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Do You Use Time Machine?

Leopard folks: Do you use Time Machine?

  • Yes

    Votes: 64 61.0%

  • Yes, as well as another backup utility

    Votes: 15 14.3%

  • No, I use a manual backup program

    Votes: 12 11.4%

  • No, I use another automatic backup program

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • No, I don't backup at all

    Votes: 11 10.5%
  • Total voters
    105
M

Muzzway

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 21, 2007
224
0
It seems that a lot of people here don't like Time Machine. I personally do not; I don't want to have to carry around an external drive around with my MacBook all the time. So, how many here actually use it?
 
I use it and love it - for both my MBP & my Mini. I do wireless backups of the MBP via the BUD set up as a network share on the Mini. When I travel, I simply dont back up for a little while. As soon as I get home from a trip, I immediately back up and resume my normal daily schedule. The backup schedule is great for 90% of home users. Anything I need backed up more than that... I simply do a manual drag-n-drop.
 
I use it, although I don't carry the HD around with me. Usually when I'm out, I just don't worry about the backups, since 99% of my stuff is in the back up already and no new stuff is coming in or out of the internal HD.

Time Machine is a nice feature; It has saved my butt a couple of times already :D
 
I use it. I'm glad I do too, because it has saved my iphoto library and a few home movies already.
 
Muzzway said:
It seems that a lot of people here don't like Time Machine. I personally do not; I don't want to have to carry around an external drive around with my MacBook all the time. So, how many here actually use it?
Click to expand...

You don't have to carry an external drive around all the time - if the disk isn't plugged in Time Machine will just skip the backup and catch up when it is plugged in. Any backup that's worthy of the name has to go to an external device, so I don't really understand why the requirement for an external drive could be considered a reason not to use Time Machine.
It's so easy to use that there really isn't any reason not to use it IMO - I'd be interested to know what people who aren't using Time Machine do for a backup solution that's easier to use or more convenient than Time Machine
 
I used to use Deja Vu to make a bootable clone of my hard drive, then with Leopard I did one last Tiger image, and now I just use Time Machine. It seems to work really well (the only exception being that pesky Aperture issue).
 
I have a small partition on my MB drive to backup a specific part of my home directory to stop me accidentally deleting any working documents.

I mainly use Superduper as my backup program.
 
I find it funny that a poster would be convinced that something must be the case, whether it's the belief that most don't use Time Machine, most iMacs are defective, most MBPs exhibit gradient issues, etc., only to find out that the poll shows it to be the contrary.
 
I use it with my MacBook Pro.

I do manual backups with Time Machine - i.e. before I go to bed I'll set it to do a quick backup.

I do daily backups rather than let it go on its own and do hourly ones.
 
I love it. I never backed-up my computer before. Call me lazy but I never got round to it. Time Machine is perfect for my lazy ways. :p
 
cornopaez said:
I use it, although I don't carry the HD around with me. Usually when I'm out, I just don't worry about the backups, since 99% of my stuff is in the back up already and no new stuff is coming in or out of the internal HD.

Time Machine is a nice feature; It has saved my butt a couple of times already :D
Click to expand...
Same here.

About once a week, I'll plug in my Time Machine drive in and let it do its thing. I like that if I forget, after two weeks, Time Machine pops up a quick, non-intrusive reminder!

Speaking of saving my butt, I totally (!!!) mucked up about four contacts in my Address Book the other day. I love how Time Machine is integrated into Mail and Contacts!!! Instead of having to restore the whole Address Book file, I was able just to restore those contacts that I had messed up.
 
Phil A. said:
Yt's so easy to use that there really isn't any reason not to use it IMO - I'd be interested to know what people who aren't using Time Machine do for a backup solution that's easier to use or more convenient than Time Machine
Click to expand...

Praying is easier and more convenient, but it doesn't work as well :rolleyes:
 
How to Use Time Machine?

Great question about who uses Time Machine. I am/was using SuperDuper. I like the fact that it gives me a bootable drive and I can actually view the drive and see the folders/file structure. It basically creates a clone of the drive. But, it takes forever to run in it's once a day backup and I think TimeMachine will be easier to use should I ever just misplace a folder or delete something I shouldn't have. So, I just wiped out my SuperDuper backup and will allow TimeMachine to do its thing.

The thing I'm wondering about is what if I lose my entire drive? How do I recover my files from Time Machine back onto a new disk? I assume I'd have to install Leopard first. But, will the new version of Time Machine (just installed) be able to recover files from the external drive I've got now? Is there a "restore all" option to essentially build a clone of what I had?

p.s.- my plan was to use SuperDuper and Time Machine but now that I'm editing digital video, there's not enough room on my external drive to keep two copies of everything. Depending on the answer to my question, I might drop another $110 and get a second external drive to run a SuperDuper clone on.

Thanks,
Brian
 
brian0526 said:
...

The thing I'm wondering about is what if I lose my entire drive? How do I recover my files from Time Machine back onto a new disk? I assume I'd have to install Leopard first. But, will the new version of Time Machine (just installed) be able to recover files from the external drive I've got now? Is there a "restore all" option to essentially build a clone of what I had?

...
Click to expand...

Good info here
 
koobcamuk said:
You don't need to/aren't supposed to.

I use it, but will still want SuperDuper! in the future.
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to why you want SuperDuper in the future. I thought I needed it too (bought it just a couple of months before Leopard launched). But now I'm not so sure. What does it get you that Time Machine doesn't?

I guess the only thing I can think of is that if I completely lost my drive, I could plug my external drive into my laptop and boot from it. That would be pretty sweet. But, I'm not sure that unlikely event is really worth it if I could recover my Time Machine backed up files from the external drive anyway.
 
I used to. Now I just don't have the drive space on my external. I'll switch it on again once I get a bigger HDD.

500gb internal and the 300 for backup would be a nice combo.
 
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