Casper's Life
So we finally got a build in backup tool in OSX – that is in Leopard. Well get your hands down again (well there have been a lot of talk about this since Leopard was released). The tool is Time Machine, and it kind of does not really do much…. except for having a nice interface for restoring files.
My annoyances with Time Machine are:
a) It is really really slow, using ‘rsync’ is faster…..
b) When it does a backup iTunes stutters once in a while which is annoying, especially as Time Machine runs every hour (in automatic mode).
c) If one runs Time Machine from the command line, it will go into restore mode (crap!)
d) You have to have Time Machine in the Dock if you want to run it in manual mode (crap!)
e) Per default it does not work with network drives (there is a hack for that).
f) It not possible to limit the amount of disk space it uses, you will have to create a partition for Time Machine only (crap!)
g) …
For e) there is a solution here and here, problem is that if it does not work when you actually need that backup you cannot call Apple for help:-(
Time Machine is great for what it is, but it is a very simple tool, and a power user will just get annoyed with it. Go get something else if you need something which you can customize…..
Thank you Apple for giving us something which almost works…..
Update – 2007.11.12
Looks like there is a way. According to MacOSXHints, in this hint , it is mentions that right clicking on the TimeMachine disk allows one to do a manual backup.
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