Can the hourly backups by Time Machine be stopped? I'm on Lion and if it matters, each hour it tries to backup about 30GB (I don't know where this 30GB comes from, as today I've only modified a few text files and browsed the web). This results in the computer slowing down noticeable and beachballing more often.
Or even better than stopping them completely change the hourlys to every 2-4 hours?
It is backing up to a TimeCapsule, so I think the network might be the reason it is slowing down noticeable, that and it's a late 2008 MacBook Pro.
Best Answer
To adjust the schedule in order to backup at a time more to your choosing than simply every hour, you can use the Time Machine Editor tool, which is available as a free download from:
http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/
Changing your interval should not affect the daily or monthly backups, which are not actually any different to the hourly ones in any material way.
To get a better idea of what is causing large or lengthy backups, you can use the Backup Loupe software, available for free download at:
http://soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/