...I don't have to think about backups.
Usually hard disk failures and accidentally deleted data happen without thinking. I only start thinking when something that's important to me is no longer there. Time Machine just chugs away in the background, backing up my stuff every hour.
...it's so efficient.
I'm not even aware that it's running unless I happen to glance up at the menu bar at the exact moment it's pushing out a change to my backup and the little clock is spinning for a few seconds. My system doesn't slow to a crawl, I'm not swapping disks, nothing. Backups just happen. It happened while I was typing this post!
...it's got a seriously cool restore interface.
Yeah, Okay, I'm a sucker for cool UIs. Time Machine has one of the coolest UIs I've seen when it comes to restoring files. The animation is first rate and it's not just eye candy; when I needed to get to a version of a file that I had made dramatic changes to I could roll back in hourly increments to the point I needed very, very quickly.
...I have a feeling it's going to save my ass.
I have always been horrible about backing up my personal data at home. At work it's easy - large scale shared systems that backup important data all the time. But there's always an IT guy at the office that worries about that stuff. At home, I'm the IT guy and backups are one of the things I hate thinking about.
If you have Leopard but are not using a backup system, start using Time Machine right now! Go out and get a cheap USB based hard drive (you can get a tiny 320GB WD Passport drive for $200), plug it in, reformat it to a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition and then point Time Machine at it.
If nothing else setting up an "always on" backup system will ensure the data gods look on you with favor and don't wreak havoc on your hard drive.
That reminds me - I better trigger my Windows backup!
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15 comments:
Yeah, I was a big fan of time machine until I ran in to a little problem which caused a space-time rift...
whoops, the correct link would be...
space-time rift
It's a lot of technologies combined behind the scenes that makes Time Machine so painless. I keep it on, even when gaming and never notice it. Amazing what integrating useful features like a file change notification process in the OS can allow. Time machine never has to scan the drive for changes, it just asks what changes and backs them up. All the tech for this was mostly built for Spotlight initially, but it's exciting how it's already been repurposed for other things. Can't wait to see what 10.6 brings to the table.
I'm curious what people think of Time Machine on a laptop. I pack up my new MacBook every day and use it everywhere. I wonder how often I'd be somewhere that I'd want to get out my portable hard drive, plug it in, and let Time Machine do it's thing while I work? What is your experience.
@Jeff: if I had a small passport drive as my TimeMachine solution I'd take it with me; they are highly portable. Single most important thing for what you want to do is avoid having a bulky power adapter. Keep in mind though that if you are running on battery and you have a WD Passport type drive it will draw it's power from the USB port so your battery time will be reduced. Hope this helps...
I love time machine also. I haven't had to pull back a single file yet but have had to restore a hole drive. It worked flawlessly.
The comfort of just knowing that everything is being saved for you makes any work you do on a mac that much more enjoyable!
your blog is a great read. it was recommended to me by a friend who is an avid mac user. i got my macbook yesterday, being completely new to the OS. had the exact same issue as you with regards to installing my first application - Firefox :) took a second download attempt to figure out how it installs. keep the posts coming!
Hey David, ran across this through DIgg a couple weeks ago. Yes, time machine will save you at some point. I had to replace a hard drive in my MacBook and I installed OS X and then noticed that they give you an option to restore from Time Machine when entering all your info. I decided, what the hell, let's see what happens. Awesomness happened. Everything on my computer was right where it was before. Even my icons were in the same place on my desktop. I didn't know it could do that and was mighty impressed. So, make sure you keep up with all that, it'll pay off in the end!
@shawn: That is great to hear! I've already jumped into TM and plucked out a couple of files - nice to hear it can handle everything else too!
Another reason why to love Time Machine:
I haven't done any important work on my MBP for the last little while, just sitting in my living room while I watch the Canadiens kick ass; I have only used it for non-work related stuff during commercial breaks at night.
I hadn't realized how long my MBP was away from my office in the next room (and therfore the external drive I use for Time Machine). I got a pop-up today that reminded me it had not been backed up in 10 days. Nice little reminder.
Hi David, first post.
I have got 2 Macs, one Mac mini and 1 Macbook. I have got the Time Capsule, Apple's new wireless station with hard drive. I use it both as a wireless bridge and the Time Machine backup. My Mac mini is connected to the Time Capsule via gigabit ethernet, while the Macbook connects wirelessly. Both Macs Time Machine backups are flawless and all working in the background. All just work after the Time Capsule was configured correctly.
I think Time Machine is one of the most important new features of Leopard and should be used by every Mac user.
James Bond 007
@007: I couldn't agree more. The reason I put two 1TB drives in my new Mac Pro is because one is my deep storage drive and the other is for TM. I love not worrying about it at all.
Time Machine and Time Capsule have been an utter failure in my house!! I am now on my second Time Capsule as the "Genius" at the Apple Store said my first Time Capsule must have had a bad hard drive. My second Time Capsule performs in he same useless way the first one did. Time Capsule and Time Machine are nothing but a really good idea that is not ready for prime time. I've been a faithful Mac user since 1988 and I say...DO NOT BUY A TIME CAPSULE AND DO NOT USE TIME MACHINE!!!!!
@Anon: Bummer to hear about the Time Capsule problems, but I don't think that's a Time Machine issue. I'm using Time Machine on both of my Macs now; the MacBook uses an external USB based MyBook drive and my Mac Pro uses an internal 1TB HD. In both cases it works great. I've recovered files from both systems before without any issue.
If I were you I would make a stink about the Time Capsule problems you had though. 2 consecutive failures is really poor.
I too had problems with time capsule and my MBP at first, but I figured it out and now everything works flawlessly - lovin it.
For me the problem came as I had used migration assistant to move over all my crap (Unix binaries, applications, settings, files) from my G4 laptop to my new intel laptop. Something I guess disagreed with wireless TM backups (USB drive worked fine however). I also updated the firmware on my Time Capsule.
Now that I reformatted my MBP everything has been great. I love the fact TM backs up on wireless, as I like to wander about my house while working.
Retrieving files has been a godsend - wirelessly to boot!
The fact it is automated and does its thing silently has reduced my stress factor. Instead of one more damn thing to think about (plug in my drive, run my rsync scripts) I now have one less thing. That is how it should be.
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