Time Machine to Nowhere
January 31, 2016 1:50 PM Subscribe
I have a 3TB Apple HD that I’ve been *ostensibly* using, in conjunction with Time Machine, to back up my data for the past couple of years. I say “ostensibly” because it takes forever and never seems to fully complete. Please help me figure out a new approach.
I’d like to keep using the Apple HD as it still has 2.5TB of available space. My real issue is with: a) using Time Machine, and b) backing up via wi-fi. The whole operation takes forever (more than 24 hours and I do NOT have the amount of data that should require that long - just some applications, email, music, personal documents, and data from YNAB) and I’d prefer to just go old school and use a cable and either drag folders over manually/wholesale or use a different, better piece of software to handle back-ups on an ongoing, regular basis.
In addition to the HD, I have the following:
- MacBook Air (13-inch, mid 2011)
- Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch, 2012)
I believe the only ports the HD, Air and display (which I have my laptop plugged into) share are USB, so I assume I’d have to use that to connect. Maybe my only real question then is do I just drag stuff over manually or should I use a piece of software to do it regularly/automatically. I'd also like to be able to restore from this back-up, if possible (which was the original allure of using Time Machine.)
I should also mention that I also sync my Mac data (email, contacts, photos, music) to iCloud, but I want a redundant back-up on a physical device within my possession as well.
Any suggestions? Thank you!
I’d like to keep using the Apple HD as it still has 2.5TB of available space. My real issue is with: a) using Time Machine, and b) backing up via wi-fi. The whole operation takes forever (more than 24 hours and I do NOT have the amount of data that should require that long - just some applications, email, music, personal documents, and data from YNAB) and I’d prefer to just go old school and use a cable and either drag folders over manually/wholesale or use a different, better piece of software to handle back-ups on an ongoing, regular basis.
In addition to the HD, I have the following:
- MacBook Air (13-inch, mid 2011)
- Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch, 2012)
I believe the only ports the HD, Air and display (which I have my laptop plugged into) share are USB, so I assume I’d have to use that to connect. Maybe my only real question then is do I just drag stuff over manually or should I use a piece of software to do it regularly/automatically. I'd also like to be able to restore from this back-up, if possible (which was the original allure of using Time Machine.)
I should also mention that I also sync my Mac data (email, contacts, photos, music) to iCloud, but I want a redundant back-up on a physical device within my possession as well.
Any suggestions? Thank you!
Best answer: Time Capsule devices (which are Airport Extreme routers with a hard drive built in) can be used as straight up network storage. See here for more info. Basically, it ought to appear in the Finder. (Note that you may have to turn stuff on in Finder before it will show up. Go into Preferences from within Finder and make sure "Connected servers" and "Bonjour computers" are turned on under Sidebar. AFAIK they're off by default, so you won't see the Time Capsule by default.) Once you've connected to it, it'll work just like any other external hard drive or USB memory stick thing.
You cannot connect a USB cable between the Time Capsule and your Mac. The port on the Capsule is a host port (like the ones on your Mac) and is there for attaching more storage to or attaching a printer; it doesn't work the other way around. However, it does have an Ethernet port you can use, as does your Thunderbolt Display. If you connect a standard Ethernet cable between your display and the Time Capsule, it ought to default to using Ethernet when your MacBook is plugged into the monitor. Since it seems your Time Capsule is a 3TB one, you ought to have Gigabit Ethernet on both sides of that equation, which'll likely be faster than the wireless, especially since your MacBook (and maybe your Time Capsule)? is old enough that it doesn't support the faster 802.11ac wireless. (As a comparison, the 802.11n wireless your Mac supports tops out around 300Mbit/s. The wire connection is 1,000Mbit/s.)
As for backup software, I like Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!. They both do about the same thing, though I think Carbon Copy Cloner may be a bit easier to use now.
It would probably be a good idea to erase the disk on your Time Capsule before using it as just a drive. Here's an Apple Support thread on that - the first answer is the one you want, just do the erase disk part and don't reset the entire thing. (You can also skip out on the Zero Out Data option, since you're not getting rid of the thing.) As an aside that ought to also clear out the existing Time Machine backups; you might want to try it again with the Thunderbolt Display plugged in and with the Ethernet cable, as that'll be a lot faster and the initial backup is the one that takes the most time. Once it's got a good backup the first time around it ought to work over the straight WiFi better since it'll have to move a lot less data.
posted by mrg at 2:20 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
You cannot connect a USB cable between the Time Capsule and your Mac. The port on the Capsule is a host port (like the ones on your Mac) and is there for attaching more storage to or attaching a printer; it doesn't work the other way around. However, it does have an Ethernet port you can use, as does your Thunderbolt Display. If you connect a standard Ethernet cable between your display and the Time Capsule, it ought to default to using Ethernet when your MacBook is plugged into the monitor. Since it seems your Time Capsule is a 3TB one, you ought to have Gigabit Ethernet on both sides of that equation, which'll likely be faster than the wireless, especially since your MacBook (and maybe your Time Capsule)? is old enough that it doesn't support the faster 802.11ac wireless. (As a comparison, the 802.11n wireless your Mac supports tops out around 300Mbit/s. The wire connection is 1,000Mbit/s.)
As for backup software, I like Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!. They both do about the same thing, though I think Carbon Copy Cloner may be a bit easier to use now.
It would probably be a good idea to erase the disk on your Time Capsule before using it as just a drive. Here's an Apple Support thread on that - the first answer is the one you want, just do the erase disk part and don't reset the entire thing. (You can also skip out on the Zero Out Data option, since you're not getting rid of the thing.) As an aside that ought to also clear out the existing Time Machine backups; you might want to try it again with the Thunderbolt Display plugged in and with the Ethernet cable, as that'll be a lot faster and the initial backup is the one that takes the most time. Once it's got a good backup the first time around it ought to work over the straight WiFi better since it'll have to move a lot less data.
posted by mrg at 2:20 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah. The shiny gleam of Time Machine + Time Capsule wore off for me when I discovered the hard way that rolling back to Yosemite from El Capitan meant I couldn't recover any of my data from the backup, even the user-folder stuff. This was apparently because I had backed up at least once under El Capitan, and that had irrevocably upgraded the backup image somehow. What on earth is the point of a backup solution where you can't recover your data, I ask you? None, that's what.
Because I am primarily a spite-based human being, I moved to using the Time Capsule as a chunk of dumb wifi-attached disk, which seems kind of like your use case, with Carbon Copy Cloner. It can perform automatic differential backups as often as hourly, and keeps date-indexed collections of previous versions of just the things that changed on disk for each backup (the "safetynet" feature). It's not as pretty as Time Machine, and it doesn't have the nice scroll-through-time filesystem view that Time Machine's interface has. Also you cannot make a bootable backup to a network-attached disk; that only works if you're attaching the backup disk directly via Firewire or whatever.
But really, these are prices I'm willing to pay because Apple has pissed me off for the last time. Your requirements may vary.
posted by Mrs. Davros at 2:22 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
Because I am primarily a spite-based human being, I moved to using the Time Capsule as a chunk of dumb wifi-attached disk, which seems kind of like your use case, with Carbon Copy Cloner. It can perform automatic differential backups as often as hourly, and keeps date-indexed collections of previous versions of just the things that changed on disk for each backup (the "safetynet" feature). It's not as pretty as Time Machine, and it doesn't have the nice scroll-through-time filesystem view that Time Machine's interface has. Also you cannot make a bootable backup to a network-attached disk; that only works if you're attaching the backup disk directly via Firewire or whatever.
But really, these are prices I'm willing to pay because Apple has pissed me off for the last time. Your requirements may vary.
posted by Mrs. Davros at 2:22 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Beginning with easy stuff first: Generally when using TM, the first backup is well known to take a long time. Has TM completed a full backup?
Yes, I should've included that info: the initial back-up was a couple of years ago. Now, just updates - like 300MB at a time, max.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 2:31 PM on January 31, 2016
Yes, I should've included that info: the initial back-up was a couple of years ago. Now, just updates - like 300MB at a time, max.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 2:31 PM on January 31, 2016
hapax_legomenon Yes, I should've included that info: the initial back-up was a couple of years ago. Now, just updates - like 300MB at a time, max.
That's actually expected behavior. It doesn't do a full backup every time, just of whatever's changed. This is a lot easier on the drive and on your network connection.
I've had a Time Capsule for the last few years---I'm on my second now, actually---and I've never had to do a full restore from it. I'd suggest doing a three-pronged backup strategy. Back up to the Time Machine drive, clone your drive on a regular basis with something like SuperDuper! and then do an online backup through a service like Backblaze. If your data isn't in at least three places, including one off-site backup, you don't have a backup at all.
posted by SansPoint at 2:35 PM on January 31, 2016
That's actually expected behavior. It doesn't do a full backup every time, just of whatever's changed. This is a lot easier on the drive and on your network connection.
I've had a Time Capsule for the last few years---I'm on my second now, actually---and I've never had to do a full restore from it. I'd suggest doing a three-pronged backup strategy. Back up to the Time Machine drive, clone your drive on a regular basis with something like SuperDuper! and then do an online backup through a service like Backblaze. If your data isn't in at least three places, including one off-site backup, you don't have a backup at all.
posted by SansPoint at 2:35 PM on January 31, 2016
Seconding the off-site backup strategy. SpiderOak has saved my bacon twice now when Time Machine wasn't able to get me my own data back.
posted by Mrs. Davros at 3:05 PM on January 31, 2016
posted by Mrs. Davros at 3:05 PM on January 31, 2016
it takes forever and never seems to fully complete
I have exactly this problem with one of my older machines, or, more correctly, one with an older OS. The fix is to just restart the machine when it begins to happen. Fixes it.
This may not be the same problem, but have you tried that?
Personally, I would persevere with TM. I use it at work for all the machines there, backing up to a server, and at home and it's pretty good really. I do daily and weekly clones of my important drives using Carbon Copy Cloner as well, but TM works well for what it is.
posted by mewsic at 7:29 PM on January 31, 2016
I have exactly this problem with one of my older machines, or, more correctly, one with an older OS. The fix is to just restart the machine when it begins to happen. Fixes it.
This may not be the same problem, but have you tried that?
Personally, I would persevere with TM. I use it at work for all the machines there, backing up to a server, and at home and it's pretty good really. I do daily and weekly clones of my important drives using Carbon Copy Cloner as well, but TM works well for what it is.
posted by mewsic at 7:29 PM on January 31, 2016
I back up three Airs and a new Pro to a Time capsule without issue all the time. I do it wirelessly and it works seamlessly. I would suggest rebuilding the Capsule and starting over with a new backup.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:32 AM on February 1, 2016
posted by cjorgensen at 6:32 AM on February 1, 2016
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone - all of your answers/comments have been helpful!
posted by hapax_legomenon at 12:27 PM on February 1, 2016
posted by hapax_legomenon at 12:27 PM on February 1, 2016
Time Machine is a very good solution, simple enough for most people to actually use and good enough to get the job done most of the time.
> I’d prefer to just go old school and use a cable and either drag folders over manually/wholesale or use a different, better piece of software to handle back-ups on an ongoing, regular basis.
If you go this route, the key problem will be actually remembering to make those backups religiously. It's amazing how quickly a little bit of procrastination adds up to a month of backlog, and it is downright spooky how disks fail at points of maximum inconvenience.
That said, I use and recommend Super Duper! and I've heard good things about Carbon Copy Cloner as well. But again, those aren't useful if you don't actually do the backups without fail.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:02 PM on February 1, 2016
> I’d prefer to just go old school and use a cable and either drag folders over manually/wholesale or use a different, better piece of software to handle back-ups on an ongoing, regular basis.
If you go this route, the key problem will be actually remembering to make those backups religiously. It's amazing how quickly a little bit of procrastination adds up to a month of backlog, and it is downright spooky how disks fail at points of maximum inconvenience.
That said, I use and recommend Super Duper! and I've heard good things about Carbon Copy Cloner as well. But again, those aren't useful if you don't actually do the backups without fail.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:02 PM on February 1, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by artdrectr at 2:18 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]