Apple Time Machine

What is Apple Time Machine?

Time Machine is the backup system that comes with Mac OS.

Most of the time, we backup our files on external drives by transferring the files or folder individually to the backup external hard drive or SSD drives. Sometimes we backup also on Network drives, or Clouds.

I have been a Mac user for a many years, and my usual backup methods is to transfer my files to external hard drives. I prefer this method since I am a multi OS user, it is more convenient for me. Whether I am using MacOS or Windows.

I have attempted to use Apple Time Machine before, but since I am usually keeps large number of files, I did not have the patience to wait for it to finish. and so i end up staying with the traditional backup method.

Last August 10, 2020, I finally decided to try the Time Machine Backup on a new external drives. My MacBook Pro 16 comes with 4TB, and since I like putting all data in the computer, for convenience that all photos are readily available when I need it.

I have 3TB of data on my MacBook Pro.

The reason for me not using Time Machine is because it takes a long long time to backup your whole hard drive, Transferring all files is faster than using Time Machine. But since I make a decision, so no matter how long it is. I waited for it to finished backup of my MacBook Pro.

Last August 15, 2020, my new 8TB external drives arrives, and I decided to transfer all my photos to the external drives to free up some space on my MacBook Pro 16. my picture files are more than 1TB, so while transferring, I leave my computer and use my Dell XPS 13 for my Zoom Online meeting. My meeting takes me more that 2 hours. When I return to my MacBook Pro, i notice there is a notification that my hard drive is full. I really do not understand what happen. I am transferring files from MacBook Pro to External Drive. How can my MacBook Pro hard drive becomes full. I tried deleting some files. But it will not accept delete. I tried Empty Trash again I get the same response it can not since the hard drive is full. I open the Disk Utilities to check my hard drive, and discovers there was a damage in my file structure.

So I have no choice but to Restart with Press Command - R, so i enter recovery mode. I tried to erase all data since i want my MacBook Pro to go back to its factory condition. but still it does not work. Finally, I use Time Machine to Restore my Macbook Pro, and after waiting for many many hours. Finally, my Macbook Pro was restored back to August 10, 2020 when I make my backup.

This is a well learned lesson. To ALL MACBOOK users. Please take time to do backup on your Time Machine. you never know when you will need it. In my experience it works. Even when I was not able to restore my computer to factory condition since hard drive file structure is damaged and it will not proceed. But Time Machine was able to restore my computer.