Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Modify the Hourly Backup Interval
Time Machine normally runs every hour. However, what if you would
like it, instead, to run every three hours or twelve hours? You can
adjust the backup interval using either of two free utilities. In earlier
incarnations of this topic, I listed these along with other dangerous,
unsupported hacks, but now that I understand more about Time
Machine's inner workings, I think that was unfair. It's true that these
utilities modify a hidden preference, but it's quite benign; besides, I've
done this myself for years (even while recommending against it) and
have had no problems. Your choices are these:
•
TimeMachineEditor
(my personal pick) lets you set Time Machine's
backup interval to any number of hours, and lets you choose
arbitrary recurring backup times (such as hourly on Mondays and
Wednesdays, or every Saturday and Thursday at 6:15 AM). And, you
can opt to have backups run automatically when the Time Machine
volume is mounted, when your computer wakes up, or both.
•
TimeMachineScheduler
provides you with a slider that lets you
schedule backups in intervals of between 1 and 12 hours, optionally
turning off backups during certain hours. It can also attempt to
automatically mount your Time Machine volume if it's not already
mounted when a backup is scheduled—handy when you're backing
up to a volume connected to another Mac on your network and the
other Mac goes offline temporarily for any reason.
Migrate to a Larger Time Machine Disk
When your Time Machine backup volume fills up, Time Machine will
delete old files to make room for new ones, but sooner or later you may
want to have more backup capacity—whether for more files, a longer
history, or files from multiple users. So the natural solution is to switch
to a bigger disk (or maybe from a local drive to a Time Capsule with a
larger disk). If you simply switch disks in the Time Machine preference
pane, you'll have to start over with a brand-new full backup. If you
