 |
Time Machine Review: Online Cloud Backup |
Rating: |
 |
| Easy to use, but can't match the safety of off-site backup | |
|
Unlike the other services reviewed here, Time Machine is not an online
backup service. It is an automatic backup system that is built into
Mac OS X Leopard, and comes standard on new Mac computers. Instead of
backing up your files online, Time Machine copies your documents onto
an external hard drive. Time Machine is similar to an online backup
service in that it works automatically in the background, and requires
no actions or interference from you after the initial set up process.
When you connect your Mac to an external hard drive, Time Machine will ask if you'd like to make the external hard drive your backup drive. If you say yes, Time Machine will copy the entire contents of your computer to the backup drive. After this initial backup, Time Machine will make incremental backups, copying just the files that have been changed since the previous backup. As long as your backup drive is attached to your Mac, Time Machine will backup your files every hour of every day, saving the hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month, remembering how your Mac system looked on any given day in the past. Once your backup drive is full, Time Machine will alert you that it will start deleting previous backups, starting with the oldest first. You can easily backup multiple Macs on a single external hard drive, as long as it has sufficient storage space. Time Machine works using fairly elegant software that will not disrupt you or slow you down while you are using your Mac. The default setting is to backup your entire Mac, but it is easy to select certain files or folders that you wish to exclude. Retrieving stored files is also simple and straightforward. Time Machine is designed to work seamlessly with the Time Capsule, Apple's wireless hard drive, which is available in two sizes. A 1 TB Time Capsule is $299.00 and a 2 TB Time Capsule costs $499.00. With a Time Capsule, Time Machine can continuously backup your Mac or Macs without cables. We found that connecting with a cable does make the process much quicker, particularly when retrieving stored files. Apple also advertises that the Time Capsule works as a wireless router, but we found that its signal was fairly weak and ineffective for this purpose. The machine also gets quite hot when in use. It does, however, interface very nicely with Time Machine. Time Machine is a useful and well-designed feature, and works especially well with Time Capsule. Hourly backups of your Mac system or systems become effortless. However, the flaw in this system is the fact that a Time Capsule or other external hard drive is still hardware, and therefore vulnerable to the same dangers as your computer itself. It could potentially fail, or be stolen or damaged. While there are many advantages to this backup system, it is inevitably less secure than an online backup solution. |
|
| Cheapest Price: | No |
| Free Trial/ Discount: | $299.00-$499.00 for Time Capsule |
| Gigabytes (GB) of Storage Included: | 1-2 TB |
| # of Computers Backed Up: | 1 |
| External Drive Backup: | No |
NextAdvisor Online Cloud Backup Blog Headlines
How Many Files can I Backup with MyPCBackup?
Q: When backing up my computer with MyPCBackup, how large and how many files can be uploaded at once? I have a picture directory with 10,000 files or so. Can I upload this directory all at once? A: Thanks for your question! The biggest perk of MyPCBackup is that you get unlimited storage space for one computer. [...]
Which Online Backup Service Features a "Mirror Image" of my Hard Drive?
Q: I'm afraid that if I were to loose my hard drive completely, I wouldn't be able to find and load all the programs I use. I'd like to know what service to purchase so that my backup includes a "mirror image" of my hard drive? A: Online Backup services work hard to save all of your important [...]
You Could Win Cash for the Holidays with the NextAdvisor $500 Giveaway!
Need some extra money for the holiday season? Well, you're in luck. NextAdvisor is giving away cash prizes every week of December! Just go to our Facebook page and click on the NextAdvisor $500 Giveaway, fill out the entry form, and you'll be entered to win. It's our way of saying thank you to our [...]
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deal: Receive a Mozy Discount of 25% on Their Onlin...
If you've been thinking about backing up your computer online, here's that extra push to start protecting your files now! For Black Friday weekend, Mozy online backup is offering 25% off the purchase price exclusively for NextAdvisor readers. This already affordable online backup service allows you to backup your external hard drives for free and [...]
