Backup Info

When I back up to an external drive, the amount of data on the back up disk does not indicate the same amount as data on hard drive I backed up.
Example: Hard drive shows 192 gig on disk.Back up shows 210 gig on drive.

Are you using Time Machine?

Time machine backs up all your apps, settings and files, but not the OS.

If you have to re-install, you first install the OS, then the set-up assistant will ask you if you have a TM back-up and restore everything else from that.

It works flawlessly, believe me

HD info

Thanks for the explanation, I'm not using Time Machine,I use Silver Keeper.

louishen is not correct. Time Machine does indeed back up the system/OS. It just does not create a *bootable* backup.

To be absolutely clear: Time Machine backs up *EVERYTHING* on your boot drive. Absolutely every single file and folder, including the OS. To do a restore, you do NOT need to reinstall the system first ... you need only boot from the system DVD and then choose the menu option to do a Time Machine restore.

Backup info

If you can't boot from the Time Machine backup, how does one use the backed up data? With Silver Keeper, the data on backup disk is bootable.

vank66 said:

If you can't boot from the Time Machine backup, how does one use the backed up data? With Silver Keeper, the data on backup disk is bootable.

Click to expand...

Did you read chas_m's reply?

To do a restore, you do NOT need to reinstall the system first ... you need only boot from the system DVD and then choose the menu option to do a Time Machine restore.

Click to expand...

You boot with your install DVD first and choose the option to do a TM restore. It's very easy - I've done it that way myself.

Backup info

Thanks for all the help,I have made notes and will install Time Machine in the future.For the time being Silver keeper does the job.

I was just correcting a bit of misinformation. Silver Keeper is fine if you prefer it. A lot of people like Time Machine primarily because it "just works" and they don't have to think about it.

I personally use BOTH a clone program (which clones a bootable backup to one drive) *and* Time Machine (which does its thing to another drive). I like the selective retrieval of TM (in fact it totally saved my bacon the other day when I accidentally overwrote a file!), and I like having a bootable backup for troubleshooting, drive testing and so on.