Macintosh Time Machine backup

A local backup is one that is connected directly to your computer via an external storage device.   The external drive you intend to use for your Time Machine backup should be at least as large as your computer's hard drive and bigger if possible.   A Time Machine drive can be connected via either USB or Firewire and should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  If you are unsure if your drive is formatted correctly, call the Technology Services desk at 471-1199 and a technician can help.

Technology Services recommends that you designate an external drive exclusively as a Time Machine backup and routinely have it plugged into your computer.    Time Machine cannot run if the local drive is not connected.  Using your Time Machine drive for other purposes other than backups runs the risk of it becoming too full or not being available for backup when you most need it.

The first time Time Machine runs, it takes awhile to get a baseline backup. During that time, the computer may seem sluggish.  Although Time Machine can be interrupted and picks up where it last left off, a best practice is to start this process when the computer will have plenty of time to complete the task.  Depending on the amount of data you have on your hard drive, this could take awhile.  A good time to start the initial backup is at the end of the work day or overnight.

When you plug the drive into your computer and turn it on.  If Time Machine is already active on your computer but not configured for a particular drive, you should be presented with a prompt asking if you'd like to use the drive you just plugged in as a Time Machine backup.  If you do not get this option, open Time Machine preferences by going to the Apple Menu and choosing System Preferences.   Time Machine is located in System Preferences. 

Alternatively, if your Time Machine preferences were set to display in the Apple menu bar, you can navigate to the upper right corner and choose the "Open Time Machine Preferences" option from the pull down menu.  The Time Machine Apple menu icon looks like an analog clock with a circular arrow frame.

You may need to click on Browse in order to browse to your departmental personal folder unless you are familiar with the full network path

Now that you have selected an external storage location for your backup -network share or USB drive- you can proceed to the next step.

It is best that you select Let me choose so you can selectivly choose what files and folders to backup.
Windows default choice is to broad and might engage other folder that you may not wish to backup!

It is advised that a user backup his/her user folder which is available under C:\Users\UserEID
This is where a user can also include other folders that might not reside in the default user profile folder.
Also, it is best if the tech/user un-checks the Include a system image of drives (C:), there is not reason to capture this image when backing up to a network share

Once folder selection is over, it is advised that you check and review your settings prior to saving and moving on to Scheduling a backup process.

A scheduled backup process can be created by clicking under Change Schedule!

Once you are satisfied with your backup schedule then you can proceed to run the initial backup.
You can monitor progress by clicking on View Detail

Once your backup process is finalized you can maintain backups by clicking on Manage Space -> View backups....

The encapsulated backup File/Folder will be named after your computer's name.