A question about Time Machine

[Killahurts]

I've been using Time Machine to back up my startup drive for some time. I even had to do a restore once when going back to an older OS, after problems with the update. Took it a few hours, but restored the computer perfectly!

I got a new, larger hard drive for the backup disk, and what I want to do is to backup my startup disk and my DP projects drive, let's say every night. That way, changes to projects are always current, without having to manually copy them someplace. But what if I had to restore the startup drive because of a system failure or something, but wanted to leave the project drive alone? Is there a way to restore just the drive you want and leave the other untouched? Do I need to blow off Time Machine for the project drive and get one of those backup programs like Carbon Copy Cloner, et al? I admit, I never have had a good understanding of how Time Machine works with multiple disks, other than what disks you do and do not "exclude".

Thanks!

[mikehalloran]

You can restore individual files from Time Machine if you allowed Spotlight to index the drive. It may not restore your preferences and library files -- depends on the App.

A complete system restore restores everything. Why, if you had a system crash you wouldn't do a complete restore, is beyond me.

You can use Migration Assistant from Time Machine to restore you system files, settings and Apple apps only. I had to do that when I encountered the OS 10.9.4 TM restore bug (fixed in 10.9.5).

Many of us keep our VI libraries on a separate drive that we exclude from TM. You can restore those from download. To make it easier, I clone mine once a year or so using TechTool Pro. It's not critical.

[Killahurts]

A complete system restore restores everything. Why, if you had a system crash you wouldn't do a complete restore, is beyond me.

Well I would.. but let's say I had recorded some music on my project drive since the last time I backed up, but had a system crash and needed to go back to that Time Machine backup. It would restore the system drive, but also put the project drive back to the way it was before the new audio was recorded, right?

I guess that means I can only use TM for the system drive, and have to get a different solution for my DP projects disk. It's a shame.. TM is really powerful for what it does, but it's a one-trick-pony, apparently. You can only have it back up to one disk, even if you have multiple disks to backup. Guess I'll look for some other software.

I'm like you, my VI sounds drive is backed up separately, and only when I have new libraries/sounds.

Thanks for the reply Mike!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Maybe I'm not understanding this, but you CAN restore a single drive (i.e.- the startup drive) from a TM backup. If you drive is NOT partitioned and you have projects and the system on the same partition, you'll have to restore the whole drive if the system goes south (AFAIK). But if you're talking about separate drives or partitions to drives, you CAN restore just that partition or drive.

FWIW, I would also suggest multiple (at least 2) Time Machine backup drives. TM will alternate the drives and you'll have a redundant backup (most recent stuff being on the most recently backed up TM drive). It may sound like overkill, but it's not, really. When my 3,1 MP went south for a while and I had to restore from TM, one of the TM drives failed to backup up the system for some reason. The 2nd backup saved the day and within hours of taking home the nMP trash can, I was up and running again.

Also, for the record, I keep my DP projects on an external FW drive, as I do with both my TM drives. My VIs are in a partition of the internal (separate from the system). I have external drives for SFX and video as well as a clone of the internal drive (all separate drives). So with the clone and 2 TM drives, I essentially have treble backups and can boot from the clone in an emergency. With the projects on a separate external and also backed up in TM, there is very little worry that a catastrophic crash will take down my studio. Famous last words...

[Killahurts]

Maybe I'm not understanding this, but you CAN restore a single drive (i.e.- the startup drive) from a TM backup. If you drive is NOT partitioned and you have projects and the system on the same partition, you'll have to restore the whole drive if the system goes south (AFAIK). But if you're talking about separate drives or partitions to drives, you CAN restore just that partition or drive.

Right, but AFAIK you can't have multiple drives going to multiple Time Machine drives/partitions. You choose the disks you want to "Time Machine" and if you go back with the system, you go back with everything else. Time Machine is just too limited. I purchased Carbon Copy Cloner, because it seemed the most up-to-date with all things Mac, and it does incremental backups on an al a carte level. Plus the 40 bucks gets me a family license for every Mac we've got!

FWIW, I would also suggest multiple (at least 2) Time Machine backup drives. TM will alternate the drives and you'll have a redundant backup (most recent stuff being on the most recently backed up TM drive). It may sound like overkill, but it's not, really. When my 3,1 MP went south for a while and I had to restore from TM, one of the TM drives failed to backup up the system for some reason. The 2nd backup saved the day and within hours of taking home the nMP trash can, I was up and running again.

Also, for the record, I keep my DP projects on an external FW drive, as I do with both my TM drives. My VIs are in a partition of the internal (separate from the system). I have external drives for SFX and video as well as a clone of the internal drive (all separate drives). So with the clone and 2 TM drives, I essentially have treble backups and can boot from the clone in an emergency. With the projects on a separate external and also backed up in TM, there is very little worry that a catastrophic crash will take down my studio. Famous last words...

Thanks for the cool post. I'm actually setting up a similar system. My idea is (ultimately) that I will use CCC to do everything, including having a bootable drive. I can keep my project backup drive separate, doing an incremental backup every day, so I will sleep well knowing that the work I did that day was saved as I sleep

But I will also have a separate Time Machine drive, that only covers the system drive.. just in case the clones revolt.