Time Machine a dissapointment

Well it seems confirmed now according to Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/16/leopard-final-features-and-further-upgrade-details/
Time Machine will not work with AirPort Disks, basically rendering the main consumer feature useless for notebook users in my opinion. I kinda figured the main reason they included USB disk support on the AEBS was for Time Machine. I guess the best we can hope for is it will come in an update.

 

Interesting...

 

I dont understand...

 

I guess the problem is that you can't hook an external HD to your Airport Express Base Station and have it where your Macs can wirelessly sync with it and backup using Time Machine.

 

No wireless backup with Time Machine, at least not without an update or workaround.

Ars Technica: Apple doubles back on Time Machine and AirPort Disk
Macworld: Has Time Machine's AirPort Disk use been grounded?
AppleInsider: Apple yanks wireless backup from Leopard last minute

Apple - OS X Leopard - Features - Time Machine

 

It makes enough sense. If there was some corruption or data error, Apple would end up responsible for lost files. It's better to have the direct connection for a backup, anyway. Just get a nice ruggedized USB/Firewire hard drive and it'll be fine.

 

Well it would've actually made Time Machine semi-unique in the world of consumer backup software though...

It also does make sense to keep your backup physically apart from your computer - even off-site preferably. If I spill a cup of water on my laptop which is hard-pluged by firewire to a HDD, there's a good chance the water would've soaked into the HDD too for example. Same thing with localized power fluctuations and outages.

Also if you have multiple systems backing up to the same HDD - although ideally I guess you should come up with a better network solution than having a HDD USBed to your router in that case.

Still I guess for being included in the OS, it's not all that bad.

Oh well.

 

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10719

 

I used my Airport disk once....for about 15 minutes. It was horribly slow transferring data even over an .11n network. I can't imagine how long it would take to do the initial backup over WiFi with Time Machine. Apple probably removed the feature to keep people from throwing their MBs and MBPs across the room in frustration.

 

LOL let's change the hypothetical

Say a meteor fell from the sky and went through the roof and just happened to slam onto your MBP. If the HDD was in the vicinity, it would get trashed too! If it was safe on the other side of the building by the router, on the other hand...

Actually, now that I looked at the link a bit more closely, that HDD isn't waterproof

Anyway, yea transfer speeds are slow. Any serious backing up over the AirDisk would take hours. It's probably a good and practical decision - but it does leave one wondering just what it is that we're getting out of Leopard after all.

 

I had a chance to try out one of the final betas for a couple of weeks. Leopard is very slick and it was noticeably snappier than Tiger. Anyone who has had the pleasure of upgrading/downgrading from XP to Vista knows that this isn't always the case. Overall Leopard feels like a polished OS. Not really different or much better (function wise) than Tiger, but it just screams high quality. It is tied together and has a more coherent feel. To me Leopard feels more like OS 9 did compared to OS 8.

 

so what, it would just bog down the network anyway, it takes 2 seconds to plug in a FW cable.

 

I posted this on another thread a while back and it was direct from the Apple site:

"Effortless meets wireless.

With a hard disk connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, AirPort all the Macs in your house can use Time Machine to back up wirelessly. Simply select your AirPort Disk as the backup disk for each computer and the whole family can enjoy the benefits of Time Machine."​

So they clearly intended it to work on AirDisk... Do we think they changed their minds or that it is just a bug?

 

It was probably a slip. I think the feature will eventually be included. And yes, the first transfer would be take hours, but after that incremental backups (which is what Time Machine does in the background constantly) would take no time at all. You guys misunderstand what make Time Machine unique, it is backing up all the time. The whole point is that you will always be backed up. Now for portable users they have to plug in an external.

The other issue is that Time Machine apparently leaves out NAS support. I just feel like Time Machine was the big feature in this release, and overall it is lacking. Leopard as a whole seems lackluster, what was the 6 month delay for? Where are the secret features? I am just disappointed, especially with Time Machine.

 

Pretty much how I feel. Leopard seems to focus so much on stuff that are secondary to function.

That said, I'm still going to upgrade probably next week or the week after.

 

Ya, as much as I complain about it, I'll upgrade as soon as I can convince the wife that it is a must have. I just feel a little let down is all.

 

I agree. Leopard is nice and brings in a lot of new features, and yes, I will upgrade to it, but frankly, its not as revolutionary as Apple marketed it to be, if you ask me. Steve noted "top secret features" at WWDC 2006...and none of Leopard's features are that important that it needed to be top secret, if you ask me.

 

I need to buy a bigger hard drive for my macbook. BUT now with time machine I'll just hold off for now till I buy a new computer probably as I will just get a backup that will work for both of the laptops we own

Can time machine backup 2 separate computers to the same external hard drive? I'm guessing my room mate is going mac next time around

 

From MacRumors member, A@ron

Potential Workaround for Wireless Backup with Time Machine Over AEBS:

 

Hummmm... I'm lost.

In some threads they say NAS are supported but not Airport Disk...
what is supported and what is not?

If I buy this to backup my computer, my father's and my brother's.
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3326542&CatId=2671

Will it work?

Its expensive... but its cool.
And the transfer rates arent bad. As much as FW800.

*BTW. My Dad and Bro dont have FW800 on their computer.
And gigabit goes faster than FW400. I know it doesnt go at
1gb/sec. But still, its faster. And YES, I have a gigabit router.

So, (back to topic). Are you really sure that NAS isnt supported on bootcamp? It would be a pain in the *** to know it after I bought this expensive baby. Apple store dude didnt even know. I had to explain to him
that an NAS was not a drive connected to the USB of Airport Extreme or to
the Airport Express.

 

If you partition the external hard drive into several partitions, then you can probably do that.

 

so would TIme Machine work over another router, like any linksys?

 

You don't need to partition it, there will just be two folders containing the backup of each computer.

Yeah, but only with afp shares. Not smb.

 

Ummm, le quoi, maintenant? Le smb vs. le afp? Mais, ca c'est en francais ou en martien?

 

Another question, on my macbook, I created another partition called "Documents" where I put all my Music, Docs for School and Movies and whatever documents I use. I do so to share with Bootcamp Version. (Ya its FAT32). Well If I use bootcamp will it backup that partition too? Ok its in FAT32 but is I change it to HFS+ and put MacDrive on my Vista. Will it back up that partition too?.....

Ahhh its complicated dammit.Time Machine seems great at first but ... full of holes and
dark areas.


* AFB ou SMB c'est comment tu "Mount" ton disque dure sur Apple.

 

I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about...lol. The extent of my french was to ask my french ex for food names in french, or say I'm hungry. I think I said french too many times...

 

I just asked (to sum it up very eloquently), wtf is smb and afp (pardon me french)? Seraphimx replied, but i still don't understand (I don't even have a total grasp of this 'mounting' business on apple).

 

smb is a protocol that windows or whatever operative system uses for sharing files, printers, etc. afp i think is apple filing protocol. It's like smb, but you use to connect between macs. (i think)

'mounting' a just another way of saying you're connected to it. Say if i connect to my dad's xp laptop with my macbook, i would connect over the network via smb protocol, and leopard/tiger would mount the drive and you'd see the files. I dont know if you can understand me...

 

No I understand you. What I still don't understand is why apple 'mounts' an image with an installation file in it (say, whenever you download an application for your beloved OS X). What does mounting mean in that case? That you're connected to a file in your own hard drive??!?
Of course not, but i don't know what else it can mean. Anyways, this is getting away from the topic of this thread.

 

Well I read somewhere that even AFP mounted drives are supported by TimeMachine.

 

Try http://www.linfo.org/mounting.html if you want a somewhat more thorough explanation, sepandee. That's seen mainly from the view of a Linux machine, but the same principles apply for Mac OS X and to some extent Windows also.

 

If you have an HFS+ partition on your drive on wich you put your stuff, would it back up that partition too?

 

Funny you'd mention that...here it's hail stones the size of kittens (8 week old variety, not newborn; gray tabby, not calico, or even Siamese) crashing though the windows and taking out computer systems.

 

See? Apple should have thought of that and accounted for it in their software. Shame on them.

 

I just thought it was defective Windows