Time Machine

I just connected a LaCie external drive to my MBP. Time Machine asked me if I wanted to backup on this disk. It says that next backup is in an hour. So...what the heck is going on? Do I do anything? Also, I can see why this was made for the mini mac. The cables are about three inches long. Is there anything I can do to increase the length of these cables. Specifically the firewire cable. This external is a stack drive for the mini. It is really nice looking and doesn't flash lights like a rocket ship. So...what do I do?

you can buy longer firewire cables at any computer store in your area.

okay...I waited the hour...and I don't get it. It showed the stack and I tried to click on one of them....nothing...this is so weird.

When you connect an external drive to your Mac Time Machine will ask if you want to use this as your backup drive. You said yes to this so therefore this will now be used for your backups. Time Machine works by making hourly backups of your Mac hence why your Mac told you that the backup would commence in 1hr. What do you do in the mean time? Anything you want. What do you do when it starts to make the backup? Anything you want. What you do with your Mac and when is entirely up to you and Time Machine just works in the background, that's it's beauty.

Okay...I will admit I'm ignorant. I still don't get it. I thought the external drive copied my hard drive and I could access it. I can't open squat. It shows the cascading deal...but nothing clicks open. I think I'll just use it for my iPod....it doesn't make any sense. Why in the world would I want to make hourly backups? That seems like a ton of intensive changes happening to the computer.

I paid almost $200 for this external hard drive...just to be able to use Time Machine....geez.....I think I threw away $200...anyone want a Lacie external hard drive...it looks like a mini mac. I don't get it.....I don't understand it....it just sits there....the folders cascading....I click and nada.....I'll just use my thumb drives......

when it goes to the screen with all the folders....I'm not able to move forward or backward. Also...the firewire cable is only about 14 inches long. There seems to be different types of firewire cables on the web. This one (1394) is oblong on both ends.....

wooooooof... you seem completely disappointed with the TM. But let me tell you it's a great tool for someone who has habit of experimenting with his machine. If you read the backup schedule of TM, It will overwrite the hourly backups and even the weekly backups. When the allotted disk is full it will start overwriting old backups. So I dont find anything wrong in that.

Secondly after making the first backup you can go to the systems menu and simply disable the backups till the time you want to backup again. That way you can save on space also. It's very convenient.

I would highly recommend you give it one more shot with a fresh mind... you would love it.

I would love to be able to use it, but it doesn't seem to work. I connect the lacie mini external disk. Time machine asks me if I want it to be my backup drive. I click it....and nothing happens. When I click the lacie icon, the different screen opens with the cascading folders...but...nothing....no movement just blank.

When you're doing the TM backup for the first time, it will make the full backup. So it's bound to take time. You can monitor the activity from System Pref> TM. Once the backup is finished, you'll see the same directory structure under TM also

Do I need to do any reformatting if it says that it is mac ready.

Correct me if I'm wrong

But isn't the purpose of Time Machine just backing up what is on your regular hard drive? Why would you need to keep accessing it on a regular basis? I can see spot checking along the way but I thought the good thing about Time Machine was that unless your main HD crashed you wouldn't need to worry about it.

I'm a new user myself so I'm genuinely curious. Buy my impression is that the drive connected to Time Machine was just purely a background device that backs everything up automatically and the beauty of it was that you didn't need to actually do anything with it.

I agree, since I'm using a MBP, I don't have the portability with this hard drive connected. It's been three hours, and it hasn't gone beyond the desktop in copying. How long does it take?

All I did was plug in my WD external and Time Machine did everything for me. I just can't imagine how it's not working for some of you.

What does it look like when you open Time Machine? Are your folders there?

Can anyone that is having trouble post a screenshot of Time Machine?

I just used Time Machine for the first time this past weekend. I hooked up the external drive I bought, and started Time Machine. It asked me if that was the drive I wanted to use, I said yes. It did some jiggery-pokey, and now that external shows up as 'Time Machine Backup' when I plug it in.

Then it prompted me to start a full backup. You may need to open the Time Machine panel in the system properties to set it up and turn it on - it doesn't automatically turn on and start working. I don't have either with me, so I can't look right now, but I can check when I get home.

Five empty folders of the desktop....what is the deal? at this rate, it should be done in about a week.

jacintosh said:

I agree, since I'm using a MBP, I don't have the portability with this hard drive connected. It's been three hours, and it hasn't gone beyond the desktop in copying. How long does it take?

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For me to copy some 30GB of initial backup it had taken somewhere close to an hour. It depends on size of data. But 3 hours seem too long. Is it showing some progress from the Sys Pref > TM menu or is it stuck?

Has this external drive been formatted? In any event, since you have nothing written to it - open Disk Utility, highlight your external drive, erase tab, tab up to mac os extended(journaled) - name your drive Backup - then erase. Go to System Preferences and click Time Machine to set up your external drive (Backup) options. There should be a 180sec countdown until your Time Machine backup starts.

jacintosh said:

Five empty folders of the desktop....what is the deal? at this rate, it should be done in about a week.

Click to expand...