Timemachine with more than one disk

[ajbrehm]

If I use Timemachine to backup more than one disk (i.e. system disk and a data disk in my Mac Pro), how will a system restore work?

Will Timemachine restore only the system drive and leave further restores to me to do with the Timemachine interface or will Timemachine insist that the disk configuration be the same (or similar) in the machine I restore to?

 

[RemarkabLee]

I'm not 100%, but I'm sure TS works in terms of volumes, not disks.

Therefore when doing a full restore, you'll do it a volume at a time.

 

[tibi08]

That's an excellent question, which Apple must have the answer to!

 

[ajbrehm]

I'm not 100%, but I'm sure TS works in terms of volumes, not disks.

Therefore when doing a full restore, you'll do it a volume at a time.

Same type of animal in most cases, volume or disk.

What does "a volume at a time" mean? Would Timemachine restore ALL volumes (one at a time) or ONE volume (leaving the others to me to restore one at a time)?

 

[ajbrehm]

That's an excellent question, which Apple must have the answer to!

I'd rather not get the answer from Apple but from people who have actually used Timemachine in these scenarios.

I found that Apple are usually ridiculously unaware of what happens when you use their software.

 

[RemarkabLee]

Same type of animal in most cases, volume or disk.

What does "a volume at a time" mean? Would Timemachine restore ALL volumes (one at a time) or ONE volume (leaving the others to me to restore one at a time)?

When you perform a system restore, it will look at your Time Machine disk and it will give you the option to restore from the volumes you have backed up . i.e. it will show you from which Mac you backups are from and within that you'll see the volumes within, in your case a system volume and a data volume.

You'll need to have the disk partitions ready on the target Mac, i.e. have a data volume ready to accept the data volume backup and the same for the system volume. It will not re-create the disk partitions for you (if using a single disk) or write to separate disks if the volumes reside on separate disks.

 

[ajbrehm]

When you perform a system restore, it will look at your Time Machine disk and it will give you the option to restore from the volumes you have backed up . i.e. it will show you from which Mac you backups are from and within that you'll see the volumes within, in your case a system volume and a data volume.

You'll need to have the disk partitions ready on the target Mac, i.e. have a data volume ready to accept the data volume backup and the same for the system volume. It will not re-create the disk partitions for you (if using a single disk) or write to separate disks if the volumes reside on separate disks.

Thanks!

How will it know which partition is supposed to be which? Does it go by simple order?