Does Mac OS X Time Machine have any similarities to Windows System Restore?

[Dave2002]

I have not always found Mac OS TM to be very reliable or useful. In the Windows world System Restore is sometimes very useful for reverting to a slightly older update version of the OS, though hopefully one doesn't need or want to run it frequently.

Is Time Machine in any way similar in this respect?

[Anastasius]

No, Time Machine is fundamentally different and encapsulates your entire machine. Not just the system (as in System restore) as far as I recall. Not only that but you can go back in hourly increments for a short period of time and recover that document you just deleted and emptied trash. Or that document that you just Save'd rather than Save As to a new filename thus irretrievably losing your original. Unless you have Time Machine where you simply go back and recover the original.

You can also use it to recover your Mac but over Ethernet i've found it a bit cumbersome. Also Time Machine is designed to be stored on a different hard drive to the one in your laptop/PC and so is a true backup.

Chalk and cheese IMO. Much better than System Restore.

Having said that I rarely have need to use it !

[Anastasius]

Trying to reply to your PM but my Sent folder continues to display 0 messages. If you have an external email address we can use then could you please PM it?

ATB

[Dave2002]

Trying to reply to your PM but my Sent folder continues to display 0 messages. If you have an external email address we can use then could you please PM it?

ATB

That seems odd. Have you still got space for your messages? Sometimes if the space runs out things like that happen. Have you ticked the box to get a copy of your sent msg? Without that you won't see any. However the latest one you sent was requesting an acknowledgement reply. I didn't know that was a feature in this board.

I'll look at this again later on - just been out to dentists, so in mobile mode.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- just been out to dentists, so in mobile mode.

Bluetooth?

[french frank]

Have you ticked the box to get a copy of your sent msg? Without that you won't see any.

It wasn't checked. Anastasius, your preference was noted as not to keep a copy.

However the latest one you sent was requesting an acknowledgement reply. I didn't know that was a feature in this board.

I think it's a preference setting on the profile page. Can't see a record on the admin control panel.

[Dave2002]

Bluetooth?

[Anastasius]

It wasn't checked. Anastasius, your preference was noted as not to keep a copy.

I think it's a preference setting on the profile page. Can't see a record on the admin control panel.

Many thanks, ff, for the info.

[Dave2002]

Another TM related question.

If TM backs up everything or most files that change - how does one ensure that it doesn't back up virus or trojan files?

Should one manually control TM - that is turn it off and only enable it occasionally, which rather defeats the point, and then run a virus checker/cleaner program before turning TM on again to allow a backup to proceed?

Alternatively, is there any way to remove malware files once TM has backed them away to hard drive? This is potentially non trivial.

There's not a great deal of point in removing malware from a system if the backup process stores it, to allow it to be possibly reactivated later.

Posibly Windows systems are worse, but this issue is common to most computer systems nowadays.

[wenotsoira]

Lockjaw? Just filling in, the usual drill ...

[wenotsoira]

Another TM related question.

If TM backs up everything or most files that change - how does one ensure that it doesn't back up virus or trojan files?

Should one manually control TM - that is turn it off and only enable it occasionally, which rather defeats the point, and then run a virus checker/cleaner program before turning TM on again to allow a backup to proceed?

Alternatively, is there any way to remove malware files once TM has backed them away to hard drive? This is potentially non trivial.

There's not a great deal of point in removing malware from a system if the backup process stores it, to allow it to be possibly reactivated later.

Posibly Windows systems are worse, but this issue is common to most computer systems nowadays.

Ahm..., Mac's aren't supposed to get viruses ...

[Anastasius]

Another TM related question.

If TM backs up everything or most files that change - how does one ensure that it doesn't back up virus or trojan files?

.....

TM has no way of knowing. It is not an anti-virus system. Remember GIGO? Garbage In - Garbage Out.

The same thing applies to ANY backup system that I am aware of. On any computer system.

That's why you have Sophos!

[Dave2002]

TM has no way of knowing. It is not an anti-virus system. Remember GIGO? Garbage In - Garbage Out.

The same thing applies to ANY backup system that I am aware of. On any computer system.

That's why you have Sophos!

wenotsoira

Macs do get malware. Even if the basic OS doesn't get attacked, a lot of malware these days targets browsers, and other commonly used application programs.

anastasius

As you say, the same thing happens to any backup system, so my point is that the automated nature of TM might lull people into a false sense of security. Some sort of security strategy or policy is needed as well as a backup stragey/policy to avoid the worst problems. It is not eough to install an automated system, then hope that it will always work, and that problems won't occur, or can be remedied easily.