Time Machine
A giant leap backward
Time Machine is the breakthrough automatic backup that's built right into Mac OS X (p105). It keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac - digital photos, music, movies and documents. So if you ever have the need, you can easily go back in time to recover anything.
Set it, then forget it
To start using Time Machine, all you have to do is connect an external drive (sold separately - try the brand new Time Capsule, p86) to your Mac. You're asked if you want it to be your backup drive, and if you say yes, Time Machine takes care of everything else. Automatically. In the background. You'll never have to worry about backing up again.
Back up everything
Time Machine backs up your system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on a given day - so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past.
Pick a disk. Any disk
You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server or Xsan storage devices.
Go back in time
Enter the Time Machine browser in search of your long-lost files and you see exactly how your computer looked on the dates you're browsing. Select a specific date, let Time Machine find your most recent changes, or do a Spotlight search to find exactly what you're looking for. Use Quick Look to verify the
file's contents if you wish. Then click Restore and Time Machine brings it back to the present. Time Machine restores individual files, complete folders, iPhoto libraries and Address Book contacts. You can even use Time Machine to restore your entire computer if need be.
How Time Machine works
Under the bonnet, Time Machine is every bit as remarkable as it is on the outside. It's based on stable and secure Mac OS X core technologies (like the HFS+ file system), automatically tracks file changes, and is aware of file system permissions and user access privileges. Bottom line: It's working with more information than other backup utilities and doesn't need to bother you for input.
Timing is everything
Every hour, every day, an incremental backup of your Mac is made automatically. Time Machine saves the hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month. Only documents created and then quickly deleted may not be included in the long term. Put another way: you're well covered.
Backing up to a full disk
One day, no matter how large your backup drive is, it will run out of space. And Time Machine has an action plan. It alerts you that it will start deleting previous backups, oldest first. Before it deletes any backup, Time Machine copies files that might be needed to fully restore your disk for every remaining backup. (Moral of the story: The larger the drive, the farther back in time you can back up...)