/ideas for a follow-up Time machine article if folks think it is needed.

Thanks a lot

Slydude · Apr 14, 2010

You're welcome. HTH.

do I need an external HD for Time Machine?

Davyboy4603

PsYkOoOoO

yamawho

nabl

Davyboy4603

dtravis7

Bahja

Davyboy4603

Dave-O

Collin Bl

Davyboy4603

MattL

Bahja

mrcorless

DarkestRitual

DarkestRitual

Slydude

Well-known member

Bahja

Slydude

Well-known member

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