this is a modbook –> http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook

I don’t have an answer as to why the drive would spin up every 12 minutes. I can only speculate that it has something to do with how OS X talks to the maxtor drive. You may be able to find better drivers on maxtor’s support site that are more efficient.

As for Time Machine, it uses some special tricks with the OS X filesystem called “hard links” to make it appear that it has copied everything when it has only copied the files that have changed. A hard link the connection between a filename and the data that is in the file (kind of like a mailing address connects a person to a location). When you create a new file, the file name is essentially a hard link that points to the file’s data. Most of the time, files can only have one hard link. Time Machine uses hard links to point to the data of each backed up file, so while there may be 15 folders, any unchanged files are just hard links back to the same file data. When a file is changed, the changed file is copied over and future backups use hard links to connect to the latest copy and so no. Otherwise, Time Machine Backups will fill drives even faster than they do.

I’m not sure if there is a maximum limit on the number of seconds between Time Machine backups. My best advice there is to try it and see. However, if you want to do daily backups, there are some alternatives you can try. I happen to like Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html and would recommend checking it out if Time Machine is too restrictive on the interval between backups. Also, there are few things that CCC can do that TIme Machine can’t. As always, your mileage may vary and best of luck.

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Aaron

And with Time Machine every time that I change anything in a file like small incremental changes of 1 word in a file Time Machine creates a new folder “with everything” on my external drive where I have 15 new folders each day? I still have the 1 updated or “Latest” folder which is the first folder in that folder, but I would rather have just this 1 folder instead of 15 additional per day. Is there a setting that I could do to make that happen? Also am I able to go further out then 86,400 seconds in between my backups in that Time Machine change that you described? Can I push it to 2 or 3 days out? I’ve already had to completely erase my external drive and start off fresh again which is where I am at now. And I was going to just use the Maxtor Manager but for some reason the Sync feature isn’t lit up and editable, so I can’t sync my files to the Maxtor for my incremental changes on the iMac even though I was able to do so with my old PC? I’ve included their PDF booklet if you know anything about this product.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks a bunch!

http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html#

After reading your post, I’m still not content with the aforementioned solutions. You see, when TimeMachine came out I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I got to know what it actually does, I was disappointed. I don’t know how many people out there are so clueless that they frequently delete files they then have to recover, but that’s not at all what I would think most people would want. Don’t get me wrong, TimeMachine would have been a great piece of software had it allowed me to keep 2+ macs in sync.

The fact that it creates 2 separate backup libraries renders it useless to me. I have an iMac and I’m planning on getting a MacBook. I’m also planning on getting a 2TB external hdd with FW800 in order to hook up to my iMac. Alternatively, a 2Tb TimeCapsule would suffice. However, what I need to do is to have the same set of files syncronized across these 3 locations. My iMac has a 1TB hdd and my MacBook would have only 250GB. Hence, I wouldn’t be able to keep them fully in sync. That’s where TimeCapsule or external hdd come into play. I would have one single library syncing file changes form my iMac and my MacBook simultaneously. For that, I would use something like SuperDuper or ChronoSync.

I think by elaborating on the set-up I just answered my own question, but my point is that none of the proposed solutions, including TimeMachine, would allow me to synchronize 2 macs with one single master Home folder. I guess, I’ll just wait until a 2TB TimeCapsule comes out, hopefully, with a ratified 802.11n chipset inside.
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Andrei

Depending on how your Mac is configured, you may need to have your drive connected before you power on your Mac (i.e. automatic login). You absolutely need to have your drive connected before you log in with the account on the external drive, otherwise you will get an error at the login prompt. This is why it’s a good idea to create a secondary login. Using an external drive just one of the many options available. It really depends on if you want your entire home folder shared between Macs or if there are just parts you want to share.

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Aaron

With option three, do you need to be connected to your external hard drive when you turn on and log in to your laptop to be able to use your mac book? if your home folder is not on your macbook and you try to login/turn it on (say at work when your not on your home network or connected to your external harddrive) will it allow you use your macbook?
surely if it cant connect to your home folder it cant work?

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