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Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Time Machine conflict
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1786074" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>OK, thanks for the information. The short answers are that it would be best to rename the new drive to something different to keep from confusing TM. TM backs up every hour by default, can't be lengthened, but can be shortened. It also deletes old backups automatically for you, you should not touch them with Finder or any other tool.</p><p></p><p>Now, the longer answers. At the first backup TM backs up everything. That is the base backup. After that, it only backs up things that changed since the last backup, called an incremental backup. When you look at the backups in TM, it looks like all the files are there in each backup, but all that is there is a special kind of link to the last time the file changed. That link may go back 1 or 2 or 3 or 50, or more, backups (maybe even all the way to the base backup if the file never changes). If you reach in with Finder to do something, you can break the linkage and destroy the integrity of the backups. TM files should ONLY be touched by TM itself because when it manipulates the files, it fixes the links as well. When TM runs out of drive space, it will delete the oldest backups first, either notifying you or not, depending on your settings. When the backup drive is absent at the time of a backup, TM takes a "snapshot" of the drive and stores it on the drive itself as a holder, waiting for the backup drive to be reattached. When you attach the new drive with the same name, TM looks for its files, doesn't find them and errors out. When you connect the right drive, it finds the folders it's looking for and proceeds. If there are snapshots, it puts them into the backup, then erases them from your internal drive. On a restore, you pick the time you want to restore to, TM then checks that the file(s) you want restored are either actual files or links, follows any links back to the unchanged version of the file and restores it for you. It depends on that database integrity for that to happen.</p><p></p><p>What TimeMachineScheduler and TimeMachineEditor do is allow you to set a longer interval between backups. They way they work is that you leave TM OFF, but the drive attached. At the interval you set, they start TM, do a backup and then turn TM off again. If the backup drive is not there, TM will just do what it does, make a snapshot. </p><p></p><p>EDITORIAL: Snapshots are, to me, pretty useless. If your drive fails, you lose them. If you need the data, keep the backup drive attached. An unfinished backup is not much good if the drive fails.</p><p></p><p>So, it's up to you what to do. If your data is critical and time sensitive, you may need to backup every hour or more frequently. I don't need that, so I set mine to noon and midnight. I'm thinking of going to just midnight, but just haven't gotten to that yet. TMS and TME both run in the background, wake up TM at the right time, run it, then turn it off again, all automatically. As I said, I use TME, have done so for a long time and it works well for me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1786074, member: 396914"] OK, thanks for the information. The short answers are that it would be best to rename the new drive to something different to keep from confusing TM. TM backs up every hour by default, can't be lengthened, but can be shortened. It also deletes old backups automatically for you, you should not touch them with Finder or any other tool. Now, the longer answers. At the first backup TM backs up everything. That is the base backup. After that, it only backs up things that changed since the last backup, called an incremental backup. When you look at the backups in TM, it looks like all the files are there in each backup, but all that is there is a special kind of link to the last time the file changed. That link may go back 1 or 2 or 3 or 50, or more, backups (maybe even all the way to the base backup if the file never changes). If you reach in with Finder to do something, you can break the linkage and destroy the integrity of the backups. TM files should ONLY be touched by TM itself because when it manipulates the files, it fixes the links as well. When TM runs out of drive space, it will delete the oldest backups first, either notifying you or not, depending on your settings. When the backup drive is absent at the time of a backup, TM takes a "snapshot" of the drive and stores it on the drive itself as a holder, waiting for the backup drive to be reattached. When you attach the new drive with the same name, TM looks for its files, doesn't find them and errors out. When you connect the right drive, it finds the folders it's looking for and proceeds. If there are snapshots, it puts them into the backup, then erases them from your internal drive. On a restore, you pick the time you want to restore to, TM then checks that the file(s) you want restored are either actual files or links, follows any links back to the unchanged version of the file and restores it for you. It depends on that database integrity for that to happen. What TimeMachineScheduler and TimeMachineEditor do is allow you to set a longer interval between backups. They way they work is that you leave TM OFF, but the drive attached. At the interval you set, they start TM, do a backup and then turn TM off again. If the backup drive is not there, TM will just do what it does, make a snapshot. EDITORIAL: Snapshots are, to me, pretty useless. If your drive fails, you lose them. If you need the data, keep the backup drive attached. An unfinished backup is not much good if the drive fails. So, it's up to you what to do. If your data is critical and time sensitive, you may need to backup every hour or more frequently. I don't need that, so I set mine to noon and midnight. I'm thinking of going to just midnight, but just haven't gotten to that yet. TMS and TME both run in the background, wake up TM at the right time, run it, then turn it off again, all automatically. As I said, I use TME, have done so for a long time and it works well for me. [/QUOTE]
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