Hello Tim Thanks for your suggestion. I had not thought to use both Super Duper and Time Machine. For some years I have been using Super Duper on my "elderly" MacBook and have a separate external drive for that.
When the weather cools (being optimistic) I'll go looking for a 1TB drive. Regards Laura Sent from my iPad On 27/12/2012, at 5:13 PM, Tim Law <t...@peoplehelp.com.au> wrote: > Hello Laura, > > I use Super Duper and Time Machine, on different external back up disks with > my Mac Mini of a similar vintage to yours. > > Super Duper does a full disk copy back up each night. > Time Machine does incremental backups each half hour or so. > > They do different things and have different advantages. > > If there is a fire for example, I'd be grabbing the Super Duper drive first. > Mind you, unplugging the Mini and carting that out of the house is easy as it > is almost as small as the external drive. > If I have deleted a file from early this morning, and want to retrieve it, > then I go into Time Machine. > > Other family members with smallish hard drives also use the same 1Tb drive > over our family network as a Time Machine backup. ie less than 100Gb. > > My suggestion is to buy a 1Tb external drive and use it exclusively for Time > Machine, and keep your current disk for Super Duper. > > Tim > > > On 27/12/2012, at 4:21 PM, Laura Webb <el...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > >> Good afternoon all on this very hot day. >> >> I need some help please with setting up Time Machine to back up on an >> external drive. My MacMini (mid 2010) was originally intended mainly as a >> media centre, However I recently upgraded it to Mountain Lion and intend to >> make more use of its computer capabilities. Previously I used Super Duper >> for backups but Time Machine seems to make more sense. >> >> The external drive I have is USB 320 GB (supplied by Daniel). >> >> When I attempted a back up I was given a message that there is insufficient >> room on the disk. The backup requires 259.82GB but only 123.82GB is >> available. The message also adds that work space is needed for other items >> as well as the actual backup. Fair enough, but is it usual for there to be >> such a difference in the capacity? The external drive works well with Super >> Duper so I could, of course, continue to use that as a back up system. >> >> There is also the option, to exclude some files from the Time Machine back >> up, but I have no idea how to do that or what should be excluded. >> >> Obviously to use Time Machine I need a much larger external drive. Advice as >> to what size and what brand is recommended would be appreciated. >> >> Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2013. My thanks particularly to >> Ronni and also to other members who so readily give advice when it is >> required. >> >> Regards >> Laura >> >> >> MacMini >> 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo >> 4GB Memory >> OSX 10.8.2 >> >> >> >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Settings & Unsubscribe - >> <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
