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Rod, if I may, the definition of archive, from dictionary.com says this:
Apple describes Time Machine with this:
From those two statements, it would seem to me that Time Machine quintessentially an archive for a Mac's data.
Cloners, such as CCC or SD, and synchronizers like Chronosync can be configured to both clone and archive, but TM is designed to do both inherently.
Just my $0.02.
As for how long one uses any given archive, that is a personal or business decision. From my observation over 40 years in the technology business, the storage devices and technology change so dynamically that any long term storage would need to be refreshed every few years. In the personal computer space, the cassette tape was replaced by floppy disk, then Winchester hard drives, then just hard drives in general, then storage cards, now external SSDs. But storage decays over time, so a true archive needs to be refreshed and moved to more modern storage. I seriously doubt many of us could restore data from a cassette tape today, even if the interface between the player and the machine could be created. And does anybody use the old compact flash cards any more? You know, the original 1.24" by 1.5" cards. And if you have an old IDE, PATA, or SCSI hard drive, getting it attached to today's machines is not a trivial task.
So as technology moves along, what I do is to move my "archive" stuff to newer tech. I had photos that I stored on CF cards from the camera in which they were taken, moved them to the hard drives of the day, copied them to backup drives in case one failed. When drives went from PATA to SATA, I moved the photos to there for storage and access. Now I have them stored on RAID array in a NAS, backed up to a second RAID array NAS. One moves with the times.
a long-term storage device, as a disk or magnetic tape, or a computer directory or folder that contains copies of files for backup or future reference.
Apple describes Time Machine with this:
You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore files from your backup if the original files are ever deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.
From those two statements, it would seem to me that Time Machine quintessentially an archive for a Mac's data.
Cloners, such as CCC or SD, and synchronizers like Chronosync can be configured to both clone and archive, but TM is designed to do both inherently.
Just my $0.02.
As for how long one uses any given archive, that is a personal or business decision. From my observation over 40 years in the technology business, the storage devices and technology change so dynamically that any long term storage would need to be refreshed every few years. In the personal computer space, the cassette tape was replaced by floppy disk, then Winchester hard drives, then just hard drives in general, then storage cards, now external SSDs. But storage decays over time, so a true archive needs to be refreshed and moved to more modern storage. I seriously doubt many of us could restore data from a cassette tape today, even if the interface between the player and the machine could be created. And does anybody use the old compact flash cards any more? You know, the original 1.24" by 1.5" cards. And if you have an old IDE, PATA, or SCSI hard drive, getting it attached to today's machines is not a trivial task.
So as technology moves along, what I do is to move my "archive" stuff to newer tech. I had photos that I stored on CF cards from the camera in which they were taken, moved them to the hard drives of the day, copied them to backup drives in case one failed. When drives went from PATA to SATA, I moved the photos to there for storage and access. Now I have them stored on RAID array in a NAS, backed up to a second RAID array NAS. One moves with the times.