Are my File Vault encrypted files backed up with Time Machine still useful?

Question

The background:
My iMac G5 crashed. It all started one and a half years ago when my screen popped and the frequent hard shutdowns pobably damaged my HDD (the one elegant solution Windows have is the Windows button: press + 'u' + return = proper shutdown). After that episode I bought an external drive and started a Time Machine backup routine. What I did not realize, was the issues surrounding the use of TM with a File Vault encrypted system. In 2007 when I bought my G5, I poked around, getting myself familiarized in Mac OS X and found this thing called File Vault. It looked like something useful and I started using it. Later I upgraded my OS and after my screen problem, decided to make use of Time Machine. The one problem with Mac OS X is the ease of use. It's so easy that Apple probably cannot foresee all the dumb things we users are going to do with it, including a warning to first time TM users who have their system already encrypted with FV. Now, after searching the forums, I see the problems and the warnings. If someone use TM and then decide to use FV, a warning pops up, but not the other way around! At least, I never saw it coming. If there is such a warning, I probably did not read it - as I say, it all happens so easy and work so well, it's easy to use a Mac without reading the instructions. Yes, I did some dumb things, but that's probably because I'm not so dumb; too relaxed, yes. At least, so it seems to me : )
My problem:
Two weeks ago, my G5 suddenly started giving problems. Out of the blue I couldn't open Adobe Bridge. At first I thought it was a software problem and tried re-installing Bridge and searched the Adobe forums for a solution. After a long struggle trying different solutions, I eventually booted with my install disk and with Disk Utility found that there is a problem with my internal HDD. Only then it dawned on me that my problem is far more serious than a software problem but by then it was too late. I couldn't repair the HDD with DU and got an instruction to restore my system with a backup. No problem! I hooked up my external HD and pressed the button. The restoration took over 12 hours to complete. That in itself showed my that I have a big problem, but I did not dare interrupt the process. In the end I got a window with a 'Restart System' button. All I got from that was a white screen with a spinning wheel and that's where I am now. Needless to say, my G5 is now getting repaired.
My solution:
I have to keep going so I used my savings to buy another Mac. I have my backups, so I'll just do a Migration and keep working. Or so I thought. When I tried it, it obviously failed because I sit with encrypted backups that would only restore to the original machine - which crashed! After reading about it on the forums, it dawned on me that it is, most probably, a futile exercise. My backups are, most probably, no backups at all, because I also did not realize that I had to 'log out' of my FV to get TM to properly backup my files! In never dawned on me that I should log out! I have one machine at home and have no particular reason to log out at all!
My question:
Am I wasting my time with the 'backups' I have? Should I wait for my G5 to get back from the shop and see if they are useful, of should I just move on and try to live the rest of my life without all the electronic data I lost?

Answer 1

Gorrelduik wrote:
But they missed one situation: if Time Machine is set up, but auto backups are turned OFF, there's no message. If you turn it back on, there's no message then, either.
. . . and that's exactly my MO! I still don't have auto backup turned on. If it's better to use auto backup I'll do it, but to my mind it's better not to have both my computer and my backup disk on all the time. What happens when there is a power failure or lightning strike and both are on and both get damaged? My MO is to make a manual backup once a day and then put the external HDD away.
That's one of the reasons not to rely on a single backup, no matter where it is or how it was made. All hardware fails, sooner or later, no backup app is perfect, and things like lightning, fire, flood, and theft happen, too.
With a desktop Mac (and a U.P.S. system that both the Mac and External HD are on), you can let TM do it's hourly backups (although that won't help a lot with the current incarnation of File Vault), then keep secondary backups on a separate HD, perhaps a portable one, with a different app. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for some suggestions.
I have thought of doing another weekly backup on a different external HD that I keep at the office, but I'm still procrastinating that one. Now that I think about it, does Time Machine cater for that: having two backup routines on two different HDD's?
You can do that, but you must tell Time Machine each time you want to "swap" drives. But each will be complete and independent.