Mac is a line of personal computers developed by Apple Inc. and the Time Machine is the state-of-the-art-automatic backup built into the Mac's Operating System. It keeps a copy of any kind of file that has been saved on the Mac including photos, movies, music, documents and everything else. It enables one to 'go back in time' and recover anything that he/she has lost or needs. This is why it is called the Time Machine.

Installing the Time Machine to the Mac is pretty simple. On connecting an external drive, Mac asks the user whether the drive is meant to be for backup and on saying yes, everything else will be taken care of by the Time Machine. After installation, all the back up will be done automatically and the user won't have to worry about this anymore.

During installation, the Time Machine copies the Mac's entire contents to the backup drive. Without compressing anything, all files are copied as it is. After the initial backup, only periodic backups are done and that too only for files that have been modified since the previous backup. Time Machine also creates links to all the files that are unchanged so that you can see the entire contents of the Mac on any given day.

Like every other backup software, the Time Machine also copies every file on the Mac, but there is something that sets the Time Machine apart from all these other softwares. It not only keeps a spare copy of all the files but also remembers exactly how the Mac looked on a particular day.

By searching on the Time Machine browser for missing files, the user can find long-lost files which you might have lost ages ago, but still need. You can also find the most recent changes by specifying the precise date or you can even do a Spotlight search to locate exactly the file you are looking for. As per the user's requirement, the Time Machine can restore the entire folder or just the required files. Even the entire computer can be restored using Time Machine, if need be.

By default, a backup of everything is saved by the Time Machine, butt files can be excluded by going to Time Machine Preferences and changing the Options. Files that are to be skipped can be set here. The user can also delete files whose backup has already been made by selecting the files he/she wishes to delete and then by choosing 'Delete from all backups' from the action menu in the Folder toolbar, all unwanted backups are eliminated instantly.

The Time Machine is eventually bound to run out of space, as no matter how large the backup drive is, it will one day be filled. Hence, the Time Machine starts deleting the files, oldest first, but before doing so it informs the user. Moreover, before deleting anything, the Time Machine copies files that might be required to completely restore the user's disk for future backups.

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