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How does Time Machine work?

R

rekhyt

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2008
1,127
78
Part of the old MR guard.
I am about to upgrade to Snow Leopard soon. I want to know how Time Machine works though before I make the jump.

Does it make an image of your computer (When it restores, does it get all your settings back. For example, screensaver, game saves, dock and dashboard config, etc.) or just the files? (No config. Just files.)

Thanks,
Rekhyt
 
Just to give you some more information than bleurevolution does;

You can use timemachine to back-up your entire pc. When your hard drive crashes you can place a new one, start with the boot disk and restore from the time machine. Everything is exact the same as it was.

Time machine also (that's why it's called time machine) makes extra small back-ups. This function has a name, something like an incremental back-up. So it makes one back-up, and then it only makes back-ups off your changes. So when you add a file, it will add this file in your back-up instead of making an entire new back-up.
 
arjen92 said:
Just to give you some more information than bleurevolution does;

You can use timemachine to back-up your entire pc. When your hard drive crashes you can place a new one, start with the boot disk and restore from the time machine. Everything is exact the same as it was.

Time machine also (that's why it's called time machine) makes extra small back-ups. This function has a name, something like an incremental back-up. So it makes one back-up, and then it only makes back-ups off your changes. So when you add a file, it will add this file in your back-up instead of making an entire new back-up.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer too. :) Kinda like Shadow Copy for Windows (Never used it before BTW. Couldn't afford Vista Ultimate. :D) but universal.

BlueRevolution said:
Hey now, my response was nothing if not exhaustive in every detail! :p
Click to expand...

It was fast though. And an answer. Mac now running happily on Snow Leopard. Everything's faster now. Thanks again! :D
 
arjen92 said:
Just to give you some more information than bleurevolution does;

You can use timemachine to back-up your entire pc. When your hard drive crashes you can place a new one, start with the boot disk and restore from the time machine. Everything is exact the same as it was.

Time machine also (that's why it's called time machine) makes extra small back-ups. This function has a name, something like an incremental back-up. So it makes one back-up, and then it only makes back-ups off your changes. So when you add a file, it will add this file in your back-up instead of making an entire new back-up.
Click to expand...

But, while not taking up the space of a brand new backup, it APPEARS that each of your backups is the entire disk. When you enter Time Machine and go to a specific date, you can browse the entire contents of your HD as it was at that time, even though only a few of the files may have been copied during that backup.
 
The first time I restored from TM (I've not done it since) it didn't include my emails, address book or iCal events, so I now do it by drag-and-dropping my home folder and then just re-inputting all my settings.

So, just to reiterate, does TM restore EVERYTHING? Was it just some weird bug when I first did it?
 
ss957916 said:
The first time I restored from TM (I've not done it since) it didn't include my emails, address book or iCal events, so I now do it by drag-and-dropping my home folder and then just re-inputting all my settings.

So, just to reiterate, does TM restore EVERYTHING? Was it just some weird bug when I first did it?
Click to expand...

Must have been, cuz it does restore everything. How did you go about restoring?
 
devburke said:
But, while not taking up the space of a brand new backup, it APPEARS that each of your backups is the entire disk. When you enter Time Machine and go to a specific date, you can browse the entire contents of your HD as it was at that time, even though only a few of the files may have been copied during that backup.
Click to expand...

Thank you also for the answer. I knew how Time Machine worked but was wondering if it could also function as an image based backup. (And that was also answered as yes.)

Thanks again. :)

ss957916 said:
The first time I restored from TM (I've not done it since) it didn't include my emails, address book or iCal events, so I now do it by drag-and-dropping my home folder and then just re-inputting all my settings.

So, just to reiterate, does TM restore EVERYTHING? Was it just some weird bug when I first did it?
Click to expand...

Yes it does, I think. What you were doing was separately restoring items from Time Machine (When you go in the Time Machine app and then Finder appears on top of a space background) and not restoring from reinstalling. (Insert the installation DVD, then at some part it will ask you if you want to restore from Time Machine. I believe that's the image based backup that restores all your configurations.)

devburke said:
Must have been, cuz it does restore everything. How did you go about restoring?
Click to expand...

I think he separately restored using the Time Machine app and not through the installation process.
 
rekhyt said:
Yes it does, I think. What you were doing was separately restoring items from Time Machine (When you go in the Time Machine app and then Finder appears on top of a space background) and not restoring from reinstalling. (Insert the installation DVD, then at some part it will ask you if you want to restore from Time Machine. I believe that's the image based backup that restores all your configurations.)
Click to expand...

No - I restored from TM when I got my new MBP in July. It didn't resore ical, address book or mail, so I got scared about what else it hadn't restored so reinstalled and did the Home folder thing.
 
I don't remember whether ical, mail or adress book were restored. (I don't use ical, I have an imap e-mail adres, and I only use it online (gmail)).

I do have the entire adressbook, but that could be because my father's iphone connects to our itunes and probably imported all adresses.
 
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