Time Machine backs up to a locally located drive, but has not yet
been updated to back up to a remote drive, like in the cloud for
instance.
It is an integral part of Leopard(X.5), Snow Leopard(X.6) and will be
of the new Lion which won't be out for another 6-8 months.
It is well designed and transparent but to work optimally requires an
external drive at least 3-4 times the capacity of ones internal drive.
It can be instructed to backup files on external drives as well,
although, depending on how you have it talking to your computer, can
take a very long time if you have many externals. It will work with
any drive port incl. eSATA if its and your computer's ports permit.
If you choose to use Time Machine, I strongly recommend you purchase
a drive which at a minimum can use Firewire 800. USB is
inefficiently designed for backup and Firewire 400 is too slow for
the now average 320-500Gig drives coming in current Macs.
Time Machine does not make a bootable backup.
My thoughts on using the cloud for backup are pretty negative. They
revolve around the instability of suppliers of cloud space, the
amazingly high prices they charge and the slowness of internet
access, and FTP speed, in US national networks. I also have
copyright and personal privacy concerns. Perhaps, if you maintain
your own personal cloud you might consider using it.
And if your tidyness instinct is highly developed.
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
Check out my Spring daily photograph project at:
http://tinyurl.com/3a6m7g6
And Summer:
http://tinyurl.com/3a6m7g6
