Everything I know about TM that I didn't learn here, I got from the Missing Manual (Leopard). I swear by those books, love 'em, never regretted a dime spent.

When my PowerMac bit the biscuit last December, we bit the biscuit and got me a MacPro. Never regretted a dime on it either, but that's when I got good with TM. I'm still backed up through last January, and even though I rarely go there ~ LIttle Sister wants some research docs we did back in May? I don't want to dig out my Project DVD and wade through gigs looking for that one stinkin' file? Don't have to.

I really worship at TM's alter when I realize that I've just screwed up a week's work in about an hour and a half. I trot back to the night before I lost my mind and screwed up the file and ~ it's FM*, I'm tellin' ya.

Anyway, kate, the Missing Manuals kick ass.


*F'n Magic

FM. That's my wife's attitude for anything computer related.

Before TM, there were auto-backup solutions out there, but none were very user friendly. With Snow Leopard and Migration Assistant now TM aware, it's a nobrainer to use TM. I'll have to get a larger backup drive when I start importing my music CDs and LPs into iTunes.

That's what it fakes you into believing. When it backs up it only copies files that have been modified since the last backup. All the other files, like "Ethel's Vacation Plans," don't get copied again if they haven't been modified. They use sym links, fancy aliases, to make the new backup look like it copied everything again.
You'd have 30 different copies only if you modified it 30 times, otherwise the other copies are small aliases. Smaller than the brain mass of Bush.
You've found the right place.

Ahhh yes and no

TM should back up the revisions you made over the 30 days and time stamp it

If your original Ethels Vacation documents is 100 megs and you make 1 meg changes for the next 30 days - the files size should be 130 megs give or take for what was deleted .

Now if TM is giving you a over 3 gigs for that document over the 30 days then that is totally wrong

That's not the way it works. If a 100 meg file was changed even 1bit, it copies the whole 100M file over again, not just the changed part. No backup system is smart enough to only copy the 1bit of changes in a document.

So let's assume each day you added 1M worth of stuff to the file, on the second day you would have a total of 201M of backup, the third day you'd have 302M, the fourth day 403M and so on.As you can see from my example it could hit 3 G in about three weeks, that's normal.

After a month the daily backups start dropping off.

I see where your coming from

However I am assuming that 100M in Kates Vacation example has 100 - 1 meg files . So if she changes one file the other 99 should not be duplicated each time . Thats what I am talking about

Folders -vs- files I guess

Still if you have a 100M file and you change the word ahhh from "" they to theirs" TM should not back up the whole 100M file , rather link and time stamp the change back to the original

Yes, folders vs files. Kate said one file, not 100 1M files, that's what I was referring to, one 100M file. Yes, in your example it wouldn't copy the whole folder, only the file/s that changed in the folder, the rest of the files in the folder that didn't change would be aliases.It backs up the whole file again like I explained above. You don't seem to understand the complexity of just backing up changes, it doesn't work the way you're saying. It would be nice, but it doesn't. For starters Time Machine would have to understand the file format of every program ever made to do that.

I don't even know of a program that operates that way with its own native files except Adobe's Version Cue with pics, but that's what it's made for. Of course it relies on you keeping the original file forever. TM doesn't work like that, it throws out versions when they get old enough, that's why it copies the whole recent versions of files.

Wow!
Learning so much, you guys rock!
Reboot is the MAN!!!

You're welcome Because I still don't understand it fully, and asked the question, you benefit! Anyway, as long as Reboot understands, I am comforted that he's here to bail us out when needed.

After I wiped my drive and started up TM again, things were not just right yet. Was disappointed somewhat until I "set up" TM again and it is now back to normal.

I thought the hard drive would be big enough but I wish I had gotten a really large one. I had to exclude all my movies so that I could back up everything else. I'll back up the movies on anohter drive.