[Jason_Mallory]

I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. Can I use time machine on both machines with just moving a drive back and forth?
Thanks!

[griffman]

Yes. Each machine gets its own folder on the drive.
-rob.

[sjk]

Any feedback on my questions, Rob? Thanks.

[griffman]

Sorry, missed your post...
But presumably it can back up files from multiple volumes, e.g. boot and a separate /Users? If not, I'd have to undo the current 3-volume setup on my iMac if I intend to use TM.
I believe Time Machine is designed to work with your boot disk, not any disk mounted on your computer. I need to do some additional testing, but some basic tests with a USB drive showed that TM didn't pick up anything from the drive. (I'm not sure what might happen if you aliased or symlinked the other drives to the boot drive...)
Holding down the Control key and clicking the Time Machine icon in the Dock creates a new incremental backup, if you just cant wait for the automatic backup to take place.
Control-click on a Dock icon is usually equivalent to a right-click which usually displays a context menu. Is control-click on TM's Dock icon an exception to that or did you maybe mean option-click?
I meant control-click; we left out a few words, in that the backup now choice is one of the options in the contextual menu.
-rob.

[jspivack]

I am awaiting delivery of my Macbook with Leopard, and I an trying to plan a strategy for my external HDD use. Does anyone know if Time Machine allows you to gracefully "upgrade" your Time Machine drive? That is, if i start using TM today with an external 160GB HDD, and the in 6 months I want to upgrade to a 400GB HDD to have some more space, is there a way I can migrate the existing TM data and files to the new drive? For example, if I simply copy the TM folder to the new drive, will TM:
- recognize this and continue to use and increment it?
- ignore this, and start a new, non-incremental TM backup, leaving me browse access to the initial TM backup?
- ignore this, and start a new, non-incremental TM backup, leaving me no access to the initial TM backup?
Thanks
Jeff

[jspivack]

OK, I should have checked apple.com first:
http://docs.info.app...5/en/15137.html
"If you do run out of space, the best thing to do is to attach a new backup disk. After you attach the new disk, open Time Machine preferences and click Change Disk to choose it as your Time Machine backup disk."
so simple, so apple...
jeff

[PMFine]

1-One CAN use both an internal second drive for TM or even a separate partitioned volume of your same hard drive if formatted that way of course. However, that is only useful for backing up previous versions of files that may have been deleted or changed but not for restoring the OS or fixing a failed hard drive.
2-What is overlooked is the convoluted approach to how TM works. It includes most everything and you state what you want excluded. It REALLY needs to also offer you a button to ONLY include an item or folder. The way it is now, if one only wants to backup a folder on a drive, you have to exclude everything else listed one by one. You need a time machine to have the time to do that. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
-Peter

[griffman]

On #2, you can use Shift and/or Command to select multiple items. Not ideal, but it does make the task much simpler. Shift-select all, then command-click the one you want to back up to exclude it from the selection...
-rob.

[PMFine]

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On #2, you can use Shift and/or Command to select multiple items. Not ideal, but it does make the task much simpler. Shift-select all, then command-click the one you want to back up to exclude it from the selection...
-rob.

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That list could be dozens of folders though so I am not saying there is no way around the problem, I am saying the problem should not be there from a usability standpoint.
Think of it like this. You connect to the internet and you are automatically opted in to thousands of email lists. However, you can opt out of any or all of them. Makes no sense? My point exactly.
-Peter

[sjk]

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Sorry, missed your post...

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and I'm slow to respond to yours that I finally returned to while pruning my NetNewsWire 80-tab backlog, which is now down to a satisfyingly manageable 12.

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I believe Time Machine is designed to work with your boot disk, not any disk mounted on your computer. I need to do some additional testing, but some basic tests with a USB drive showed that TM didn't pick up anything from the drive.

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I meant non-boot volumes mounted on the same internal drive as the boot volume.
From screenshots in Siracusa's Leopard review it appears TM is automatically aware of only the boot volume as a source, with others as selectable destinations. If true, I can merge my separate /Users volume with the boot volume when upgrading. I've preferred them separate mostly to accommodate my current SuperDuper! backup strategy though that'll have some changes anyway if I'm using TM.

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(I'm not sure what might happen if you aliased or symlinked the other drives to the boot drive...)

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Pretty sure it would back up those aliases and symlinks like any others, not follow them.

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I meant control-click; we left out a few words, in that the backup now choice is one of the options in the contextual menu.

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Thanks for the clarification.

[MasterRanger]

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Time Machine only seems to work with external hard drives attached directly to your Mac, and perhaps file servers running Leopard Server. But you cant use any old remote server, and you cant attach Time Machine to your AirPort Extremes shared volume, either.

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While it won't work with USB drives connected to an Airport Extreme, it indeed does work when the USB / FireWire drive is hosted from any Mac running Leopard...
Taken from Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Features - Time Machine

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Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices.

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I'm afraid this does not work as advertised. I've tried a dozen times in the last week to get my MBP to backup to my shared external on my iMac and it simply doesn't work (or doesn't simply work...). I wake up the morning after kicking off the backup to a "could not mount drive" error.
Anyone have a definite set of steps to perform on both the iMac and the Laptop(s) I'm trying to backup? I keep feeling I'm missing something but there's zero documentation on this "feature" of Leopard.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
I apologize for the obvious questions but...
Is the iMac running Leopard?
Are you mounting the drive ( volume ) connected to the iMac on the MBP before attempting to update the backup? Obviously, the volume should show up under devices on the sidebar like you would drag-n-drop file share before you can use Time Machine on it.

[MasterRanger]

1) Yes
2) I've tried it both ways... Just let TM find the shared drive on the network, and mounting the shared external as a drive (which doesnt show up on the sidebar most of the time).
I've had to power cycle the laptop four times tonight already because it got stuck during backup, got stuck during mounting, stuck during preparing... just stuck the whole machine in beachball mode.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
Sounds more like sharing problems than Time Machine problems. Unfortunately, I couldn't give you any clues to why.