Time Machine is the Mac's built-in backup software.
The feature was introduced with OS X 10.5 Leopard, and it's been there ever since. If you've never used it, Time Machine is one of the easiest ways to back up your Mac, and is great for recovering individual files you've deleted or restoring your entire hard drive in the event of a catastrophe.
How does Time Machine work?
Time Machine works with any hard disk connected to your computer via USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt; it also supports Apple's Time Capsule and backup disks connected over a network, provided the disks support Apple File Protocol (AFP) file sharing. As long as the disk is available to your Mac, you can use it for a Time Machine backup.
When enabled, Apple's backup software takes periodic snapshots of all your files and catalogs them on an external hard drive you have plugged in or a Time Capsule you've hooked up to your network. It backs up the entire contents of your hard disk hourly, daily and weekly; as the drive gets full, Time Machine will delete the oldest backups and replace them with newer versions.
This is better than your traditional "Copy a bunch of files to a cloud service" or "clone a disk to an external hard drive" because you don't have to restore your hard drive en masse if you lose a single file—Time Machine can retrieve specific images, folders, and projects from its backup because of its layered snapshot system.
If you're using OS X Yosemite or later on a laptop and enable Time Machine, you'll also automatically get a feature called Local Snapshots; this allows your laptop to back itself up once a day (and once a week) while you're away from your Time Machine drive.
Local Snapshots does take up some of your hard drive with its backups, but if you start to run low, it will automatically purge old backups so that you have at least 20 percent free space on your drive.
Can I exclude data from my backups?
Yup. In System Preferences > Time Machine, click the Options button to select any files you'd prefer didn't make their way onto your backup drive.
How to enable Time Machine backups on your Mac
- From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
- Choose the Time Machine icon.

- Turn the Time Machine slider slider On.
- Click Select Backup Disk to choose the disk you'd like to use as a Time Machine backup.

- Time Machine will format the hard drive for backups and will then start your first backup within two minutes.
How to restore files from a Time Machine backup
- From the Apple menu, select System Preferences, then choose the Time Machine icon.
- Select the Show Time Machine in menu bar checkbox.

- From the Time Machine menu, select Enter Time Machine.
- You'll be taken to the Time Machine window. Here you can navigate to the file or folder you'd like to restore.
- Find the file or folder in question, then click the Restore button.

- Time Machine will copy that file back to its original location on your hard disk.
How to restore your hard drive from a Time Machine backup
Whether you're having major problems with your current hard drive or upgrading to a new Mac, Time Machine can help you get back to business.
- Power up your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys to enter the OS X Recovery Partition. Your Mac should boot to a screen that says OS X Utilities.
- Select Restore from Time Machine Backup and click Continue.
- Read the info on the Restore Your System page and click Continue.
- Select your Time Machine backup and click Continue.
- Select the most recent backup of your hard disk and click Continue. Your Mac will then restore the Time Machine backup; once it's done it will restart.
If you've had to replace it with a stock drive that has nothing on it—not even OS X—you won't be able to boot from the OS X Recovery Partition. But fear not, you can get the recovery rolling from the Time Machine backup disk itself: Just hold down the Option key when you start your Mac; you'll be able to select the Time Machine backup disk as your startup drive, and go from there.
Let the good times roll
I hope this helps you get going with Time Machine—you never know when you'll have to recover a file or a disk, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Do you use Apple's backup feature? If not, why? Let us know in the comments.
Peter Cohen contributed to an earlier version of this article.
Reader comments
How to back up and restore your Mac with Time Machine
I used to use Time Machine with external hard drives but I'd keep forgetting to plug them into my laptops over night so that was a point of failure.
When the new AirPort Extreme Time Capsules came out last year I picked one up. That not only gave me 802.11ac speeds, but now all I have to do is make sure my laptops are plugged in and the backup takes care of itself.
I still do Super Duper! clones to external drives, but something that's transparent and just happens is a great secondary backup. That plus cloud and I'm almost non-paranoid!
What about backing up to a backup? I have an older iMac and I am using Time Machine to backup to an external. Is it beyond Time Machine's capabilities to duplicate my external to yet another external drive? I fear both my primary and external may fail soon.
You can use more than one hard drive for time machine.
It did not prompt you "Failed to ... external drive not plugged-in" whatever?
I'd love to see an advanced/pro mode added (like with AirPort Utility) added to Time Machine. Getting a new machine, or recovering a failed/replaced component is a great time for Spring Cleaning. We all have apps that we downloaded that we never use, but left there because we forgot about it.
I'd love to be able to get the machine initially up and running, then be presented with a list if apps on my time machine that are not installed (as not everything is in the MAS)
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Peter & Rene,
I'm just coming over to mac (next computer is imac for my wife). We have used Ghost and Acronis True Image for years. I gather time machine is comparable that a total image can be created and recovered exactly as was before.
Also, if I use a time capsule on the wireless network, can a full and "raw" restore be done to the mac in case the hard drive needs to be replaced? Or does the backup in that scenario need to be physically attached to the computer? In the Windows world I always just put in a bootable disk and restored from a 2nd hard drive in the system or external via usb. Thanks much.... new to the world of Apple but loving it.
Just a note-- I do IT work (a lot of government and local business over the years and of course individuals). I'm now recommending all my customers go to mac... especially the home users who just want to do things on line. Those who have love it. It just works for them and easy backups are part of the reason for my recommendation.
Welcome to the fold!
Yep!
Thanks Peter. This all works too well.... why doesn't everyone just switch to.... Seriously, I just did an IT job for someone who is on their 4th or 5th bargain Windows machine (maybe $400 each). They said it would have just been better to buy a $1300 iMac to begin with.
And, thanks for the welcome. I'm definitely old school (first computer in 1982) but so much enjoying the Apple world.
Yea, more stupid comments from an 'IT professional.' You are really questioning why folks who purchase, as you claim 'bargain windows machines', would be on their 4th or 5th PC? Usage habits has noting to do with it? What they browse and what they download do not contribute to a poor windows experience over time? Because those same habits won't follow them and slow down a Mac? So instead of purchasing a top of the line PC in the first place, it's now better to buy a MAC now because these bargain windows machines failed? Yea, that makes perfect sense.
i dont' have a time machine
i want time machine for time travle
I'm running a Macbook pro, an iMac, and an iPhone S4.
My Time Capsule, which is an Apple one terabyte, is showing that i need a larger backup disk.
I was told that I could add a back up to piggy-back on my Time Machine.
My question is what should I be looking for in capacity, my system is 4 years old, and what brand would be compatible with my Mac?
Yea, i am one year late I know. I just love dumb remarks such as this from people who believe they are IT because they tinker with computers. I love my iMac, but if you have to reccommned Mac's because of time machine, then you never understood how easy it is to backup and restore images with a windows machine in the first place. Isheep cling to the misconception that things are easier with a Mac which just is not true. Both OS's have strong points and weak points and NEITHER is superior to the other. Any one who claims such ridiculous things knows nothing of what they are talking about. It comes down to preference and that is all.
Calling Mac people iSheep really helps. I've managed both types of computers, and I don't see how anyone can say Windows computers are just as easy, too many examples and I don't want to get into that. Many of the Mac advantages in day to day usage is very subtle, but very noticeable after just a few days. Something as easy as networking, No way anyone can say its easy to get Windows machines working together compared to the Mac way. And I do know something of what I talk about.
I'm not trying to be argumentative...but I'd love an example or two. I have a Windows desktop and a MacBook laptop. My son worked for apple when I purchased the MacBook (at his insistence.) He touted OS as being "more intuitive" and "the best." Four years later and I'm still more than twice as fast using Windows. And far more organized. Not only that, I find it so difficult to find clear answers to my Mac issues on-line.
Yes, I use Time Machine with two backup external hard drives. The convenience is great. Now I'm considering using File Vault on the iMac and the backups after reading Rene's recent recommendation (say that 5 times really fast: "Rene's recent recommendation, Rene's recent recommendation...."!), but I'm still gun shy..... :-(
I've used FileVault since its second year. No problems so far. Even with backups, restores, NAS TimeMachine volumes. All good and no noticeable slowdowns. Almost seems they are cheating somehow.
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Thanks for the feedback after all this time!
Great "How-To" and wonderfully productive comments all!
[High five]
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i want time machine how to create time machine tell me
After having used Windows for almost 10 years, I decided to get my first mac, and I opted for the budget Mac mini at the time. After using OS X for a while, I came across Time Machine, but I thought it´d only work with a Time Capsule, so I never used it with the Mac mini. Time passed and I sold the Mac mini to buy a Macbook Air, and as the internal storage is quite short, I bought an external hard drive, and the first time I plugged it in... the Time Machine asked me if I would like to back up my data. I know, it sounds silly, but I never imagined I could have my stuff backed up so easily! With Windows it was always a pain in the ass to back up data with so much suffering, at least for me. But as Rene said, I still forget to plug the hard drive in, but that´s okay.
My local network in London consists of:
A mac mini 2012 with a 3TB external drive for my iTunes Library
A MBP 2011
A Time Capsule G2 (1TB) with another 3TB external drive for backup.
I use Time Machine to back up the Mac Mini and the MBP, I also have a script to rsync from the iTunes Library Drive to the Time Capsule 3TB backup drive every 12 hours.
I have the afp port opened up on my router too, pointing to the Time Capsule.
Two reasons:
I have a Mac Mini in another property 250 miles away. I Time Machine this machine to the Time Capsule in London over the internet. I can also get hold of any media files from the 3TB backup drive from the remote location too.
I also have iFiles on my IOS devices, it has afp support. I can send photos etc direct to the Time Capsule that way too, as well as download or stream media from the 3TB backup drive.
Time Machine is quick and simple to use. Classic Apple. Time Machine lacks scheduling capabilities and it can get annoying if it kicks in when you're in the middle of something intensive on your machine. The App Store does offer a Time Machine scheduler which seems to work reasonably well.
I also rely on Carbon Copy Cloner as it offers more options and seems quite robust.
One last comment. I had serious problems with Time Machine and a Drobo 2nd Gen FW attached storage array. Neither Apple nor Drobo could offer an explanation or solution. After researching a lot of forums I found I was far from the only one to experience this. Backup now occurs on a WD external drive.
I use Time Machine on my office iMac, my home iMac, and my Macbook Air, though less often with the latter, since I don't plug in my external drive to it very often. I use a program called "Unison" to synchronize my user files between the various machines. At the end of every workday, I fire up Unison from the office to propagate all my work from the day onto my home machine. Before going to bed, I do it from home to propagate any additional evening work back to my office machine. And when I turn on my laptop, I use Unison to synchronize it too. So having 3 redundant copies of most of my important files on my 3 machines, plus 3 additional copies on external drives being maintained by Time Machine, I think I'm good. (I had a hard drive crash on a Linux machine many years ago in my pre-Mac days and lost a few things, so I'm over-cautious now. I always said I'd get better about keeping backups if I ever had a crash.)
I just got a Time Capsule for home but haven't set it up yet; I figure that will be handy for the laptop. I was interested in RoCutler's comment about punching a hole in the router to let AFP through from outside; that hadn't occurred to me before. Though I'm paranoid, so if I do it, I'll probably tunnel AFP over SSH. Apparently password authentication for AFP is encrypted, but the actual data transfers are not? I'd want to encrypt everything.
Been using this badass feature since Leopard showed up... Still kicking ass with it.
I use it all the time and I rotate between different drives. One drive stays in my safe deposit box and I switch them out once a month or so. Perfect if something bad happens at my home.
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This is a great tool to use AND you can encrypt the backup so it does not fall into he hands of evil doers. You don't even notice when it's being backed up. I have read so many times when a hard drive needed to be replaced and they did not have a backup. Pictures lost forever. Make time to do it, especially with USB 3.0....it's fast. Thunderbolt...OMG fast. Also it looks cool when using it...lI ove showing it to my windows friends. I'm in and out of time machine faster then them booting up their windows laptop.
Restore the hard drive is like format the disk and install the SO? Just like windows or Linux?
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I bought a 2TB external drive as a target for Time Machine. I have a 1TB drive that is where my iTunes library is, and of course the hard disk in my Mac mini. Several times I have tried to start my first backup on Time Machine, and after running for several days, it fails because I have exceeded the 2TB capacity. This is despite the fact that my iTunes library is around 800GB and my used space on my Mac mini was around 400GB.
I noticed that, as my backup proceeds, the amount backed up and the amount still to be backed up both increased continuously, right up until the time I hit the 2TB limit, upon which the backup fails. Nothing else was running at the time. No applications were open. Nothing was writing to any disks (other than Time Machine to its target disk.
I can't understand what's happening. Why is the amount to be backed up increasing dynamically?
That sounds like you might be backing up a drive to itself which is now stuck in an increasing size loop? Just a thought - I'd check the options you have selected.
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I'm having exactly this issue, and I'm not backing up to the same drive. Everything looks fine until it gets down to "Less than 5 seconds remaining", when suddenly the size to be backed-up starts increasing. ETA changes to "estimating time remaining ..." and never changes again, meanwhile the two specified sizes (x GB of x GB) both start increasing in tandem. It only started happening last week, and this was the first relevant hit in my search. Has anyone else seen the same, or been able to resolve it? I'm currently running Mavericks, and I need a good backup before loading Yosemite.
Thanks!
I use Time Machine to back up my iMac and MacBook Pro. Only problem is I use a 2TB Time Capsule which has limited space. I also do redundant manual backups of my music (83GB) and photos (99GB) to two external hard drives.
Rene/Peter - question: Can you add multiple USB drives to a time capsule with a USB hub? And how bad is it for the external drives to stay powered on all the time? I want to increase the available storage but don't want to risk losing things later.
Hey Peter
I'm upgrading form Lion to Mavricks and have heard that there are issues when trying to restore from TM once upgraded. Would you suggest doing a second, manual backup as a "just in case"?
I have Just Replaced some important data while setting up a Time machine using external 1TB Hard drive, So what can I do in order to get may Data back??pliz help
thax
Hi guys
I recently managed to delete all my contacts, Don't ask!!!.
I have a full time Machine backup and I have followed the information in previous posts on how to restore files and documents. The issue I have is that I get an error “Contacts.app” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by OS X. Is there some way around this OR is it operator error?
are you trying to restore the contacts *data* or the actual app itself?
Thanks for the informative post. As I am a Mac newbie and don't find Disk Utility so user friendly and always used to use reliable tools for optimising Mac. But this post and superb comments really made my job so easy to use Mac in real manner.
I recently discovered that my iPhoto library no longer contains any of the dozens of photos of a particular category that had been stored there. I also noticed that some of the major classes such as FACES and PLACES are no longer functioning properly, but my first concern is about those dozens of known missing photos.
I once restored EVERYTHING (I thought) from my external hard drive under the supervision and guidance of an Apple advisor, but it now appears that the restoration was incomplete.
Is there a way to restore ALL of my iPhoto photos? I have a 27" iMac using OS 10.9.4. The iPhoto version is 9.5.1 (902.17)
I'm trying to restore a photo in my iPhoto which I have backup in the time machine. However, it doesn't seem to work like before whereby the iPhoto shows up and I can choose the photo to restore in OS X Mavericks. Please advise.
I had to replace my HD and do a backup from Time Machine.
Seems to have worked.
However, I got a larger HD (was 750 and now 1TB).
The external HD was 1TB that I partitioned with my old backup as well as TM.
TM now says it no longer has room.
Does this have anything to do with new HD size, or just that maybe I went over?
I have another 1TB external.
Should I just use that or will that be too small as well?
Thanks!
Hi There. New to the Forum. With an interesting conundrum. I was doing consistent Time Machine backups before my Hard Drive crashed a few weeks back. Apple replaced my HD, fortunately, and I was able to easily restore via my last Time Machine back-up. Trying now to get back on that steady routine of frequent back-ups, but I needed to reconfigure Time Machine and my OS (I restored without restoring previous settings) doesn't recognize my former Time Machine Hard Drive. In effect, it sees it as a new Time Machine (doesn't acknowledge that this is the drive that has previous back-ups on it) and is saying that there's not enough space left for a back-up. Whereas before, it had an established pattern of deleting the oldest back-ups to make room for the latest back-ups. Not sure if any of that makes sense, but if it does, would love your thoughts on getting it all streamlined again. Best and Thanks!
Since my kids have been using my macbook, it has tons of popups etc... I'm planning on getting the Capsule and restoring my macbook to factory settings... the HD doesn't have a ton of space left either. My question.... I have a TON of photos. Can I leave them on the capsule and access them whenever, or do I need to restore my complete iPhoto library to view my photos?
I have a question. I am having problem with my mac os Yosemite. I have been to mac store to show them these problem. The problems started when I upgrade to yosemite. There recommendation was to restore it to factory setting. So if i restore from time machine , does only the content comes back or does everything comes back. For example my concern is that if my os got corrupt at some point, will That come back also? Because according to apple genius there is something wrong with os on my mac.
To replace the operating system on your Mac you need to do what's called a "Clean Install." That involves erasing your hard drive and reinstalling it using the Mac's system recovery software (command-R on reboot), then reinstalling the OS over the Internet. You can restore your files from a Time Machine backup after the fact.
Good one Peter!
But I am still confused when you should use Time Machine, and when you should use clone like Super Duper?
Please enlighten me and many Mac newbies out there.
I have nothing but love for Time Machine...love...love love. Saved my A-- last month desktop went bye-bye. Restore was a breeze; plugged it into my new iMac came back later and all my settings, programs & files (pics w/events, songs w/playlists, etc) were same as they were before armageddon. The only thing I had to do was enter my MS Office key. Even though I was in the middle of doc when computer died, when I opened doc, my unsaved changes were recovered. If you're not backing up; DO it NOW please.
I bought a 1 Tb Time Capsule Apple router and set that disk to be my Time Machine backup. It did the first full backup just fine, but then refused to do anything else. From that day forward when I tried would launch Time Machine I got an error message that Time Machine backups could not be performed, there was nothing on that disk but the initial backup. So I switched back to my old Firewire 800 external drive for Time Machine backups and the drive in the Time Capsule sits useless. The Firewire drive has never failed me for backups, it's been a godsend a couple of times when I have deleted a file that I shouldn't have. Is there a known problem with Time Capsule acting this way?
Is there a way to restore a particular program (along with all related files, if any) from Time Machine?
Can a USB stick be used as a backup device with time machine
I restored some photos but when I try to move them to other folders i get error messages: Modifying "donner" requires and administrator name and password. To move the items, click Authenticate. I click it and get this, The operation can't be completed because back items can't be modified. I even opened it in Photoshop and did a save as. How can I change this?
I actually also using other method to backup my mac instead of just using time machine. This way, I feel more secure to get my backup more ready in case I need to restore them.
alternative without software:
Open Finder, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Edit > Select All and drag it to your external disk. If you don't see this volume, open Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and tick Hard disks
or with free software Cloudbacko
It could backup files to free cloud storage. This helps you to get your files back anytime anywhere
i assume....time machine first makes an initial backup of EVERYTHING and then just makes changes as necessary….so if i only add one or two small files to my laptop during a given week i can just plug in my external hard drive and time machine will take a couple minutes to add these new files to my backup drive....right? in other words, if i only make small changes to my laptop i will never have to leave the external drive plugged in all night (with the exception of the initial backup)?? it won’t try to pull some “once-a-year leave me running for 50 hours” garbage? thanks bubba! i love your website
p.s. there are no stupid questions, just me
I back up my Mac once a week. And by then it has accumulated about 10 GB which only takes a couple of minutes (USB 2.0). So yes. Once the initial backup is complete it only takes a short time to back up your most recent changes.
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thank you sir - very helpful!
Well, I'm currently in TM backup hell. Using a 3GB TC that's less than a year old, everything was working fine until just yesterday, when I received the following message:
"Time Machine completed a verification of your backups on “AirPort Time Capsule”. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you. Click Start New Backup to create a new backup. This will remove your existing backup history. This could take several hours. Click Back Up Later to be reminded tomorrow. Time Machine won’t perform backups during this time."
I ran disk utility, rebooted the TC, restarted everything - nothing worked. Anybody have a suggestion? The last thing I want to do is wipe out my backup history and do a complete backup from scratch, especially if this is simply going to flake out again.
I'm not throught the weeds and not seeing all the magic just yet.
In an attempt to follow other on-line form directions I compromised my library. Not my dock is missing as is the expose' features and all my file icons or gone (it's not well). I attempted to restore simlpy the library from Time Machine from a back up only a few days ago.
I didn't work. So I'm attempting to restore the data on the drive. In my effort to follow the directions "Power up your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys to enter the OS X Recovery Partition. Your Mac should boot to a screen that says OS X Utilities"
All I get is a request for the wifi and a spinning globe which leads to and "!" Icon and text "apple.com/support -2002F"
Any help would be appreciated.
Mark
I have heard few cases of Time Machine backup failure or backup lost due to Time Machine disk failure. But I wan't aware of the fact that Time Machine drive recovery is possible until I accidentally landed on this KB article http://www.stellarinfo.com/support/kb/index.php/article/recover-mac-time...
Sounds like another good add to the section of data recovery. Have anyone tried?
I recently bought a new MacBook Pro which has 256gb of storage on it, and I bought a 1TB external hard drive for extra space. Now, I've backed up all my files on my old MacBook Pro (485gb of data) using Time Machine. When I set up my new MacBook Pro, I deselected additional files & folders because the new computer simply doesn't have enough space to hold everything I had. I figured I'd be able to just store the rest of it on the external hard drive and not have an issue. Now, how to I have my new computer access all of those other files? I.E. my music and such. I can't seem to figure out how I can make my new computer have EVERYTHING my old computer had (with the external hard drive plugged in of course).
Time Machine / Time Capsule is a backup / restore process, it is not meant to be an active file storage location. If you want to store files on an external drive, you should simply copy them to an external drive from your old computer, then connect the drive to your new. The files will be available to you from the external disk, and you can access and save them there, just as if it was the drive in your Macbook Pro.
You could also look to a NAS as the best means of network accessible file storage.
Great post!
After upgrading my Mac to Yosemite my HD died and was just replaced by a reputable company. They couldn't extract any info from HD so it is back to factory settings running Mavericks 10.9.5. I am now trying to load my last Time Machine backup to fixed computer and Migration Assistant tells me I need to upgrade to newer version of iOS and won't let me continue.
Is there a way to get my Time Machine backup without upgrading to Yosemite?
iMac 27-inch (late 2009) 2.66 Ghz Core i5
4GB RAM just upgraded to 8GB
1TB Storage
Is there a way to manually start the backup? My mac goes to sleep overnight and I don't want to miss a backup...
It'll do it when it wakes up, no worries.
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Thanks
Hello
I use an Imac and a macbook pro. I have backups for both on a NAS Synology.
Yesterday I upgraded the RAM & SSD of my macbook because it was too slow. It was done by a reliable apple retailer. I did not ask for a clone of the hard drive, having a time machine backup on my NAS. And truly, I relied on it very much because it worked so well last year when I had to change the hard drive of my Imac after a crash.
But now when restarting the mackbook and trying to restore using time machine, it simply does not see my backup. Instead, it sees the backup of the other machine, the Imac. Plus, the system also proposes to restore data from another NAS located in my internet box, but on which there has never been any backup.
Perhaps I should add what I've tried before posting this question:
1- I followed the instruction when I first started the newly upgraded machine. I chose the option restore from a Time machine backup.
2- I restarted the machine using then command R at the start.
3- I copied the time machine backups on an external hard drive and restarted the machine using then command R.
Now I'm lost...
I was wondering if anyone could help me with that?
I like to use external software like Get Backup, or Chronosync/Superduper. Usually it’s more functional comparing to TimeMachine. But for the basic needs, TimeMachine works fine for sure.
Hi,
Few times back, I have heard about time machine which can manage various things. Actually Time Machine is one of the important features that makes the restoring files like clicking and to get back the data. Though Time machine recovery is one of the beneficial features to get back the data and here is how to get the data back:
m all new to the apple world , might sound stupid…but just want to be clear on something. What kind of back up does time machine provide? m using time capsule and the back up is being done automatically, but the options says that the oldest backups will be deleted as the disk gets full. well, suppose i downloaded a video and kept it in my mac for sometime and deletes it after an auto backup from my mac. Will the video be there forever in my time capsule until and unless i myself access my TC and deletes it or will it just gets deletes as the disk gets full?
It's done by date, so if your backup disk is large enough to hold a year's worth of backups, and you delete the file, then 1-1/2 years goes by, the video is gone. When you restore from Time Machine, it's essentially that; you choose what date to go back to and restore files from that time. Since it's incremental backups, not the full device each time, it should back up quite a long time (only files that are new or have changed are backed up each time).
I can't imaging living without Time Machine, a backup revolution for me really. Using it for several years.
I've even found a Windows / PC Time Machine version, which works pretty much the same and is available here:
www.zinstall.com/backup
Hope this helps!