How reliable is Time Machine?

[Alrescha]

What are rule one through five?

Rule One - Never change anything the vendor* sends you
Rule Two - Keep your stuff separate from the vendor's
Rule Three - Don't expect it to work
Rule Four - Always leave tracks
Rule Five - Always test virtually before going live (paraphrased)

from "What Mother Never Told You About VM Service" by Melinda W. Varian, Princeton University, 1983.

A.

* the vendor at the time was IBM, but it applies to all. Some people do not follow this rule. They pay the price.

Rule Eight - Don't trust the backup program

 

[jonnysods]

Time Machine has let people down.
I use Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner to backup. Never have a single point failure. The beauty of having a clone is that I can be back up and running in a few minutes by booting to my external clone.

I use Time Machine and it has helped me so many times, but I don't trust it fully.

I back my iMac up to an external drive by the iMac, then I also backup to a Time Capsule, then for redundancy I back up to CrashPlan.

 

[kerochan]

How reliable is Time Machine?

Ok, imagine this scenario. You want to do a clean-wipe of your OS X. You have 5 years of work on it.
You do a TM backup before the wipe. But wow confident are you that everything will restore? Has Time Machine every let you down or surprised you?

You should keep your work on an external drive AND back that up too. Use TMachine to back up the computer OS, passwords, software, ie Works, Adobe etc..
If TM then fails, at least you still have your work files, you just need to reinstall your software, not the end of the world.

 

[CRaSHeR36]

I backup to an external drive, to iCloud, to a NAS Time Machine, as well as CrashPlan. You can never trust one (or two) backup solutions.

 

[kerochan]

I backup to an external drive, to iCloud, to a NAS Time Machine, as well as CrashPlan. You can never trust one (or two) backup solutions.

I have had the same 3 computers for 12 years, never once have they failed. One back up is more than enough.

 

[afluriach]

It is as reliable as the drive you are using.

The biggest problem isn’t lack of reliability, but lack of understanding.

-If you use excludes, remember to actually back up those files.
-If automatic backups are on, then it is caching the data locally. Confirm that the backups are actually going to the external drive.
-It automatically deletes old backups. This means if you didn’t make an image of your fresh OS install, or you are accessing deleted files from an old snapshot, make sure to manually extract them.
-If you want to save a specific snapshot, select the folder and make an archive of it. Every backup folder contains the full file tree because it uses hardlinks (that is probably its coolest feature IMO).

-For maximum reliability, you should do backups with everything closed. Since it is backing up an online filesystem where data can change as it is being read, you might start a backup only to get an incomplete or corrupt snapshot of some data.

I also think in order to use TM properly, you need a healthy amount of indifference. I mostly changed my mind about exclusions, realizing that data churn was less of a concern than I thought. I recommend making a separate partition for Time Machine, maybe the same size as your system drive. Now rather than watching it eat up space on your external volume and obsessing over which exclusions to add to save a couple of GB, I just let it catch everything (except VMs and videos folder).

 

[CRaSHeR36]

I have had the same 3 computers for 12 years, never once have they failed. One back up is more than enough.

You're right.... 99% of the time... It only takes one time for a back up to fail. Most everyone agrees that more than one backup solution is always best if you are storing data that you can't live without (photos, etc).

 

[kerochan]

I think a back up is fine, I agree, if that fails than you have the files on computer, make another back up, but a back up of a back up! man thats OCD!

 

[CRaSHeR36]

I think a back up is fine, I agree, if that fails than you have the files on computer, make another back up, but a back up of a back up! man thats OCD!

From Macworld, March 2016:
"To give your data the best chance of surviving a range of problems, and to minimize your down time if disaster strikes (which is especially important if you rely on your Mac for your livelihood) you should do three things:

• Back up using Time Machine (to a disk connected t your network for extra convenience, particularly if you use a laptop
• Clone your hard disk daily to a disk connected to your Mac
• Use a cloud backup or peer-to-peer backup service

By mixing these three strategies, you get file versioning from Time Machine (great if you overwrite or delete something, or want to go back to an earlier draft of a file), the ability to quickly boot from your cloned disk if your internal drive fails, and are safeguarded against theft or damage by having your data stored elsewhere in the world via a cloud or other remote system."

You may think that is OCD - I just call it planning properly to ensure I can always access some of my most valuable possessions; namely my work and my memories. And apparently I'm not the only one

 

[Fancuku]

The only things I am OCD about are my music and picture collections. I have them backed up in 4 different places.
An operating system and programs can be easily re-installed so I don't care too much about them. Especially how much more convenient it is with OS X and Time Machine.

 

[bladerunner2000]

I keep all my data on a separate HDD and OS X on an SSD. I have a third drive as a backup drive. Backups this way are way easier than all of the solutions here:

1. Erase existing files on current backup drive
2. Drag/Drop folders from working drive to backup drive

No idea why any of you would want to use time machine or special software. I can understand if your using RAID though.

 

[kerochan]

From Macworld, March 2016:
"To give your data the best chance of surviving a range of problems, and to minimize your down time if disaster strikes (which is especially important if you rely on your Mac for your livelihood) you should do three things:

• Back up using Time Machine (to a disk connected t your network for extra convenience, particularly if you use a laptop
• Clone your hard disk daily to a disk connected to your Mac
• Use a cloud backup or peer-to-peer backup service

By mixing these three strategies, you get file versioning from Time Machine (great if you overwrite or delete something, or want to go back to an earlier draft of a file), the ability to quickly boot from your cloned disk if your internal drive fails, and are safeguarded against theft or damage by having your data stored elsewhere in the world via a cloud or other remote system."

You may think that is OCD - I just call it planning properly to ensure I can always access some of my most valuable possessions; namely my work and my memories. And apparently I'm not the only one

Better to be safe than sorry I guess.

I keep nothing on my system drive, just installed applications.
All photos and music files are on an external hard drive.

That external hard drive is backed up on another external hard drive.

Then the computer is backed up regularly on Time Machine, just to save reiinstalling any software or passwords.

Surely this is enough?

 

[CRaSHeR36]

The only things I am OCD about are my music and picture collections. I have them backed up in 4 different places.
An operating system and programs can be easily re-installed so I don't care too much about them. Especially how much more convenient it is with OS X and Time Machine.

Same here - plus all my work files. I don't back up VMs or much else. But those things that I do back up have multiple backup points.
[doublepost=1458310168][/doublepost]

Better to safe sorry I guess.

I keep nothing on my system drive, just installed applications.
All photos and music files are on an external hard drive.

That external hard drive is backed up on another external hard drive.

Then the computer is backed up regularly on Time Machine, just to save reiinstalling any software or passwords.

Surely this is enough?

In your case if you don't really have anything that requires full backup solutions, this could be fine... I would suggest keeping one of those hard drives off-site just in case.

 

[mrex]

nas (e.g. with raid1) and a separate backup of the nas (to the ext. drive) are enough for me. if i need more backups, i dont think the situation is anymore just to worry about data rather than worry about staying alive

 

[kerochan]

By the way, everyone, do I need to be connected to the internet to use the Time Machine?
Just checking!

 

[=E=]

By the way, everyone, do I need to be connected to the internet to use the Time Machine?
Just checking!

You don't need internet if your just backing up to an external.

 

[kerochan]

You don't need internet if your just backing up to an external.

Thanks =E=
Thats what I am doing, an external drive.
Cheers

 

[=E=]

Thanks =E=
Thats what I am doing, an external drive.
Cheers

Your welcome. But if your using a Airport Time Capsule, like I am. Make sure the Mac is connected to the network, it does not have to be online. But same network.

 

[jagooch]

Time Machine fails for me about every 3 months. It will complain that the backup drive is not available, but when I check the network I can see and browse the time machine share.

I usually try rebooting the time machine server and the client machine, which sometimes works.

Other times I have to delete the time machine share and start all over.

I've also experimented with using AFP and SMB2 protocols, or doesn't make a difference.

 

[SkyLinx]

I've used TM several times over the years and it has never failed a restore so far (fingers crossed). I LOVE the fact that I can do a clean install of the OS and re-import all applications and data during installation. It's very handy IMO and saves tons of time.

I do use Crashplan as well though, with two copies - one to a local USB drive and the other in the cloud. Also, all my important stuff is in Google Drive as well. So if I reinstall the OS or something happens, I first try TM which usually works, then CP from local drive or if that fails too (LOL) CP from cloud and there is still GD...

I also do think it's always wise to have more than one backup if your data is important.

 

[sammy2066]

My advice:

DON'T use Time Machine.
Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper instead.
Either will create a fully-bootable clone of the existing drive, with everything in "plain old finder format".

Having said that...
... if you're looking to do a completely clean install of the OS, you would probably want to do it this way:
1. Create the bootable clone
2. Boot from the clone.
3. Re-initialize the internal drive
4. Install a fresh copy of the OS of your choice onto the internal drive.
5. At the close of the install, the setup assistant will ask if you wish to bring over existing accounts, apps, settings, and data. You can choose to do this, and it will migrate your existing (non OS related) stuff to the new install.

This should do what you're looking for.

If you want to be even more particular, you can skip the setup assistant and do a "manual migration" of selective items you wish to move over, but this is definitely more involved...

Can someone help me with a tutorial on how to use SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of my HDD? My Late 2009 iMac has probably outlived its like - I should do this before things go south. I have a TM backup anyway, but still.

 

[Fishrrman]

sammy wrote:
"Can someone help me with a tutorial on how to use SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of my HDD? My Late 2009 iMac has probably outlived its like - I should do this before things go south. I have a TM backup anyway, but still."

Tell us a few things first.
What version of the OS are you using?
Do you already have SuperDuper?

If it's an older version of the OS, you can use an older version of CarbonCopyCloner that is completely free (version 3.5.7).
But we have to know what the OS version is first.

 

[oldhifi]

I have both Time Machine & a external USB drive just to be sure..