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<blockquote data-quote="Slydude" data-source="post: 1762273" data-attributes="member: 131855">I assume from your post that the Time Machine drive is not always connected to your Mac correct? If so, read on.The first time you connected the drive the backup was pretty large (1GB) because it had been some time since the last backup and Time Machine has to copy every file that has changed. If you ran it again shortly thereafter there would be a smaller amount needed to back up. Time Machine does not rewrite all of the files when it creates a backup. Here's how the process works.1. On first run Time Machine backs up everything except files you told it to exclude.2. On the next run time Machine scans looking for files that have changed If a file has changed a backup is made of that file. If a file is unchanged a link (pointer) is made to the original file. The file is not copied again. This results in updates being faster and taking up less space than the original backup. 3. When it gets short of Space time Machine will delete the oldest backup. Given the amount of data being copied you seem to have enough space. Some users seem to have ruined their bckups bu trying to manage this themselves.Did the short backup (a few MB) take 15 minutes? If so, we may need to let Disk Utility check the drive for problems.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Slydude, post: 1762273, member: 131855"] I assume from your post that the Time Machine drive is not always connected to your Mac correct? If so, read on. The first time you connected the drive the backup was pretty large (1GB) because it had been some time since the last backup and Time Machine has to copy every file that has changed. If you ran it again shortly thereafter there would be a smaller amount needed to back up. Time Machine does not rewrite all of the files when it creates a backup. Here's how the process works. 1. On first run Time Machine backs up everything except files you told it to exclude. 2. On the next run time Machine scans looking for files that have changed If a file has changed a backup is made of that file. [B]If a file is unchanged a link (pointer) is made to the original file. The file is not copied again. [/B]This results in updates being faster and taking up less space than the original backup. 3. When it gets short of Space time Machine will delete the oldest backup. Given the amount of data being copied you seem to have enough space. Some users seem to have ruined their bckups bu trying to manage this themselves. Did the short backup (a few MB) take 15 minutes? If so, we may need to let Disk Utility check the drive for problems. [/QUOTE]

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