Restore Points on a Mac like in Windows

fstigre · Jan 22, 2010, 10:33 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if there something like in Windows where you can create Restore Points and you can basically restore your system setting from previews restore points?

I'm currently using time machine and I don't know if something like this can be done with TM.

Thanks

celticpride678 · Jan 22, 2010, 10:34 PM

That's basically what Time Machine is. It creates restore points of your system every single time something changes, Can't get easier than that.

Bennieboy© · Jan 22, 2010, 10:34 PM

you can with time machine click the menu bar and hit enter time machine, it will give you a break down of every back up it's done

ziggyonice · Jan 22, 2010, 10:50 PM

If you want to restore your system to a certain point, you need to use the discs that came with your Mac. From there, go up to the Utilities menu and select "Restore from Time Machine Backup". Select the date to go back to, and it will restore your machine to that point.

Note that this will get rid of any saved files past that point. So if you go back two weeks, anything you've saved on the computer following those two weeks will have been lost. In most cases, people only do the restore if they've got a new hard drive or something along those lines. Thankfully it isn't needed as often as Windows needs it.

WarVibeMD · Jan 22, 2010, 10:51 PM

do you need an external hard drive to backup?

celticpride678 · Jan 22, 2010, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

do you need an external hard drive to backup?

Yes, an externel hard drive larger than your internel hard drive.

WarVibeMD · Jan 22, 2010, 10:54 PM

That's stupid....

celticpride678 · Jan 22, 2010, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

That's stupid....

No, its not...

Stay on topic...start another thread on why you think it is "stupid".

NewMacbookPlz · Jan 22, 2010, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

That's stupid....

Why would you back up data to the internal drive? If the drive fails, there go your backups!

WarVibeMD · Jan 23, 2010, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewMacbookPlz

Why would you back up data to the internal drive? If the drive fails, there go your backups!

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

NewMacbookPlz · Jan 23, 2010, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

IIRC OS X handles file deletions very differently than Windows. On OS X it's quite difficult to recovery a file post deletion unlike with Windows.

MythicFrost · Jan 23, 2010, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

Then you activate Time Machine, go to the date you remember (or search through them) before you deleted the file, select the file and click Restore.

kkat69 · Jan 23, 2010, 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

You can always go to the trash and pull it out

Seriously though everyone has said it, Time Machine is the way to go. Daily back ups (incremental) so only changed files get updated daily once the full back up is done. Which IMHO is better than Windows Restore Points since RP's are only (from what I remember) created at certain points if something major is done or you can manually "Create Restore Point" which is kinda 'point'less

unless everytime you sit at your machine you create a restore point.

Not to mention, Time Machine has way more functionality as you can pull individual files or a full system restore. Plus from my experience with RP's is often not all your files are restored since it's not a 'real' back up.

sidewinder · Jan 23, 2010, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

Do you guys even no what a Windows "Restore Point" backs up?

Apparently not....

S-

-aggie- · Jan 23, 2010, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidewinder

Do you guys even no what a Windows "Restore Point" backs up?

Apparently not....

S-

You're right. They don't for the most part.

Other than the comment that if you lose your HD, you lose the restore points (RP's), RP's are much easier.

fstigre · Jan 23, 2010, 07:44 AM

Thank you all for your comments!

Hmac · Jan 23, 2010, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

That's stupid....

What's stupid is making a comment like that without explaining, quoting, or providing any other context.

Hmac · Jan 23, 2010, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarVibeMD

But what if you just want to go back in time before you deleted a certain file...

Time Machine updates the machine incrementally once an hour. You can go back to virtually any point in the history of your machine on an hour-by-hour basis and restore from that point, or you can just recover the deleted file, if you prefer.

JayInNJ · Jan 23, 2010, 09:14 AM

No one has answered the original question. The answer is no. Restore points in Windows is completely different than what Time Machine does. Restore points are for applications only. Time Machine is for data only. The beauty of Restore Points is that you can go back to before a system change was made. Data is completely unaffected. So you can go back before an update or before you installed an app. You would still need an external backup for data in Windows. I think many would answer here that you don't need something like Restore Points in OS X since the installation of apps don't screw up the system as easily as they can in Windows. Things are segregated a little bit better. I still think it would be useful for undoing updates.

pcs are junk · Jan 23, 2010, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayInNJ

No one has answered the original question. The answer is no. Restore points in Windows is completely different than what Time Machine does. Restore points are for applications only. Time Machine is for data only. The beauty of Restore Points is that you can go back to before a system change was made. Data is completely unaffected. So you can go back before an update or before you installed an app. You would still need an external backup for data in Windows. I think many would answer here that you don't need something like Restore Points in OS X since the installation of apps don't screw up the system as easily as they can in Windows. Things are segregated a little bit better. I still think it would be useful for undoing updates.

dude u have no idea what you're talking about. windows just restores your files from an earlier point in time, they then create another restore point from where u just were incase u want to go back. so if u got a virus, then restored to an earlier point in time. you still have the virus. on time machine it completely wipes your mac os x partition and loads everything that was on your time machine partition of the external hard drive. or you can plug it in, click on the external disk and pull out the file u want. time machine is much more secure.

t0mat0 · Jan 23, 2010, 09:51 AM

Surprised no-one has mentioned something like Carbon copy cloner or similar.
Using an external drive (larger capacity than the internal HD helps) - you cna then make snapshots. These are basically disc images of the state of the computer at that time. It's a useful 2nd backup to have. Carbonite/Time Machine helps with your day to day files, but having a disc image could help save some time initially if that's what you truly want.

JayInNJ · Jan 23, 2010, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcs are junk

dude u have no idea what you're talking about. windows just restores your files from an earlier point in time, they then create another restore point from where u just were incase u want to go back. so if u got a virus, then restored to an earlier point in time. you still have the virus. on time machine it completely wipes your mac os x partition and loads everything that was on your time machine partition of the external hard drive. or you can plug it in, click on the external disk and pull out the file u want. time machine is much more secure.

No, you missed the point. Time Machine restores data only. Restore Points is for applications. Both are good for different things and really they are mutually exclusive.

Hmac · Jan 23, 2010, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayInNJ

No, you missed the point. Time Machine restores data only. Restore Points is for applications. Both are good for different things and really they are mutually exclusive.

You can restore your entire hard drive from any of the restore points in Time Machine.

NewMacbookPlz · Jan 23, 2010, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayInNJ

No, you missed the point. Time Machine restores data only. Restore Points is for applications. Both are good for different things and really they are mutually exclusive.

I think it's your terminology that's was confusing. By data, you mean EVERYTHING (inclusive of applications).

macrem · Jan 23, 2010, 06:08 PM

I was just trying to help a friend today who's Windows system is hosed...

There is a message at boot time that a certain HAL.DLL is missing or corrupted. As soon as you press any key, the system just reboots & returns to the same message. There's an error about the CD-ROM drive too & he cannot boot from it. His BIOS won't allow booting from a USB drive. He cannot reach his restore points = Windows FAIL!

It left me thankful to have OS X / Time Machine!

Jan 22, 2010, 10:33 PM	#1
fstigre macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2008	Restore Points on a Mac like in Windows Hi, I was wondering if there something like in Windows where you can create Restore Points and you can basically restore your system setting from previews restore points? I'm currently using time machine and I don't know if something like this can be done with TM. Thanks __________________ MacBook (not the pro version) 2.4 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 160 GB HD - Snow Leopard - iphone First Generation - Mac mini - 1.6GHz First Generation with Leopard
	0

Jan 22, 2010, 10:34 PM	#3
Bennieboy© macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: england	you can with time machine click the menu bar and hit enter time machine, it will give you a break down of every back up it's done __________________ Macrumors IRC: irc.krono.net room #macrumors download Colloquy or Adium Search before you post: MRoogle
	0

Jan 22, 2010, 10:50 PM	#4
ziggyonice macrumors 68020 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Rural America	If you want to restore your system to a certain point, you need to use the discs that came with your Mac. From there, go up to the Utilities menu and select "Restore from Time Machine Backup". Select the date to go back to, and it will restore your machine to that point. Note that this will get rid of any saved files past that point. So if you go back two weeks, anything you've saved on the computer following those two weeks will have been lost. In most cases, people only do the restore if they've got a new hard drive or something along those lines. Thankfully it isn't needed as often as Windows needs it. __________________ MacBook Pro [First Generation] \| 2.16GHz \| 2GB RAM \| 120GB HD \| Mac OS X (10.6.4) iPhone 4 \| 32GB \| Black (I couldn't wait for white any longer.)
	0

Jan 23, 2010, 07:44 AM	#16
fstigre Thread Starter macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2008	Thank you all for your comments! __________________ MacBook (not the pro version) 2.4 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 160 GB HD - Snow Leopard - iphone First Generation - Mac mini - 1.6GHz First Generation with Leopard
	0

Jan 23, 2010, 09:51 AM	#21
t0mat0 macrumors 68040 Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Home	Surprised no-one has mentioned something like Carbon copy cloner or similar. Using an external drive (larger capacity than the internal HD helps) - you cna then make snapshots. These are basically disc images of the state of the computer at that time. It's a useful 2nd backup to have. Carbonite/Time Machine helps with your day to day files, but having a disc image could help save some time initially if that's what you truly want. __________________ Next up - Haswell, Maxwell and 22nm
	0

Jan 22, 2010, 10:34 PM	#2
celticpride678 Guest Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Boston, MA	That's basically what Time Machine is. It creates restore points of your system every single time something changes, Can't get easier than that.
	0

Jan 22, 2010, 10:51 PM	#5
WarVibeMD macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2010	do you need an external hard drive to backup?
	0

Jan 22, 2010, 10:54 PM	#7
WarVibeMD macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2010	That's stupid....
	0

Jan 23, 2010, 09:14 AM	#19
JayInNJ macrumors member Join Date: Nov 2009	No one has answered the original question. The answer is no. Restore points in Windows is completely different than what Time Machine does. Restore points are for applications only. Time Machine is for data only. The beauty of Restore Points is that you can go back to before a system change was made. Data is completely unaffected. So you can go back before an update or before you installed an app. You would still need an external backup for data in Windows. I think many would answer here that you don't need something like Restore Points in OS X since the installation of apps don't screw up the system as easily as they can in Windows. Things are segregated a little bit better. I still think it would be useful for undoing updates.
	0

Jan 23, 2010, 06:08 PM	#25
macrem macrumors 65816 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Amsterdam	I was just trying to help a friend today who's Windows system is hosed... There is a message at boot time that a certain HAL.DLL is missing or corrupted. As soon as you press any key, the system just reboots & returns to the same message. There's an error about the CD-ROM drive too & he cannot boot from it. His BIOS won't allow booting from a USB drive. He cannot reach his restore points = Windows FAIL! It left me thankful to have OS X / Time Machine! __________________ 15" rMBP \| 27" iMac \| iPhone 5 \| iPad (3rd gen) Let's discuss your first world problems
	0

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