Small Business Tech Tips

We all know that backup is essential.  Many of us have learned that the hard way:  DISASTER!

Apple OS X has given you the answer to your backup prayers:  Time Machine.  Never again worry about your digital files, Time Machine automatically saves up to date copies of everything on your Mac, to a completely restorable state.  Whether you use an external USB/Firewire hard drive, or a wireless Apple Time Capsule, you will be able to restore files, music, photos, mail, virtually anything at all on your Mac by the hour, or by the day.

What’s Required For Time Machine To Work?

If you want to run Time Machine, you’ll need two things:

1. The Apple OS X 10.5 or 10.6
2. An external hard drive. (or Apple Time Capsule)

Plug In Your Hard Drive (USB or Firewire)

 To change the name:

1. Select the drive on your desktop
2. Single click the name of your hard drive while it is selected.
3. You should be able to edit the name in the field that opens.
4. Type a new name in the Name & Extension field

Open Time Machine

The Time Machine icon should be in your Dock. It is also located in System Preferences.

Set Up Time Machine Storage Location

Time Machine needs you to tell it which drive you’re using for the backup and then you have to set some options. Click Set Up Time Machine

Choose Your Backup Disk

Now you need to select the hard drive you’ll use as the back up for Time Machine. Click on Choose Backup Disk…

Select Your Hard Drive

If you have more than one hard drive connected to your Mac, you’ll see them all here.

1. Click on the drive that you’ll use with Time Machine.
2. Click Use for Backup to continue

Time Machine Settings

Time Machine has found your hard drive and is ready to start the magic!

1. The Time Machine On / Off slider is now set to ON.
2. The counter has started for your Next Backup. When the counter reaches zero, Time Machine will begin copying files from your Mac to your new, external hard drive.

NOTE: You can move the slider to OFF and shut down Time Machine before the backup starts. Also, if you let the counter reach zero, the backup will begin – It will backup while you work.

Backup Started

The Next Backup counter reached zero and the Time Machine Backup started automatically.

1. The Backup progress bar is shown in a small pop up window
2. The Backup progress is also shown in the main Time Machine preferences window

NOTE: This process will take some time, all pending on how much data you have.

Optional Time Machine Settings

1. (Optional) Click the check box next to “Click the lock to prevent further changes” to make sure nobody can edit the Time Machine Preferences. After it’s locked, you’ll need a password to unlock it and make changes. Make sure you know the password before locking the settings!

2. (Optional) Click the check box next to Show Time Machine Status in the menu bar and guess what it does? It shows the Time Machine status in the menu bar!

3. Click the Question Mark to open up the Time Machine help files.

Time Machine Is Ready And Backing you up!

Requirements For Time Machine

1) A hard drive or Time Capsule big enough to backup all your data, I recommend at least 2 x’s your internal drive or larger.  Drives are cheap these days, so don’t skimp out on your backup storage!

2)  Apple OS X 10.5 or 10.6.  10.6 is the latest and runs only on Intel Macs, so if you have an older Mac that runs on a PPC processor, pick up a copy of 10.5 at Amazon or similar.

ENJOY!

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Tags: Apple, backup, Leopard, Mac, mac backup, small business, Snow, Time Machine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at 7:28 am and is filed under Small Business Computer Tips, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.