/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist

including some of the things you mention in the article. So manually adding caches and trashes is pointless.

How does time-machine gen its backup list ? Is it an exclude or an include ?

However, I was wondering about the frequency of changes of some of these files. Obviously, the Microsoft User Data for Entourage will change daily if not hourly causing a potential huge backup every hour on the hour due to the way the data base is created.

I would hope if I backed up my system files once that they would not need backing up again for a while until an Apple update was issued. Same with hopefully most applications.

Not good for Time Machine. It sort of bleeds storage capacity.

I would suggest if there is a specific program that has the capability to export user settings (ie. ArchiCAD exports/imports xml user settings) that you utilize your customization settings and DO backup the folder that contains them.

Go to your Home Folder (Command Shift H)
Click on the “Show invisible items” so that it’s checked and then
Select all (Command A) then
Deselect the folders that are important to you (Command Click)

User settings in XML format not only take up less space, but are handy when trying to standardize multiple computers.

(High 5!)

That’s kind of the whole point. Entourage backs up your email as a single file, so ANY activity within Entourage means a whole new backup in Time Machine.

My Entourage file is several gigs and to be writing that to disk every single hour is going to quickly run your external hard drive out of space.

So instead of leave as much mail as possible on my Exchange server and back the file up manually every week or so.

I was unaware that Apple recommended that particular data be excluded. (Steve you make me sad) Still, I would argue that the problem is - if you have alot of data your going to need alot of space to back it up. I still agree with the idea of time machine as a simple all encompassing backup solution. I don’t believe that its a good solution, especially for non power users, to just backup less data. But this would be a discussion of if you should exclude data not what you should exclude, which was more the point of your article.

Careful there! Don’t you want to back up your email? There’s a database inside that folder that holds all your messages, not just useless cache and preferences.