Time machine backips
I recently had a very harrowing experience rebuilding my IMAC from disks and a Time Machine backup. It all started when I accidentally pressed the wrong button on a duplicate file finder program and sent files to the trash can instead of just viewing the duplicates. I may have recovered easily from my mistake if restoring files from the Trash Can were possible like it is with the Microsoft Recycle Bin. This should become an improvement for Snow Leopard.
I fully expected to get my IMAC back to to its exact state prior to the problem by using my Time Machine backup, but that was not the case. I even had help from Apple support with the restore. I had to spend 4 more days just to recover completely. A good backup program should restore a computer to its EXACT state prior to the problem, and Time Machine doesn’t even come close. I wonder if there is a better backup software program available for Macs. I was told by a support person that Time Machine is only designed to backup photos, pictures, and applications, and not to restore the computer to its original state. If so, that is a rather poor approach to designing a backup program for the Time Capsule hard drive.
I had to update Leopard with 5.5/5.6 combo although the backup was done after 5.6 was installed recently. The process didn’t even restore to Leopard 10.5.5 which I’ve had since it was released. Software Update had to update Pages, Numbers, Iweb, Airport, Itunes, Quicktime, Remote desktop, Safari, Digital Camera, and Java. Apparently the backup failed to back these up correctly.
My ForcastFox add-on to Firefox was missing all its configuration settings. Settings for other applications were missing. The Yahoo Widgets on my Desktop were missing and had to be set up again. All my Dashboard widgets were gone and had to be set up again. I have a utility which allows me to have multiple Docks. Two of the docks were reset to Apple’s standard icons, and the main application dock was number 2 dock instead of number 1 dock. Three of my 5 docks had to be reconfigured. I’m still unable to re-install Istat Menus, a great menubar program that shows system status.
I had trouble accessing the Internet because some obscure network setting called web http had been checked somehow in the proxy section. Un-checking it restored Internet access. I had trouble connecting back to the Time Capsule, but that problem magically disappeared. However, the Restore button was grayed out now when I highlighted a file or directory. That problem resolved itself also. Although the Restore button was grayed out, I was able to go under the toolbar Action button to restore files to ANY directory, not just the original directory.
Another headache is that the Spotlight comments seen in Finder’s comment field ( View, Show View options, Comments). Right click on a file and choose “get info” to add comments. This function is totally unstable, flakey and broken and should be fixed ASAP as a serious flaw in the OS. There is no reliable way to keep these comments. They seem to appear and disappear at will, and other folks on the Net have complained about comments disappearing. I have over 200 programs on the application directory and use comments to describe what the programs do. I can’t do without comments.
The hidden file .DS_Store file store these comments, but I think they are stored elsewhere as well. I’ve had some success getting comments to appear by reindexing the Spotlight. Sometimes they have appeared just by going into “get info”. I’ve also had to use the program Tagbot to get them back, but they don’t always remain. They can disappear just by rebooting the computer. I’ve also added comments, exited Finder and the comments are gone when I go back into Finder. I’ve had some success just deleting the .DS_Store file which is automatically recreated.
The best success I’ve had in restoring the application comments was to use the restore function in the Time Machine toolbar Action button to restore the apps not to the Apps directory but to the Download directory. All the comments show up there while they are missing on the Apps directory. I then delete the .DS_Store file on the Apps directory and before the OS can create a new one, I move the .DS_Store file from the Download directory over to the Apps directory.
I think a nice new feature in 10.5.6 ( at least I didn’t notice it before ) is the ability to change the Finder highlight color to anything I choose. This is done in “Appearances” in System Utilities. However, I’m very disappointed to find that blue and graphite are the only 2 selections available for the overall appearance of menus. Why not more color choices like the highlight color?
I fully expected to get my IMAC back to to its exact state prior to the problem by using my Time Machine backup, but that was not the case. I even had help from Apple support with the restore. I had to spend 4 more days just to recover completely. A good backup program should restore a computer to its EXACT state prior to the problem, and Time Machine doesn’t even come close. I wonder if there is a better backup software program available for Macs. I was told by a support person that Time Machine is only designed to backup photos, pictures, and applications, and not to restore the computer to its original state. If so, that is a rather poor approach to designing a backup program for the Time Capsule hard drive.
I had to update Leopard with 5.5/5.6 combo although the backup was done after 5.6 was installed recently. The process didn’t even restore to Leopard 10.5.5 which I’ve had since it was released. Software Update had to update Pages, Numbers, Iweb, Airport, Itunes, Quicktime, Remote desktop, Safari, Digital Camera, and Java. Apparently the backup failed to back these up correctly.
My ForcastFox add-on to Firefox was missing all its configuration settings. Settings for other applications were missing. The Yahoo Widgets on my Desktop were missing and had to be set up again. All my Dashboard widgets were gone and had to be set up again. I have a utility which allows me to have multiple Docks. Two of the docks were reset to Apple’s standard icons, and the main application dock was number 2 dock instead of number 1 dock. Three of my 5 docks had to be reconfigured. I’m still unable to re-install Istat Menus, a great menubar program that shows system status.
I had trouble accessing the Internet because some obscure network setting called web http had been checked somehow in the proxy section. Un-checking it restored Internet access. I had trouble connecting back to the Time Capsule, but that problem magically disappeared. However, the Restore button was grayed out now when I highlighted a file or directory. That problem resolved itself also. Although the Restore button was grayed out, I was able to go under the toolbar Action button to restore files to ANY directory, not just the original directory.
Another headache is that the Spotlight comments seen in Finder’s comment field ( View, Show View options, Comments). Right click on a file and choose “get info” to add comments. This function is totally unstable, flakey and broken and should be fixed ASAP as a serious flaw in the OS. There is no reliable way to keep these comments. They seem to appear and disappear at will, and other folks on the Net have complained about comments disappearing. I have over 200 programs on the application directory and use comments to describe what the programs do. I can’t do without comments.
The hidden file .DS_Store file store these comments, but I think they are stored elsewhere as well. I’ve had some success getting comments to appear by reindexing the Spotlight. Sometimes they have appeared just by going into “get info”. I’ve also had to use the program Tagbot to get them back, but they don’t always remain. They can disappear just by rebooting the computer. I’ve also added comments, exited Finder and the comments are gone when I go back into Finder. I’ve had some success just deleting the .DS_Store file which is automatically recreated.
The best success I’ve had in restoring the application comments was to use the restore function in the Time Machine toolbar Action button to restore the apps not to the Apps directory but to the Download directory. All the comments show up there while they are missing on the Apps directory. I then delete the .DS_Store file on the Apps directory and before the OS can create a new one, I move the .DS_Store file from the Download directory over to the Apps directory.
I think a nice new feature in 10.5.6 ( at least I didn’t notice it before ) is the ability to change the Finder highlight color to anything I choose. This is done in “Appearances” in System Utilities. However, I’m very disappointed to find that blue and graphite are the only 2 selections available for the overall appearance of menus. Why not more color choices like the highlight color?
IMAC, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
