Recently released backup software in Apple’s new OS 10.5 Leopard, Time Machine has been found to proove invaluable when a full restore is required.

A customer rang last week saying their MacBook Pro had been damaged in a “drinking” accident and along with screen damage the hard drive may have been rendered unbootable. Some fluid damage to the internal electronics may also have occurred. A new MacBook Pro was ordered and whilst setting up the new Mac we connected the external hard drive that contained the Time Machine back up. The client had done what we instructed and dutifully connected the back up drive every week or so in order to let Time Machine do it’s thing. It keeps a complete backup of everything, even keeps copies of deleted files.

Still unaware of the value of Time Machine when the check box appeared “set up new Mac from Time Machine archive”, the box was ticked and it ran for 45 min. It sucked back from the external drive all the users files, configurations, accounts, applications, preferences, in fact everything so that the result was a perfect copy of the Mac just as it had been prior to the accident. All applications worked and remained registered.

Not only that but Time Machine made available all files deleted going back to the beginning of time for the old Mac.

Now while a new MacBook Pro cost a reasonable amount, the additional cost saved by not losing files and time taken to rebuild amounted to a whole heap more.

It also looks like a great way to get from one model to the next when upgrading hardware. The new Mac will not only have everything appear the same but all deleted files are there as well. It also saves the hassle of that import folder in Mail. At Big Trousers we will be recommending a Time Machine backup for all Macs from now on.