I use Time Machine to back up files to a 250 GB external hard drive. Recently I’ve been getting messages from the application that some files were deleted. What have I done wrong? What should I do?

— J.C.

Naples

Time Machine is an application released with OS 10.5 in 2007 to back up files on your Mac to an external hard drive. The backup is hourly but it applies only to files that have changed since the prior backup. Consequently, storage used on the external hard drive increases regularly.

To manage the amount of used storage, Time Machine has four procedures:

Hourly backups are kept for the recent 24 hours.

Hourly information is consolidated into daily backups for the past month.

Daily information is consolidated into weekly backups for prior months.

Oldest weekly backup is deleted when the external hard drive becomes full.

I answer the “How big an external hard drive should I buy to use with TM?” question with: “As large as your budget can afford!” You have received the deletion messages because, under the final procedure above, your 250 GB drive is full.

You can see the status of your Time Machine drive in System Preferences/Time Machine. While there, make sure the checkbox “Show TM status in the menu bar” is checked. The messages you are receiving are normal; you have three options.

1. Do nothing. Is it important that you be able to go back one or more years to recover copies of files that were on your Mac? This is a personal decision. The status of the TM hard drive tells you the oldest backup. This is a reasonable expectation of the extent of the time in the past you can recover.

2. Add a second TM drive. An easy option is to purchase a new external hard drive and use it in TM to back up your Mac’s hard drive. Purchase a big drive: 2 TB drives are available and attractively priced. That should outlast most people. This is particularly good for those wanting to retain everything.

3. Upgrade the TM external drive. Rather than adding another drive to your desktop, you can copy existing TM information to a new, larger drive and start the new drive with your prior TM history. The procedure is detailed at tinyurl.com/3nzg8oa

From Cliff Notes: Use the SuperDuper application to copy the original TM hard drive’s contents to the new TM hard drive. This is a lengthy process. Dragging files hasn’t worked for me.

The original TM hard drive can then be used for other purposes.

Setting up Time Machine

Option two or three will give you a new external hard drive that you want to become TM’s file repository. Follow these steps:

Turn off Time Machine in TM’s preferences.

In Finder eject the existing TM drive and disconnect it from your computer.

Connect the new hard drive to your computer and turn it on.

Click Select Disk in TM’s preferences and select the new TM drive.

Turn Time Machine back on. TM will now start the process of creating a new TM history.

Option 2 yields two TM drives. The original goes back to your initial TM setup; the second with new TM history. Option Click the TM icon in the menu bar to browse and select among available TM drives.

Jerry King is president of the Naples MacFriends User Group , founded to help Macintosh users get the most out of their computers. NMUG is open to area residents and seasonal visitors.

Similar Posts:

Share

| Tags: Machine, Time Machine

Leave a Reply

<