A good example of that good ol' Apple magic- when things work, they just work and it's awesome and why we all want to own apple products.
Not that I thought that TM was ever a bad idea, but my mac has been dutifully backing up itself onto my TC for a couple years now and I have never once legitimately needed to use it.
But recently, I was preparing some graphics for a document I was creating. Somewhere in the process I rearranged the order of the graphics in my document, and subsequently renamed the source graphic files to match the new ordering (Fig 1 becomes Fig 2, Fig 4 becomes Fig 1, etc). Through some oversight I am not sure how, it turns out that the filenames got a little messed up and I ended up with 2 copies of the same graphic with 2 different filenames, and one of my graphics missing.
Thinking "oh no problem I'll just go into the backup I keep on my portable HD which auto-syncs to my mac", I plugged it in and looked. Whoops, the portable HD has the same error.
So I finally thought, okay, let me check my home computer which also syncs to my portable HD but not as often as the work computer, because I don't plug in the portable HD to it every day. Thanks to B2MM and mobileme, I wake it up and look. Same problem. Darn!
But then- I realized I should look back in the Time Machine archives and see if it would have the correct file. A quick launch of screen sharing and I'm sitting in front of my home mac, from my work mac. Launch up time machine, grab the file (which was there), and bring it back.
This is the kind of thing that TM was made for. I am still not 100% convinced that it is a reliable/workable/effective "disaster recovery" solution, but for the odd missing file or accidental delete, seems to have worked pretty good to me! Made all the better that I was able to do it all remotely via B2MM and screen sharing. I REALLY hope that this feature does not die with mobileme- and if some version of it will continue to exist through icloud. It is the whole reason I bought into MM to start with!
Honestly it would not have been much to re-create the graphic once I realized it was lost (maybe 5-10 mins max) but it was neat to actually utilize the benefits of being in the "Apple ecosystem".
For all the fun people jab at Apple products (myself included, at times)- sometimes it all comes together and "just works".
Thought it would be a fun story to share.
Ruahrc
Not that I thought that TM was ever a bad idea, but my mac has been dutifully backing up itself onto my TC for a couple years now and I have never once legitimately needed to use it.
But recently, I was preparing some graphics for a document I was creating. Somewhere in the process I rearranged the order of the graphics in my document, and subsequently renamed the source graphic files to match the new ordering (Fig 1 becomes Fig 2, Fig 4 becomes Fig 1, etc). Through some oversight I am not sure how, it turns out that the filenames got a little messed up and I ended up with 2 copies of the same graphic with 2 different filenames, and one of my graphics missing.
Thinking "oh no problem I'll just go into the backup I keep on my portable HD which auto-syncs to my mac", I plugged it in and looked. Whoops, the portable HD has the same error.
So I finally thought, okay, let me check my home computer which also syncs to my portable HD but not as often as the work computer, because I don't plug in the portable HD to it every day. Thanks to B2MM and mobileme, I wake it up and look. Same problem. Darn!
But then- I realized I should look back in the Time Machine archives and see if it would have the correct file. A quick launch of screen sharing and I'm sitting in front of my home mac, from my work mac. Launch up time machine, grab the file (which was there), and bring it back.
This is the kind of thing that TM was made for. I am still not 100% convinced that it is a reliable/workable/effective "disaster recovery" solution, but for the odd missing file or accidental delete, seems to have worked pretty good to me! Made all the better that I was able to do it all remotely via B2MM and screen sharing. I REALLY hope that this feature does not die with mobileme- and if some version of it will continue to exist through icloud. It is the whole reason I bought into MM to start with!
Honestly it would not have been much to re-create the graphic once I realized it was lost (maybe 5-10 mins max) but it was neat to actually utilize the benefits of being in the "Apple ecosystem".
For all the fun people jab at Apple products (myself included, at times)- sometimes it all comes together and "just works".
Thought it would be a fun story to share.
Ruahrc
I just LOVE how Time Machine has that capability. What is SO great, is to open the Application, then the File that is "wonky"........enter Time Machine, and it takes you back to all the earlier versions of that EXACT file ......no muss, no fuss, no searching endlessly for just the right backup! Has saved my butt more times than I can count!