2010/6/4 Joseph McAllister <pentax...@mac.com>: > On Jun 3, 2010, at 04:40 , AlunFoto wrote: > >> 2010/6/3 paul stenquist <pnstenqu...@comcast.net>: >>> >>> I've restored from Time Machine on a number of occasions without >>> difficulty. It seems to do an excellent job without my having to take any >>> real action. It even backs up my encrypted files and enables restoration of >>> them if they're lost or inadvertently altered. >> >> Thanks Paul. :-) >> >> two questions... >> I know you're an advanced user... Have you verified, by manual means >> or otherwise, that all the data you wish to back up are being >> included? >> >> The ultimate purpose of a backup is restore. Do you have any >> experience with restoring data from a Time Machine (TM)? > > > > Huh? Did he not just say that he has restored from Time Machine on a number > of occasions?
Yep, I was a little dense there. Sorry, Joe. And sorry, Paul. > I ask you. Have you ever used Time Machine? Do you know what it does? Since I don't own a Mac, why would I have wasted money on a Time Machine? :-) But truth be told, I investigated the possiblilty of using a TM to back up my windows computers. Gave up on that and instead bought a piece of software that was more transparent on the details of what it was actually doing, and some generic USB disks. Software's called Acronis True Image and serves me very well. Can mail details if anyone's interested. Other than that, I only have experience with enterprise scale backup software, in the shape of Symantec's BackupExec and EMC2's deduplication system DataDomain, but yeah, I think I know what the TM does. In fact, I believe I have a better understanding of what the TM does than how user data are organised on a Mac. My superficial impression is that this is organised in much the same way as for Windows, but suspect there may be some caveats. Anyway, I know there are lots of Mac aficionados on this list like yourself, Steve Harley, Cotty and David Mann, but the more you're demonstrating their knowledge, the more likely it becomes that one actually _has_ to invest just as much into system knowledge with Macs as you have to with Windows, in order to use the system optimally. So instead, imagine I was a total newbie knowing nothing about the Mac except what the sales rep had toted me full of at the Mac shop. I set up LightRoom to deal with my photos because someone told me that's a must-have. LR tells me to back up my catalog sometimes, so I do. Someone tells me I should have a backup outside the Mac too, so I buy a TM and plug it in. But I can't be bothered beyond that, because everyone tells me it will save my butt if the Mac gets fried or stolen, as long as I don't turn the power off on the TM. Then one day shit happens, and the Mac is somehow beyond repair and/or retrieval. As a newbie I really don't know how to cope, so let's say I take my TM to the computer shop, and tell them I'll buy a new Mac from them on the condition that they help me restore my data. In this scenario, I must totally rely on the system. Would I retrieve everything? My images no matter where they were stored on the Mac's drive, they are probably all over the place since I'm a newbie. My LR catalog, my emails and contacts, my documents and whatever stuff I have downloaded for keeping. Oh, and of course I will most likely run into a problem with Adobe's bitchy DRM on LR, but that's beside the point just now, right? We're pretty much in agreement that Adobe would be well off doing something about that. Let's just assume the shop can fix that one for me. What say you? -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
