Hi

Does anyone here know much about how Time Machine works? I've recently bought a new external drive for my files, leaving me with the old 1TB which I thought ideal for Time Machine for my work iMac. First back up fine, but now won;t back up again, as it says there's no space. I'd assumed it would just delete any old back up to get the latest one on?

My iMac is 1TB also (running Mavericks), with around 650gb used - is that just too much to use a 1TB back up drive? On some Apple forums saying it needs about 20% free space over the size of the actual back up to perform, but mine's within that? Does it have to keep at least one other back up?

Any ideas? If it won't work I may just try the back up software bundled on the Western drive.

Thanks!

Ben

That's how TM has always worked for me and unless you're changing a lot of data on the iMac often, it shouldn't have any problems with a drive that's only 2/3 full at the start. If you go to System preferences and look in the Time Machine settings, what does it say in there?

Well, it's my work one, so changing most of the time, but I can't really avoid that.

TM settings say there's only 27gb left, and the estimated size of a full back up is 653gb - but do I assume following ones are not 'full' but files that have 'changed'??

... the only thing I can think is that I messed things up a bit was when I had to do the initial back-up as I had to keep stop-starting it - might that have bloated it unnecessarily?! Should I wipe and start again perhaps?

Yup. I think it does a new full backup every so often but the ones it does every hour are just the changes.


if it says there's only 27GB left on the drive with only 650GB of data on the source, that certainly doesn't sound quite right. At this point a wipe of the backup drive doesn't really cost you much other than time...

I'll try that then, and just make sure the first back up goes uninterrupted - I may leave it going over night, seeing as it does take rather a long time!

Thanks!

I've never had any luck with TimeMachine. After rebuilding my iMac, TimeMachine promptly erased the backup disk faster than it was copying the original data back! Luckily I had a separate backup on a NAS and on Carbonite cloud backup.

Then, it would always say that it couldn't perform a backup, no error message, other than backup failed (it would perform the initial backup, then refuse to backup after that). Reformatting the drive didn't have any effect, it would backup the first time, then say that it failed every time it tried to do an incremental backup.

I gave up in the end. As all my data is backed up by script to a NAS and it is on Carbonite, I just switched TimeMachine off. I've now switched to Carbonite on my Windows PC, plus NAS, plus external drive with File History Backup (Windows version of TimeMachine) and SyncToy to sync with the iMac.

TimeMachine is great (when it works) for recovering accidentally deleted files or going back to previous versions, but it isn't a full backup system on its own. (The 3-2-1 rule - no files exists, until there are 3 copies, on 2 different media, with 1 copy offsite).

If the system gets stolen, then the backup drive is likely to disappear with it. If there is a fire and it destroys the Macs hard drive, then it will probably destroy the external drive as well. If the data is really valuable to you / the company, then make sure you invest in a proper backup as well - syncing with the servers, which will (or should) have an off-site backup should be the initial stage. If the company doesn't have any form of disaster recovery or off-site backups (storing tapes in bank vaults etc.), then they really should think about getting their act together.

Thanks - yeah, this is literally just backing up "the iMac" - all my work is stored on the server, which is backed up off-site. I just wanted a back-up of the iMac in case any thing happened to it specifically, so it might speed up recovery/getting me back working again.

Been trying again, but not too successful yet.

Is it normal for the initial TM back-up to quite so slow? Started it again this morning, at about 9.30, and it's only on 79gb of 750gb?! That's over FireWire 800 too....

I may try the bundled Western back up instead maybe, or look for a third party one.... Am I right in thinking Carbon Copy Cloner can be used for back up??

Yep, although I personally use Superduper (as linked earlier). Does the same thing and is free for personal use.

Of course, yes. Scheduling is on the paid version, but may well be worth it! Thanks for reminding me!

Bear in mind that there have been fairly widespread reports of problems with (mainly) Western Digitals drives and Mavericks (drives contents being rendered invisible). The problems seemed to be related to the WD software bundle. Not sure if 10.9.1 fixed it or not or if WD have updated their software. Drives that have only been formatted with Disk Utility seem to be having fewer problems.

I use the paid for version of SuperDuper! myself for cloning the hard drive.
Never used CCC but I gather that those who do use it are generally as happy with it as SuperDuper! users are with their choice.

An initial TM backup can take a fair amount of time yes but that does seem rather excessive.

I have had those sorts of problems but have not installed the Western Digital software.

Yeah, Western have updated the software. I didn't try and use the drive in that period just in case, but have installed their updaters and all is well. I have one at home also which I'd forgotten to do, and had a panic when the drive appeared to be empty, but installed the updates and all was returned to normal.

I may wipe the drive and give TM one more go, as ideally I'd like to use that, if not I think I'll cough up for SuperDuper, or see what the Western back-up is like.

Thanks again for the replies guys!

I've been using the drive's built in software to wipe the drive, but I wonder, would using disk utility be a better option? Sure I read somewhere that part of the Western drive couldn't be deleted as it was protected, to keep that software on there?

I have a WD drive, use it for Time Machine and have had no problems. I’ve never used supplied software that comes with a drive - I just wiped the thing in Disk Utility.

Well, tried a disk utility wipe this time... the Western one kept freezing....