Time Machine: Worth the Hype?
Monday, 29. October 2007, 22:31:02
Probably one of the most touted features in Leopard was Time Machine, but was it really worth all the hype? I’m going to go out on a limb and say yes, yes it was worth it, and here’s why.Backup software as a whole, was generic [before Time Machine]. All backup software essentially did the same thing: it’d backup your entire computer into a folder which is usually stored on, you guessed it, an external hardrive. Or if we backtrack to the single digit gigabyte era, a few CDs or maybe even DVDs if you could afford it (note - some people still use DVDs). And Time Machine, at first, does exactly this. It’ll spend about an hour or two backing up all of your data onto an external drive that must be equal to the drive you’re backing up or larger.
However, Time Machine offers several new, and very powerful features that I haven’t really seen in other backup software (not to say that they haven’t been used before, they just aren’t as prominent and/or not very well known).
The biggest feature that Apple threw out there was that Time Machine records any changes to the drive your backing up and records them (whether it be that files were deleted, moved or added). Any added files will instantly [or as fast as your computer can transfer data] be copied onto your external “backup” drive. This is an extremely useful feature [obviously]. There are just so many reasons you might need to use it, probably a big one we’ll often see is a dad or mom needing to use it when his/her son/daughter played around on the computer and messed up certain folders (I’ve seen this happen before, and it isn’t pretty).So that’s the big feature. What’s the small feature then? Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a small feature, just something that’s not mentioned as much. Wouldn’t it be nice to backup multiple hardrives, say one for music, movies and photos as well as your main? Well there’s an option that will allow you to do just that in the Time Machine preference pane. I can see many people (as well as myself in the future) using this. The only drawback (and for good reason) is that you need to have at least an equal sized external hardrive or multiple external hardrives to match the size of the combined number of hardrives you wish to backup. Quite costly, but in the coming age of a totally digital world, backing up is important.
Now would I use Time Machine as a stand alone backup device? No I would not. Time Machine has its good side but you can never be too safe. I would still recommend using another spare hardrive to store a backup of your main hardrive using software like iBackup or Carbon Copy.
Time Machine definitely matches the hype and I would really recommend using it as soon as possible.
Well that concludes this blog post. If you liked this post please consider subscribing to the RSS feed or, if you use the Opera web browser, using the widget button located in the address bar to make a widget out of this blog.
--DMXell
Digg This Article!
(0%)
WIDGETIZE