Time Machine Question

Hi everyone, I just ordered my first Macbook today, I've have only used Windows my entire life.

My big concern is thinking how I am going to back up my data.

I am just not sure how Time machine works, I read a bunch of articles already online and even watched some youtube videos, but didn't come across my awsner.

I am looking to do basically what I have been doing for years with Windows and SyncToy.

So I will have all my data on a 4TB external HDD that I will be my main drive that I work off of, and I will have two more 4TB external drives that I want to keep exact duplicate copies of the main drive on. So I have 3 copies of my data at all times. (2 on site, 1 off site)

So my two question boils down to..........

1. Does time machine work coping files from one external drive to another external drive?? (I am confused because from what I am seeing online, it only ''clones'' the data from the internal drive........I could be wrong, I probably am)

&

2. Can I have 2 separate time machine 'logs''? Coping the same data from the main external drive to 2 separate external drives?....thus constantly having 3 copies of all my data.

I hope I was able to explain clearly, and not sound too confusing.

Thanks everyone in advance for your time and help

Yes. My rMBP has one internal SSD for boot/OS/apps and app data like email. All my large libraries are on external LaCie 2Big 6TB (running 3TB RAID 1). My 3TB Time Capsule uses its drive to backup both the rMBP internal SSD and the external LaCie set.

You can tell Time Machine to use two different drives for the backups. It will alternate between them....not in parallel. But two backups on the same site as the original drives is not adding much more security. Use RAID 1 for the libraries and then do Time Machine backup. RAID 1 addresses disk failures....but not problems where apps or users delete the wrong files/folders.

MCAsan wrote in post #16389739
You can tell Time Machine to use two different drives for the backups. It will alternate between them....not in parallel. But two backups on the same site as the original drives is not adding much more security.

Thank you so much for the reply and help MCAsan.

I think you really cleared a lot up for me! I appreciate it.

My plan is (What I do now with Windows and SyncToy).....is to alternate my 2 extra copies. I do keep 1 offsite, and swap with the one in my home every week.

I just don't know how Time Machine will handle 2 different external hard drives as back ups.

You say Time Machine is not parallel, it alternates between them? I'm sorry what exactly does that mean?

Thanks again for your time!

If both are available at the same time, it will alternate using them to write backups. If they are both not available at the same time, it should use the one that is available.

If you data is that critical, you might consider a cloud storage service as part of the backup plan.

I use Time Machine at home, to a Drobo on the network.

I also have an external disk I keep at my office (off site). For this, I use Carbon Copy Cloner (great tool) every month or two to make a clone of my disks to that (It's a huge 8TB dual disk thunderbolt drive).

I suggest a non time machine copy for offsite. Why? TIme machine stores the data in a non-clear format. You can restore from it, but I don't know, I like my "clone" to be just that... a bootable clear clone.

Thank you both again for you input and help.

I think I will just use 1 external hdd with Time Machine.

And than use a totally different program to back up the other.......Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, etc.

And still continue to rotate the 2 hdd on and off site weekly.

Thank again!

Dustman wrote in post #16393042
Thank you both again for you input and help.

I think I will just use 1 external hdd with Time Machine.

And than use a totally different program to back up the other.......Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, etc.

And still continue to rotate the 2 hdd on and off site weekly.

Thank again!

Yep, that sounds like a great plan! Time machine for versioned snapshots, and an offsite for disaster recovery.

You may want to think about an "instant" backup. I use SuperDuper. It wakes up each night, and clones a bit-for-bit bootable copy of my system drive, which has only the system and apps on it, to a backup drive (in this case an external firewire drive). Meanwhile, the system and my Home Folder (on a separate drive) are being incrementally backed up by Time Machine.

In case of failure on my system drive, can just hold down the Option key and boot from the SuperDuper backup. That gets me back up immediately.

BTW, with OSX it's quite easy to move your Home Folder, which contains Music, Pictures, Documents, your private Applications folder and so forth, to a separate drive and not clutter your system drive or your system drive path. It's a bit more complex on Windows, but still not hard.

Hen3Ry wrote in post #16393571
You may want to think about an "instant" backup. I use SuperDuper. It wakes up each night, and clones a bit-for-bit bootable copy of my system drive, which has only the system and apps on it, to a backup drive (in this case an external firewire drive). Meanwhile, the system and my Home Folder (on a separate drive) are being incrementally backed up by Time Machine.

In case of failure on my system drive, can just hold down the Option key and boot from the SuperDuper backup. That gets me back up immediately.

Thanks again Henry!!

Do you have a list of some recommended external drives I can use with Superduper as an emergency boot drive incase my system crashes??

I have read online, that some hard drives, Mac can not boot off of

Dustman wrote in post #16393771
Thanks again Henry!!

Do you have a list of some recommended external drives I can use with Superduper as an emergency boot drive incase my system crashes??

I have read online, that some hard drives, Mac can not boot off of

That usually depends on what format they are. It can read and write Windows drives formatted in FAT, and it can natively read but not write NTFS files. Using OSX, it's possible to format an Apple formatted drive that can't be booted from, but I don't know why you would. Basically, you just need to buy a fairly reliable drive, plug it into your Mac, then use Disk Utility to format it, if it isn't already readable/writeable, which it probably will be.

Personally, I use enterprise drives, which cost a little more, but last longer. I'm not really sure what most folks use, but you might check out ==>OWC<== for higher end consumer drives. Pretty much anything you buy from there will be more than adequate.