Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, Fourth Edition

Choose a Destination

After setting up your Time Machine hardware, the next step is to select a destination. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Time Machine preference pane.

2. Click Choose Backup Disk (in Leopard) or Select Backup Disk (in Snow Leopard). A dialog appears (Figure 7-2), listing all volumes eligible to be a destination disk and the amount of free space available on each.

3. Select a volume and click Use for Backup. (If the volume you're looking for isn't there, read Find Missing Volumes, next page.)

In the Time Machine preference pane, the master switch automatically moves from Off to On, and a timer begins a 2-minute countdown before your first backup begins. (You may prefer to turn it off until you've read Exclude Files from Time Machine.)

Figure 7-2. Available ...