Time Machine question

[PolySciSurfer]

Ok, I did a search and still couldn't find answers to my specific questions.

If I'm using an external hard drive (WD MyBook USB 2.0) with my MBP, and I install a lot of applications to my MBP such as MS Office, Rapid Weaver, Photo Shop, etc. And I make regular back ups using Time Machine saving to my external HDD, and then say my MBP dies and I buy a brand new mac computer. Can I just plug in the external HDD to my new mac and have all my photos, programs (including Office, RW, Photo Shop), music, etc. added to the new mac without having to install them?

I'm confused, it certainly can't be THAT easy can it? How would they protect the software rights?

And, I thought you needed a disk to install programs?

 

[jmann]

Yeah. When (if) you get a new computer, you would just choose to restore from a Time Machine backup and your computer will be exactly how it was before.

 

[PolySciSurfer]

Yeah. When (if) you get a new computer, you would just choose to restore from a Time Machine backup and your computer will be exactly how it was before.

So then all anyone would have to do, is put all kinds of programs on their mac, back it up on time machine, then they can essentially give people the programs? What about the serial codes you need when installing office? Time Machine just bypasses that? I'm very confused.

Just trying to make sense of this. Because it seems like an obvious vulnerability, which is why I'm skeptical of Time Machine saving my programs and me not losing them.

 

[spinnerlys]

Yes, it can be that easy.

During installation you will be prompted to transfer data, and one of the options is a Time Machine backup, from which you choose, what to transfer.

both images from http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_restore_imac_macbook_from_time_capsule_machine_backup.html

 

[-tWv-]

So then all anyone would have to do, is put all kinds of programs on their mac, back it up on time machine, then they can essentially give people the programs? What about the serial codes you need when installing office? Time Machine just bypasses that? I'm very confused.

Just trying to make sense of this. Because it seems like an obvious vulnerability, which is why I'm skeptical of Time Machine saving my programs and me not losing them.

Yes, they could give people applications, but this wouldn't be practical because you would have all of the settings and files from the old user and it would just be annoying to sort through them all. If you make a time machine back up of your whole system, and transfer the data back using migration assistant, your entire machine will look exactly as it was before. All settings, applications, and documents are still there in the same exact place. That is the beauty of time machine, you don't miss a beat when transferring to a new mac or re-installing the OS.

 

[millerj123]

So then all anyone would have to do, is put all kinds of programs on their mac, back it up on time machine, then they can essentially give people the programs? What about the serial codes you need when installing office? Time Machine just bypasses that? I'm very confused.

Just trying to make sense of this. Because it seems like an obvious vulnerability, which is why I'm skeptical of Time Machine saving my programs and me not losing them.

Look at it this way: yes, you could do it, but no, you shouldn't do it.

Time Machine's job is to perform backups. If it doesn't do that correctly, it isn't effective or useful.

 

[Bonsai1214]

ooh, this is great. i've been looking for the answer to this question. but if you're reinstalling the OS, its most likely because its sluggish because of some software you installed went bad. so isn't it counter productive to just image the computer again?

but anyways, great to know you can do this. now, anyone know where to get a 500gb for cheap?

 

[peterman926]

Should Time machine do a full backup of a newly restored HD?

Long time reader... first time poster...

Last night I installed a WD Caviar Black 1TB in my iMac. To make the new HD look EXACTLY like the old one, I first installed the OS X from the install CD's. Then I restored my data from my time capsule using the instructions as spinnerlys outlined. It took about 6 hours to restore about 175 GB of data.

I did have one question. This morning, I ran Time Machine and it is doing a full backup of EVERYTHING- all 175GB of data. Nothing has really changed- except for the fact that all my old data is on the new 1TB caviar drive instead of the stock 320 GB drive. Is this the behavior I should expect? I searched the forums and couldn't find anything specific to this question. Because I restored from time machine- I didn't expect to do a full backup of all the same data it already has backed up? thoughts?

 

[spinnerlys]

I have no specific knowledge of this behaviour, but as you have reinstalled the OS, the system doesn't recognize your old Time Machine backup as the current backup of your system, as the OS from the TM differs from the newly installed.
Maybe that's just the way it is, just like it is somehow impossible to recognize a TM backup from one Mac via another Mac with the help of the TM application.

 

[JediMeister]

This is documented by Apple.