Time Machine - Does it really back up? +recovery

[macfriend1]

Hi folks,

Recently, I've figured out that when backing up, time machine only backs up some files, but not the entire thing... I see that this is a way to keep the size of the back up on a low level, true, but isn't it a bad way to back up your files?! Shouldn't it be full backups of the entire library?!
Second question; when I will set up my new mac machine I will buy this summer, is the integration really that easy and files do not get lost?! I am a bit skeptical as a few months ago I integrated data from my old computer to my mac (without using time machine, just regular back ups, manually) and some files were not being imported, god knows why.
Stupid question; when integrating the old files from time machine to a new mac, do they integrate system preferences / applications too? Cause I really have done lots of cool tweaking and it would suck to do all that stuff again...
Also, can I select the files I want to import or does it automatically import all the files from time machine to the new mac? A problem is that there is lots of **** (cookies, temp files etc.) stored on every mac and now, the quetsion is, does time machine import all these old/makingsystemslower/****** little files too?!
What about the problem of leopard > snow leopard recovery?!

 

[chrismacguy]

1) Time Machine performs an incremental backup in that it backs up all the stuff thats changed, so this is perfectly safe, it just minimises the time required
2) It will migrate all of your applications, I cant remember if it migrates preferences or not, I dont believe it does however.
3) It will work fine between leopard and snow leopard.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Wow, that's the most confusing post I've read in a while. Someone needs to introduce you to the interrobang.

Time Machine backs up all of your preferences. If you run a fresh install and restore from a Time Machine backup, your finished product will run exactly the same, just without all of the OS X updates. During setup you can only choose to restore an entire backup or none at all, so there's no option to avoid restoring "****** little files".

If you restored manually before, that would probably explain why not everything was copied: because you didn't copy everything.

 

[mattydee87]

Wow, that's the most confusing post I've read in a while. Someone needs to introduce you to the interrobang.

Time Machine backs up all of your preferences. If you run a fresh install and restore from a Time Machine backup, your finished product will run exactly the same, just without all of the OS X updates. During setup you can only choose to restore an entire backup or none at all, so there's no option to avoid restoring "****** little files".

If you restored manually before, that would probably explain why not everything was copied: because you didn't copy everything.

May I ask what you mean by "your finished product will run exactly the same, just without all of the OS X updates"? I only ask because I recently restored a TM backup and it restored exactly how it was when I backed up including any updates and modifications?

EDIT: After reading your post again I understand. You mean a fresh install and then TM restore. However why re-install and then restore when you can restore directly from an install disk? Am I missing something?

 

[BlueRevolution]

Well, the only reason I would have to restore from a backup is because my hard drive had failed. But you're right, I've never restored during install.