Is there any advantage in using Vault over Time Machine?

Question

Hi all,
Yesterday I imported around 6000+ pictures from iPhoto and consolidated them into my Aperture library. After much re-organisation into projects, folders etc. I decided to update my backup Vault to preserve all my hard work. The Vault is located on a connected external drive with plenty of spare storage. I had previously backed up successfully to the vault when there was only a few dozen pictures in my library.
After initiating the Vault update process I then left it to get on it (and to have dinner and then watch the football...) and after several hours was dismayed to find that the process appeared to be stuck at just over 50% completion. It was obvious that no further progress was being made.
I was also concerned that there appeared to be no mechanism to cancel the process and the only course of action I could take was to apply a Force Quit against Aperture - not something that I care to do, if I can possibly avoid it.
After a rudimentary search of this community I saw that several others had experienced the same problem - although some suggested that a fix had been applied in recent versions (although I am running the latest version).
Given this, I'm reluctant to use the Vault again - particularly as there appears to be no means of cancelling a stuck job. I do however use Time Machine, so my questions are:
1) Do I really need to use Vault if I have Time Machine making regular backups of my Aperture library to an external drive?
2) Does using Vault give any advantages over Time Machine?
3) Is anyone else experiencing this problem with the current version of Aperture (v3.3)?
4) Is there anyway of cancelling a stuck Vault update other than the sledgehammer approach of Force Quit?
Thanks in anticipation,
Simon.

Answer 1

SImon,
Vault and Time Machine address different needs. Probably you will want to have both.
The advantage of Time Machine: incremental backups of previous versions, very compact storage. And you can integrate it into your regular backup of the whole system and include the regular masters as well. But the disadvantage: Time Machine decides for you, what will be deleted, if the backup drives get full. You do not have control over what will be saved and what not from the previous versions.
The advantage of vaults: You can make full backups of your library for well defined moments in time - snapshots of important states. I'd create a vault, whenever I make a major upgrade of the system at least.
Is there anyway of cancelling a stuck Vault update other than the sledgehammer approach of Force Quit?
If the graphical user interface is unresponsive, like when updating a vault, you can use the Terminal to send the "termination signal" to Aperture: Sometimes this will succeed, even if the "Quit" button does not work:
Look for the Process ID of Aperture in the Activity Monitor (launch Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor" and click the CPU heading. This will bring Aperture close to the top of the list. Make a note of the PID number in the first column, in this case 66550.
Launch a Terminal window and enter the following command:
kill -TERM 66550           (insert Aperture's PID instead of 66550)
This will send the "Software Termination Signal - TERM to Aperture, the same as pressing the "Quit" button should do, but send it directly, and not from the GUI that is unresponsive. This way I always succeded in cancelling a vaul update without force quitting. Not all processes can be terminated this way, however. The Terminal.app is also in the Applications > Utilities folder.
Regards
Léonie