Comments on: How you tell you’re dealing with Apple utility software

By: Chris Leeds

Chris Leeds — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:48:29 +0000

. . . whew . . . I think I got all the back-and-forth information

Judy, first, I wanted to say congrats and good work here. Your blog is nicely laid out, informative and well written. I actually have read several threads entirely in live time, rather than copying them to email for later consumption.

I’m going to try your SD/TM/JD backup strategy for home business.

I understand full well the intended purposes and market of each — light vs. heavy weight — backup app. It should be interesting to see how this pans out.

Now, if I can just remember to come back with a progress report.

Thanks for being the guinea pig.

Chris Leeds, ACHDS
http://www.wellconnectedlife.com

By: Ishan Bhattacharya

Ishan Bhattacharya — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:53:59 +0000

I have exactly the same problem. I back up daily and on a MWF basis and on a TuTh basis and on a weekly basis and offsite weekly and monthly, because the data I use is critical and irreplaceable. I would still like Time Machine to work, flawlessly and I get the same mindless error message. I click OK, and hope that the next time, TM will work, and it usually does. If it doesn’t, I erase my TM drive and do a new TM backup. Apple needs to work on this a bit, and hopefully, 10.6 will bring the fix. It’s not a PEBKAC, it’s the OS.

Ishan Bhattacharya, MD

By: Softweb Solutions

Softweb Solutions — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:45:48 +0000

Thanks for the nice information.

Best Regards
Arpit Kothari
http://www.softwebsolutions.com

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:39:45 +0000

Me again. Thanks for responding to my comment.

What I want to make clear is that I think Time Machine works in the simple case, but that it wasn’t designed or tested for the non-simple case. By non-simple, I mean if other backup programs are running, or you keep plugging or unplugging your external drive, or you have multiple partitions, or you have items on your Time Machine drive other than Time Machine data.

Sure, Time Machine should work in those cases, and if it doesn’t Apple must fix it, or let those types of people know to stop using it. But if you have a three-way backup strategy (hehe – he said three-way), then you shouldn’t use Time Machine. Apple should have told you not to use Time Machine.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:06:22 +0000

Have you ever thought the problem might with you and not Time Machine?

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Just because you haven't had a problem doesn't mean that a problem doesn't exist.

By: William

William — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:47:21 +0000

Judi said: “But do you feel good knowing that at any moment it can run into one bad file, a useless one at that, and stop?”

Well seeing I’m not using your computer it doesn’t apply to me, so I have no feelings at all except I hope you sort out your problem.

Have you ever thought the problem might with you and not Time Machine?

By: Scott Schuckert

Scott Schuckert — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:11:49 +0000

I’ve been installing, using, and training on backup software for over 20 years. Aside from MY customers, of course, the number of people who actually backup their systems is infinitesimal. Time Machine is not intended to replace Retrospect. It’s intended to replace NOTHING. As such, it does an incredibly good job.

Remember that it attempts to backup every (changed) file, every hour. Files that are in use, or otherwise can’t be copied, are virtually certain to be either unimportant or backed up on the next pass – usually both.

While I’ve heard claims it happens, I’ve never actually seen Time Machine permanently stall and stop making backups. But I HAVE seen that happen with expensive, professional backup solutions like Retrospect. In this perspective, the free Apple utility is amazing.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:07:19 +0000

William, I’m happy that Time Machine has been so reliable for you. But do you feel good knowing that at any moment it can run into one bad file, a useless one at that, and stop?

Patrick, it’s exactly because it’s so supposed to be so easy that it’s ridiculous that it can fail like this.

By: Mark James

Mark James — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:28:46 +0000

Time Machine is a great idea, but was obviously not written by engineers with backgrounds in mission critical processes.

(shameless plug alert!)
Consider SoftRAID, for mirroring your data onto multiple drives in real time.

SoftRAID supports multiple disk mirrors, so your entire backup hassle can be powering down a FireWire disk, putting it into storage, removing the previous archive, and plugging it in. This gives you real time backup and an off-site archive.

SoftRAID also reports disk i/o errors, which can alert you to impending disk failures before a disk fails completely.

Costs $129, which is very reasonable considering the value of your data.

By: William

William — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:28:43 +0000

I have been using Time Machine with Leopard since day one and TM has never “stopped cold”. I’m backing up thousands of photo images, TIFs and JPGs and never had a problem. I have used Super Duper, no complaint, and Deja Vu. IMO, Time Machine is head and shoulders above any backup software I have tried. Oh, and I don’t work for Apple. LOL

Jeffrey: If you never used Time Machine how do you know it is terrible? Never mind, you read about it, nice test.