I'm pretty sure this isn't right. As far as I understand it, Time Machine does backup system files. In fact, when my iMac started to Kernel Panic thanks to some faulty RAM that ended up corrupting the hard drive I was able to restore the whole system to the last backup (the day before the crash) from the external Time Machine HDD I use with no worries.
Now to be honest, this was done when I was still running Snow Leopard so I don't know how an updated Lion (or Mountain Lion) restore would go but I would be surprised if it took you right back to the oldest OS, it would depend on the last time the system files were backed up with TM?
I'm not trying to start any trolling here, just speaking from my experience.
Cheers,
Simon
Quote:
Originally Posted by silv
roll back the OS with time machine?
time machine doesn't store the system files. it takes them from the install media you boot from.
so you'd get an old version of the OS.
then you would have to download and install ALL the updates.
you'd also have to re-install many of the applications you had been running because these files, too, do not necessarily get backed up by TM or are rolled back to old versions by the restore process.
What time machine is good for is the backup of your user account. I wouldn't use it for any other purpose than restoring the account or some files of said account.
I have seen people backing up their OS X server with TM - and of course never test that backup solution in a disaster test scenario.
Not a nice site visit when they then have attempted to restore the OS using TM.
So no - do not trust TM when the OS is affected. Or be prepared that you will spend a lot of time getting all your bits and pieces running again on your client machine.
Better use different backup solutions. Like Carbon Copy Cloner, for example.
Might not yet run on 10.8, though  |