So I just bought a MacBook Pro 13” today (I actually stepped into a big department store and grabbed one, never done it like that before, felt weird not ordering and waiting for it to get delivered) and the last OS X I’ve been using is Tiger, so I’m obviously in for a few surprises here (yes, I know had I waited until friday I would’ve gotten Snow Leopard installed instead of Leopard, but I needed this thing today). One of the new features that I haven’t used before is Time Machine.

To me, Time Machine comes off in the same way as Apple TV. Sounds cool and really good and all, but how the hell do I use it, and why? It’s a shame that we’re living in a time when everything is required to be just about as easy to use as a toilet or people won’t give a fuck, but it’s the truth. When even Apple fails to get people to use a new cool product, something has obviously changed.

Anyway, is Time Machine any good? I mean, I’m always making freaking awesome electronic music and I have all my tunez on my machine, but I also regularely back them up onto my external hd (manually, drag and freaking drop). Is this something that time machine could do for me automatically? Is that what Time Machine is for? Or is that some other application that does that?

Okay, if Time Machine has nothing to do with what I just mentioned, just ignore this, really. ‘Cause now I’m thinking maybe Time Machine is just… something else entirely. So, err, yeah.

Man, don’t you just LOVE that new computer smell? I don’t know what it is, but every time I unpack a new computer from Apple, they always smell the same, and it’s always fantastic.

Oh, and be sure to download the latest Gidge-song, right here! It’s got cover art for your iTunes and averything!

What Time Machine does:

1) It backs up just about everything on your HD unless you tell it to avoid certain spaces.
2) Every now and then it backs up all files that has changed as a new file
3) It allows you to browse back in time, checking out the different versions of a file, allowing you to “bring it back to the present time”

In other words, if you create a song you like, change it, save it and realize you liked the old version better, you can just go back in Time Machine and bring it out.

Fricken awesome in general, and really easy to set up. Just requires a lot of space. When it runs out of space, it will start deleting the oldest copies of everything, working its way forward to today. It’s really the best backup app I’ve ever seen for private users. It also allows you to restore your whole system if you really fuck it up.

Pretty much what Johan said. I have an external HD I start up on a regular basis, TM kicks in, backs all my bullshit up and leaves me the fuck alone. It’s about as no frills as it gets.

If you insist on being a 3rd party dork there’s always Super Duper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

That’s pretty god damn impressive. Now I just need a HD exclusive for Time Machine. That’s gonna take a couple of years and lost files before I pull out of my ass. Thanks for the info, guys!

Time Machine is great in that if, say, you realize you accidentally deleted a contact in Address Book last week, you can literally hit the GO BACK IN TIME button, and the Address Book window will morph into a multidimensional infinity of visual backups. Then you scroll back and forth in space until you find the one you want, click on it, and the window morphs back out onto your desktop. It does the impossible and makes losing files fun!

Yesterday I was forced to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and now have Time Machine running… but I also had buy another HD to stuff everything on to… so I have another question:

Should I copy everything on to the new HD (1TB) and make it the startup drive?

Or keep the original (250GB) as startup and leave the new drive just for Time Machine? (this is how things are right now) if so can I drop other crap in the new drive without afeecting the Time Machine aspect?

PS sorry if I forgot about you guys, I tend to do that sometimes…

Clave - 18 December 2011 10:01 AM

Yesterday I was forced to upgrade to Snow Leopard, and now have Time Machine running… but I also had buy another HD to stuff everything on to… so I have another question:

Should I copy everything on to the new HD (1TB) and make it the startup drive?

Or keep the original (250GB) as startup and leave the new drive just for Time Machine? (this is how things are right now) if so can I drop other crap in the new drive without afeecting the Time Machine aspect?

PS sorry if I forgot about you guys, I tend to do that sometimes…

You usually want Time Machine on a drive by itself, so it can back up your startup disk and your (ideally separate) “work” disk(s). It’s perfectly possible to use a drive for both work and Time Machine, but having your work and backups on the same physical disk sort of defeats the purpose of protecting against physical drive failure.

Is the 1 TB drive an internal?

P.S. http://blolol.com/chat!