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Time Machine

by Christopher Hill on 20th February, 2008

For some time I have been meaning to make use of Time Machine; frankly my backing up habits are below par. Important files get put on my flash pen, a really important document might get put on both my Macs, but that’s pushing it.

It’s just so tedious

I have never used external hard drives because they have always been so tedious—I don’t want to have to manually backup hundreds of gigabytes of data, backing up a file which hasn’t changed in a couple years. Then, of course, one will need to try and find that file when you accidentally delete it from your computer!

Time machine allows you to backup your whole drive(s) initially, then every hour for then onwards. It will only backup files which have someway changed. How does it know which files have changed? Spotlight tells it.

No interaction from me, it backs up only the files it needs to. And when the backup drive becomes full, it simply removes the old copies (which lets face it, on my new 750GB drive shouldn’t be for a while…).

Oooooh. Aaaaah.

Time Machine also has a pretty slick user interface for when you want to recover a file. Just click the dock icon and your Mac is turned into a real life time machine. You can search using Spotlight to find the files instantly, or you can navigate to a directory and go back in time until something is there that isn’t there now! Click on the file, press restore, and hey presto, it’s back on your Mac.

The best part about this though has to be Quick Look. Whilst in Time Machine I can pres the space bar on a file, and view it instantly without having to open up the necessary program! Okay, so you can do this even on your own Mac, but it helps to make sure you are restoring the right file.

There’s just one more thing&hellip

Well, it seems Apple have someone even converted me to backing up. They have someone made it cool. I actually look forward to the day that I need to restore a file so I can make use of Time Machine. Saying all this, I just wish Apple would have an option as to when to backup. I can understand them wanting to force people to update hourly so all your files are backed up, but I would just feel more comfortable knowing there was some kind of interface for letting me choose when to backup. Maybe that’s just me?

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User submitted comments

1 Paul wrote

20th February, 2008

Simple free tools have existed for ages for incremental backups, all you must see in your eyes is shiny objects if you claim apple has converted you to backing up.

2 Christopher Hill wrote

20th February, 2008

Paul, other vendors do support incremental backing up. However, I am not aware of any product which offers complete automation and peice of mind such as Time Machine. I have looked at backup products from a few vendors over the past few months, and frankly they offer 1,001 options. Time Machine has just the one; on and off.

Also, Time Machine has one sexy way of restoring files.

3 Paul wrote

22nd February, 2008

Well i dont think you looked very hard, just one example here that does an excellent job http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/toucan

After a looking at the time machine i think it was two problems. 1) It solves a problem that doesn’t exist. 2) It lacks configurations options for even for the most basic user.

4 Christopher Hill wrote

22nd February, 2008

Well i dont think you looked very hard, just one example here that does an excellent job http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/toucan

In that case I don’t think you looked too hard at my last post, let me reemphasise:

I have looked at backup products from a few vendors over the past few months, and frankly they offer 1,001 options. Time Machine has just the one; on and off.

Toucan seems no different. 5 tabs with a host of options, having to specify which folders you want backed up. Time Machine backs up everything by default, with an on/off switch and an optional configuration window where you can say which folders you don’t want backed up. Simple as.

One thing I couldn’t find after a brief look at their site is if they automatically back everything up, or whether you need to visit the “Sync” tab.

1) It solves a problem that doesn’t exist.

Paul, I don’t think you fully understand Time Machine. Let’s assume for a moment that your computer breaks. Suddenly it doesn’t turn on. No need to worry with Time Machine, you can reinstall eveything back to the last hourly backup. This is all available as standard on the OS X Leopard install discs.

2) It lacks configurations options for even for the most basic user.

Hmm. One would assume the most basic user (i.e. a novice) would want less configurable options—they don’t want to get bogged down with everything. In that respect Time Machine would be a better choice—as soon as you connect an external hard drive Leopard pops up saying if you would like to use it as a backup device. Click “Yes” and everything is taken care of. No installing programs, no configuration, no worries.

I also stated in my main article that it does lack an option to say when to backup, but supplied reasons as to why they may have done this.

Penny for your thoughts

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