Question about Time Machine

Hello,

I have a spare 500GB external drive sitting around. I have never really considered using Time Machine until recently.

For the backup images that they create, do you create an image of the entire hard drive? If so, does the program compress the backup?

I am looking to do a clean install of Mac OSX. When I do a restore of my old files, I'm only looking to restore docs, pics, music, etc.. I don't want to restore previously installed program or settings. Is it possible to do that with Time Machine?

Thanks!

 

It does the entire drive, so that you can restore and entire drive to workable condition.

You don't have to restore the entire drive though, you can easily pick and choose what to restore.... files or folders or whatever, you can browse through and and select what you want and restore.

 

Are the backups images or just backup copies? Not sure.

 

It's not an image, it copies the files themselves.

So you must use the snow leopard disk if you want to restore from the backup.

 

Wasn't sure. I tried to boot into Win7 and used Apple's Airport Utility to connect to and browse the disk in my Time Capsule, but it was unintelligible. Just a bunch of random, same-sized ~8mb files.

 

You can browse your Time Capsule from Windows and store regular files on it, but Time Machine files can be read only by Time Machine.

 

You can use a simple file sync program to backup your files. But I recommend using TM so you will not miss anything. Apple stores a lot of files in the Library section.

 

Is it necessary to format the backup drive the first time you set it up with Time Machine?

I have a spare drive with stuff on it and plan on using it with Time Machine. I don't want to lose what I already have on that drive.

Thanks!

 

No, as long as the drive is readable by OSX you should be able to add your TM backup to it. I do my TM backups to a NAS formatted in EXT3. Using an external drive, I believe all you'll have to do is make a back-up folder and just point TM too it.

 

Thanks!

10char

 

If I remember correctly, connecting an HD via USB will require the drive to be formatted as HFS and you will need a separate partition to use with Time Machine.

Snork, since you are backing yours up over a network, that's why you can get away with having your drive formatted as EXT3. Mine backs up to my WHS which is formatted as NTFS.

 

Good Ol' Time Machine. So I am assuming you just have a regular 3rd party Hard drive and not a Capsule right? When backing up to an External (USB, Firewire, Ethernet) the format will have to be HSF. You can get away with other formats if its a network mount because the OS isn't limiting the amount of Data transfer. The Time Capsule is formatted to FAT32 and thats why it can get away backing up more then 4 GB of Data at one time because its a network mount.

Time Machine will slightly compress the backups and will not create a Sparse-Bundle ( Image ) if its a regular 3rd party hard drive. Only a Time Capsule creates this Image or if the computer is writing to the Disk wirelessly. This can normally be done if the Hard Drive is connected to a Time Capsule or some other Router ( 3rd party routers normally do not work with Time Machine but I have seen it done )

If your looking to recover simple documents, pictures, music then accessing Time Machine and obtaining those files are fine. A full system restore however is best done from the install Disk. Click HERE if you want some steps on doing a system restore using Time Machine From Disk.. You can also migrate the user folder through migration assistant but when doing a complete restore just save your self the problems and do it from the Disk. If the computer originally came with a OSX 10.5 install DVD and you upgraded to OSX 10.6 you can use either the 10.5 or the 10.6 install DVD to complete a system restore.