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Who has had to do a complete restore using Time Machine?

W

wngraham

macrumors regular
Original poster
I had to last week, and was none too happy with the process.

I was under the impression Time Machine would restore your drive to the state it was in from whatever backup you chose....ummm, no.

It restores your apps and that's it. Once booted you can use the normal Time Machine interface to go back and restore documents, music, movies, etc. It was a complete pain in the @ss. It in no way restores any system prefs, app registrations (I spent hours hours trying to find various serial #s), or even any email settings. I couldn't even restore email messages to their respective accounts....I had to go in and sync with .mac to get the account settings back, then re-import the messages from the backup. I also had to go in and reauthorize all my iTunes purchases.

I like the overall idea and the user interface for restoring the occasional accidentally deleted file, but as a true backup, it stinks.
 
If you need a real backup solution, you'll need a real backup program. Two of the best are Carbon Copy Cloner (free), and SuperDuper (pay). Either will make a 100% certifiable clone of your hard drive (every setting, every program, every last file), which you can even boot from, without the assistance of a restore/install DVD. Time Machine is (like Leopard?) more flash than function.
 
I don't know how you did it but for it worked like you wanted it.
Did you do a reinstall or did you choose from the menu timemachine restore?
For me it restored my entire hard drive like it was before except ofcousre the excluded maps.
 
Yes, I used it when I replaced my drive. It had backed up everything and restored EVERYTHING (every preference, setting, etc.) flawlessly.

I simply followed the instructions.

Time Machine is a complete new paradigm, so our instincts developed using more primitive cloning products can lead us astray. SuperDuper etc. are great products and have their place, but you'd need a shelf of external drives to use them to replicate the enhanced functionality of Time Machine.
 
wngraham said:
It restores your apps and that's it. Once booted you can use the normal Time Machine interface to go back and restore documents, music, movies, etc. It was a complete pain in the @ss. It in no way restores any system prefs, app registrations (I spent hours hours trying to find various serial #s), or even any email settings. I couldn't even restore email messages to their respective accounts...
Click to expand...
That's not how it worked for me. I did a clean install to a new hard drive then at the end of the installation process I restored from my Time Machine backup and it brought over everything. App's (with serial numbers), Doc's, Pic's, Music and Pref's. Not sure what went wrong for you, but based on my experience that's not how it's supposed to work.
 
wngraham said:
I had to last week, and was none too happy with the process.

I was under the impression Time Machine would restore your drive to the state it was in from whatever backup you chose....ummm, no.
Click to expand...

My experience was exactly the opposite of yours. Booting from the Leopard Install DVD, everything was restored completely. System, settings, documents, everything. Mail claimed that it had to re-import everything, but after doing that everything was as it was before.

Your experience may be different if you used a developer release, but in that case (1) it is your own fault to use a developer release for production, and (2) one reason for NDAs is that problems with developer releases are fixed instead of being discussed on MacRumors.
 
gnasher729 said:
Your experience may be different if you used a developer release, but in that case (1) it is your own fault to use a developer release for production, and (2) one reason for NDAs is that problems with developer releases are fixed instead of being discussed on MacRumors.
Click to expand...

Whoa....slow down there. It's not a developer release. I haven't violated any NDAs (or anything else). I'm running the fully legit 10.5.2 and booting from the actual Leopard DVD I bought in October.

heatmiser said:
If you need a real backup solution, you'll need a real backup program. Two of the best are Carbon Copy Cloner (free), and SuperDuper (pay).
Click to expand...

I'm waiting for ShirtPocket to release the new Leopard compatible Super Duper. Looks like it should be out in the next week.
 
wngraham said:
Whoa....slow down there. It's not a developer release. I haven't violated any NDAs (or anything else). I'm running the fully legit 10.5.2 and booting from the actual Leopard DVD I bought in October.



I'm waiting for ShirtPocket to release the new Leopard compatible Super Duper. Looks like it should be out in the next week.
Click to expand...

10.5.2 isn't out yet. I assume that was a typo?
 
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