Restore from TM. What's next?

[MjWoNeR]

I run First Aid on my iMac and got a bunch of errors. Snapshot warnings related to OneDrive in all 25, and "underallocation detected on tier 2 device" and First Aid takes ages to complete even in recovery mode.

So maybe I should just format and reinstall the OS. The question is though what will happen with my stuff if I restore from a TM backup. Programs I can reinstall by self.
But will secondary accounts and their files be restored?
If everything gets restored will the problems that First Aid found get restored too?

I would like to keep accounts and their files.
Programs I can reinstall.
It would be nice if settings synced back.
I would like to keep TM backups in case I want to restore a file.
I would like to get rid of the First Aid problems.

But I don't know what way is best to go. Any ideas?

 

[HDFan]

if I restore from a TM backup.

If you just have one TM backup you risk losing your data. Have at least 3 backups before you wipe your system. TM backups can get corrupted and fail. Clones to hard drives via something like Carbon Copy Cloner are a bit safer as they don't have the complex TM link structure. One on-line backup would be a good idea as well.

Snapshot warnings related to OneDrive in all 25, and "underallocation detected on tier 2 device"

This is a bit confusing. You have a Microsoft OneDrive network drive that is giving you problems, or is it an internal drive, external drive?

 

[MjWoNeR]

If you just have one TM backup you risk losing your data. Have at least 3 backups before you wipe your system. TM backups can get corrupted and fail. Clones to hard drives via something like Carbon Copy Cloner are a bit safer as they don't have the complex TM link structure. One on-line backup would be a good idea as well.



This is a bit confusing. You have a Microsoft OneDrive network drive that is giving you problems, or is it an internal drive, external drive?

I went into Migration Assistant to move some files from the Time Capsule into a new MacBook and it said that there were no backups in it, which is weird since I know there are backups there. I wonder if what you say about corrupt TM backups has anything to do with it.

Yes it is confusing. I googled the error and ended up here https://onedrive.uservoice.com/foru...emove-warning-inode-val-object-invalid-bsd-fl

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice (sounds like a broken record):

- STOP using Time Machine.
- remove all local backups/snapshots
- START using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper for your backups
- Get rid of the OneDrive software, I've heard it's buggy. (I have a OneDrive account, but I DO NOT use their software)

 

[MjWoNeR]

My advice (sounds like a broken record):

- STOP using Time Machine.
- remove all local backups/snapshots
- START using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper for your backups
- Get rid of the OneDrive software, I've heard it's buggy. (I have a OneDrive account, but I DO NOT use their software)

But TM is so practical when I want to restore a file!

And just like that the backups on the TC decided to appear.

Anyway I have removed OneDrive, I only had it because I had 1TB of storage through Office 365.
Back to my original question. I think one can format a mac and chose only to restore Accounts, Settings, personal files, and still have access to the old TM snapshots. I guess I will find out.

 

[chscag]

But TM is so practical when I want to restore a file!

You can do the same thing with Carbon Copy Cloner. Just leave the "Safety Net" to "On" and CCC will retain the files so that you can later on restore them. I'm not saying to stop using Time Machine, because it does have some good uses like when you need to migrate data, however, CCC or SuperDuper in conjunction with Time Machine is a much safer backup strategy.

 

[MjWoNeR]

You can do the same thing with Carbon Copy Cloner. Just leave the "Safety Net" to "On" and CCC will retain the files so that you can later on restore them. I'm not saying to stop using Time Machine, because it does have some good uses like when you need to migrate data, however, CCC or SuperDuper in conjunction with Time Machine is a much safer backup strategy.

I'll look into CCC. Just an update to the errors I got in First Aid for future reference.

The snapshot warnings related to OneDrive started disappearing one by one after complete removal of OneDrive and new snapshots are created. The "underallocation detected on tier 2 device" just disappeared by itself.

 

[Fishrrman]

I use OneDrive, but access/maintain my OneDrive space by using a web browser.
No automatic uploading or downloading.
Works "good enough for me" that way...