Time Machine: Spit!!!
in [UK Mac]
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From: Andy Hewitt on 20 Nov 2009 07:48 David Sankey <David.Sankey(a)stfc.ac.uk> wrote: > In article <1j9g1ui.5rdwydrv9r0rN%thewildrover(a)me.com>, > thewildrover(a)me.com (Andy Hewitt) wrote: > > > Martin S Taylor <mst(a)hRyEpMnOoVtEiTsHm.cIo.uSk> wrote: [..] > > > I think the people who are so against it are those who don't do telephone > > > user support for their parents. > > > > <grin> > > > > Yes, I know where you're coming from there! > > Which raises the biggest flaw that I see with it, it ignores your Trash. > When we were running weekly snapshots it would invariably be the > Wastebasket that contained the file that we were trying to resurrect > after the event... Hmmm, hadn't though of that, although I empty my own trash very quickly anyway, so the file I trashed should still be where it was in a past backup. Is it not there in the hidden '.Trashes' file? -- Andy Hewitt <http://web.me.com/andrewhewitt1/>
From: T i m on 20 Nov 2009 08:08 On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:45 +0000, Tim Streater <timstreater(a)waitrose.com> wrote: >Oh, my mistake, you said "... got TM running ..." right above - as if >somehow its reeeely complicated. Np. I've not tried TM so I don't know how complicated it is or isn't, all I know is you can't use it if you don't have it. I've just found a little USB laptop drive I'm about to format under OSX to see what this dongle backup does when it finds something it can backup onto. >>> Then I have to >>> fiddle with Finder->Go->Connect to server which usually fixes it, and I >>> then tell it to back up and it does so. No data lost, you'll note. >> >> Because you get that fixed before her machine crashes I've noted, yes. > >You have an odd idea of what a "crash" is then, if you consider >sleep-and then-awake to be a crash. The suggestion (had you not been a Vulcan) is that 'in the event of a total data loss, a backup that was never done (due to some minor technicality) is no use to anyone. > I never mentioned crashes and there >weren't any. Nor did I. I was talking about a hypothetical crash. >Even if hers crashed there still wouldn't be any data loss. Oh dear ... T i m
From: Tim Streater on 20 Nov 2009 08:19 On 20/11/2009 13:08, T i m wrote: > On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:45 +0000, Tim Streater > <timstreater(a)waitrose.com> wrote: > The suggestion (had you not been a Vulcan) is that 'in the event of a > total data loss, a backup that was never done (due to some minor > technicality) is no use to anyone. 1) Hers is a complete backup (I may have excluded caches etc) so "in the event of a total data loss" a complete restore onto a new disk from TM should presumably work. As the TM disk is local to her machine the backups don't fail, ever. If a backup is *never* done then you're buggered anyway, as you have no backup. 2) Mine (over the network) is *not* a complete backup (and was never meant to be). I've excluded almost everything and only backup my working files. The stuff that's *really* important I'm also archiving onto a USB stick from time to time.
From: T i m on 20 Nov 2009 08:36 On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:48:32 +0000, thewildrover(a)me.com (Andy Hewitt) wrote: >> It does and that's *the point* of this dongle. It has a virtual CD >> thing like these USB BB dongles that autorun on insertion. > >OK, fair enough. The Maplin page doesn't make that clear. I thought I had though. 'You plug it in and it backs up all your data' .. ;-) > >> So what would you recommend for a file system for this Mini / Backup >> (under OSX) then please? > >For best results: > >PPC Mac, partition Apple Partition Map >Intel Mac, Partition GUID Ok, I'll try that in a mo on this USB laptop drive. > >> That's not quite what I'm reading here (but I could easily be reading >> 'it ate my data' and not realising that was what it was supposed to do >> ... under any circumstances). > >No, that was quite predictable, although maybe not expected by the OP. A >case of RTFM IMHO! Ah <gulp>. > >TM backs up your data, creating a timeline of everything you've saved, >or deleted. You can go back to any time or date and pick out a file you >deleted, or may have become corrupt, and restore it to the main system. >You can also reinstall a user, or a full bootable system, either from a >previous point, or just the latest. Obviously a file created and deleted >in between hourly saves isn't going to be in the backup. Ok. > >The timeline extends back as far as the data will fit onto your backup >drive. Once it's full, TM has to, obviously, make room for new files to >be added, so the oldest files are deleted in a rolling fashion. Ok. > >When the OP attatched an external drive, TM attempted to back this up >(any drives attached can be backed up), but before it could be excluded. >TM will have looked at the data on the new drive, and calculated the >space needed, so will have had to delete enough files in the existing >backup to make room for the new data. > >Quite predictable, no? Maybe predictable but with no warning? Can you set it to warn you, like you can with the Windows updates? ;-) > >I agree that this may not be ideal in some cases, particularly where a >TM backup drive is getting full. Apple do give recommendations about >capacity required for TM drives, based on the source drives. K > >A simple solution is to simply turn off TM while you attach an external >drive, and add it to the exclusion list. It should then ignore it each >time it's attached. Ok. > > >> >> Versus not doing a backup at all, yes. > >There is that of course. And that's my point. I know *many* people who would never do a regular backup, some who still wouldn't, even after losing a load of valuable data. This dongle is the nearest thing I've ever come across to a solution for those people. > >> >I certainly wouldn't want to be using a single backup drive as a source >> >for multiple machines though. Far too much risk of losing stuff for my >> >liking. >> >> Me neither, so we share the dongle but have a drive each. ;-) > >Righto - meaning that your backup isn't constant on one machine then? Erm (not quite sure I understand your question) meaning that one backup drive (automatically / intelligently) shared between several machines is better than no backups on any machine. Better is one backup drive per machine (and we nearly have that here) but that would be option 2. > >> Of course and from what I've read here (of those who have actually got >> TM running and had to use it in earnest and it has behaved as they >> expected ... which isn't everyone by the look of it) it's a very >> clever / good solution. > >I think it behaves perfectly well, you just need to understand what it's >doing, that's all. So those that don't use it (but have tried it) do so because they understand it doesn't work for them. > >> I was only making light hearted comparisons. ;-) > >I was actually quite puzzled that they've made a rare bit of Mac >supported hardware, ;-) >that's actually pretty much redundant. For anyone >with 10.5 and and external drive, I can't see any reason for buying this >dongle. I hadn't spotted that. As you say, not quite as much use *unless* you just wanted this as a cross platform plug_and_play 'independent solution. >However, for Windows users, particularly those before Vista, and those >with earlier than Mac OS 10.5, it is a good suggestion for sure. No, as you mentioned up there ^ it' needs 10.5 to run so less use on the Mac side. As for Vista / W7 I've not tried it on them as yet (but can). Interesting to see what Ubuntu makes of it. ;-) Cheers, T i m p.s. When I plug the dongle into this Mini under OSX, first TM offers to use it then Crossover offers to deal with the Windows stuff it finds on there. ;-)
From: T i m on 20 Nov 2009 08:46
On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:19:05 +0000, Tim Streater <timstreater(a)waitrose.com> wrote: >On 20/11/2009 13:08, T i m wrote: >> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:45 +0000, Tim Streater >> <timstreater(a)waitrose.com> wrote: > >> The suggestion (had you not been a Vulcan) is that 'in the event of a >> total data loss, a backup that was never done (due to some minor >> technicality) is no use to anyone. > >1) Hers is a complete backup (I may have excluded caches etc) so "in the >event of a total data loss" a complete restore onto a new disk from TM >should presumably work. Presumably yep. > As the TM disk is local to her machine the >backups don't fail, ever. Ok, so I should have said you not her 'crash' then? > If a backup is *never* done then you're >buggered anyway, as you have no backup. Indeed. > >2) Mine (over the network) is *not* a complete backup (and was never >meant to be). I've excluded almost everything and only backup my working >files. If the network glitch let's you etc. > The stuff that's *really* important I'm also archiving onto a USB >stick from time to time. Good idea. I've yet to test this dongle solution but browsing the backup drive (it's just std files) seems to indicate that all my important data is on there (and even stuff I didn't know I still had). ;-) Cheers, T i m |