Time Machine: is it an image backup or just data backup?

Back in my Windows days and for my servers at work (just a few), I always did the following to do backup:

1) DATA
Use SyncToy or copy the data folders (My Documents, etc.) to an external hard drive

2) OS and APPLICATIONS
Create an image using Acronis's TrueImage, so I don't have to re-install the applications or re-configure the OS

With Time Machine, I know it backups my User folder (Documents, Music, etc.), but does it also backup the computer settings, such that in the case of re-install, I just pop-in the original OSX Installation CD and restore from Time Machine without reconfiguring the OS AND re-installing the application again?

I noticed in the Time Machine hard drive there is also an Applications folder that contains the list of the same applications as installed in my MBP.

 

Yea, time machine will restore everything on your computer, preconfigured and everything.

As long as you dont leave any folders out (important ones) youll be fine.

The only hitch I ran into when restoring from time machine (and running a backup off external usb drive) is that Little Snitch doesn't seem to remember the rules i set. So I have to set them again. Kinda weird, but not something thatd ruin it.

 

OK, so it does IMAGE the machine:

- Data is restored
- OS Settings, including System Preferences, configuration such as Folder "View Options", etc, restored as before

Is that correct?

One more thing: I read in MacFormat magazine that I SHOULD EXCLUDE the System files. This will make the Time Machine preference to exclude "System Files and Applications". The reason, according to them, is because during a reinstall, those files will be reinstalled by OSX anyway. That true?

 

Unlike utilities like SuperDuper, TM is NOT an image backup utility. It does not produce a bootable image and there are items it will never backup. Its a resource hog when running and can often error if its running while you are making significant file changes on your machine. It can be a pain if you often connect external mass storage devices (be they flash drive or network drives) as TM will pop us asking you if you want to use for TM backups. For laptops of course you only get "regular" backups when connected to a TM drive. It will use up the entire capacity of any drive over time and has problems if you want to use the drive to backup more than one machine. Initially TM would wipe out source files if there was an error during the backup (leaving you with neither source nor backup file) but I expects thats been fixed by now.


I much prefer doing periodic image backups with SuperDuper and using a service like MOZY to do my daily data backups in between images.

My experience with TM is thats its too unreliable to trust to anything important and if somthings not important why am I wasting my time backing it up. Others may have different TM experiences though as usage patterns and software running on everyones machines is often quite different.

 

like jim said, its not an image. It isnt bootable, and the only way to really access it, is from the leopard install dvd.

I've never came across any of the problems that he came across. I made a partition on an external drive, and yea it will use up all of the space on that partition, but i have potentially backups atm till last january.

Personally though, I wouldnt rely solely on time machine. Its great for what it does, and it does it fine, but if my laptop crashed, and I didnt have the time to do a time machine restore, I would be screwed. Thats why I use carboncopycloner, and I have a bootable backup of my harddrive. If I need to use my laptop, with the internal drive messed up, I have that.

Ofcourse, the fact that were even having this discussion, means that you know what you want, and just want some more info.

I dont see a reason, to NOT use time machine. Another backup is always a good idea, you never know what will happen.

And I would have time machine backup your whole drive. AFAIK, when doing the restore, it just uses the files from the time machine backup, and doesnt reinstall stuff from the dvd. I could be wrong, never looked into it. But again, theres probably some settings, and you would lose all of the applications you bought/downloaded/settings for them, if you excluded the application folder.

 

This is interesting reading, thanks

One thing that I don't quite get about having a bootable image on an external drive using CC or SuperDuper: in the event of disaster how do you then restore that image onto your (new) internal hard drive?

 

I've had absolutely no problems using Time Machine over the last 8 months or so. In that time I've used it to backup 3 different MacBooks and even migrate from one to another without so much as a hickup.

 

I've had no issues with Time Machine whatsoever since I started using it when I got my new MacBook Pro. One thing that I do however is create a clone of the disk using Disk Utility and store it as a DMG, and then if anything happens all I need to do is restore the image and repair permissions.

 

I can also say that I am reasonably happy with timemachine. I think for the majority of home users its a great solution and offers ease of use with most of the features they need. Its far from perfect, and I wish apple would make it easer to migrate the TM to a larger drive when needed.

But overall it allows you to restore your machine and recover lost/deleted files, which is what I want.
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@Jim

Not true.
It only does this if you have TM on but no drive associated.
Don't like those prompts, then turn off TM !

Also not true. I have had no issues backing up my two mb to the one hard-drive/TM, and this is the first time I have heard anyone having issues...although I doubt you actually use TM so perhaps its not the first time.

 

You boot from the external drive and run the copy of your image backup on that drive to copy the image back to your main drive. You end up with your main drive (even if you replaced it due to a hardware failure) looking exactly as it did when you did your last image backup. All OS, Applications, config, and data in place with the single restore operation.

I usually do an image backup weekly then rely on Mozy to do my daily data backups in between. SuperDuper (the purchased version) allows for "smart" image backups that just backup whats changed since the last one saving time.

As long as you keep the data TM backs up small its not too bad on a desktop. If you allow it to see large files like databases or Virtual Machines though it falls apart pretty quickly though (resource hog and errors).

 

I love Time Machine. I have restored my system several times with Time Machine backups. I like the ease of grabbing an older version of a file if I need. I have never had an issue or a hicup with it.

For me, Time Machine lives up to the Apple mantra - "It just works."

 

Scenerio - you have a laptop you travel with and a TM disk at home. Whenever your laptop does not see the TM disk it will prompt you to every time you connect to any mass storage device to see if you want to use it as a TM drive. Very annoying. And yes you can turn off TM to prevent such prompts but then when you are back home you'll have to remember to turn it back on or you won't get any backups.

Perhaps you should search the apple support forums about the issues TM had backing up multiple machines to a single TM drive. Just because some people do not experience a problem does not mean it doesn't exist. Conversely, just because a few people experience a problem it doesn't mean the problem is wide spread. This problem may be fixed now as I already mentioned.

I did use TM for a few months when it first came out. At that time it had numerous problems (failing to backup some items even though the selections implied a full backup, deleting source fules on a backup error leading to the complete loss of some data, erroring during a backup if big files were changing during its run, being a big resource hog when running so disk performance sucked for other applications). I could go on and on about what a POS TM was when it first came out. I have tried it a couple of times since but it still had the erroring when large files were changing during a backup, it was still a resource hog, and it still didn't understand big files with small changes like databases and Virtual Machines.

Backups are too important to me to trust to a program that had that many issues so you are right - I no longer use it. Many of these issues may be fixed but I've learned the hard way not to ever trust a backup program that came out that buggy to begin with when there are more trusted choices out there. If it was that buggy in the first place who knows what bugs are still there you haven't encountered, and future versions are likely being developed using largely the same people and processes that let the original buggy version out so why would I entrust my backups to a system already proven faulty?

 

I do this everyday and have never ever had this issue. I have TM at home, and at work I connect several usb hdd all the time to my mb. As long as you have a drive setup as TM then you should no longer get prompts... if you are then there is a problem.

Fair enough I didn't do any research to backup my claims. But then I don't waste time researching something I've never have problems with

I agree with you that backups are important... I just lost a hole lotta data due to faulty lacie network disk. And for anything critical its a good idea to have at least 2 different types of backups in different locations.

I just think that TM isn't as bad as your saying and it can for the average user fill the requirements of one of those backups well.
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Sorry, but you're wrong. I always take my MacBook to work with me and I *NEVER* get any popups or notifications that TimeMachine can't find it's backup disk.

 

no, unless you choose to reinstall the OS, you can definitely just completely restore from a TimeMachine backup. just don't exclude anything, it is well worth the space and time it may take, which even if you are doing a lot, probably isn't more than a few gb a day.

 

These are great information all! I actually misused the word "image". What I mean is if Time Machine will make a "copy" such that when I restore, I don't have to re-configure the applications and settings again.

I have never restore from Time Machine before, but here's what I think TM can do in the event of disaster:

1) Boot up from Leopard Install CD (I always carry a duplicate CD)
2) Connect the USB HDD containing TM backup (it's a portable HDD)
3) Restore from it
4) Everything is back like before, including OS settings and configuration

I don't need a bootable image like SuperDuper.

This is the same method I use for my Windows machine using Acronis TrueImage. The image file is not bootable, but I can restore from the HDD using TrueImage boot CD.

I think the advantage of TM is that I can access the data directly in the USB HDD if I just want to grab ONE file.

 

yea lanwarrior, it does exactly what you just mentioned there.

although, ive never actually looked to see if you could just copy ONE file, directly off the hard drive, without using time machine as a program (ie on another mac). But yea, using time machine you can just grab any file you want.

Although i personally like to have some kind of bootable backup around, because that way, even if i use someone else mac, i can boot up my old laptop and use their mac just as if i was using my old mac.