Time machine on multi user IMac - questions

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all,

More questions on time machine! 😀


Q1) Does it only back up 1 user at time on a multi user iMac?

Q2) Do I need a different back up disk, per user?

Q3) Is SSD the best way to go with the new disk formatting macs use?
Really expensive but fast.

Hope you can advise

Martin

 

[MandiMac]

Hi all,

More questions on time machine! 😀


Q1) Does it only back up 1 user at time on a multi user iMac?

Q2) Do I need a different back up disk, per user?

Q3) Is SSD the best way to go with the new disk formatting macs use?
Really expensive but fast.

Hope you can advise

Martin

A1) Nope, it creates a backup of the whole computer as long as you don't set it up otherwise by excluding folders.
A2) So everything goes to the disk you choose, no further manipulation needed.
A3) I'd personally go with big HDDs, because once you've finished the first big backup, the incremental backups won't be big in size. No competition in price/performance relation.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Time Machine on an SSD can save you a lot of time in the event you have to actually recover from it.

 

[chabig]

Time Machine backs up all users on a single external device. SSDs are the best devices to use if you can afford it. But hard drives work too. Don't worry about speed because backups happen in the background. You'll never notice them taking place.

 

[wilberforce]

Per Apple, the TM backup drive should be about twice the size of what you are backing up (to allow for proper versioning and efficiency). For most people this is more cost-effectively done with a HDD, not a SSD.

IMO, HDD works fine for TM. There is a lot of time spent by TM in preparing and processing the backups, so the extra speed of an SSD is not as big an advantage as you might expect.