HT201250 Is there any disadvantages to Time Machine? Why doesn't everyone get it?

I am looking at Time Machine, and it looks great and really helpful. Are there any disadvantages? Why would anyone not get it? I am trying to figure out if I am missing something. Thank you!

Unlike Mr. Galt, I don't use TM, preferring bootable clones made with Carbon Copy Cloner. Disadvantages?
1. not bootable, so useless if the boot volume goes south, without reinstalling the OS and hoping that restores the boot volume. Alternatively, you can wipe the boot volume, reinstall the OS, and hope the TM backup is restorable. Contrast with booting into a clone and immediately knowing if it works. If so, then you're back in business.
2. TM requires always having the ext HD connected and powered up. I prefer connecting ext FWHDs and updating clones on my schedule, not Apple;'s,
3, I've never had to retrieve something I changed or deleted, so TM holds no value for me.
To each their own. For more on TM vs clone, see http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
Finally, a google search for TM vs clone gives many hits. Peruse them.

Similar Messages

HT201250 is there any way my time machine backups can get deleted accidentally?

I installed a new hard drive and am now trying to restore my old settings and documents from Time Machine, is there any way I selected the wrong disk and am deleting my time machine back ups?

katherinee38 wrote:
I installed a new hard drive and am now trying to restore my old settings and documents from Time Machine, is there any way I selected the wrong disk and am deleting my time machine back ups?
How are you doing this -- starting from your Recovery HD and using Restore From Time Machine Backups, or did you erase your HD, reinstall OSX, and are using Setup/Migration Assistant?
Are you saying your backups aren't recognized?
If so, and your backups don't appear, you might have been bitten by a bug we've just found. See #D10 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for a way to tell.
Let us know the results. If you do have the bug, we'll work out a recovery plan.
If you don't have the bug, we need to know just what you've been trying, and what's going wrong -- what do you see, or not see?

Deleting files on time machine - why doesn't the storage capacity refresh??

Quick question,
After I permanently delete a file off time machine (something that has storage mass ~3 G), I am not seeing the storage capacity of the time capsule refresh with a higher number. In other words, before the file was deleted from all backups, the time capsule disk read 399 G available. After I permanently deleted the backups for this 3 G file, the available storage capacity was still 399 G. I checked to make sure the file was deleted from the back-up volumes and it was. Do I have to wait sometime before the time capsule updates the available storage capacity. Just curious.

remote TM backups are stored inside sparse bundles. if you open your TC in finder you'll see it. when you delete something from a sparse bundle it doesn't automatically compact and recover the free space. TM will use it up again in future backups. you can also manually compact the sparse bundle from terminal if you really want to.
the terminal command is
sudo hdiutil compact /path/to/sparsebundle
you have to put the correct unix path to the sparse bundle in the command and enter your admin password when prompted for it.

Time Machine: why doesn't it back up Applications?

I have nothing excluded in Time Machine Preferences.
My backup external drive failed about a year ago: I replaced it and backups continued.
Had to restore an application recently: found the applications folder in Time Machine was empty, however far back I went.
Does Time Machine know that I replaced the backup drive? If not, perhaps /applications has not been backed up since nothing has changed since I replaced the drive - ? But I have been told that the backup information is stored on the backup drive, so Time Machine should know that the drive was replaced and do a full backup as the first one - ?
If that is the problem, how do I force Time Machine to do a full backup?

the last iPhone update said that it "significantly reduced" the back-up time for the iPhone, and for a while it did. I've noticed it get steadily longer and longer to where now i am having the same issue you are, it taking forever to backup even if it's just a standard sync. It's possible that the different applications that are on the phone, especially if they take a lot of memory and/or use a lot of the phone's RAM may cause the backup to take a lot longer than intended, but that's just my guess.

Is there a solution for Time Machine error?

I got an error in Time Machine saying backup had failed, a couple of days ago. Spent the next day or two trawling the web and found thousands of postings from people with the same error, but no solution.
(At least, some people had a solution - they were using PC-formatted hard drives.)
I've been using Time Machine for a few weeks, and it has only now taken a dislike to my external hard drive, which is connected by FireWire.
Is there a solution to this problem, or should I revert to using SuperDuper, which I was using successfully before?
I haven't put in lots of information about the apps I'm running, because this is a general query rather than a specific one. If there's a solution, I'll use it; otherwise I'll wipe the drive and go back to using SuperDuper.

OisinOg wrote:
Pondini - Thank you for your slightly hostile reply.
On the contrary. The statement was: +"found thousands of postings from people with the same error, but no solution."+ I don't know where you found thousands of posts -- there are many here, but certainly not thousands. If you're talking about, say, a Google search, if you actually look at them, many are duplicates, unrelated to your problem, or unrelated to Macs at all -- and there are a number of solutions that seem to have fixed many of the real ones.
The error message was the standard one: "Time Machine Error - Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup directory."
There's most likely another, better message in your logs. Thus the suggestion about Time Machine Buddy. You can also use the Console app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Click on Show Log List, then navigate in the sidebar to your system.log (or system.log.0.bz2, etc. for previous ones). You can filter for backupd to get the same TM messages as the widget, but I prefer to view the full log at the date/time in question, as messages from other concurrent processes may have a clue.
I've gone through the suggestions in some of the helpful replies to those thousands of postings, by wiping my drive, erasing it and reformatting it, first in two partitions using the GUID method in Disk Utility, then in a single partition. But Time Machine still doesn't want to back up to it.
Sounds a bit like a problem communicating with the drive. The logs may clarify that.
The hard drive of my computer is 250GB; the external drive is 300GB. Both are SATA drives; the external is connected by FireWire.
How full are they?
Thanks for your suggestion of downloading the Time Machine Buddy widget; I'll give it a last try tonight.
What is the difference between a SuperDuper clone and a Time Machine backup?
The initial backup of both copies almost everything on your HD, excluding only some caches, temp files, etc., although you can exclude other things. This takes quite a while, of course. Thereafter, only the items that changed are backed-up.
SuperDuper (and CarbonCopyCloner, which I use, and other, similar apps) are most often used to make bootable "clones" identical copies of your HD -- if your HD fails, you can boot and run from them immediately. With TM, once your HD is repaired/replaced, you restore your system to it from your TM backup.
Score one for the clones, but TM has it's advantages, too (which is why many of us run both).
First is, CCC and SD look at every file and folder on your HD to see what changed. This is quite time-consuming and CPU-intensive, so most of us run it once a day (or less often), usually automatically at, say, 3 am. TM, however, runs hourly, but uses an internal File System Event Log of changes, so it is far quicker and less intrusive. There are exceptions, but most users rarely even notice the backups unless they see the icon revolving. On my small system, for example, TM rarely runs over 30 seconds; CCC is at least 15 minutes.
Second, not only does TM keep previous versions of changed files, but it manages the space and backups for you. It keeps those hourly backups for 24 hours; except the first of the day becomes a daily backup which is kept for a month; one per week becomes a weekly backup that is kept for as long as there's space (it will fill the drive/partition). But it's smart enough, as it deletes the old weeklies, that it won't delete it's copy of anything that still exists on your HD.
There isn't room to have two 250GB sections on a 300GB drive. I suppose I could get another 250GB drive - I have an IDE enclosure somewhere - but I don't fancy the expense right now.
Your CCC or SD partition only needs to be as large as your HD, although in a pinch it only needs to be somewhat larger than what's actually used on your HD. If you don't have room for both on the one drive, an even better solution might be to get a pair of smaller portable HDs for CCC/SD. Use one daily for, say, a week, then take it to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc. and start with the other. Now you're also protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.

Can someone tell me where this error is generated. I have no backup set of any kind thru time machine. I get this error message in console every Friday.EBEngine[4611:b07] ditto: /System/V2: Permission denied

Can someone tell me where this error is generated. I have no backup set of any kind thru time machine. I get this error message in console every Friday. EBEngine[4611:b07] ditto: /System/V2: Permission denied

Can someone tell me where this error is generated. I have no backup set of any kind thru time machine. I get this error message in console every Friday. EBEngine[4611:b07] ditto: /System/V2: Permission denied

HT5678 Should I update or not? Are there any disadvantages? I'm 70 yrs old....say no more!!!

Should I install or not? Are there any disadvantages? I'm 70 yrs old....say no more!!!

Assuming you are in good health... yes, update.

Time Machine UI doesn't display previous backups

Hi!
My Time Machine is running to a mirror disk and backing up files regularly. I can see them in the finder when I go to the backup disk. But when I "Enter" time machine, it doesn't recognize and show the files. Just "Now" and some time ago before I switched out hard drives.
Background: This occurred when I swapped in new drives for the old ones and named them the same as the old ones were named. Basically, I upgraded from 1TB drives to 2TB drives and now have this issue.

Thanks, Pondini.
I don't see any drives in grey. They are in black but in the UI I see "Now" and Oct. 23rd with nothing in between even though Time Machine is backing up every hour and I can see the backups by navigating to the backup drive in the Finder. So Finder shows there are backups, Time Machine menu and sys prefs pane says it's backing up, but the app doesn't find and display the backups.
Ideas?

Time Machine Backup doesn't delete older backups

Time machine preferences doesn't allow much of modifications as to how frequently should it backup the data etc.. Is there any way where I can specify the intervals between two successive backups and thus limit the backup size, coz I think I'll need

I have the same problem. My computer name did include invalid characters but changing the name to fix that did not solve the problem. I recently had the logic board replaced (for the 2nd time in 3 yrs but that's another issue) and wondered if there is something related to that. I've had to reset a few things and reauthorize iTunes, is there a similar process for Tine Machine to make it see my previous backups? I guess I can reformat and start over but I'd really like to avoid that since I have almost 4 months of backups and am not sure what might get missed if I do that. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Time Machine Back Up - I only get about 3 weeks.

Time Machine Back Up - I only get about 3 weeks.
Is there a setting to tell it to go farther back or is it a space issue on my external hard drive?
If so what external hard drives / sizes are recommended? I'd like to go back a few months or longer.

Do you use virtualization software, such as VMware, Parallels, or VirtualBox?
The virtualization software creates a large virtual-disk container that is constantly changing, so it has to be backed up every time Time Machine runs. That will quickly fill up any backup destination.
You should exclude the virtual-disk file(s) from your Time Machine backups. To do that, click the Options button in the Time Machine preference pane. Back up the files on the virtual disk from within the guest system, using a native backup application.
A compromise solution is to create a "snapshot" of the virtual machine in the virtualization software (not a Time Machine snapshot.) That will give you a single large file that never changes and only has to be backed up once. All the subsequent changes will be stored in a new file that's initially much smaller, but will grow over time. You should still exclude that file from TM backup. If you ever need to restore the VM from Time Machine, you'll have a working setup, which will make it easy for you to restore the rest of the data from within the guest system.
Another common cause of large TM snapshots is native OS X disk images. If you store a lot of data on one or more writable disk images, they should be in "sparsebundle" format, which will be backed up much more efficiently than any other format. Also be aware that disk image files are not backed up at all while the image is mounted. Make sure you unmount the image often so it can be backed up. If you ever restore, you will, of course, lose all changes made since the last backup. Consider eliminating large read/write disk images from your workflow, if possible.

Time Machine using Leopard- can't get it started

I have an iMac OS 10.5.8 using along with a 1GB Lacie drive. I used Disk Utilities to create two partitioned volumes in the external drive, one partition for saving the backup of Time Machine and the second for just storing extra file from my main iMac computer. The partition volume in the external drive was formattaed "Mac)S Exended (journalled)". Here is where I got confused! The second Option is to chose between "Erase Free Space" and "Security Options". I chose "Erase Free Space". But shouild I have chosen "Security Options" instead? During this time the Time Machine was OFF. At the conclusion of the "Erase Free Space" which took 3 hours, I turned on Time Machine but I did not get the result I was expected in backup files. What did I do wrong and what should I be doing? I am beginnng to wonder if I should just forget about TM and use some other backup application which you might recommend to me??? Thanks for any help. Abit frustrated at this point!
John

cstonage wrote:
I have an iMac OS 10.5.8 using along with a 1GB Lacie drive. I used Disk Utilities to create two partitioned volumes in the external drive, one partition for saving the backup of Time Machine and the second for just storing extra file from my main iMac computer.
bad idea. the data on the second partition will not be backed up. if you value it you should reconsider this arrangement. get another drive for storage and back up both the internal and the storage external with TM.
The partition volume in the external drive was formattaed "Mac)S Exended (journalled)". Here is where I got confused! The second Option is to chose between "Erase Free Space" and "Security Options". I chose "Erase Free Space".
Don't. don't use erase free space at all. it's not needed and will only waste time. it's just a security procedure that overwrites free space with zeros to prevent data recovery. instead, make sure that the drive is formatted properly. make sure that the partition is GUID. if it isn't then repartition the drive with correct partition scheme.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018#5
if the drive is already partitioned correctly then erase the TM partition using the erase tab. but don't use secure erase or erase free space.
then go to TM system preferences, set up TM to back up to this drive and turn it on. that's it.
But shouild I have chosen "Security Options" instead? During this time the Time Machine was OFF. At the conclusion of the "Erase Free Space" which took 3 hours, I turned on Time Machine but I did not get the result I was expected in backup files.
you want to clarify that? what result did you get and what did you expect to get?

MacPro backed up to Time Machine, added Mac Mini now get "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/Jerry Booher's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use." error when Mac Pro tries to back up

MacPro backed up to Time Machine, added Mac Mini now get "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/Jerry Booher’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use." error when Mac Pro tries to back up

It is standard Mountain Lion error due to the networking ability which is comparable to wet string. (actually that was lion.. it dried out some with Mountain Lion.. higher in the hills perhaps!!)
See C12 and C17
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
But many people are suffering the same issue..
And the above is even a little out of date.. you might need to do a reset to the TC.
Welcome to Apple's beta program for everyone.

Is there any palns to add cancle button when ever you get a call when your phone is locked?

Hello Apple Team,
Is there any palns to add cancle button when ever you get a call when your phone is locked?
I have observed your recent ios 7.0.4 is not at all good version and it has lot of issues, seems you didnt test the version completly and simply released.
Thanks,
Rajesh

No Apple team in this user to user forum.
Send your feedback here http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I have downloaded and installed iBooks,still i dint get iBooks tab in my iTunes,is ther any other setting tha i suppose to do to get ibooks tab?

I have downloaded and installed iBooks,still i dint get iBooks tab in my iTunes,is ther any other setting tha i suppose to do to get ibooks tab?

foru_su wrote:
I have downloaded and installed iBooks,still i dint get iBooks tab in my iTunes,is ther any other setting tha i suppose to do to get ibooks tab?
Look for the iBooks Icon on your Phone... Tap it to use iBooks
http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/applications/

When time machine does a backup I get an error message

Added a new Seagate 3T external as a backup drive Every time Time Machine does a backup I get an error message that the disk was not ejected properly, no bid deal just a pain. System 3.5GHz Intel Core i7... 16GB DDR# memory ... OSX 10.8.4. How do I get rid of this error??

Notes/Tips on OS X 10.8.5 External Drive Eject During Sleep:
Updated the previous page on OS X 10.8.5 Problems/Notes and Tips with more info regarding external drive 'eject' in sleep and on drives going to sleep/spinning down despite ES settings. I ran some tests with drives I had but so far have not seen those problems with my setup/drives at least. Apparently many have based on the still growing number of threads on the subject in Apple's Mountain Lion forum.
... you posted inaccurate information about a Mac that I pointed out.
Posts from and about Hackintosh do get removed.

HT201250 Is there any disadvantages to Time Machine? Why doesn't everyone get it?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for