Lilrich Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Hello All, I am having some issues with my mac and want to install the OS from scratch however i don't have a super duper backup but i do havea time machine backup which i have run every day at the intervals it sets, will this be a good enough backup solution before i format and re-install? Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabron Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 in my case is pretty good, because it backup all my files and applications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hell-In-A-Handbasket Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 yes, but would stil be a good idea to backup to something else incase the timeMachine doesnt work Hello All, I am having some issues with my mac and want to install the OS from scratch however i don't have a super duper backup but i do havea time machine backup which i have run every day at the intervals it sets, will this be a good enough backup solution before i format and re-install? Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurë Veteran Posted October 10, 2009 Veteran Share Posted October 10, 2009 I found it to be really good once, and another time it locked me out. I would back up to something else as well if you can. If not, make sure that when you reformat you use the same names and information for everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilrich Posted October 10, 2009 Author Share Posted October 10, 2009 (edited) I found it to be really good once, and another time it locked me out.I would back up to something else as well if you can. If not, make sure that when you reformat you use the same names and information for everything. Should i shell out on Super Duper then and use my time machine disk for that instead? Or does someone have a better idea? Dont want to loose everything. Edit: Is Carbon Copy Cloner any good? Edited October 10, 2009 by Lilrichie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenks Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 bear in mind that time machine will only be as good as the HDD it is using. the time capsule HDD is just as likely to fail as your primary storage HDD. it is good for recovering files you have deleted, but you should not rely on it as a primary backup of critical data simply due it using an HDD to store the backup on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdmcmahon Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 If you have a second external drive, do this: Kick off a TM backup on your current external disk. Plug in the new drive and treat it like a new backup drive, perform a full TM backup. Reload the OS, you now have two perfectly good sources to restore from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Helix Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Carbon Copy Cloner is FREE and it fantastic, it can completely Clone a BOOTABLE back of your current system, if something goes bad during the format and TM doesn't do what you wanted to do you can just Boot from your CCC backup and then re-clone it back to your Main HDD easy-peasy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macf13nd Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Perhaps. Perhaps not! http://timecapsuledead.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Perhaps. Perhaps not!http://timecapsuledead.org/ Time Capsules are just AirPort Extremes with internal hard drives for network attached storage that Time Machine can use. You can also just use you're own external HD connected with USB or Firewire and achieve the same thing (except without multiple machines backing up to the same drive). Time Machine is the software. Time Capsules are the optional hardware. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Gil Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Perhaps. Perhaps not!http://timecapsuledead.org/ Instead of trolling, you could have noticed he was talking about Time Machine, not Time Capsule. Fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorbing Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I bought an external HD, formatted it for Mac and I used Time Machine to create a full backup image on it then turned Time Machine off since I don't want it to update my backup. But as far as I know, TM works fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoL Veteran Posted October 21, 2009 Veteran Share Posted October 21, 2009 Time Machine is pretty good. I'm glad I have a backup with Time Machine. It has saved me a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vice Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I've found Time Machine to not be very reliable. Its backups work for 6 to 8 months and then one day you will get a message saying that the Time Machine disk could not be mounted and nothing you do can fix it apart from erasing your backup and starting over. Imagine that happened the day your internal hard disk died? Or the mere stress of creating another initial Time Machine backup caused your Hard Disk to finally fail (if it was already near death). In my opinion Time Machine is risky as hell. It's great to have to retrieve recently erased files but for an entire machine backup it is way way to risky. In my opinion use Time Machine in conjunction with other backup methods such as burning your most important files to disc or copying your most important files to a separate external drive. Also just for reference so far since Leopard came out I've had to re-start my Time Machine backups 4 times due to issues with the software. That is through 2 separate hard disks (one via USB backup one via WiFi to my Server) and whilst using Leopard and then again whilst using Snow Leopard. And my Macs were switched as-well. Every variable from the Drive Used, the interconnect used, the operating system and the computer was changed and the problem still persisted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REM2000 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 used time machine since leopard and ive never had it fail 12+ months. My macbook hdd File system decided to go a little odd at one time, i reinstalled leopard from scratch, plugged in my TM and it restored everything, including changing the dock to 2d, apps, settings the lot, i was very impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StandingInAlley Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 It works well but I just use Carbon Clone Copier and copy everything to my external Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
still1 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 It would be a good idea to back it up some where else because I have read that most time capsule break after 1 year of use... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malisk Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 The OP doesn't tell if a Time Capsule is being used. I personally don't use one with Time Machine, and instead an external 500 GB Western Digital drive. Much, much cheaper than a Time Capsule, and I don't need it to be wireless; I always just have it next to my laptop anyway. It's working great so far. But sure, you can always use more than one backup drive. Having just one is far better than none though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurë Veteran Posted November 20, 2009 Veteran Share Posted November 20, 2009 It would be a good idea to back it up some where else because I have read that most time capsule break after 1 year of use... I don't wish to sound terse but it's best to try to read the thread before you post. Time Capsule is NOT the same thing as Time Machine. If you had read the thread you would have seen this stated clearly. The OP doesn't tell if a Time Capsule is being used. I personally don't use one with Time Machine, and instead an external 500 GB Western Digital drive. Much, much cheaper than a Time Capsule, and I don't need it to be wireless; I always just have it next to my laptop anyway. It's working great so far.But sure, you can always use more than one backup drive. Having just one is far better than none though... That's pretty much my set up, but I also have a NAS and during university I used Mozy and my uni file servers as well (with SVN in third year). Ok it was a little OTT but I couldn't risk losing my final year project, it was worth a quarter of my degree result. Everything except for the NAS back ups was done pretty much automatically so it was very easy to manage version control. I'd say that anyone that has very valuable data should really look into two or three back up solutions, with some off-site if possible. My NAS and USB drive would have been useless if a fire or theif had deprived me of all of my computer equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbba Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 I've found Time Machine to not be very reliable. Its backups work for 6 to 8 months and then one day you will get a message saying that the Time Machine disk could not be mounted and nothing you do can fix it apart from erasing your backup and starting over. Imagine that happened the day your internal hard disk died? Or the mere stress of creating another initial Time Machine backup caused your Hard Disk to finally fail (if it was already near death).In my opinion Time Machine is risky as hell. It's great to have to retrieve recently erased files but for an entire machine backup it is way way to risky. In my opinion use Time Machine in conjunction with other backup methods such as burning your most important files to disc or copying your most important files to a separate external drive. Also just for reference so far since Leopard came out I've had to re-start my Time Machine backups 4 times due to issues with the software. That is through 2 separate hard disks (one via USB backup one via WiFi to my Server) and whilst using Leopard and then again whilst using Snow Leopard. And my Macs were switched as-well. Every variable from the Drive Used, the interconnect used, the operating system and the computer was changed and the problem still persisted. Completely different to my experience. I've been using it since Leopard for around 2 years with absolutely no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbba Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 bear in mind that time machine will only be as good as the HDD it is using.the time capsule HDD is just as likely to fail as your primary storage HDD. it is good for recovering files you have deleted, but you should not rely on it as a primary backup of critical data simply due it using an HDD to store the backup on. Maybe you should carry two spare tyres for your car then? Or maybe not as the chances of two failing before a recovery can be attempted are very low. The only significant weakness of it that I can see is that it's not offsite so a major incident like a fire or flood could take down both drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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