Time Machine to the Rescue

[GimmeSlack12]

I just had to post about this. My iMac's HDD was dying, so before the warranty was up I took the machine back to the Applestore and told them it was dying. They took the machine and replaced the HDD no questions asked (and I didn't buy the machine from Apple).

So I come home knowing my Time Machine restore disk had my data backed up but was skeptical of how well it would restore my system. So I started the restore which took about 5 hours (200+ gigs). Just now as I've gotten home I restarted the computer and BAM! Right back to where I was before I took the machine in. Performed absolutely as advertised and absolutely zero hiccups, problems, missing prefs, anything! My music is where my music should be, my pictures are where my pictures should be and so on and so on.

I can't say how relieving this is to have "Just worked". I am a 20 year Apple user and am guaranteed another 20 years with this sort of excellent execution. Just had to share.

 

[Blue Velvet]

That's a great story and some comfort for those who are running Time Machine on an external drive but as yet untested. Like me.

 

[iShater]

That is wonderful. I haven't used it yet, so good to hear that I might be interested in it.

 

[Cerebrus' Maw]

Glad to hear it!!

Really, when technology works, you just have to take a step back and admire it.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

It really is great, all of my Firefox history, my Quicksilver triggers, User prefs, login items, bittorrent settings, desktop patterns.... EVERYTHING. Just right back like nothing ever went wrong.

This is just too cool.

 

[ekwipt]

Well I just give you a flipside on how osx "doesn't work".....

I had two drives in Raid 0 for video editing and found out that my drives would actually run faster by them self, now i've been stupidly not been backing up the video drive and a separate drive for audio (2 raided for the video and one HD for the Audio)......

So I copy all of the info from the raid onto my audio drive and then uninstall the raid, leaving me two drives empty, I erase both drives and name 1 video and the other audio and video backup....

Copy the video files from my audio drive and then make TIMEMACHINE use my Audio & video Drive as it's backup disk...

hope you guys are following me at this point....

switch off computer, thinking all is fine, wake up.... click click click

I think, **** this is no good (i've been through this before)

Nothing boots up just the grey apple screen... hold option, it sees my boot drive (phew i thought with heart racing, no problems)

For safety i check all the drives with disk utility (no problems found)

Wake up again this morning click click click (oh ****)

The video drive doesn't mount at all

So I wonder what it was uninstalling the raid or enabling time machine

And please don't say just coincidence...********

I've had this happen to me twice now with my macpro

 

[reclusivemonkey]

Its exactly the OP's story which is never taken into account when people compare the price of a Mac with something not Mac. You can't put a price on your data these days. The pictures and videos of my children are all digital, this kind of reassurance is something you just can't ignore.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Well I just give you a flipside on how osx "doesn't work".....

Dude, go rain on someone elses parade.

 

[ntoren]

Have a question regarding this process. If I get an external HD for my MacBook which is running Leopard, I go through the Time Machine set up process and then if my internal HD crashes and I need to replace it what are the basic steps?

1. Install new HD
2. Use install discs to get the new HD started?
3. Tell the new HD to copy everything from external/Time Machine?

Thanks!