Time Machine has been one of my favorite features about the Mac. It was the most anticipated feature for me when waiting for the release of Mac OS X 10.5. It has saved my behind a few times from disk failure with nary a single lost file. Apple describes Time Machine as follows:

Time Machine works with your Mac and an external hard drive. Just connect the drive and assign it to Time Machine and you’re a step closer to enjoying peace of mind. Time Machine will automatically back up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on a given day — so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.

Recently I have been switching to backing all my computers up to my server and had questions about using sparse bundles and backing up over the network. Unable to find a complete set of instructions, I have decided to share what I have learned.

Backing up with sparse bundles

What is a sparse bundle? Its a type of disk image that can have a maximum size set, but only takes up as much space as it needs to on the physical disk. Time Machine is a notorious hog of disk space. It will utilize as much as it can for backing up your files, which can be nice. Sometimes though, it can be undesirable. The beauty about backing up to sparse bundles is that if you have a large disk you are backing up to, say 2 TB, and your drive on your computer is only 200 GB, you can make a sparse bundle that is 500 GB to back up to and basically reserve the remaining 1.5 TB of the backup disk for other uses.

So how do you set up sparse bundles? Well, the first step is to create one with Disk Utility.

1. Open Disk Utility
2. Select File > New Blank Disk Image
3. Set the file name to your computer name followed by an underscore and it’s primary mac address (eg: “macbook_00113bcd9e”)
4. Set the size to custom, then choose an appropriate size. It should be at least the size of your disk, and probably half again or twice as big.
5. You can set encryption on the file. This is so no others can access your data if your backup disk gets stolen, etc. 128 is probably good enough. It will be slower with 256 bit encryption.
6. Keep it partitioned as an “Apple Partition Map”
7. Select “Sparse Bundle Disk Image” as the Image Format

Now save it on whatever disk you want to use as your backup. Make sure you save it in the top-level directory of the drive. Time Machine can’t locate the sparse bundle unless its in the top-level directory.

Time Machine Error

I saw this error on my server. When I searched on Google, I couldn’t find any information about the cause or solution to the problem.

“Time Machine could not be configured. The built-in network interface could not be found.”

This error stems from the fact that Time Machine identifies the computer based on it’s built in network adapter’s mac address. Computers that have this error are either “hackintoshes” that have no built in ethernet adapter, or have damaged hardware and are using an external adapter or PCI card. In either case, I have no solution for the problem yet, but will update this post if I find it.

Scheduling

Time Machine is wonderful because of its incremental nature. It saves backups hourly. This can be a nuisance however when backing up over the network because there can be a noticeable slow down of the computer during backup. To remedy this problem, I found a program called TimeMachineScheduler that allows the interval between backups to be specified as well a times that Time Machine shouldn’t run.

My work just posted an blogpost highlighting me as an employee. Here is the text. You can find the original post written by Lauren and Jennifer here.

Employee Spotlight: Mike C

LIME employees dedicate several hours a week honing their marketing ingenuity devising innovative apps, managing projects, creating designs, crafting effective advertising, and numerous other services. Today, we spotlight an employee who models the work and success of our company. Mike C, an employee since 2007, adds a myriad of talents, skills and insights to our marketing team as a graphic designer and project manager. I had the opportunity to chat with Mike, getting to know a bit about his background.

Mike’s Faves:

Mac computers; he actually collects older Apple computers

• Computer-related projects
• The 1948 Tucker Torpedo and the 1981 Delorean DMC-12 (cars, for those of us not in the know)
• Family and watching movies with the fam
• Awesome work projects (of course)

Originally from California where  his childhood was filled with legos, computers and lots of Disneyland, Mike has great memories of growing up, many involving his father: “One summer, we built arcade cabinets as well as electronics for classic games like Pac Man and Arkanoid. Each kid in our family now has one in their home. It’s a nice memento of those special times tinkering in the garage.” From those garage days of innovation, Mike went on to graduate from Brigham Young University with an undergrad in engineering.

I also asked Mike why he chose the field of marketing as a career and he responded, “I didn’t decide, it just sort of happened.” His favorite part about working for LIME is the versatility and diversity in the skill sets of employees as well as the projects we do here. Mike hopes to expand his knowledge and skills in graphic design as well as other aspects of marketing and management.

Curious as to what his opinions were, I asked what Mike thought about the development of iPad, iPhone and various other platforms for mobile technology. He responded, “As much as  I love computing, mobile technology almost scares me as I have seen it infiltrate my life and take up time that would otherwise be free. It’s amazing to have the power of these devices in my hand, and access to the world’s knowledge at all times, but part of me kind of longs for the simpler days when connectivity wasn’t so prominent.  On the flip side they are a blast to work with and give us more power in our hands then we have ever had before!”

Currently, Mike is working on medical applications for Orca MD™ specifically planning, layout and graphical aspects of the Orca “Decide” apps. One of his favorite projects was the first SpineDecide™ app. “We were treading new territory…I got a lot of photography experience.  It was a great app and has taken things to a whole new level!”

Along with  these numerous projects, Michael enjoys the many memories from LIME. His favorite was from this last Christmas party when Wes almost slammed 3-D artist Dan’s head into a wall in an ice skating race.

Needless to say, this will forever stick with Mike and the LIME marketing team.

We are grateful for Mike and his contributions to our marketing team. Don’t stop being awesome!