[Michael_K_Sr]

Lest anyone thinks it's worth taking a chance that your hard drive will never fail, we've had three MacBook hard drive failures in two weeks. Make sure you're backing up, especially with the Seagate drives found in the MacBooks.

[Keith Plucker]

Wasn't there a story not too long ago about a defect in some Seagate drives that were used in MacBooks causing data loss?

Here is something on it:
Seagate's MacBook Hard Drive Destroying Data -- Apple -- InformationWeek

-Keith

[ErichH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael_K_Sr

Lest anyone thinks it's worth taking a chance that your hard drive will never fail, we've had three MacBook hard drive failures in two weeks. Make sure you're backing up, especially with the Seagate drives found in the MacBooks.

You'd think after the 2nd, a bell would go off on the oem drive and a better replacement would follow.

Among my local guys, there's a constant mistrust of ANY stock drive, even if it doesn't show signs of a bad run. Most of us have experienced 1 or 2 bad losses. That's the best learning experience.

[Michael_K_Sr]

Quote:

Wasn't there a story not too long ago about a defect in some Seagate drives that were used in MacBooks causing data loss?

Yes...that was my point. People that said poo-poo over the report because it was authored by a data recovery service and are not backing their data up are probably living on precariously borrowed time.

[Andrew Pratt]

Given how easy Apple has made doing backups with Time Machine people have almost no excuss not to backup now.

[Joe Casey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Pratt

Given how easy Apple has made doing backups with Time Machine people have almost no excuss not to backup now.

Whereas Time Machine is a great concept, it's sorely lacking in the implementation department. It's very intrusive and does not provide for turn-key recovery. Hourly backups are great if you're running mission critical applications, but to not let the user modify any settings whatsoever other than turning it on or off and choosing the target disc are short-sighted. It needs user adjustable parameters for frequency of backup, bootable disc mode, file/directory settings etc that are commonly available on other off-the-shelf backup products. I still use Carbon Copy and .mac Backup and can't see any benefit to Time Machine whatsoever.

Maybe future updates will make it a little more user-friendly.

[DavidJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Casey

Whereas Time Machine is a great concept, it's sorely lacking in the implementation department. It's very intrusive and does not provide for turn-key recovery. Hourly backups are great if you're running mission critical applications, but to not let the user modify any settings whatsoever other than turning it on or off and choosing the target disc are short-sighted. It needs user adjustable parameters for frequency of backup, bootable disc mode, file/directory settings etc that are commonly available on other off-the-shelf backup products. I still use Carbon Copy and .mac Backup and can't see any benefit to Time Machine whatsoever.

Maybe future updates will make it a little more user-friendly.

I couldn't agree more with your comments regarding Time Machine. Why not include an advance tab or button with a warning when you change the various settings? That way the ease of use is left unchanged, but those of us who want more control or find the hourly backups intrusive can make changes.

[DaveF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Casey

Whereas Time Machine is a great concept, it's sorely lacking in the implementation department. It's very intrusive and does not provide for turn-key recovery. Hourly backups are great if you're running mission critical applications, but to not let the user modify any settings whatsoever other than turning it on or off and choosing the target disc are short-sighted. It needs user adjustable parameters for frequency of backup, bootable disc mode, file/directory settings etc that are commonly available on other off-the-shelf backup products. I still use Carbon Copy and .mac Backup and can't see any benefit to Time Machine whatsoever.

Maybe future updates will make it a little more user-friendly.

Thinking like Apple and normal home user, I ask: Why?

I'm curious if you've even used TimeMachine?

The home user of an iMac or Mac Pro buys a 500 GB hard drive for $130, plugs it, turns on Time Machine and never thinks about it again. They've got ongoing backups, with one hour granularity. And now, as never before, you can recover from short-term mistakes easily. Made file changes that you wish you hadn't: you can recover that single file quickly. Time Machine is anything but intrusive -- you don't even know it's running unless you watch the Menu Bar icon spinning. And by all accounts, recovering an entire system from TimeMachine is fairly easy.

Certainly, I'd appreciate more flexibility. But as is, Time Machine is a great tool that most people would really benefit from.

[Joe Casey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveF

Thinking like Apple and normal home user, I ask: Why?

I'm curious if you've even used TimeMachine?

The home user of an iMac or Mac Pro buys a 500 GB hard drive for $130, plugs it, turns on Time Machine and never thinks about it again. They've got ongoing backups, with one hour granularity. And now, as never before, you can recover from short-term mistakes easily. Made file changes that you wish you hadn't: you can recover that single file quickly. Time Machine is anything but intrusive -- you don't even know it's running unless you watch the Menu Bar icon spinning. And by all accounts, recovering an entire system from TimeMachine is fairly easy.

Certainly, I'd appreciate more flexibility. But as is, Time Machine is a great tool that most people would really benefit from.

Well, I have four Macs at home, so I guess that makes me a home user. And yes, to quell your curiosity, I have tried to use it. I find it extremely intrusive in general, not to mention absolutely useless with a portable machine (ever close a MB/MBP during an unwarranted hard-scheduled hourly backup?). As to short-term mistakes, my 10-year old on an iMac has yet to require one hour granularity. Maybe that's something one acquires with age.

BTW, regarding '...recovering an entire system from TimeMachine is fairly easy', this is not the case compared to a clone.

It was one of the features that I was very excited about when it was announced, and I upgraded the day it was released. It may be of value to a certain type of user, but I find it very poorly executed.