TIME MACHINE (SOFTWARE)

'Time Machine' is a backup utility developed by Apple which is to be included with their upcoming operating system, Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard". Time Machine was announced and demonstrated on August 7 2006 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.

Contents

Overview

User interface

User settings

Requirements

Similar functionality in other operating systems

Compatibility with other operating systems

References

See also

External links

Overview

Time Machine, like most backup utilities, creates incremental backups of files which can be restored at a later date. However, Time Machine is more comprehensive than many other backup utilities, since not only can it backup and restore the entire system in case of a system failure, but it is unique in allowing retrieval of deleted files or folders (or previous versions of them) directly from the Finder (shell). Further, users can retrieve deleted (or previous) versions of other data, such as calendar entries, address book contacts, photos, email messages, etc. from within individual applications like Address Book, iPhoto, Mail, et al.
The underlying technology is likely to be made available for implementation by 3rd-party developers. Time Machine will also offer network backups to a Mac OS X Server host.

User interface

Time Machine's user interface is made using Apple's Core Animation API which will be introduced with "Leopard." Upon its launch, Time Machine "floats" the active Finder or application window from the user's desktop to a backdrop depicting a galaxy and star field. Behind the current active window are stacked windows, with each window representing a snapshot of how that folder or application looked on the given date and time in the past. When toggling through the previous snapshots, the stacked windows extend backwards, giving the impression of flying through a 'time tunnel'. While paging through these "windows from the past," a previous version of the data (or previously deleted data) may be retrieved.

User settings

Time Machine has several settings that may be changed by the user in System Preferences. With Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" build 9a527, users may:

★ Change the volume or device to which Time Machine backs up their files and settings.

★ Exclude specific files, folders or drives from being backed up.

★ Exclude all system files, thus leaving it to backup only personal files.
Further, the Time Machine dock icon allows users to:

★ Commence a backup, and

★ Browse other Time Machines disks.

Requirements

Time Machine requires a non-booting hard-drive or partition to be connected to the computer.^[1] It can backup to internal hard-drives or partitions, as well as to external volumes connected by USB or Firewire. It can also backup to networked drives, including those connected wirelessly via the Airport Extreme 802.11n router. Further, the volume needs to be formatted with the Mac OS extended file system.

Similar functionality in other operating systems

Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 and some versions of its Windows Vista operating system feature Shadow Copy (or a variation of it called ''previous versions'' in Vista), which creates snapshots of files and folders on a specific volume at a specific point in time that can later be retrieved. Both Time Machine and Shadow Copy use snapshots to achieve a similar useful purpose, however there is a major difference in the way in which Time Machine has been implemented. The main utility of Windows Vista's ''previous versions'' feature and its ''Backup and Restore Center'' is to backup major operating system files, as well as selected user files and settings so that it is easier to recover from a system failure or from data corruption caused by wayward installations and updates. Further, some versions of Windows Vista allow for retrieval of old data from snapshots with ''previous versions''. And while Time Machine also serves these functions, its unique interface allows for users to restore deleted files, folders, or other data on the fly from within the shell or the application itself.
To better illustrate the difference in implementation between Time Machine and those based on Shadow Copy consider this example; a user with Time Machine could retrieve a deleted address book entry or a previous version of one from within the address book application. However, if this user were relying solely on Shadow Copy, they would need to know which files contain the address book data and they also would need to know where to find the files on their drive. Further, if that user restored to a "previous version" of the address book database file, or if they used Windows Vista's Backup and Restore Center to revert to a backup, they would lose all changes made since that backup was created, which would not happen with Time Machine.
Time Machine also allows for multiple machines to be backed up through networking.

Compatibility with other operating systems

It was noted in Paul Thurrott's preview of Microsoft's upcoming product, Windows Home Server, that it is planned to have the capability to act as a back-end store for Time Machine backups.^[2]

References

1. New Apple feature sends users back in time Tom Krazit
2. Windows Home Server Preview Paul Thurrott

See also

★ .Mac Backup

★ Revision control

★ Versioning file system

External links

★ Time Machine page at apple.com

★ Time Machine video at apple.com