Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Resolved Question

What Kind of backup TimeMachine do ?

Jan 1, 2012 10:09PM PST

Hi there,
Recently I tried to make clean lion install ,I had the copy in flash USB . I started through Recovery HD then did format on Macintosh HD driver which is has another partition for Timemachine backup .
Unfortunately,I realized that flash USB dosn't work Sad so I restarted my computer with option key hold and found only one drive can I boot through named ( BACKUP ) which is the name for backup partition on internal driver .I go ahead and boot and its boot to recovery !!!! then I just tried to make restore from backup and my OS was restored successfully !!!
My question is :
1. how is the computer boot through backup partition while the recovery IMG was in other partition which was formated many time and the IMG also formated ?
2. What Kind of backup TimeMachine do ? is it only my files and data or including the LION OS ?
thnx, and sorry for my simple language Happy

Discussion is locked

NAYURTT has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

- Collapse -
I believe you are confused about what you did.
Jan 1, 2012 10:28PM PST

1. Time Machine does an incremental backup. First backup is everything and each successive backup is only the stuff that has changed since the previous backup.
2. Time Machine will not operate on the same disk as the Operating System. It MUST have an external drive or a different drive within the computer. For example; on an iMac, it must have an external drive. On a MacPro, it can use any of the internal drives EXCEPT the system drive.
3. The Recovery partition on the internal has enough of a System to boot the machine and to allow you to connect to the App Store to re-download and install OS X Lion. It also has the capability of Restoring from a Time Machine backup, which is housed on a different drive.

- Collapse -
this is more information
Jan 1, 2012 10:54PM PST

Thank you for quick respond , so you said timemachine backup whole sys included OS .
if I do clean lion installation through App Store then do restore from backup for my setting and files , is that mean this operation will restore OS too from the backup ?
regarding my mac-book pro internal driver itis look like this :
#250 GB Hitachi
- Macintosh HD 189 GB
- BACKUP 59 GB
from above driver description could you please tell me where is the recovery partition ?
thanks

- Collapse -
Recovery Partition
Jan 2, 2012 4:49AM PST

From the File menu, open About this Mac and then select More Information. This is the old System Profiler report.
Under the Hardware tab, select Serial-ATA and you will see under your internal disk that the Recovery HD is a separate partition.
Hope that helps,
centurion48

- Collapse -
Not quite,
Jan 2, 2012 6:10AM PST

if you install the OS from the App store, it will be just a bare installation.
No iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, etc.
Restoring from the Time Machine backup will put all of those back on your machine and bring your OS up to date. (or as up to date as it was at the time of your last set of backups.)

- Collapse -
Answer
I suggest you get Carbon Copy Cloner
Jan 6, 2012 11:19PM PST

Nayurtt,

- Collapse -
For the most part
Jan 7, 2012 12:35AM PST

For the most part, Time Machine already does all of this, and arguably is the better approach. Say your OS becomes irreparably corrupted, you can reinstall the OS using a Time Machine backup to restore it more or less exactly to how it was at the time of the last backup, and it's worked into the OS X installer since Time Machine rolled onto the scene.

Time Machine is also considerably more efficient in the way it stores backups compared to any cloning program. You get more backups per any unit of space you want to use for measuring.

Now, I'm certainly not going to say having a backup OS install is a bad thing, because it is. A person should absolutely have a disaster recovery OS install on an external HDD. However, in the spirit of using the right tool for the job, a cloning program is not the right tool for performing backups. Cloning programs are useful for an initial backup and then mass deployment when for whatever reason a network based image system is not an option. They are rather ill suited as a regular backup program, being rather inefficient in their storage of files and the general level of hassle needed to restore individual files.

Also, just because someone might get the wrong impression from what you said, even though I'm doubting you meant to imply any such thing: You can't take an OS from a Mac with an Intel CPU and then use it on a Mac with a PPC CPU or the other way around. Doesn't matter how you try and go about it, it won't work.

- Collapse -
About cloning your HD
Jan 7, 2012 3:32AM PST

I was very clear, in fact: a suggestion is a suggestion. That's the spirit of the response to threads in this forum when someone needs some help. It is certainly NOT the spirit of this forum to argue 'my approach is better than your approach'. At least not for most people...

- Collapse -
And at the same time
Jan 7, 2012 10:58AM PST

And at the same time, your suggestion was a bit left field for the question asked, as well as being a bit of a bad suggestion. You know this yourself or you wouldn't be getting so upset about me calling you on it.

I did fully agree with you, if you'll go back and look, that having a disaster recovery image on an external HDD is a good idea, but that's a far cry from recommending it as a regular backup system.

I also said that I never thought you intended to imply that you could use a PPC image on an x86 system or the other way around, just that some people might construe it that way based on your wording, so I was clarifying.

Rather than getting upset with me because your suggestion was a bit of a stretch to relate to the topic, and not an overly good suggestion at that, try channeling that energy into honing your skills so that you make better and more relevant suggestions in the future. The PC Tech world is one where you're judged based on what you know, and there's generally little room for hurt feelings. Get over it, redouble your efforts, and come back when you've got something other than shilling for CCC like about 60-75% of your posts seem to be.