03/03/2008, 7:05pm, EST
Monday, March 3rd
Time Machine: a "no-click solution"
Apple's Time Machine software, which serves as part of the company's recently-shipped Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' operating system, is a "no-fuss backup system" according to one review. Glenn Fleishman in the Seattle Times says Time Machine's "no-click solution" is key for average consumers who don't want to spend hours setting up a complicated backup system. "Time Machine doesn't have a button and doesn't occupy your attention while operating," Fleishman said. "It just backs up."
Setting up Time Machine under Mac OS X Leopard includes plugging in a hard drive, opening Time Machine under System Preferences, and clicking the large virtual switch to 'On.' Users then select the drive they just plugged in and don't have to think about backups again. Time Machine silently and automatically tracks each version of every file, allowing users to metaphorically go back in time to retrieve any version of a document desired.
Apple's software performs incremental backups to ensure all changes are saved between backups, and includes a Time Machine menu in the System menu bar that allows users to see the backup status or elect to back up on the spot. Restoring requires users to select the desired files or folders and click restore, causing Leopard to place the files exactly where they were prior.
Apple's latest release of Mac OS X Leopard fixed numerous bugs and added various options to turn off some of the operating system's "most annoying" features.
"After using Time Machine on two of my computers, I can finally recommend Leopard, in part, to take full advantage of Time Machine's backward thinking," Fleishman concluded.
Filed under: Apple
Other story tags: Mac OS X, backup, review, Time Machine
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However, I believe you could use it for Time Machine, as opposed to Apple's AEBS, which many folks foolishly bought because they believed Apple's hype that it could be used for Time Machine. (Although some would argue Apple can't even get the drive part working correctly with the AEBS, let alone allowing it to be used with Time Machine).
I'm not 100% certain on this, but I believe Time Machine treats packages as regular folders when it shouldn't. Packages should be backed up atomically. This may be fine for applications, but database packages and other packages where individual files inside change can cause problems if they're not all backed up together.
That and like Spotlight, Time Machine has no way of querying database systems, making restoring of individual records a challenge.
This is one reason computers tend to be backed up 'after hours', as there's just too much of a chance for things to go horribly wrong when trying to backup open files.
The problem is that concurrent access during backup could cause data inconsistency. Otherwise it wouldn't be a problem either way: backup the package atomically or as individual files -- as long as there is no access conflicts, they are equivalent.
This statement is misleading. Time Machine backs up on intervals, not every time a file has been modified. If you make 12 changes and subsequent saves to a document within a 1 hour period (not at ALL unrealistic), you only get a backup of the file at the end of the 1 hour mark, not all 12 versions.
I'm not saying I would want TM to back up every time I save a file, as that would be insane. Just think some clarification in the article is needed. TM is not a revision tool.