Comments on: How To Setup Time Machine

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:38:44 +0000

Hi Dan – If you DON’T need the data on the external hard drive, you can reformat it. Then it should work on the new computer with Time Machine. *But be careful – reformatting will erase everything!* Of course, if you need to save all the data from the old computer, you may need a bigger external hard drive. The external drive must be big enough to fit all of the Time Machine files for both Macs. If your MacBooks each have an 80GB hard drive, then you’ll need an external drive with at least 160GB.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:13:59 +0000

I bought a MAC book-pro in March to upgrade from my MAC book I bought in 2008. I can’t get the time machine hard drive I used with my old MAC to work on my new MAC. What can I do?

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 15 May 2010 19:42:54 +0000

Hi Jerry – Time Machine can backup 2 hard drives. I only have 1 external drive, but I found this forum thread at apple.com: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10284724�. The fact that you say it's a "media" drive makes me think it's filled with music & video - which could be a huge amount of data. Are you sure your Time Machine hard drive has enough free space to back up everything?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:00:10 +0000

I am a new to the computer world and I LOVE my mac book pro!!! I have one external hard drive that I am using for time machine back up and another hard drive for my media files. I am getting an error that says the back up was not performed because while copying files to back up disk an error occurred. Now, when I do not have my media hard drive plugged in, time machine backs up fine. I only get the error when I have my media hard drive plugged in. Does time machine not have the capability to back up a this additional hard drive?
Help!!!

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:44:32 +0000

Hi Eugene – It’s that kind of reply that inspires me to keep on blogging and trying to help fellow Mac users. Thanks for the kind words.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:23:17 +0000

Very detailed and informative. Steps are easy to follow with great sense of humor. You made my job so easy…
Thank you so much.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 05:39:06 +0000

Hi Shelley – I’d make sure Time Machine is turned on first. Click System Preferences, then Time Machine. Make sure the switch is set to ON. If it is ON, and Time Machine can’t find your hard drive – sorry, BigGal – then click on “Select Disk.” Now select BigGal from the list, then click “Use for backup”. Hopefully, that will fix the problem. If not, let me know what happens.

By: Shelley G

Shelley G — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:53:40 +0000

I enjoyed reading your instructions for setting up Time Machine–great sense of humor.

I installed my Western Digital “BigGal” prior to applying my Time Machine. I ran into trouble when I went to verify my Time m/c was doing its job. I totally assumed Time m/c was backing up my BigGal. It wasn’t. So where do I go from here? Do you have an answer?

Thanks.
Shelley

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:57:18 +0000

Hi Patricia – Try this: To restore information using Time Machine:

1. Make sure Mail is the current application.
2. Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock. Time Machine displays the current state, indicated as Today (Now), of the selected mailbox in the foreground, with available backups in the background.
3. Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of the screen to browse through the available backups.
4. Select a mailbox, or one or more messages, to restore, and then click Restore. Restored mailboxes and messages are organized in a Time Machine mailbox in On My Mac in the sidebar.

If that doesn’t work, try the TimeMachine Help at apple.com

By: patricia

patricia — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:36:46 +0000

Great Tutorial. I still have a problem retriving data. Got Time machine working well already. Recently had my mac Mail lose all Sent mail (never figure out why) and I have tried to retrieve it. When I clck on the time machine icon in the dock and it goes into it’s Star Wars view of showing by date, going backwards and I choose the day that I lost the mail, then choose applications then Mail, it only gives me the mail statistics, not the actual mail. Any suggestions?