Time Machine Questions

[Bunker]

I am planning my backup strategy with Time Machine. Buying my very first mac tomorrow when shops open.

1. Can Time Machine backup to a Network storage, with AFP enabled?

2. When we reinstall the mac from scratch, can Time Machine do a total recovery on data based on last backup?


I know this is new product. For anyone that had tested the above, really appreciate your feedback.

 

[rand()]

Time Machine Answers

Hey, there!

1) Time Machine can, but it won't give you the option without a little trickery on your part. Basically, the easiest way is to connect your backup drive directly to the Mac you wish to back up, and perform the initial TM backup - this is probably faster anyway, as it will need to copy a very large amount of data that first time.

After that, if you reconnect the drive as an AFP share, TM will recognize it and use it for incremental backup. It will not use it if it's not mounted, though; in other words it won't auto-mount to perform the incrementals. The easiest way to ensure incremental backups take place is to add the AFP share as a Login Item.

2) When you boot a computer from the Leopard disk, a button in one of the first few Installer screens is "Restore from Time Machine Backup." I didn't test the feature (as I don't yet have a backup to restore!), but it's definitely in there.

Rock & roll. Good to have you in the Mac community.

-PD

 

[Bunker]

Rand,

thanks.. that's a fast reply.

the trickery seems direct, if I am not reading anything wrong.

I will have close to nothing to backup on initial set up of the Mac... so nothing to worry.

If follow what you said, I just have to switch it to my AFP shared drive on the network.




Another question though.

When the backup drive is full, I will need to change a drive. How can you bring your old backups to the new drive?

 

[pdpfilms]

I've got a couple more questions for those out there with multiple drives...

Is it possible to set up a specific drive to back up to another specific drive, if neither are your boot drive? I have 3 primary disks (one boot drive, two for media), and each has a specific drive to back up to. Will I be able to use Time Machine and retain this backup scheme?