SSD as Backup Drive?

[dix]

: Does adding a drive via "Select Disk..." in the Time Machine Preferences panel, add a redundant TM backup disk, or add capacity? ...the latter is what I'm after.

It adds another backup drive in the queue. TM backs up hourly and when there are multiple drives, it goes round-robin.

To add capacity, you can get a larger drive or pair drives in RAID 0 — which nearly doubles speed. Problem with RAID 0 is that, if one drive goes down, the data is gone on both. Speed is not an issue with TM anyway.

Thanks. It's the term "round-robin" that confuses things for me in this context. I've never been sure, from reading TM support-info, if this meant TM was creating two redundant backup documents and alternating between them when performing backups, OR if it was using a round-robin scheme to increase capacity.

So when you say "To add capacity, you can get a larger drive or pair drives in RAID 0"..., by "get" do you mean add a larger drive, or replace my current TM drive with a bigger one? ...apologies for dragging you into my semantic rabbit-hole!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Redundant backups (aka round robin) works like this.

At 2:00, drive A backs up. Everything in that back up is current at 2:00. At 3:00 drive B backs up. Everything current at 3:00 is backed up. At 4:00 drive A kicks in. At 5:00 drive B does. If at 5:30 you loose a file, restore from drive B. If drive B and your file both go South, backup from drive A. You’ll be back at the 4:00 version (90 min. lost). Also, remember that only the saved and auto saved files will be backed up unless you excluded any auto save folders from the backup. Basically each redundant backup is completely independent from the others.

[dix]

Got it. But I remain stumped on how to add capacity. Would both the A and B drives in this scenario need to be replaced with larger drives if I wanted to include more of my system drives/data in TM backups?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The simple answer is you need as much drive space necessary to hold the data you’re protecting. And then some.

[dix]

The simple answer is you need as much drive space necessary to hold the data you’re protecting. And then some.

I guess I'm not being clear, but I can't figure out how to articulate it any better.

I understand this MLC. I don't have enough drive space. Now what? Buy a bigger drive (or drives) and start an entirely new TM document? Or is there a way to scale TM capacity as my needs grow?

Thanks for your help!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Yes. If you are out of space you need bigger drives. I dedicate my TM drives for that purpose alone. Spinners are pretty inexpensive these days. I have a 8TB and a 4TB backup with a blank 4TB in the wings.

[dix]

Okay. It seems weird to have to start over every time you want to add capacity to the Time Machine backup scheme, but that is clearly the case...this explains why I can't find a recommended procedure for this on the internet. There ain't none!

The expense is not a problem. There's lots of reasonable drives for this - including a USB 3.0 14TB WD external for just $260! It's the time creating an entirely new TM document that is slightly a pain.

Thanks again

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It's not just TImeMachine. If you opt for any backup or clone, the drive should be large enough to handle it. It sounds like your wanting to add to your current backup. Is that correct? I don't know a way to do that and frankly wouldn't trust a backup that is across several inter-dependent drives. Too risky, IMO.

When my system grows too large for my current backup, I buy a new drive(s) and retire the old ones. Well, retire them from service as backups. They're mighty handy when I'm doing a large project and want to keep it separate, especially if I'm editing picture as well as music. I've also been able to off load my iTunes and picture libraries to former TM backup drives and make space on my lowly 1TB boot drive. Space I use for my VIs, which I;d much rather have on my boot drive.

[dix]

It's not just TImeMachine. If you opt for any backup or clone, the drive should be large enough to handle it. It sounds like your wanting to add to your current backup. Is that correct? I don't know a way to do that and frankly wouldn't trust a backup that is across several inter-dependent drives. Too risky, IMO. ...

That was correct. Now that you have pointed it out, the idea of spreading the backup document over multiple drives doesn't seem like a good idea. I was thinking the new. bigger backups would just go on the new, bigger drive, while the older backups ones would stay on the old drive. But, regardless of the size, it is just one document that TM looks at.

One more question MLC. When you retire the old drives, are you not vulnerable while the new TimeMachine backup is being created? I'd like to double+ my current 6TB backup. That will take quite a while to backup - a few days m'be? I'm thinking I should wait for my Backblaze backup to complete (now just 18 days) before I retire the old and bring in the new.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I just disconnect the old drive but don’t eliminate it in TimeMachine until the new backups are in place. Even then, I’ll wait weeks before reformatting the old drive. I’d also suggest keeping an eye on the amount of free space on the backup drives. When they get about 75% full, start thinking about replacing them.

[nk_e]

FWIW, a system that will allow you to grow capacity without having to start over each time is DROBO. It holds multiple drives and as capacity is reached, it prompts you to swap out a drive for a larger one then Integrates the new drive by rebuilding whatever was on the drive you just removed onto the new larger drive.

I don’t use TM. (Hated it when it first came out and have not tried it since. Sounds like I need to give it another chance.) I use CarbonCopyCloner and schedule various backups. It’s about the easiest set and forget system I’ve ever used.

You can buy a used Drobo on eBay for $250 or so.

Http://www.drobo.com

[mikehalloran]

I use CarbonCopyCloner and schedule various backups. It’s about the easiest set and forget system I’ve ever used.

Except that it isn't, really, and disables certain functionality unless you enable it to "work with Time Machine" which is now recommended.

Since you really should enable that, there is absolutely no need for CCC anymore (not that there really has been since OS 10.6). Cloning doesn't actually "clone" anything and never did. Cloning is built into the Disk Utility and so-called cloneware has always been an API to control DU.

It's really funny to read that people can schedule nightly backups in CCC or SD! when TM does them hourly in the background with no interference of any kind.

Yes, there were problems in the beginning but that was over 12 years ago and nearly all had to do with those horrid Seagate drives that Apple was using in their Time Capsules. Even if you took Apple up on the recall back then, the replacements were nearly as bad.

[nk_e]

I use CarbonCopyCloner and schedule various backups. It’s about the easiest set and forget system I’ve ever used.

Except that it isn't, really, and disables certain functionality unless you enable it to "work with Time Machine" which is now recommended.

Well, it's the easiest system *I* have ever used.

I got burned by TM a couple of times long ago AND burned by several Seagate drives twice. I stay away from both. Meanwhile, Drobo + CCC has saved my butt on several occasions. To each his own I guess.

Since you really should enable that, there is absolutely no need for CCC anymore (not that there really has been since OS 10.6). Cloning doesn't actually "clone" anything and never did. Cloning is built into the Disk Utility and so-called cloneware has always been an API to control DU.

It's really funny to read that people can schedule nightly backups in CCC or SD! when TM does them hourly in the background with no interference of any kind.

Yes, there were problems in the beginning but that was over 12 years ago and nearly all had to do with those horrid Seagate drives that Apple was using in their Time Capsules. Even if you took Apple up on the recall back then, the replacements were nearly as bad.

I think I will set up a TM backup drive on one of the spares I have floating around and give it a test run for a bit. A decade is a long time. I'm sure things must have improved...

Cheers.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I've never been burned by TM, but I have has a WD Black go south on me last year. It was a TIM backup. Fortunately, I do redundant backups for that very reason. Between the redundant backups and the actual drive, that's three copies of my important files and system. It feels fairly fool proof, but then again, consider the fool at my console. lol

[HCMarkus]

Have so many copies of my Project Data...

Work SSD
Work Backup A HD (current Projects copied/merged to this drive at session close)
Work Backup B HD (current Projects copied/merged to this drive at session close - password protected)
Time Machine (rotating External 8TB Seagate SMR USB-connected)
Archive HD and Remote Copies (Old Projects, also on old TM drives)
Backblaze (Everything except Applications and System - it does not allow backing up of those files)

When I fill a Time Machine drive, it gets retired and stored. It takes quite a while to fill 8TB.

As a fire is currently burning about 25 miles south and east of me on this extremely hot day, I am very happy Backblaze has my complete backup far, far away.

EDIT: Inspired by the flames (and having lost a studio to fire once before), I pulled out all the old Seagate backups and ran them all. Pleased to see all (3TB, 4TB, 5TB and 8TB) still running smoothly and responding perfectly to spot checks. With the exception of the drive that resides with my daughter some files away, they are all now neatly packed in an old laptop case, ready to be spirited away in a flash.