Getting started

You need Mac OS X Leopard installed & an external hard drive formatted Mac OSx Journaled, this may be USB or Firewire connected. Alternatively a Time Capsule with an airport, the later ones support both 802.11n & 802.11b/g wireless networks simultaneously.

I used a G-Technology G-drive at first, then switched to a Time Capsule. A USB caddy along with a 2.5" sata drive would make a good portable USB solution for a MacBook. I chose firewire because the transfer rate is quicker in reality & it leaves both USB ports free, some MacBooks no longer have Firewire, but its now available on the new 13" MacBook Pro.

Connect your external drive & then turn on time machine, just spotlight for time machine to find the app if it isnt on the taskbar.

If locked, all settings will be greyed out to allow changes, click the padlock & type in your password

Check your external disk is recognised, see disk details above right, if the wrong disk is shown click change disk...

If the switch on the left is off click on & away it goes.

The first backup may take several hours depending on the amount of data you have & the speed of your disks, once completed, you will not notice Time Machine running when using your Mac.

To restore individual files

Double click the Time Machine app icon or click icon on top menu & select Enter Time Machine, you should see a screen like this

Either spotlight for your file or browse back in time to the day you deleted it, use the slider on the right side of the screen

Select the file to restore & click the Restore button bottom right, it really is that easy

For a complete full system restore

Warning: A full restore will over-write all current data on the selected destination drive!

Connect Time Machine external disc, insert the Leopard OS X disc in your DVD drive

Restart your system

Hold down the C key to boot from the DVD drive

Select your language

On the Utilities toolbar select restore system from backup

Select the backup source - this will be your Time Machine drive & you can select which snapshot to restore from

Select a destination - this will generally be your Macintosh HD - see warning above as all files get overwritten

Click Restore to comence restore

You may be prompted to enter your password

Allow sufficient time for restore to complete, this is dependant on transfer speed & size of restore & could be several hours.

 

The information on this page is provided 'as-is' with no liability for loss, damage or failure of any description