Do you rely on Time Machine for your backups?

My question is basically rhetorical, because my answer is No.
A fundamental problem with any backup scheme is that it is difficult to test whether you can restore without spending a lot of time, and some risk in the case that the restore does not work. But my experience with Time Machine is that I cannot rely on it for a full restore.
My latest experience is that my computer crashed while my (Firewire) Time Machine disk was attached. Upon rebooting, I found that the disk was so corrupted that Disk Utility could not recover it. A previous experience is that I wanted to reformat an external disk in order to encrypt it. I added that disk to my Time Machine backups, made sure that the backup was complete, then reformatted the disk. Upon trying to restore from Time Machine, I got the error "Cannot restore" with no further information.
This level of unreliability makes me suggest that no-one rely on Time Machine without a second back-up scheme. (Mine is to use ChronoSync and rotate backups off-site). I continue to use Time Machine, because it is so convenient to restore individual files.
Have others had similar experiences or do they trust Time Machine? (And sorry if this post repeats others, I searched and couldn't find this issue addressed on these forums).

alanterra wrote:
My question is basically rhetorical, because my answer is No.
I have always kept a CCC made bootable clone as well. But using Time Machine first, even to restore the entire system, has never failed me. So yes, I find TM very reliable, but most everyone I know with a Mac has also kept a clone. Data is too important. Nothing new with your suggestion on backup practice. (Although I don't encrypt mine)
For further reading, check out
See Pondini's TM FAQs
Cheers
Pete

Similar Messages

Using airport extreme, an external HD and time machine for wireless backups

Hey All,
The whole reason I bought my airport extreme was to plug an external HD into and use it for backups. Then came time machine and Leopard, and now time capsule!!!
Does anyone know if you can use your airport extreme with an external HD attached and time machine in the same way as time capsule for wireless backups!??? The guy in the Apple store I spoke to says you should be able to if you mount the HD (a little cumbersome); I used to be able to mount the HD in Tiger, but cant in Leopard!!
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Fleery

Fleery wrote:
Does anyone know if you can use your airport extreme with an external HD attached and time machine in the same way as time capsule for wireless backups!???
No. Time Machine is supported in 3 configurations:
1. a directly attached HD
2. Time Capsule
3. A HD connected to a Mac with OS X 1.5 Server
I tried both 1 & 3 and they work perfectly.
The guy in the Apple store I spoke to says you should be able to if you mount the HD (a little cumbersome); I used to be able to mount the HD in Tiger, but cant in Leopard!!
Bogus. That is NOT a supported configuration. It will work for a while and you will eventually start to get errors when Time machine backs up, and they are not recoverable.

Can I have 2 Time Machines for 2 backups?

I have an external hard drive that I use for my time machine. Recently I've been having some problems with my iMac that are hard drive related. I wasn't able to repair using disk utility and had to erase and reinstall Snow Leopard and then transfer everything back from time machine.
After this I realize just how fragile this all is. I have many photos and videos of my family from years ago and was relieved that I had everything backed up. Hard drives are so inexpensive these days, I feel it may be wise to have another backup in the unlikely event both hard drives were to have problems at the same time.
Can I have two Time Machines? If not, what are my options?
Thanks for any suggestions on this topic.

Yes, but not simultaneously. You can switch the desired backup drive using TM preferences, but TM cannot backup to two drives concurrently. However, I would suggest not using TM for your second backup. Instead consider making a bootable clone on the second drive. You can then use a third-party backup utility to incrementally update the clone. Because this software is running independently of TM you can have both a TM backup and a third-party backup. With TM backing up hourly you can set the second backup schedule to backup weekly and/or monthly.
If something does go amiss with your main system drive, then you can boot from your clone in order to restore function to the main drive.
To avoid using up space on the TM drive be sure you add your second backup drive to the TM Exclude list.
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire or USB drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. (Note: Most PPC Macs cannot be booted from a USB drive.) You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. MimMac (Commercial)
11. Tri-Backup (Commercial)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

HELP: I can't enter the Time Machine for critical backups I need

I made a boo-boo today and removed a home directory that had everything in it. No problem, I thought... just enter Time Machine.
Well, it isn't working. And I did try removing the /Library/Preferences/*.plist for TimeMachine -- no luck. I've re-selected the disk, no luck.
This is very disappointing, but I'm also a bit panicked. I need that data restored.
How can I get this to work properly?
Thanks.

Forrest wrote:
Even though I turned off Time Machine backups, it just happily runs in the background.
Correct; turning it off means it won't start any new backups; but if one is running, it won't cancel it. You have to do that manually.
Also, restoral of files ended up getting interrupted as it said I didn't have permission to access something (and it didn't tell me what).
You can't restore an entire user home folder that way -- OSX won't let you delete the old one, as it's in use. You should have gotten a message to that effect (although some of them are rather cryptic).
It also sounds like the backups may be corrupted. Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Your best bet, unless the backups are damaged, is to do a full system restore, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.

Time Machine for 2 backup drives

I want to back up to 2 externals. I understand this can be done now.
<Subject Edited by Host>

Yes you can use as many external drive as you like to make Time Machine backups to. But you can only do one at a time, then disconnect that drive and connect another and then select that other drive as the Time Machine backup drive. Then you can do another full or partial TM backup to that other drive. But the next time you connect the original TM backup drive you will again need to Select it AS the TM Backup drive. It will then pickup the original backups you have made to it and backup changed files to it. Then you can disconnect it, reconnect the second drive and again SELECT that drive as the TM Backup drive.
You can do that as many time as you like to as many external drives as you like, 2-4-10 whatever number of externals. But you will need to Re-Select that newly connected drive AS the TM backup drive. TM only keeps a record of the Last Drive used. Not s series of drives used.

How to restrict disk space when using time machine for client backup on server?

We have 10 OS X SL Clients backing up on xserve SL with TM. Now 1 TB disk space is used and disk is full. The clients get the massage that the latest backup could not be finished due to target disk full. Clients run just OS X Standard Software plus Parallels with windows (max. 50 GB per client)
Why does TM not delete oldest backups like with external USB HD?
How can we restrict disk space on server to eg. 750 GB for total backup space for all clients?

johndave, did anyone ever respond to your post?

My LaCie external hard drive connected to Time Machine for data backup drops it's connection and a error message displays tell me that I did not properly disconnect the device. This started after upgrading to OSX10.6.7.

My La Cie external hard drive drops it's connection after mounting on my iMac computer. This problem seems to have started after upgrading to OSX10.6.7. When I turn on my computer and than turn on the external hard drive the hard drive mounts to my disk top without any problem, but when I bring up Mail or Safari the hard drive drops its connection. Is there a fix for this problem? Hope someone can help.

The connection to 10.6.7 may just be a coincidence. I had a similar problem with a disk and was about to throw it out but decided to try a different USB cable. That fixed the problem and the drive is still in use.
Try a new cable if you have not already done so.
Dave

I have 2 iphoto libraries but one is lost, missing, cannot seem to find it... tried an apple care person - they were no help - we use Time Machine for external backup... but cannot find my older iPhoto library! I desperately need some help!

I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto. My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library. I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying. I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive. When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up... I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013. Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates. I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

I have recently had something really odd happen within iphoto. My photos from May-Oct 2013 appeared to be missing from my primary Iphoto library.
last night I was trying to find any additional Iphoto libraries on my Imac... I could not find them... but then somehow the May-Oct 2013 library showed up and now I cannot find the "current" primary Iphoto library. I sought help from apple care today but no solutoin from them after 2 hours trying. I have timemachine that backs up my Imac each day to an external hard drive. When I open Iphoto while holding down the "option" key - it lets me choose which Iphoto library... but only (1) library comes up... I can't figure out what happened - but it seems that I must have more than one Iphoto library because yesterday I was able to see all my photos except the "gap in dates" from May-Oct 2013. Today - I can only open a Library called Iphoto2014... and it contains the photos from the gap in dates. I can't "see" any other options to open photos... but just yesterday there appeared to be a different library available.
Any advice or steps i should take to locate my missing photos - would be soooooo much appreciated.

Time Machine - mysteriously large Backup?!

I use Time Machine for hourly backups to a TimeCapsule. The most recent BU seemed to be taking a long time (most of mine are far less than 1GB), and after checking the progress, found it was trying to do a 28GB BU. I have no explanation for this, and checked the available space on my Mac's drive, but was about where I expected it to be (No additional mysterious 28 GB added to it).
Any ideas on what this could mean, or ways to investigate what the TimeMachine is attempting to BU?
Thanks!

Howdy -
I don't know what those are, and I can't imagine anything I have that would produce that much data. I did, however, do a shutdown and restart (afer stopping the backup attempt), and things seem to be normal again.
Thanks for the response - I'll be back here if things get wacky again...

Can you use time capsule for your mac and have readynas backup your pc's on the same network

Can you use time capsule for your mac and use readynas to back up your pc's on the same network

Sure, that is trivial setup.. they both have different names and IP addresses.
You should be able to use ReadyNas for TM backup but you should check the latest state of play for that.

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

Time Machine for shared group folders

Hi,
I would like to set up time machine for a shared group folder on the server. I would like users to be able to use time machine from clients to see backup history of files in the group folder. Is this possible? How?
Gregor

+...would like users to be able to use time machine from clients to see backup history of files in the group folder. Is this possible? How?+
Yes. This is possible, but it isn't touted as one of the features that sells Mac OS X Server. The advertised Time Machine server solution is to host an AFP share point on the Mac OS X Server system which clients then use as a Time Machine backup destination, similar to Time Capsule.
But, what I think you're going for is something like this: You have a share point where multiple users can read and write, and you'd like the server to be able to backup that share point via Time Machine, but also allow its clients to connect and see those backups. This is kind of like "Time Machine for a sharepoint." Again, this isn't really touted, but it's possible. Here is an example which shows you how.
For starters, let's say that your server's disks are well-organized. You have one volume for the server's operating system (Boot), one volume for the share points (Data), and one volume for backup (Backup). Other scenarios could work, but this configuration will make this how-to easier to understand. Let's also agree that your server's hostname is junglecat.amazon.private.
Let's say that the share point (group folder) that we want backed-up is at /Volumes/Data/Group-Folder on the server. Let's also agree that your group members already have access to this folder - e.g. it is already a share point with an ACL entry that grants the group members read and write access.
You'll need to configure Time Machine on the server itself first, just as if it were a client. Open System Preferences, and use the Time Machine pane to choose the Backup volume as the server's backup destination. You'll want to make sure that only the contents of the Data disk (the disk housing the Group-Folder) are backed up. Skip anything on your boot disk, as you're using Time Machine to back up just the share points. Let the server at least start its first backup, which will create the following directory:
/Volumes/Backup/Backups.backupdb/junglecat.amazon.private
...where the server's Time Machine backups will be stored.
Now use Server Admin's File Sharing section to make the /Volumes/Backup disk a share point, with these properties: Share the folder via AFP, and enable it as a Time Machine backup destination. (Your clients will not really be backing up to the folder, but they will be needing to see it as a place that Time Machine can keep a backup. This creates the .com.apple.timemachine.supported file on the share point.)
It's also a good idea to disable guest access and add an ACL deny rule to the share point (/Volumes/Backup) which denies delete and delete_child for everyone:
chmod +a "everyone deny delete,delete_child" /Volumes/Backup.
This prevents people from storing other data next to the Backups.backupdb folder. The Backups.backupdb folder already contains an ACL deny rule that limits its access to read-only.
Back on a client, mount the newly-shared Backup share point. The client's Time Machine may ask permission to use this as a backup location (because it was defined as such), but don't let it. The important thing is that the client recognized it as a backup location.
To browse the server's Time Machine history, the client must right-click on the Time Machine icon in the Dock (or use the Time Machine menu extra) and choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disk," where the user can choose the server's backup volume. Now the client can go back in time on the server, star-field and all. If the user needs to restore a file, Time Machine will ask him/her where to save the restored copy; it will not overwrite the copy on the Group-Folder share point.
Hope this helps!
--Gerrit

How to backup with Time Machine for complete clean reinstall of OS

My iMac has been getting slower and slower as the months go by and with each new software update. It used to be a lot faster than this when it was new.
I'm thinking the best solution might be to do a complete clean reinstall of the OS. My question is, if I have Time Machine backing up of all the users Documents, Email, Address, Book, iTunes Library, and iPhoto Library files, can I just go ahead and blow away everything on the machine? That is, after reinstallation, can I just plug in the hard drive, turn on Time Machine and get all those data files back in the right place without difficulty?
Or am I better off meticulously and manually moving the appropriate files/directories to an external harddrive and then fitting them all back into place manually afterwards?
(NOTE: I used to have to do a clean re-installation of XP every year or so to keep the system nice and snappy -- it would invariably get slower and slower over time. Since I got my iMac (Tiger) I had never had this creeping slowness problem, why is it happening now with Leopard?)

slegge,
This might give you some ideas.
Using Time Machine to Restore You Entire System
Q: Can I restore my Mac from a Time Machine backup?
A: Yes, you have several options: (In all cases Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is required as previous OS X versions will not work with Time Machine backups.)
*Full Restore Via Migration Assistant & Time Machine*
You can use the installation DVDs that came with your Mac and reinstall Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). During the installation process you will be asked if you would like to Migrate data over from your Time Machine backups. The advantage here is that you start with fresh system software. The disadvantage is that you may lose many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. But this may be only a minor inconvenience to reestablish these. Depending on whether you choose to migrate your applications over as well, you may be required to reinstall any 3rd-party software or standalone Apple programs. Don’t forget to run Software Update once the initial installation is complete to bring your system up to date. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Restore Via Time Machine Only*
Alternatively, you can use the installation DVDs to do a full system restore. Insert the installation DVD. When the welcome window appears, go to the Utilities menu and select “Restore System From Backup…” and choose the drive that your Time Machine backups are on. Then select the date of the backup you would like to restore from. This will completely erase your internal drive and restore your system to a relatively same condition it was in on the date of the backup you choose. (See this article for a list of files that TM does not restore, http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/) The advantage here is that you retain many of the personal preferences/settings that had been established with the previous system. Additionally, no further installation of 3rd-party software is required. The disadvantage is that BECAUSE you retain many of the personal preferences, settings, and system files that had been present with the previous system, you run the risk of reintroducing problems you experienced with the previous installation, including any issues that necessitated the OS reinstall in the first place. Using Disk Utility at this point to repair any permissions issues is advised as well.
*Full Backup After Restore*
Bear in mind that in all cases Time Machine will perform a full backup after a full restore. This is normal. Time Machine will resume incremental backups after the full backup has completed. To view previous backups, Control-click or right-click the Time Machine icon in your Dock or Option-click the Time Machine menu extra and Choose "Browse Other Time Machine Disks," then select your previous backup volume. You will enter Time Machine and be able to browse your previous back ups and restore files. (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1338)
Hope this helps.
Cheers!

I am going to back up to Time Machine for the first time

which I know sounds nuts. I was manually doing it for the past 6 months- don't ask why.
Do I have to completely wipe out my Lacie and do any formatting to it? Or do I just delete everything from it and set my Time Machine to default backup to that drive and go from there as if I'm doing it for the first time?
Also, I don't keep my EHD attached constantly to my laptop- I assume that is not a problem and whenever I hook it up, I can then ask TM to go to work?
Sorry for the basic questions- appreciate the help!
Thanks,
Bernice

I haven't burned a CD in years. My old MacBook doesn't have a DVD burner.
The biggest issue is the size of your various drives. For Time Machine, your Time Machine drive should be three times the size of the drive you are backing up. If you don't quite have that (and I don't), you can get away with three times the amount of data you are backing up. Whichever configuration gives you that equation should be the one you use for Time Machine. You can partition one of the external drives so that one partition is big enough for Time Machine and the other is used for other purposes, such as archives. I have one external drive configured like that. If you don't have enough room to partition, then dedicate one drive to Time Machine and the other to archives and/or clones.
Some people feel it is very important to maintain a long Time Machine history and migrate that to new drives. I don't quite understant that. I use Time Machine for backups, nothing more. I blow away all my backups on a fairly regular basis and start a fresh one. I don't need six month old versions of files. If I accidentally delete a file, I will notice sooner than that. If I have a hardware failure, I only need the last backup.
I currently have those bootable clones only because my MacBook is in a funky state right now (long story) and my MacBook Pro is a work machine bound to an Active Directory domain. I can't rebuild that system by myself without IT from work and that would be difficult for me (longer story). I don't consider bootable clones to be a regular part of my backup strategy. They are useful snapshots and archives for specific times when I feel I need them.

I use Time Machine with an external hard disc which has worked perfectly for some years. Recently Time Machine has aborted backups if the screen saver starts when back-up is in progress. I use a Maxtor OneTouch4 back-up system. Any ideas?

I use Time Machine with an external hard disc which has worked perfectly for some years. Recently Time Machine has aborted backups if the screen saver starts when back-up is in progress. I use a Maxtor OneTouch4 back-up system. Any ideas?
Has Apple recently up-dated my OS (Lion) such that every time the screen saver starts it disables Time Machine. I have to switch-off the computer and re-start in order to undertake a back-up. I have now switched of all screen savers.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

Do you rely on Time Machine for your backups?

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