Apple Time Machine - a disaster waiting to happen?

[Nick Armstrong]

I had trouble with the first external drive I had, and it was too small anyway. I got a Hard Drive recommended on the Apple site (LaCie 2TB Porsche Design P'9233), and regularly back up using Time Machine from my (snow leopard) MacBook Pro. It's been brilliant - still got 75% of the disc to use (I don't have much stuff other than on iTunes, I'm lucky that all work is managed on the PC at the office).

I had seen that the old stuff gets wiped if the disc is full... hadn't worried yet, as am so far away. But I imagine it could be v problematic.

And yes, RM, I've had to restore a couple of times from the La Cie, after problems with the MacBook P and a total wipe / new hard drive - worked like a charm. So easy

Oh... and I've never ever heard of Super Duper. Do I need to investigate? What would it add to the above?

[Resurrection Man]

Do you just plug in the hard drive before you switch on, or what? The last instruction on SuperDuper! is always - Make disc drive bootable, or words to...

If you look at the SD log, you should see words to the effect that 'Make disk bootable' or words to that effect. If not then feel free to PM me.

One way to check is to have your SD fired up and working then restart your mac but hold the Option key down. This should, after a wee while, give you two disk icons on the screen...one of which is your SD drive. Click on it and hopefully you should then be booting from it.

[Resurrection Man]

I had trouble with the first external drive I had, and it was too small anyway. I got a Hard Drive recommended on the Apple site (LaCie 2TB Porsche Design P'9233), and regularly back up using Time Machine from my (snow leopard) MacBook Pro. It's been brilliant - still got 75% of the disc to use (I don't have much stuff other than on iTunes, I'm lucky that all work is managed on the PC at the office).

I had seen that the old stuff gets wiped if the disc is full... hadn't worried yet, as am so far away. But I imagine it could be v problematic.

And yes, RM, I've had to restore a couple of times from the La Cie, after problems with the MacBook P and a total wipe / new hard drive - worked like a charm. So easy

Oh... and I've never ever heard of Super Duper. Do I need to investigate? What would it add to the above?

Did you restore the entire system from Time Machine or just a few files? When I had cause to restore the system recently, TM told me it would take 72 hours!

The difference between TM and SD is that SD produces a mirror image (bootable) of your Mac's hard drive. Which means that if things go pear=shaped then you boot from SD and then fix your actual Mac and/or restore the system from your backup. I keep a second copy of SD outside the house.

[MrGongGong]

I keep a second copy of SD outside the house.

what is it about your data that is SO valuable ?
I do have copies of various pieces in other places
but wonder whether it's really worth bothering ?

[Nick Armstrong]

Did you restore the entire system from Time Machine or just a few files?

One of each I think.

[Resurrection Man]

what is it about your data that is SO valuable ?
I do have copies of various pieces in other places
but wonder whether it's really worth bothering ?

Photographs. About 250Gb of various music..accounts..lots and lots of stuff which if i lost it would be bad news. That, and the time needed to reinstate from scratch. Keeping the second backup in a separate place to the main machine and house means that in the event of a major fire etc I still have my data.

[MrGongGong]

Photographs. About 250Gb of various music..accounts..lots and lots of stuff which if i lost it would be bad news. That, and the time needed to reinstate from scratch. Keeping the second backup in a separate place to the main machine and house means that in the event of a major fire etc I still have my data.

I still wonder (and I have heaps of stuff myself so i'm not suggesting that one doesn't have important things ) whether it's REALLY worth keeping
I lost a kidney last year, I haven't missed it that much

I once lost all my diary in a computer crash, so had to contact everyone I work with to ask if I was going to be working with them in the future, as a result I got lots of work I hadn't anticipated BUT one can only do that very occasionally otherwise one appears incompetent !!!

[Dave2002]

Are we not expecting too much? If your computing environment is one (like MrGG) where you generate considerable data ...possibly large files...then you adopt a back-up strategy to work.

...


Equally isn't it incumbent on any computer user to keep a weather eye on whether their backup disk is getting full?

I don't think a lot of people see things that way. I know many people who haven't a clue about backups or running their computers. The good thing is that many of them don't run into problems because they don't stretch their machines too far, but some do.

It's not only old(er) people too, though some old(er) people do have problems. One friend I know didn't realise that many cameras use the same names for photos, so managed to overwrite a complete set of holiday photos. On reflection, I wonder if he still has the drive - it might nevertheless be able to recover the files, but perhaps he's thrown it away now.

Some computers - particularly iMacs, are sold as easy to use, as well as status symbols of course. PCs are also sold as easy to use, but it's mostly a lie, and some users (may) find out soon enough how unmaintainable they are. Some lucky people manage to do so little with their computers, of whatever variety, that they never experience problems, or if they do, they are unaware of them - as in the person who wrote "I've never had a virus so I don't use a virus checker or firewall" - or something like that a few years ago. Didn't realise that some viruses and malware can be present but hidden, and indeed that this is a more recent trend with malware, as making it do something which the end user notices may be counter-productive for whatever nefarious purpose it is installed on unsuspecting machines.

Ignorance is bliss - sometimes!

Time was when car drivers had to know how to change the plugs, clean the contact points, spray the leads with insulating liquid (e.g WD 40), put oil in, put water in, pump up the tyres, etc. Maybe even adjust the tappets, courtesy of a Haynes manual. Nowadays most sane people just drive, and every 10 to 15,000 miles have their car serviced. You don't get many brownie points nowadays for declaring yourself to be the sort of person who'd do any of those things on a modern car.

Eventually it may be like that with computers, but there are still too many things which users "need" to know if they are to use the things effectively. Why should end users have to know about disc drives, file defragmentation, paging files and all the other things?

So, I don't agree that many modern users will necessarily think about some of the problems, yet the machines and the software are still not good enough or robust enough to cope with trouble free running for long periods without some form of "expert" knowledge. I don't think it is incumbent on computer users to keep a weather eye on anything, and in many cases they wouldn't know what to do anyway.

[Dave2002]

Some of my archives look like this



and



and




which might be a little tricky ?

and maybe like this?

Actually it was the negative I was trying to draw attention to, not the sound track, which cropped up as a bonus in this image!

[Dave2002]

It does say 'Notify after old backups are deleted', though. No?

Exakt! Précis! Absolut!

[Resurrection Man]

......
So, I don't agree that many modern users will necessarily think about some of the problems, yet the machines and the software are still not good enough or robust enough to cope with trouble free running for long periods without some form of "expert" knowledge. I don't think it is incumbent on computer users to keep a weather eye on anything, and in many cases they wouldn't know what to do anyway.

Really? Dream on.

[Resurrection Man]

Exakt! Précis! Absolut!

No, it doesn't say that. It says quite clearly that space will be deleted AT THE NEXT BACKUP.

[MrGongGong]

No, it doesn't say that. It says quite clearly that space will be deleted AT THE NEXT BACKUP.

Actually in the preferences it says AFTER

but I seem to remember when my 500gb disk was getting full it said something about AFTER

so I guess you are both right
but it's hardy a problem really
compared to Kernel Panic

[Beef Oven]

Actually in the preferences it says AFTER

but I seem to remember when my 500gb disk was getting full it said something about AFTER

so I guess you are both right
but it's hardy a problem really
compared to Kernel Panic

Was thinking about buying an iPad. Maybe I shouldn't.

[MrGongGong]

Was thinking about buying an iPad. Maybe I shouldn't.

You Should

It's a giant phone NOT a computer