Apple Time Machine - a disaster waiting to happen?

[Resurrection Man]

2. Still need a Windows disc to run with. I really don't know where to get Windows discs from these days, except bootlegged ones. Most discs are upgrade discs which seem to require a previously installed version of Windows to run.
Most PCs come with an OEM version of Windows so upgrades are possible.

I have a couple of XP disks AFAIR.

[MrGongGong]

Yesterday I completely wiped the hard drive of my macbook and reinstalled the OS
(after checking my backup drive )
it then took 2 hours to restore everything from the Time Machine backup
everything works as if new, no having to type passwords etc etc no reinstalling of software

I'd struggle to find something else that would do the job as effortlessly and smoothly

[Dave2002]

Yesterday I completely wiped the hard drive of my macbook and reinstalled the OS
(after checking my backup drive )
it then took 2 hours to restore everything from the Time Machine backup
everything works as if new, no having to type passwords etc etc no reinstalling of software

I'd struggle to find something else that would do the job as effortlessly and smoothly

Sounds good. How big is your Time Machine drive?

Re other products from Apple, I still can't forgive them for wiping the data off my iPad when I did an upgrade recently. I'd not bothered for years, but eventually decided it was time to upgrade to iOS5 - I think the previous version was around 4.0. All the "files" which were stored in Pages disappeared, and despite looking at various user groups for advice, and trying out various things, I have not managed to recover the data. There's a very slight chance I may eventually succeed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Seems I'm not by any means the only person to have discovered this problem, but of course Apple doesn't advertise the fact that they have inherently flaky processes in some parts of their "domain".

Fortunately for me, I don't think there was anything really vital in the machine, but I've read of others losing books, dissertations etc. Damn silly, IMO, that the mobile machines don't have a proper filing system. Bonkers storing data with the Apps!

[MrGongGong]

I'm now using a 1TB backup
(and another 500gb of manual backup "vital" stuff )

[Dave2002]

I'm now using a 1TB backup
(and another 500gb of manual backup "vital" stuff )

I'm wondering how much time and effort to put into TM, and thinking of getting a much larger drive - perhaps 3 Terabyte, though some have suggest 2 TBs are more reliable. I really need to check out the other backup software, but it all takes time.

Re the iPad annoyance, not only has the data been lost (msg 48), but three of the Apple apps - Keynote, Pages and Numbers, no longer work, and crash within a minute of opening. Others have noticed this too, but Apple seems slow to acknowledge there is a problem, or do anything about it. Maybe I won't buy a new iPad after all - Samsung or Google maybe?

[MrGongGong]

I'm wondering how much time and effort to put into TM, and thinking of getting a much larger drive - perhaps 3 Terabyte, though some have suggest 2 TBs are more reliable. I really need to check out the other backup software, but it all takes time.

Re the iPad annoyance, not only has the data been lost (msg 48), but three of the Apple apps - Keynote, Pages and Numbers, no longer work, and crash within a minute of opening. Others have noticed this too, but Apple seems slow to acknowledge there is a problem, or do anything about it. Maybe I won't buy a new iPad after all - Samsung or Google maybe?

I have found that it requires virtually NO time or effort
apart from checking that the backup is actually working

I would avoid the "eggs in one basket" solution though as ALL hard drives will fail eventually

[Resurrection Man]

I'm now using a 1TB backup
(and another 500gb of manual backup "vital" stuff )

From your message 19...

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 ?

You've got more backup then me !

[Resurrection Man]

I'm wondering how much time and effort to put into TM, and thinking of getting a much larger drive - perhaps 3 Terabyte, though some have suggest 2 TBs are more reliable. I really need to check out the other backup software, but it all takes time.

Re the iPad annoyance, not only has the data been lost (msg 48), but three of the Apple apps - Keynote, Pages and Numbers, no longer work, and crash within a minute of opening. Others have noticed this too, but Apple seems slow to acknowledge there is a problem, or do anything about it. Maybe I won't buy a new iPad after all - Samsung or Google maybe?

Re backup software. SuperDuper....does what it says on the tin. Nothing to research unless you have specific requirements.

Re your iPad. Surely you backed up the data from it if it was that important? What would you have done if your iPad was stolen/eaten by the cat/broke? All computer systems will fail. Samsung. Google. All will fail or have niggles. No such thing as a perfect computer system.

Are you an 'early-adopter' by any chance? I never update until I've let all the early adopters find the 'problems' or 'wrinkles'. Then I go a-Googling and see what the problems are. If they won't bother me then I will weigh up the pro's and con's of updating. If they do bother me then I will wait. Leaving your 'Automatically Update' box ticked is just asking for trouble. One reason why I'm not bothering to update my iTunes.

[MrGongGong]

From your message 19...

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 ?

You've got more backup then me !

My manual backup is mostly the orchestral piece I'm currently writing and current audio files for a performance i'm doing in Estonia next month
which would be rather awkward to loose as i've already been paid some of the fee ........

I'm not sure that old archives are always worth keeping.........

[Resurrection Man]

...
I'm not sure that old archives are always worth keeping.........

This is very true. I have over 250GB of Mp3 quality music recorded off-air. Much unindexed. Doesn't always get listened to either.

[french frank]

I'm not sure that old archives are always worth keeping.........

Either I still have them on the HD anyway, or I've forgotten they exist. I only find TM useful for very recent stuff that has been accidentally deleted, usually in editing. I did delete all my TM files by mistake a few months ago - no bother

[Dave2002]

Re backup software. SuperDuper....does what it says on the tin. Nothing to research unless you have specific requirements.

Re your iPad. Surely you backed up the data from it if it was that important? What would you have done if your iPad was stolen/eaten by the cat/broke? All computer systems will fail. Samsung. Google. All will fail or have niggles. No such thing as a perfect computer system.

Are you an 'early-adopter' by any chance? I never update until I've let all the early adopters find the 'problems' or 'wrinkles'. Then I go a-Googling and see what the problems are. If they won't bother me then I will weigh up the pro's and con's of updating. If they do bother me then I will wait. Leaving your 'Automatically Update' box ticked is just asking for trouble. One reason why I'm not bothering to update my iTunes.

Re the iPad I probably didn't make specific efforts to back things off precisely because I was not expecting much of the material to be important. When I did the upgrade I did (or so I thought) back things up - but it appears that the backup either failed, or is somehow incompatible with the iOS now installed. Another somewhat annoying thing is that I have no idea what was lost - just in case any of the data had value to me.

Re the three apps from Apple - Keynote, Numbers and Pages - the fact that they no longer work is, I think, a demonstration of incompetence and indifference by Apple. To replace working programs by non-functioning ones is, I think, inept. Will they ever get this right? Do they care? Perhaps not. A recent article (http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/09/2...t-in-the-cold/ ) suggested that Apple might be trying to get customers to replace their kit every two years - but that is surely too rapid a change, and that they wouldn't bother to maintain older software. Fine - but they've had my money and I expect software things to work still if the hardware still functions. It will affect my next purchase, and it's certainly possible I might change allegiance to another company or device. I would, and indeed have, expressed caution when recommending new tablets, and if people want to go with Samsung or Nexus etc. I'm not rushing to persuade them otherwise.

[Word]

three of the Apple apps - Keynote, Pages and Numbers, no longer work, and crash within a minute of opening.

Is there a particular sequence of steps that can recreate the crash? I don't have those apps on my original iPad (it's mainly used by my nephews for playing games) but would be happy to drop them on it (the apps, not my nephews) and see if I can recreate the issue.

The usual advice is to completely power down the iPad to clear the memory before trying again (though I've never had any problems with that and the more recent versions of the OS have better memory management so it should be even less of an issue now).
The other, more onerous 'fix' is to delete the apps in question and reinstall them from your computer or re-download them. This will, of course, wipe any locally stored data associated with those apps so make sure you export or save to iCloud any docs you want to keep.

p.s. The best reason for getting a new iPad is the 'retina' display (though I'd wait for the 5th generation, which should be along soon). None of that 'PenTile' rubbish that Samsung use to allow them to deceitfully inflate the resolutions they quote for their knock-off devices

[Resurrection Man]

Dave..updates are available http://macdailynews.com/2013/03/07/a...r-ios-devices/

[Dave2002]

The other, more onerous 'fix' is to delete the apps in question and reinstall them from your computer or re-download them. This will, of course, wipe any locally stored data associated with those apps so make sure you export or save to iCloud any docs you want to keep.

p.s. The best reason for getting a new iPad is the 'retina' display (though I'd wait for the 5th generation, which should be along soon). None of that 'PenTile' rubbish that Samsung use to allow them to deceitfully inflate the resolutions they quote for their knock-off devices

I think there could be a problem with the restore operation, which may not be related directly to Pages/Numbers/Keynote. A notification is provided that there are problems with the restore, and this probably suspends it, possibly leaving some apps, including those mentioned, not fully installed. That might just explain the situation. Not an easy fix - just possibly if those other apps could be identified, they could somehow be removed (how?) and then a restore done which should hopefully run to completion.

I found today that deleting the PNK apps from the iPad does allow them to be reinstalled, and then the new versions work. However, the data is lost - any new data, and there seems to be no chance of recovering older data. I tried doing yet another restore to see if that would work after the new apps had been installed, but that didn't work. It's looking as though the best option is to keep the new apps installed and accept the loss of data. - which at least makes the iPad more usable again.

Is the retina display really such a big improvement? I'm not convinced about that, as I think that puts the display at a higher resolution than average visual acuity.However, as all the new ones have the retina display, that's a bit academic on these. It's less academic on the MacBooks, as they don't all come with the retina display, and the Macbook Air is still missing that feature I think.