Apple: You really do write awful software. A Time Machine saga.
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Chris Maunder wrote:
But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't.
IIRC you can't restore a backup done in Windows X on Windows --X - sure it's data, but it's backed up using some software program. DGMW - I'm not a McFanboi but restoring a backup onto an earlier OS is always going to be a problem. [_Maxxx_ scuttles back to his Max and drag/drops his data files quickly to an external drive] Live to Learn
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
_Maxxx_ wrote:
IIRC you can't restore a backup done in Windows X on Windows --X - sure it's data, but it's backed up using some software program.
Odd that, because I use standard Windows Backup and have never had that issue.
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Chris Maunder wrote:
But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't.
IIRC you can't restore a backup done in Windows X on Windows --X - sure it's data, but it's backed up using some software program. DGMW - I'm not a McFanboi but restoring a backup onto an earlier OS is always going to be a problem. [_Maxxx_ scuttles back to his Max and drag/drops his data files quickly to an external drive] Live to Learn
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
No problem using CrashPlan. I can restore onto any device, even unrelated. Even without installing their software (web interface). Remember, we're talking about backing up *data*, not *applications* or *system settings*.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Chris Maunder wrote:
But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't.
IIRC you can't restore a backup done in Windows X on Windows --X - sure it's data, but it's backed up using some software program. DGMW - I'm not a McFanboi but restoring a backup onto an earlier OS is always going to be a problem. [_Maxxx_ scuttles back to his Max and drag/drops his data files quickly to an external drive] Live to Learn
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
Chris Maunder wrote: "I also can't simply copy the files over because Time Machine stored incremental backups in the series of folders so I would have to start at the first and copy over each folder, one by one, hoping to get them all, in the right order, and battling with file locks on the current mac as I copied them." As I understood it Time Machine made use of Hard Links (a new tech from Apple that UNIX and the rest stole using a different time machine ;P) so that each directory contains the whole snapshot of the structure at the time. When I new backup is made a copy of old directory is made, ie. it uses hard links to the data on the disk, and then patches the files that have changed by copying the data over and updating the new directory indexes to point to the new data when needed.
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I'm pretty sure that you can, at least within any major version (i.e. XP SP3 with latest updates -> XP SP1), even if not between those. Though I just use source control onto a server which uses disk-copying backup if I want data preserved, these days.
Sure, win xp backup will restore a win xp backup , but I am pretty certain that (for example) Win Xp will not restore a windows 7 backup - and vice versa. In Chris's case I believe the OS wasn't a minor point difference, but an upgrade to Lion from the previous release.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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No problem using CrashPlan. I can restore onto any device, even unrelated. Even without installing their software (web interface). Remember, we're talking about backing up *data*, not *applications* or *system settings*.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
That's not the pioint, is it. If Chris decided to use some 3rd party software he wouldn't be in the pickle in which he finds himself - the pont was that he expected the built-in OS backup system to be forwards compatible
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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_Maxxx_ wrote:
IIRC you can't restore a backup done in Windows X on Windows --X - sure it's data, but it's backed up using some software program.
Odd that, because I use standard Windows Backup and have never had that issue.
Well, there is a possibility I don't remember correctly - but are you sure you can take a backup in, say, windows 7 and then restore it onto an XP machine? I thought (and have read) that you can't even restore a standard Windows XP backup onto a Windows 7 machine
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
I would have pulled the power so that it would shut off in a way that satisfied me, and put it in the trunk of a vehicle until I was not mad at it anymore :D I've done that to at least two computers last year. I have more, don't need the ones that have an attitude.
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That's not the pioint, is it. If Chris decided to use some 3rd party software he wouldn't be in the pickle in which he finds himself - the pont was that he expected the built-in OS backup system to be forwards compatible
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
I'll let you decide what the point is. If you want to make it an OS war, you can. I was merely pointing out that *proper* backup software does exist.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
Macs are really for drones. Just take a look at the control over its development by Apple. Move up to a PC... With which you can easily fix it yourself...
Steve Naidamast Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@ix.netcom.com
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
I think this is just one of those cases of "tool over functionality" we see so often. In every modern OS we have well estabilished and working models to manage the information we want to store. Namely, files and folders. You get a nice hierarchical tree where you can organize all your data and manage it with simple yet powerful actions (copy, move, rename, delete...). But nope! Big software and hardware manufacturers come up with some nice and exteremely complex pieces of software which let you "manage your photo album" and stuff like that. They may even store your pictures in some fantastic proprietary binary format which will nicely prevent you from ever recovering them in case you upgrade your OS and behold! - their software is not compatible with this new OS version! And hey - it's and old software, you got it one year ago with your so very old camera, so there's no reason why we should upgrade it. :) To be fair, they do give you a few oh so great features you absolutely need, like flowered frames for viewing your pictures or organizing your photo albums just like you would by naming folders... Now, when we think backups it's my humble opinion that while features like incremental backups, compression and smart synchronization of different storages are definitely great (and sometimes necessary), well... let's face it - storing your files in some good standard file system is still the more robust and safe solution. For my software house, I only use automated backups based on file copy and simple but effective tools like TeraCopy and DirSyncPro. Never had a problem. So, all my ranting is just to say - Keep It Simple, Stupid! :) When a software house writes a backup software, they should build it on those estabilished and working models: filed and folders. Of course a reasonably updated binary image of the file system may still be nice to have, in case that nasty HD breaks on us and we don't want to lose too much time re-installing from scratch... ;)
2+2=5 for very large amounts of 2 (always loved that one hehe!)
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
Yet another classic Murphy Backup Law story. And yes, Apple doesn't always get their SW right, just like everybody else who writes SW. Of course, after helping my wife change the email address on her iTunes account and iPhone last night, boy, when they blow it, it's a doozy.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
Umberto Eco compared the Mac and PC worlds to the difference between Catholic and Protestant Christianity. In the Catholic church all you need is good works and the intervention of a priest to get to heaven, as a Protestant you need to read the Bible, have faith and make your own arrangements with God. I'm an agnostic on this issue, I use both a Mac and 2 PC's one running Windows and one running Linux. /peter
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I'll let you decide what the point is. If you want to make it an OS war, you can. I was merely pointing out that *proper* backup software does exist.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Wow! Try the other side of the bed tomorrow maybe? Did you read the original post? At all?
Julien Villers wrote:
I was merely pointing out that *proper* backup software does exist.
Which was irrelevant. Sorry, but it was.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I have a 100% failure rate with Apple Macs. My iMac lasted about a year before the HDD failed, and then my replacement Macbook Pro lasted 9 months before its HDD also failed. Obviously I've learned the lesson of backing up, and with the MacBook I decided to drink the Kool-aid fully and use Time Machine as my main backup. So I have a bunch of backups dating back a few months, and the Macbook dies, and I whistle nonchalantly as I take the laptop to the smiling boys and girls in their blue shirts at the Genius Bar. Except that I'm 15min late due to the snow, but mostly due to the inability of Torontonians to drive in snow, and so my appointment is cancelled. I can, however, do a "Quick Drop off" which, since I was dropping off the Mac to be repaired, raises the question as to what, exactly, I would have done had I actually made the appointed time. I decide that maybe I don't want to know. So I drop the mac off and they say they will call, which they don't, and that it would be ready in less than a week, which it isn't, but I eventually end up with the Macbook, bright and shiny. Except for the slight scuff marks which were duly noted and recorded in minute detail at drop off time by the blue clad worker drone with a little sniff, as if to say "you're not worthy of owning this. I bet you kick puppies, too". I whistle a little whistle of the sufficiently back'd up and proceed to restore my Mac to it's prior glory. At boot time the Mac asks if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup. Why yes! Thanks for asking! I plug in the Time Machine. It clicks and whirrs to life and the Mac...well, the Mac gives me a flat look and tells me that the Time Machine backups were made with a newer version of MacOS than I'm currently using. Interesting. Obviously if you have bought a new Mac and used it for more than 20 mins you will be asked to update MacOS. And why would you not? The updates are mere Gigabytes in size, force you to reboot and need passwords to be applied liberally. Much, much nicer than the nasty Windows way of doing things. So, yes, at the time I did my backups my machine was on MacOS [something higher than what came from the factory]. But it's backup data. Data. My documents and photos don't care what Operating System they were viewed on. At least on every other machine in the world I've ever used they don't. But why fight it? I am reassured by the setup wizard that I can restore at a later point using the migration wizard, so I click through to get to the desktop, then update the Mac, and re
How strange. Time Machine has always worked perfectly smoothly for me. Turned out my MacBook's logicboard had a factory defect, and the casing of my MacBook had yet another factory defect, so I got practically the entire computer replaced for free. (I have a first-generation MacBook, so they hadn't worked out the kinks yet.) When I got it back, I restored from the Time Machine backup with just the one click, and I couldn't even tell that anything was different, aside from the whole casing-no-longer-coming-apart-at-the-seams thing.
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Wow! Try the other side of the bed tomorrow maybe? Did you read the original post? At all?
Julien Villers wrote:
I was merely pointing out that *proper* backup software does exist.
Which was irrelevant. Sorry, but it was.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Well, I'm in disagreement. Chris said he had a string of hardware failures with his Macs, thus he was fairly sure he'll need decent backup. He tried using the much advertised piece from Apple, that requires extra hardware, which failed to restore his data, first protesting incompatible OS, then not seeing the backup as available. He then tells he's glad he made manual backups to be able to get his files back. I'm saying, data backup to/from different OS is possible, just not relying on built in functionality. I think it's relevant.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail