Time Machine question

[thomasp]

Hi,

I don't have Leopard yet and am still debating if it's worth upgrading my 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook to it.

Anyway, one of the deciding factors will be - can you boot up from a Time Machine backup?


Currently, I use SuperDuper! to (occasionally) back up my hard drive to a partition on my external firewire HD, and I can boot my laptop up from this should my hard drive or whatever go pear-shaped, or restore my entire hard drive if needed (and don't say it won't happen - because it did.). When the computer's started up from the FWHD, it runs just as it did when I last did the backup, albeit slightly slower.

Will a Time Machine backup from Leopard allow me to boot the computer up into Leopard from my external HD should something prevent me from booting up from the internal disk?


Thanks

 

[robbieduncan]

No. As clarified in this SuperDuper! blog post Time Machine backups are not bootable so not a total replacement for SuperDuper! Granted they are not exactly unbiased but...

 

[apachie2k]

Hi,

I don't have Leopard yet and am still debating if it's worth upgrading my 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook to it.

Anyway, one of the deciding factors will be - can you boot up from a Time Machine backup?


Currently, I use SuperDuper! to (occasionally) back up my hard drive to a partition on my external firewire HD, and I can boot my laptop up from this should my hard drive or whatever go pear-shaped, or restore my entire hard drive if needed (and don't say it won't happen - because it did.). When the computer's started up from the FWHD, it runs just as it did when I last did the backup, albeit slightly slower.

Will a Time Machine backup from Leopard allow me to boot the computer up into Leopard from my external HD should something prevent me from booting up from the internal disk?


Thanks

I never heard that you can, and if you could, i would think they would advertise something like that. So i'm going to say 70% sure you can't. Reason being that many people may use USB external HD and i believe you can only boot from firewire HD...

if anyone else has anymore info...


cheers

 

[robbieduncan]

Reasoning being that many people may use USB external HD and i believe you can only boot from firewire HD...

Nah, USB is bootable on Intel too.

 

[thomasp]

Oh well, looks like the one feature I would have actually used in Leopard I won't be using now.

Guess this PowerBook will be staying on Tiger.


Thanks for the replies

 

[Chef Medeski]

Hi,

I don't have Leopard yet and am still debating if it's worth upgrading my 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook to it.

Anyway, one of the deciding factors will be - can you boot up from a Time Machine backup?


Currently, I use SuperDuper! to (occasionally) back up my hard drive to a partition on my external firewire HD, and I can boot my laptop up from this should my hard drive or whatever go pear-shaped, or restore my entire hard drive if needed (and don't say it won't happen - because it did.). When the computer's started up from the FWHD, it runs just as it did when I last did the backup, albeit slightly slower.

Will a Time Machine backup from Leopard allow me to boot the computer up into Leopard from my external HD should something prevent me from booting up from the internal disk?


Thanks

Don't Quote me but while the partition is not wholly bootable in itself. If your system crashes and you put in your Leopard Disk and click Revert to Previous version. The Time Machine screen will appear letting you go back through the hours or days and then restore that complete backup of anytime. So while it can't boot from it directly. It can boot directly from the CD and then you can restore. Much nicer too I find.

 

[Chef Medeski]

Don't Quote me but while the partition is not wholly bootable in itself. If your system crashes and you put in your Leopard Disk and click Revert to Previous version. The Time Machine screen will appear letting you go back through the hours or days and then restore that complete backup of anytime. So while it can't boot from it directly. It can boot directly from the CD and then you can restore. Much nicer too I find.

Yup found it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html

You can restore your system from Boot Camp the only problem is you need the Leopard CD. I dont know how much of an issue that is for you. For me since the HD is at home anyways, the CD is not far away, its not a big deal. But unsure if its a make or break for you.

 

[nuclearwinter]

If you got the space and the speed, this is what I did with Time Machine and SuperDuper. Since I purchased SuperDuper and love it, I didn't want it to go to waste. This was my solution.

 

[thomasp]

Don't Quote me but while the partition is not wholly bootable in itself. If your system crashes and you put in your Leopard Disk and click Revert to Previous version. The Time Machine screen will appear letting you go back through the hours or days and then restore that complete backup of anytime. So while it can't boot from it directly. It can boot directly from the CD and then you can restore. Much nicer too I find.

Yup found it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html

You can restore your system from Boot Camp the only problem is you need the Leopard CD. I dont know how much of an issue that is for you. For me since the HD is at home anyways, the CD is not far away, its not a big deal. But unsure if its a make or break for you.

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately, I think that would be a "break" for me, because if the internal hard drive goes kaput, there'd be no way to boot off the external hard drive. The problem I had with my PB earlier in the year could potentially have been a hard drive failure "in the making", but because I had a fully bootable backup on my external HD, I was able to use the computer more or less as normal and diagnose the HD at the same time (which thankfully, wasn't dying).


If Time Machine cannot provide a bootable backup, then there's no point in me using it - I might as well just carry on as I am. Tiger's running perfectly well on my PB at the moment. Shame - Leopard seemed so good a week ago...

 

[Chef Medeski]

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately, I think that would be a "break" for me, because if the internal hard drive goes kaput, there'd be no way to boot off the external hard drive. The problem I had with my PB earlier in the year could potentially have been a hard drive failure "in the making", but because I had a fully bootable backup on my external HD, I was able to use the computer more or less as normal and diagnose the HD at the same time (which thankfully, wasn't dying).


If Time Machine cannot provide a bootable backup, then there's no point in me using it - I might as well just carry on as I am. Tiger's running perfectly well on my PB at the moment. Shame - Leopard seemed so good a week ago...

Oh I see what you are saying. Just an idea, but couldn't you make a bootable diagnostic partition on your external, so if you merely wished to diagnose the problem you could boot into that. I mean you don't need all your data from an hour ago just to diagnose a hard drive, no? Just a full set of OS X with all the diagnostic tools. Just an idea, unsure if thats what you're lookin at exactly.

 

[thomasp]

Oh I see what you are saying. Just an idea, but couldn't you make a bootable diagnostic partition on your external, so if you merely wished to diagnose the problem you could boot into that. I mean you don't need all your data from an hour ago just to diagnose a hard drive, no? Just a full set of OS X with all the diagnostic tools. Just an idea, unsure if thats what you're lookin at exactly.

It's more so as I can continue with coursework, etc, if my HD decides its time to visit the great hard drives of the skies. Speaking from experience, computers always die when you least want them to. The way I do things, I can just run off the external HD. Yes, there is a small speed penalty (not much mind you, as its a FW800 drive, and my PB has FW800 on it ), but that's nothing compared to being with a doorstop rather than a computer.


Also, a friend of mine has just had the hard drive die in her Toshiba laptop (4 years old), so I guess it's made me a bit paranoid

 

[Chef Medeski]

It's more so as I can continue with coursework, etc, if my HD decides its time to visit the great hard drives of the skies. Speaking from experience, computers always die when you least want them to. The way I do things, I can just run off the external HD. Yes, there is a small speed penalty (not much mind you, as its a FW800 drive, and my PB has FW800 on it ), but that's nothing compared to being with a doorstop rather than a computer.


Also, a friend of mine has just had the hard drive die in her Toshiba laptop (4 years old), so I guess it's made me a bit paranoid

Yeah I know the feeling. My PB hd died and I was so glad that during Final Exams I had started to do backups. I guess I just would restore as fast as I can so Im not in the same position. Anyways....