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This should be easier
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Just installed Leopard.
I have one small folder that I want Time Machine to backup. Only that folder.
I have a USB flash drive that I want Time Machine to backup to. It has a 1GB capacity.
I formated the flash drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
Time Machine does not recognize the flash drive. I have tried other USB ports. OSX does recognize the flash drive and I can read/write to it.
Also, it seems that all files are backup up by default. Is it possible to turn off all files then enable just the one folder I want backed up?
thanks
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
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That's not the type of backup Time Machine is designed to do.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Originally Posted by Big Mac 
That's not the type of backup Time Machine is designed to do.
Is the problem the 1GB flash drive? Is the problem backing up only 1 folder? Surely 'Time Machine' can backup to a flash drive. Surely 'Time Machine' can be configured to exclude certain folders.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Time Machine isn't very flexible or configuration. Apple designed it to back up everything. I'd very much like Time Machine to work on an include basis rather than an exclude basis, but that's not what Apple decided to implement. I don't want my web browser cache, temp directory, etc backed up, but with the current TM model I have to locate each one of them and create an exclusion for each. Note that Apple didn't maintain 100% consistency here, since they don't backup and version your page/swap file.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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If Safari's cache files and your /tmp directory are getting backed up by Time Machine, something is off. I'm pretty sure they're normally excluded. You can run the following command to see what all is excluded by default:
defaults read /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Vancouver, BC
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<>Is the problem the 1GB flash drive? Is the problem backing up only 1 folder?
right. Time machine backs up everything - full stop - period.
I use ChronoSync from Econ for more granular backups
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2004
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I know this is more than obvious, but you do know you can just drag and drop the (one) folder right onto the flash drive. What's the problem with that?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Originally Posted by Chuckit
If Safari's cache files and your /tmp directory are getting backed up by Time Machine, something is off. I'm pretty sure they're normally excluded. You can run the following command to see what all is excluded by default:
defaults read /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions
So why doesn't Apple make these more obvious are list them in the GUI? Lame lame lame.
The web cache I'm speaking of is Firefoxes; the users I support don't touch Safari.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
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It ignores all the Library/Cache directories entirely.
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Vandelay Industries
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Originally Posted by Nodnarb
I know this is more than obvious, but you do know you can just drag and drop the (one) folder right onto the flash drive. What's the problem with that?
Fair question. It's actually several folders. But copying the folders would require me to add the time date to the folders:
desktopback020220081030
desktopback020220081115
etc
I was hoping that Time Machine would automate the process for me. I can still manually backup to the flash drive - but TM was the entire reason for upgrading to Leopard.
Thanks for all the help.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
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When you say that Time Machine doesn't recognize your flash drive, do you mean that it actually doesn't show up in the list of available backup drives?
As opposed to what some of the above posts have said, it shouldn't be too much of a pain (a few minutes, tops) to exclude everything except the folder you want to backup from Time Machine's preference pane. As long as your flash drive shows up on the list of available drives, I'm not sure what the problem would be - unless I'm missing something here entirely.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
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Originally Posted by mduell
So why doesn't Apple make these more obvious are list them in the GUI?
Maybe because that would imply it's something the user is supposed to know or care about, which I don't think it is intended to be. That would be my guess.
I don't know why you're upset to discover that Time Machine actually works the way you were saying it should. It seems like good news to me that it doesn't back up caches.
(Last edited by Chuckit; Feb 5, 2008 at 02:24 AM.
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Chuck
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Originally Posted by thoreau
Is the problem the 1GB flash drive? Is the problem backing up only 1 folder? Surely 'Time Machine' can backup to a flash drive. Surely 'Time Machine' can be configured to exclude certain folders.
I don't think anyone actually answered you; the problem is probably the flash drive. Supported drives should be selectable in the Time Machine prefpane; flash drives are probably unsupported, since they're usually too small for what Time Machine is intended for (full backups).
If you want to try to trick the system into supporting your flash drive, do this in the Terminal:
touch /Volumes/drivename/.com.apple.timemachine.supported
I just tried it on mine and it didn't work; but that may be because my flash drive is still FAT32.
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Moderator  Join Date: May 2001
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Just one piece of advice: USB sticks are not good backup devices, they aren't made for harddrive-like duties. That's why SSD drives are so much more expensive than USB sticks with comparable capacity!
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Minnesota
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Until time machine becomes more user configurable, better off buying a external drive and using other software that lets you select what you want to back up.
Randy
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2010 Mac Mini, 32GB iPod Touch, 2 Apple TV (1)
Home built 12 core 2.93 Westmere PC (almost half the cost of MP) Win7 64.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Originally Posted by Chuckit
Maybe because that would imply it's something the user is supposed to know or care about, which I don't think it is intended to be. That would be my guess.
I don't know why you're upset to discover that Time Machine actually works the way you were saying it should. It seems like good news to me that it doesn't back up caches.
The problem is that that there's no obvious/intuitive way to see what it's supposed to exclude and it doesn't include by default with popular 3rd party apps.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Toronto, ON
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thoreau >> It seems like that particular drive isn't supported, but then again, I dont hink any USB drives are. I've tested with a few I have, all different brands, and time machine never prompts me to use a USB drive for its backups.
I'm just speculating of course, don't really have anything to base it off of other than my trials.
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MacBook Pro | 2.16 ghz core2duo | 2gb ram | superdrive | airport extreme
iBook G4 | 1.2ghz | 768mb ram | combodrive | airport extreme
iPhone 3GS | 32 GB | Jailbreak, or no Jailbreak
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Originally Posted by gradient
When you say that Time Machine doesn't recognize your flash drive, do you mean that it actually doesn't show up in the list of available backup drives?
Yes. It does not show up in the Time Machine window as an available drive.
Originally Posted by wataru
If you want to try to trick the system into supporting your flash drive, do this in the Terminal:
I will try this later. Thanks.
Originally Posted by OreoCookie
Just one piece of advice: USB sticks are not good backup devices, they aren't made for harddrive-like duties. That's why SSD drives are so much more expensive than USB sticks with comparable capacity!
Perhaps, but I have never heard of a USB flash drive failing and I've used them (and our workgroup) for years. I've heard of many tales of traditional hard drives failing. To be sure, a SSD drive would be a better option. But right now I'm not even sure Time Machine would recognize that.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Time Machine makes it easy to back up everything to a second hard drive. That's what it was designed for. Use it for something else and you are abusing it. Even if you could set up Time Machine to back up those folders to an USB stick, then how do you back up the rest of your data?
.Mac Backup can do incremental backups of varying data sets to a multitude of media. It would be the right tool for this.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Originally Posted by TETENAL
Time Machine makes it easy to back up everything to a second hard drive. That's what it was designed for. Use it for something else and you are abusing it. Even if you could set up Time Machine to back up those folders to an USB stick, then how do you back up the rest of your data?
Abuse seems like a harsh word. Seeing how much of the activity of forums like this is determing how to work around the limitations of the Mac OSX. Like the funny YouTube video says, 'you don't really operated a Mac as much as your share the Mac experience with it.'
YouTube - PC vs Mac
I use Mozy to back up the rest of my data. I like the fact that it is off site and not subject to hardware crashes like an external hard drive might be. However, Mozy does not officially support 10.5.
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