Memory sticks for Time Machine - perhaps

[Dave2002]

I wondered if a memory stick (USB) or a SDHC card could be used as a Time Machine backup for a MacBook Pro.

There are some 512 Gbyte cards and sticks currently available for around £50 from MyMemory - would these work?

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/mymemory-512gb-v30-pro-micro-sd-sdxc-a1-uhs-1-u3-adapter-100mb-s.html

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/mymemory-512gb-v30-pro-sd-card-sdxc-uhs-i-u3-100mb-s.html

These media devices have more memory than the computer, so if TM can work with these, then they should work OK - if the OS copes. They might be slow though.

[MrGongGong]

They will be fine
until Time Machine decides that your backup location is corrupt and needs to be reformatted and you then lose everything on it

but go ahead ......

[Andy Freude]

I'd say it's absolutely fine - as long as it's being used uniquely as the "Time Machine backup" - i.e. one that will allow you to flip back over time to access files that have been deleted/lost. Does anyone use a Time Machine HD as their sole backup?

[Bryn]

I think it might be safer, and not that much more expensive, to use c. 500GB SSD. There is no real need to use a USB enclosure. One of these should do the job, though enclosures cost only a little extra.

[Dave2002]

I'm not really that bothered about the reliability or otherwise of TM at this point, as I usually use a multi-pronged way of handling data backups.

Re the SSD options - I agree, except that I don't necessarily want to be lugging an extra SSD box around - I've already got several of those. Looks as though the price for 500 Gbytes is going down again, so maybe I'll get one later, and that might indeed be helpful.

An SDXC card might be fine for the suggested use, as it should fit fairly neatly into the SDHC slot on my MacBook Pro.

As long as it didn't get corrupted, the files could be backed up onto other drives later, but it would make things more portable. TM does put snapshot backups on to the main SSD if there's spare space, but I'm running right on the limits, so that won't work. However, if the SDXC card works, it might be very helpful. As the files would be saved incrementally and not too frequently, the card might not have to be too fast. I think it could well be worth a try, so will let you know if I do this.

I'd not seen ones this big at this price before - though there are these which are 3-4 times as expensive - https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Ext...s%2C197&sr=1-2

compared with

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/mymemory-...3-100mb-s.html at around £60.

[Dave2002]

I'd say it's absolutely fine - as long as it's being used uniquely as the "Time Machine backup" - i.e. one that will allow you to flip back over time to access files that have been deleted/lost. Does anyone use a Time Machine HD as their sole backup?

I suspect a lot of people don't backup at all!

I backup onto many other devices and storage media, using various different methods. Mostly I don't lose data this way, though I did get close with one camera card due to carelessness.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just before Xmas I bought a WD passport 1TB time machine ready for Mac back up replacing a 500gb drive which was full. Anything absolutely critical or expensive to replace I keep on several separate 1 tb LaCie rugged drives stored in different locations. I would not rely on mem sticks or SDHC cards - they are just not reliable enough , easily corrupted and are really, really easy to lose....

[Dave2002]

I would not rely on mem sticks or SDHC cards - they are just not reliable enough , easily corrupted and are really, really easy to lose....

I may, nevertheless give the SDXC card a whirl.

Does MyMemory offer any sort of guarantee? I think bryn has been the local expert here. I've only ever knowingly had one memory stick failure - a total disaster - though no data loss that I know of. I have also lost a portable disc drive which I was using as a TM backup when it fell like a mountaineer off the sofa, and, held by its cable fastened back to the computer, smashed into the side of the said item of furniture as if it was a rocky mountainside. I have not gone to the extent of using anything as complicated as Synergy or Drobo NAS systems - even though I'm assured they are very good.

If I were running a business and needed extreme reliability I probably would.

A few years ago I considered Apple's own Airport Time Capsule, which seemed particularly attractive because of its wireless backup, but never got round to it, and eventually I decided that its time had passed. Similar solutions just don't appear to have succeeded well, either. I have heard of systems such as WD MyCloud Home being highly recommended - but in the end failing, perhaps with no actual data loss (as the original files were still available), but a financial gain to WD and no benefit to the consumer - just like buying an expensive life jacket which works in a swimming pool, but fails in a lake or sea.

[Bryn]

I may, nevertheless give the SDXC card a whirl.

Does MyMemory offer any sort of guarantee? I think bryn has been the local expert here. I've only ever knowingly had one memory stick failure - a total disaster - though no data loss that I know of. I have also lost a portable disc drive which I was using as a TM backup when it fell like a mountaineer off the sofa, and, held by its cable fastened back to the computer, smashed into the side of the said item of furniture as if it was a rocky mountainside. I have not gone to the extent of using anything as complicated as Synergy or Drobo NAS systems - even though I'm assured they are very good.

If I were running a business and needed extreme reliability I probably would.

A few years ago I considered Apple's own Airport Time Capsule, which seemed particularly attractive because of its wireless backup, but never got round to it, and eventually I decided that its time had passed. Similar solutions just don't appear to have succeeded well, either. I have heard of systems such as WD MyCloud Home being highly recommended - but in the end, failing, perhaps with no actual data loss (as the original files were still available), but a financial gain to WD and no benefit to the consumer - just like buying an expensive life jacket which works in a swimming pool, but fails in a lake or sea.

I have had more hard disc failures than losses of either SD cards or USB memory sticks. Indeed, I have not, so far, experienced an SD card failure, and one of the two USB sticks was easily restored, along with its files, by prising it open and resoldering the internal connections. That said, the reliability of SSDs is claimed to be greater than hard discs, SD cards and USB sticks (and SSDs are much faster).

[MrGongGong]

just like buying an expensive life jacket which works in a swimming pool, but fails in a lake or sea.

That's a great definition of Time Machine in my experience

[Andy Freude]

That's a great definition of Time Machine in my experience

I'm curious. What do you actually use Time Machine for? Or have in the past in some way whereby it has horribly let you down? How can that matter if you have alternative backups?

[MrGongGong]

I'm curious. What do you actually use Time Machine for? Or have in the past in some way whereby it has horribly let you down? How can that matter if you have alternative backups?

Many years ago when I first got a mac machine I religiously backed everything up using Time Machine onto an external HD.
All worked fine and there were no problems with the drive until one day when it simply refused to work and Time Machine told me that it was corrupt and had to be reformatted a process that would lose all the data. This was in spite of the Disk Utility saying there were no problems etc

After that I had a laptop which developed serious issues (a series of kernel panics etc ) which meant that it wasn't able to access Time Machine to restore data

I was in the habit of "manually" backing up important things (compositions , albums etc ) so didn't lose too much but the stress when i'm often constantly travelling and using machines for gigs and recordings etc was too high a price to pay. After talking to several people who run multiple machines in studios and for performance I realised that very few people rely on Time Machine and switched to making cloned bootable copies of everything which means I can take a complete copy of the whole computer around with me.

My beef with TM is that it claims to be a solution to the problem of backups but is likely to let you down when you need it. Fine if all you have are a few cat videos etc but for me, I travel widely relying on a laptop to perform, record and work.

[Andy Freude]

It is pretty dire when something like that happens. I admit I don't find TM an awful lot of use. The HD stays plugged in and the backups happen every hour, and in ten years or so it's only been of use half a dozen times, if that. But it HAS been useful in those few cases. When it doesn't work to restore something I've lost, I'm no worse off - just no better off. But it's the clone backup I rely on.

[Dave2002]

I have tried to run TM with the 512 Gbyte memory card on my MacBook Pro. So far I haven't had any luck with it at all, though maybe I need a slightly different configuration. The card does work, but if I can't get TM to work with this SDXC card I'll just have to find some other use for it - maybe a temporary store for big files, or stick it in a camera or video camera. I haven't checked the data rates with this card yet, but maybe that's something to try next.

Re whether TM is any use, yesterday I was profusely thanked by someone whose system I tinkered with last year. I can't remember all the details, and I suspect that possibly she can't either. I thought I might have done a full backup clone to an SSD, and then suggested it was put in a drawer or cupboard. I'm fairly sure I must have done something like that. However, I also configured an existing drive as a TM drive, and left instructions that it was to be left on when the computer was on.

Very recently she tried to install Catalina, but then applications just didn't work, including MS Word and others. Microsoft wanted real money to "upgrade" to a version which would - allegedly - work. After varioius discussions she decided to revert the Catalina installation, and by phoning up the Apple support people, was able to recover the system more or less as it was before because she had got a full history on the TM drive.

There are two messages from this story. Firstly, be careful re Catalina - it may have problems which will come to bite, until (or if) it settles down. Secondly, Time Machine does sometimes work, and save the day. As others have noted, it's not a good idea to only rely on TM, but it's very hard to tell/persuade people of that, and sometimes it is easier to get something going which may help, than to come over heavy and tell people they have to lash out for another drive to do complete system clones - though note, that I thought I'd already done that. Many end users are pretty clueless, and that includes me - sometimes!

[Stunsworth]

A couple of weeks ago I used Time Machine to restore several thousand photos after an external drive failed.