How to keep the first Time Machine backup for future restores?

[nukiduz]

Hi there. I've just purchased a new iMac and after I have installed all the basic apps I need I have done the first backup to an external drive with Time Machine. I think it would be a good idea to keep this first, fresh backup and not let Time Machine to erase it when the drive is full to restore the system if I re-install Leopard anytime and be back to this state, when OS X runs like silk.
How would you do this?

 

[jsw]

Wow - that's quite a good question. You'll be fine for the first few days, but then Time Machine will start to merge backups. However, this seems like something one would really want to be able to do.

Anyone?

 

[Makosuke]

That would be nice, but Time Machine can't do that currently--the best you could manage is to revert to the oldest state it has saved.

However, I don't think I'd really trust Time Machine to restore a complete bootable backup--in my case I always use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable mirror from a known state I trust (I set aside a partition for that), and re-clone from that.

Or just suffer the reinstall and bring your settings back in using Migration Assistant from the last Time Machine backup state, giving you a clean system copy with your settings.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I'm sorry, but I'm not getting your question, but I'm answering what I think is your question. If your hard drive fails, get it replaced, come then plug in the HD with the time machine backups. Insert the leopard disk, or if you got leopard preinstalled, the restore disks, and start up the computer while holding down the C key. You will be led the leopard installation process. choose the correct language, then move on. On the next screen, goto the menu bar>utilities, then choose restore time machine, then you go on from there, I don't know what happens next cuz I never needed to restore my system after an HD fail, my Hd never failed fortunately so far🙂. If you lost a file on your desktop or whatever, open the app time machine when your in the right folder, then go "back in time" till you find the file, then click restore. But if you had the file on your desktop for like an hour, and 3 days later you can't find it in time machine, this is because TM ONLY Backs up hourly for the past 2 days, daily after 2 days have passed, and weekly once the HD is full. Hope this helps

 

[jsw]

bluedoggiant, the OP is asking for a way to restore a specific point in time (the beginning), which appears to be currently impossible, as Time Machine merges old backups, so, by the time he'd want to restore it, the original backup would be merged with other from that week.

 

[TheZA]

That would be nice, but Time Machine can't do that currently--the best you could manage is to revert to the oldest state it has saved.

However, I don't think I'd really trust Time Machine to restore a complete bootable backup--in my case I always use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable mirror from a known state I trust (I set aside a partition for that), and re-clone from that.

Or just suffer the reinstall and bring your settings back in using Migration Assistant from the last Time Machine backup state, giving you a clean system copy with your settings.

I do that too, but I've wondered what happens if I clone back over from an earlier clone when I have a time machine backup with newer backups on it. Will the "re-clone" work with it now problem?

 

[TheZA]

Hi there. I've just purchased a new iMac and after I have installed all the basic apps I need I have done the first backup to an external drive with Time Machine. I think it would be a good idea to keep this first, fresh backup and not let Time Machine to erase it when the drive is full to restore the system if I re-install Leopard anytime and be back to this state, when OS X runs like silk.
How would you do this?

That IS, a very good question, by the way. And like the other guy said, you can clone at any point in time using freeware like Carbon Copy Cloner (or Superduper (free version) when it is made compatible with Leopard). This gives you he added advantage in that the clone is bootable, unlike the Time Machine backup. And you can clone it back over to get right back where you were. But as I said in that other post, what happens with your Time Machine backup when you clone back over from an earlier clone?

 

[Fearless Leader]

you could take that file that time machine makes and compress it. protecting and compressing it, then uncompress it when its needed.

youd have to turn time machine on let it do its thing and then shut it off for when making the archive.

 

[ayeying]

I don't think you can, and btw, I don't know why you'd want to. Personally, if my hard drive crashes, I would like to restore it to somewhat the quality of 1 hour before the crash and all that.

 

[greg555]

If you have a small external drive you could let Time Machine create your first backup on it, then disconnect it and store it away. Then hook up the drive you really want to back up onto and leave it connected.

A hack but it might do what you want.

Greg

 

[bluedoggiant]

bluedoggiant, the OP is asking for a way to restore a specific point in time (the beginning), which appears to be currently impossible, as Time Machine merges old backups, so, by the time he'd want to restore it, the original backup would be merged with other from that week.

As I've said, I didn't understand what he meant, it wasn't clear for me🙁. And thats what I've said at the end of my first post 🙂.

 

[nukiduz]

If you have a small external drive you could let Time Machine create your first backup on it, then disconnect it and store it away. Then hook up the drive you really want to back up onto and leave it connected.

A hack but it might do what you want.

Greg

That could be a solution. Since Time Machine organizes backups in diferent folders, could it be possible to block the first folder? I can't do it directly from Finder but there may be a way to not let TM delete the early backups.

 

[Fearless Leader]

That could be a solution. Since Time Machine organizes backups in diferent folders, could it be possible to block the first folder? I can't do it directly from Finder but there may be a way to not let TM delete the early backups.

random question but,
can any one else browse through the timemachine backup like a normal file structure or is it some weird cryptic arcane thing.

 

[Nero Wolfe]

Provided your external drive is big enough, why can't you create a new folder at the root of the Backup drive and copy the first backup to there? Time Machine wouldn't care as it only deals with the folder pertaining to the machine(s) it's backing up. Or would that tangle up the multi-link file structure?

 

[ayeying]

anyone can browse through it. It is not secured or anything. At best, you should be able to lock it so no one can access the file, but thats about it.

 

[bluedoggiant]

That could be a solution. Since Time Machine organizes backups in diferent folders, could it be possible to block the first folder? I can't do it directly from Finder but there may be a way to not let TM delete the early backups.

random question but,
can any one else browse through the timemachine backup like a normal file structure or is it some weird cryptic arcane thing.

You can browse your TM back up drive easily, open it in finder, then open the folder Backups.backupdb> then [owner's name] computer> then you can see the dates 🙂, just open it, its an alternative other than going through the TM app

 

[chas0001]

You can partition your backup hard drive into 2 partitions e.g 'Time Machine Fresh Install' & 'Time Machine Backup'. When you have a fresh install configure Time Machine to do a full backup to the 'Time Machine Fresh Install' Partition. When the backup is complete change the time machine settings and point it to the 'Time Machine Backup' partition. This means that you will have 2 backups to restore from should needs be, the fresh install and the regular incremental backup.

I personally would not do it this way. What I do is when I have a fresh install I create a compressed disk image of it using disk utility running from the OS X install DVD. I then save the image it to a backup volume. If I need to recover I boot from the install DVD and use disk utility to restore it. I also use time machine for incremental backups.