Local Time Machine?

[manitoba98]

I think that Apple should allow Time Machine to be run locally, on the main HD, without requiring an external or network volume. To my knowledge, this is not supported. My question is, can you trick Time Machine into storing its data locally anyways? (For example, could you use an ordinary folder? Or create a 10GB disk image and point Time Machine at that?) I heard that you can create a file called ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" on a volume and then Time Machine will recognize it. Can someone verify this?

 

I don't necessary want to go get an External HD, at least not from the get go, so I think this would be a very neat hack, if possible.

[ukp]

You can use any partition on the same hard disk, but you cannot use the boot partition.

 

The com.apple.timemachine.supported "trick" does work.

[manitoba98]

Okay, so can I use that trick to use a disk image (even if it's stored on the boot partition?)? Can I partition a third partition (besides ones for OS X and Windows) to use for Time Machine without disrupting Boot Camp or Time Machine?

[ukp]

You can use any osx hfs partition on your hard drive. So even if you have OSX, Windows, Linux and a spare HFS partition, you can use that spare one.

[manitoba98]

Again, I ask:

 

- Can you use a disk image?

- Will OS X or Boot Camp complain if I create a third partition for Time Machine (HFS+, of course)?

- Will Time Machine accept an internal partition without question, or do I need to do some trickery?

[deniser]

I partitioned mine with boot camp. Then went to disk utility and erased the partition and formatted it with extended journaled and used it like that with no problems. It does require a minimum of 40gb.

 

it asked me if I was sure i wanted to use the partition which was on the same hard drive and clicked ok and away I went.

[ukp]

Again, I ask:

 

- Can you use a disk image?

- Will OS X or Boot Camp complain if I create a third partition for Time Machine (HFS+, of course)?

- Will Time Machine accept an internal partition without question, or do I need to do some trickery?

 

Jesus Christ, why don't you read what you are told.

 

OSX will NOT complain if you you have a third partition which is used for a time machine backup.

You know the trick, it is mentioned above. You also know that you can use it on an internal partition.

 

As for a disk image, you need a PARTITION.

[manitoba98]

Hey, no need to attack me. My concern was primarily whether Boot Camp or OS X's bootloader would complain (if Boot Camp would still install, if a third partition would mess with references, etc). I didn't know whether disk images would work since they are seen to some parts of OS X as similar (if not identical) to a physical partition thanks to Disk Arbitration. I was wondering if a sparse disk image could be used so that a partition does not need to be devoted, freeing extra disk space when there's not much to back up. You said that it would accept any HFS+ partition, which means that it can work, doesn't mean or imply that it's not a hack, nor does it implicitly exclude things that don't fall under that umbrella (network volumes, for instance). I asked whether Time Machine would accept an internal partition without question because Apple's site, as well as the WWDC keynote, only mentioned external USB or Firewire drives and network volumes: I hadn't read anything about using an internal partition before this, so I don't think it was unreasonable to wonder if it was officially supported.

 

I don't have the Leopard beta (I'm not an ADC developer), so I can't answer these questions for myself. I don't think asking for a little clarification is terribly unreasonable.

[wisequark]

To be honest, doing it that way is kind of dumb. The point of time machine is to have a back up in case things go bad. This isn't Window, if you're going to need a back up its likely because your HDD died. Keeping the Time Machine volume on the same disk as your primary data does absolutely nothing. If you want to use it as some kind of versioning system, you'll also find that it's pretty much useless. Time Machine eats up space on a drive VERY quickly if you deal with lots of audio/video files (alla HD podcasts, for instance). A small partition isn't going to be enough. Ideally, your Time Machine volume should be twice the size of your primary volume.

[manitoba98]

I haven't really needed versioned backup in the past, to be honest, because I usually know what I'm deleting and that I'll never need it again. It could be useful in theory, and I'd like to get familiar enough with Time Machine to be able to at least show it to others. It's also the major new feature in Leopard, at least according to Apple.

 

I hear you can configure Time Machine quite well, am I correct in assuming that you can just get it to ignore the Music and Movies folders, for instance, if desired? (It's too bad that it apparently requires a 40GB partition...)

[wisequark]

But if you aren't using it for versioning, why would you want to use it on an internal, primary hard disk? You'd get absolutely no back up benefit except in the EXTREMELY unlikely event that OS X died on you.