Time Machine question(s)

[wurm]

Yes, I did check Apple's site, but didn't find the answers.

I decided to give Time Machine a try in addition to my other backup strategies. The only thing I remember having options to do when setting TM up was selecting a drive and telling it what time each day I'd like it to backup. Well, one problem is that I don't keep my external drive powered up all the time. So I figured (evidently erroneously) that when I turned it on and the drive mounted on the desktop, that TM would do its thing. I don't see that happening. My only options in the TM menu are to Back Up Now, Enter Time Machine and Time Machine Preferences. Again, my preferences just give me the option to select a drive.

What if I ever wanted to change my time of day for backups? And can I tell it to backup as soon as I connect the external drive, or is that CCC I'm thinking of that does that? Finally, what is the whole "Enter Time Machine" thing? It looks kind of neat, but can you actually do anything from that screen?

For something Apple seems to hope people use, the info on it seems to be lacking. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.

[mattkime]

>>For something Apple seems to hope people use, the info on it seems to be lacking. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.

You're thinking too much!

Time Machine will do its thing while the drive is connected but won't make a stink if its not. (at least not for a few days)

You don't set when you'd like to back up because TM makes partial backups frequently. You might get to set how frequently but i'm at a pc right now and don't remember.

Enter TM is for restoring files.

[olnacl]

And, yes, you are thinking of CCC that will do scheduled backups when you connect the drive.

Added missing "C"

[Wags]

Is there any functional difference between TM and using a Base Station with a drive plugged in to it? That way if the drive starts to fail you'd still have the Base Station, plus more portability.

[bhaveshp]

Wags wrote:
Is there any functional difference between TM and using a Base Station with a drive plugged in to it? That way if the drive starts to fail you'd still have the Base Station, plus more portability.

No functional differences between a Time Capsule & an Airport Extreme with a HD attached via USB with respect to Time Machine backups.

I've been using an Airport Ex for over a year with 10.5 & now 10.6 and it has been great. I prefer the cheaper, roll your own solution.

Furthermore, both Apple discussions & TUAW have long threads on Time Capsules failing @~ 18 months due to internal power supplies / heat.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/11/are-apple...t-of-time/

[olnacl]

bhaveshp wrote:
[quote=Wags]
Is there any functional difference between TM and using a Base Station with a drive plugged in to it? That way if the drive starts to fail you'd still have the Base Station, plus more portability.

No functional differences between a Time Capsule & an Airport Extreme with a HD attached via USB with respect to Time Machine backups.

I've been using an Airport Ex for over a year with 10.5 & now 10.6 and it has been great. I prefer the cheaper, roll your own solution.

Furthermore, both Apple discussions & TUAW have long threads on Time Capsules failing @~ 18 months due to internal power supplies / heat.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/11/are-apple...t-of-time/
Dunno if this would be a "functional" difference or just a general TM issue, but I have been using an Airport Extreme with an external USB drive for TM backups. Several times over the past couple years, TM complained about not finding the backup disk. Usually it's a matter of the volumes directory getting screwed up (thanks for that tip, Doc) and by deleting the spurious "volume" in question, all is well again. In a couple instances though, that didn't do the trick and I had to start over, erasing the drive and doing a full backup from scratch. I have no information on whether the Time Capsule occasionally suffers the same malady. YMMV