Backups in the world of computing is something that is associated with tranquility. Each operating system offers us a system to be able to create a backup so that in the event of a serious error on our hard drive, do not lose all the information we have stored in it. But this is not its only function. It is always important to make a backup when we want to install the latest version of the operating system that the company launches every year in case something goes wrong in the process and we have to start installing from scratch formatting and losing all the content that we have installed or saved. on our Mac.
But in addition, Time Machine is ideal for recovering files that we have deleted by accident and cannot be found in any directory on our hard drive. The great advantage that Time Machine offers us compared to other applications for making backup copies is that we can access the copies as if it were a disk drive so that we can independently consult and restore files if necessary, something that we cannot do with any other software to make backup copies.
Apple makes the Time Machine application available to all users a software that allows us to make backup copies of all the content that we have stored on our Mac. Time Machine comes installed natively in the latest versions of OS X, from its appearance in version 10.5 of OS X in 2007, baptized with the name Leopard. Time Machine creates incremental backups of files that can be restored when needed. The main advantage it offers us is that we can restore a file, a group of files or the entire system.
Apple offers us several options when it comes to making backup copies through Time Machine:
- External hard drive connected to a USB port on an AirPort Extreme Base Station, so that we will always have all the ports of our Mac free for what we need.
- External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port Mac. This solution is the fastest and cheapest since the only investment we have to make is the hard drive.
- A Time Capsule or OS X Server on the network. As the name Time Capsule indicates, it is like a time capsule where Time Machine performs all the incremental backups of our Mac. The main advantage that this system offers us is that we can have it anywhere in the house since its connection is via Wi-Fi. To make the first backup with the Time Capsule, it is best to do it through a network cable, so that the process is much faster than Wi-Fi.
Currently the price of SSD disks has dropped a lot and we can find them at very cheap prices. SSD hard drives offer us a much faster writing and reading speed than traditional hard drives, hence many are the users who are choosing to upgrade their Mac hard drive for one of this type. This change offers a new life to our Mac by dramatically reducing both the startup of OS X and the execution of the applications that we have installed.
But also, if we are going to buy an external hard drive to make backup copies, we should consider the option of being SSD, since both the creation time of the backup copies will be less in addition to allowing us to access the different backups that we make in a much faster way.
OS X is configured so that every time we connect a hard drive to the Mac's USB ask us if we want to use it to create backup copies through Time Machine. If we are clear at that time that we want to use this hard drive to store backup copies, we will select Use this disc, otherwise, if we have connected a hard drive from which we want to extract data, we must click Do not use.
How Time Machine works
As I mentioned above, Time Machine is the backup system of OS X, which offers you the possibility of always keep safe any changes we make on our Mac. Time Machine performs a backup of the last 24 hours every hour, a backup of every day of the last month, and a backup of every week of the last months. As the drive we use to make the backup becomes full, the oldest copies are automatically deleted.
Why Time Machine copies take so long to make
If we have never made a backup copy in Time Machine, it is most likely that the first copy takes several hours to be made, it depends on the volume of files we have and what type they are. Backing up 20.000 Word files is not the same as backing up 20.000 songs in MP3 format. The main advantage that Time Machine offers us is that each backup you make includes only files that have been modified or added since the last backupHence, when we have already made the first backup, the successive ones take much less time unless we have added a lot of video files, which will always slow down the backup.
How to delete Time Machine backups
- If for whatever reason we need to delete any of the oldest backups, since that specific hard drive is used to perform other tasks, we can perform this task manually without waiting for the hard disk to fill up and not be able to use it for the other needs we have.
- First, we go to the Time Machine icon, located in the top menu bar and represented by an analog clock with an arrow that rotates counterclockwise. Within the drop-down menu that appears we will select Enter Time Machine.
- Now, all backups will be displayed one after another and where the first one is the last one that has been made. Just to the right of the backups indicates the day the backup was made. To find the copy we want to delete more quickly, we can go to the right side of the screen and scroll to the specified date.
- Once the window of the backup that we want to delete is displayed, we will click on the gear wheel and select Delete backup. OS X will show us a poster confirming that we want to delete the backup for that day. To confirm it, we just have to click on Accept.
- Finally, for the system to delete that backup, which will take a few minutes, OS X will ask us for the password of our user, to verify that we are the legitimate users of these backups.
How to delete a file or file from Time Machine backups
The process to remove any files from backups It is practically the same as I have explained in the previous section in which I have shown you how we can delete an entire backup. This option is ideal if we want to delete a file that has a representative weight in the backup copies and that allows us to obtain an extra space, such as applications or movies.
- First of all we will go to the icon represented by a clock located in the upper menu bar and select Enter Time Machine.
- Now we must head through the window that shows us the latest backup to the file we want to delete.
- Once we have located on the file in question, we must click on it and click on the gear wheel so that it offers us the different options that we can do with it. We will select Delete all backup copies of "selected file or folder name". In this way Time Machine will remove any traces on all backups that we have done so far on those files or folders.
- OS X will ask us for confirmation to perform the deletion and will also request that let's enter the password of the user of that backup, that is, our password.
Speed up copies to Time Machine
Above I have commented that the first backup we make with Time Machine it may take us a large number of hours depending on the content that we have stored on our Mac and of which we want to make a copy. Subsequent copies as only focus on new files the processing time is less.
If you usually make backup copies with this application you will have seen that we never know when backups are taking place because the system is giving priority to the execution of the applications and the general operation of the system not to the backup, which at that moment is secondary.
On some occasions, we have had the need to copy a large amount of information on our Mac and we need to make a copy to Time Machine as soon as possible. In these cases, we can use a command that modifies system preferences, granting Time Machine a greater amount of resources, so the operation of our Mac will be affected. To do this we just have to open Terminal, and write the following command:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled = 0
If you are using an old version of OS X, prior to El Capitan and the previous command does not work, try adding the –w parameter so that it would look like this:
sudo sysctl –w debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled = 0
For OS X to make this change, we will be prompted for the user password again. Keep in mind that this command is reversible, we just have to restart the Mac so that the backup becomes a background process again
Hello to take pictures or videos from the computer use Jing 2, available on the apple page.
But I have a question. I had my copy of time machine on a disk of only 200 gb, and now I want to change it to Capsule, but I don't know how to migrate the content. I had chosen to back up my computer and the same external disk (the old one), but it tells me that it does not have enough capacity. And surely then you can't get the data back. Do you know how to do it?
Thank you
THANKS! I had gone crazy looking for this information! 😀
Hello jaca101
I have tried to delete large files from my TM backups to "thin" the external HD but can't do it.
When I open Backups.backupdb and look for, for example, the Windows XP virtual machine for VMWare Fusion, which occupies about 3 Gb in each backup, it does not allow me to delete anything. In the "gear wheel" menu I only get the conventional options: New folder, open, get information, duplicate ...
What version of OS X do you use?
How complicated is it to delete TM backups?
A greeting.
I have some very specific questions about TM:
- each backup (every hour, of the last 24 hours; every day of the last week, every month of the last year…) saves all the contents of the internal disk, or only the files modified since the last backup?
- if I have TM programmed in Yes (backups every hour), and I have disconnected my external HDD?
- as I understand it, I can delete all my files from my document folders (having made a backup with TM before deleting them), to free my internal disk (only with the system folders and programs installed), and recover any files that I had in them?
- related to the previous question, does the backup work as an external disk? that is, can I open a document on another mac from my TM backup disk, or without having to restore it to my internal disk?
- with some other applications (particularly Retrospect Express) (it came with my iomega external HDD) it is possible to make backup copies (backups) in different units (foreseeing that one of them fails)… can this be done with TM?
thank you, I hope someone can answer me
good vibes
Hello, I have found a fast, simple and effective solution and it consists of, once connected the hard disk where you have made time machine, enter disk utility, select the hard disk, at the top click on delete, at the bottom right click on erase and voila! =)
good info thanks
To take Time Machine captures: cmd + shift + 3 and the captured image of the entire screen is saved on the desktop.
I want to backup some files…. not all!!!! how i do it
To delete the backup copies of the TM and make it clean as the first day, see the following apple article that explains it perfectly, and has nothing to do with the comments of the forums that are on the net.
http://www.sockshare.com/file/082CAE930798B0FD
I hope you serve.
Sorry but the link is this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4522?viewlocale=es_ES
The copy paste has happened to me a bad trick ...
They do not explain if all those deleted files are going to the trash. Does deleting that high volume of files from the Trash affect solid disk wear?
I can't delete the backups I don't know how to enable to see the configuration nut type icon. and also now I see several copies of the same thing in the applications folder