1- Can I set TM to at least keep a few versions of all years going back from when it starts or is in progress? I would prefer to see at least a few versions kepts from old years, than more from just last two years.
There is no DIRECT method provided in Time Machine for doing that. however...
- When Time Machine starts dropping files off the backend of the data set it drops the oldest files THAT HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSED through Time Machine first. So just be sure to periodically recover every file you might want to access in the future.
- Files are not dropped unless and until you run out of space on the Time Machine drive. Consider using a very large spanned array of high capacity drives so you would be unlikely to ever run out of Time Machine drive space. OWC offers configurations up to 84 TB for under $5,000 and those can be daisy chained.
- On a more practical level a single 14 TB drive is under $700.
- If you know with some degree of certainty what files you will be needing to recover consider storing those on data CDs or DVDs instead of in a Time Machine backup set. There are Disk Management and File Search utilities in the App Store that would facilitate organizing and indexing those files.
2- What I was asking is, pretend the TM you could grab version ok via the finder just fine? (I've yet to have issue doing that), what are the odds that you might want a file in the next two years? If I erase the drive then I have no option to grab anything.
No argument
My experience for last few years is everything I grab via finder is fine- perfect, the files all show up ok in TM, just now I can't restore via TM
If it works for you that is fine. My caution may be because I know too much about what is going on inside.
