Just had to use Time Machine for the first time

[Flashy]

I've been using my Mac mini for work for months now, after my work Windows laptop broke some time during lockdown #1 last year. Even after being sent a replacement I carried on using the Mac with the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, as it was a nicer experience and I had my music and everything else on hand at the same time.

Did some general housekeeping and updates yesterday, which included the remote desktop app. Went to log in to my work's Workspace today and it wouldn't connect. See online that loads of people have had the same issue with the latest version.

Minor panic at the thought of having to use the laptop, then I thought of Time Machine – which I haven't had to use in more than seven years of Mac use. I was a bit annoyed at having to restore the Mac to a point yesterday before I'd sorted loads of things. But that was because I didn't realise you could just restore things app by app, if you want to.

With a couple of clicks it was done and I'm working fine again. To paraphrase: it just worked. It's not often a computer will impress me, especially not a seven-plus-year-old one. But impressed I am.

 

[CamFire]

And do you know that if you have access to more than one volume/drive configured for Time Machine to access to as well, then you also have a "backup" copy if one of them dies...

 

[Flashy]

And do you know that if you have access to more than one volume/drive configured for Time Machine to access to as well, then you also have a "backup" copy if one of them dies...

Yeah, I need to sort out my storage as it’s back to front at the moment.

I have a 4TB external drive with a Time Machine partition and a media partition. So if the drive fails I’ll need to deal with both separately.

The media is manually backed up to a few smaller USB drives periodically, spread across a 500GB, a 1TB and a 2TB drive. So it’s not the neatest of solutions. (Also have the Mac’s original HDD in an enclosure from when I upgraded to SSD.)

Really, I should get another large external drive, move the media to it and use the current 4TB one (with media partition removed) purely for TM duties and have it back up everything, then use the spare drives as off-site backups and manually update them every so often.

Or I carry on as I am until the drive fails. It’s into its fifth year now.

 

[iamsludge]

I found the Lacie Mobile Drive 5TB USB-C/USB-3 drives pretty good if you don’t need a powered drive. I like that they come with both USB-C and USB3 so are future-proof in that respect. I got mine off Amazon - they come in different capacities too. I was hoping they would be fast enough to plug into my TV and play 4k from, but no, I need a powered drive for that.

 

[Flashy]

I found the Lacie Mobile Drive 5TB USB-C/USB-3 drives pretty good if you don’t need a powered drive. I like that they come with both USB-C and USB3 so are future-proof in that respect. I got mine off Amazon - they come in different capacities too. I was hoping they would be fast enough to plug into my TV and play 4k from, but no, I need a powered drive for that.

Thanks. I don’t need a powered drive but it might be the sensible way to go, if only because of price.

And I would need more than 5GB for an all-encompassing Time Machine drive. Might get away with 6TB but it’ll be backing up the 500GB SSD and everything on the combined TM/media 4TB external drive which has less than 1TB free, so 8TB might be sensible. Or might be overkill, as while the SSD will see constant changes the rest of it won’t.