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kennedy · Nov 28, 2009, 02:46 AM

So, my MacBook's disk turned into a brick. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine for it.
So, I pulled it and dropped in a new disk, reinstalled Leopard, and when it asked where I wanted to transfer my accounts from, I chose my Time Machine.

HOWEVER, it was never able to Calculate one of my User folders. (I had 4 User accounts... I had to turn off one of them so that I could hit the Transfer button.) I assume that folder on the Time Machine is corrupt in some way that it could not read the size.

Soooo, I guess I'm going to start doing full disk clones again... perhaps a little less often since I have a Time Machine... but clearly I don't want to rely on Time Machine as my only method of backup. Had that been my user account (rather than my son's), this would have been a nightmare of a disaster!

How reliable is Time Machine? Am I the one exception? Or is it hit-and-miss?
Very disappointing... Time Machine was, I thought, one of the best OS features ever.

CharlesS · Nov 28, 2009, 03:21 AM

You could just copy the user folder over manually using the Finder. All the folders are easily visible in Backups.backupdb/your computer name/Latest.

Simon · Nov 28, 2009, 04:57 AM

Not relying on just one backup method is certainly a good idea. A clone with Disk Utility > Restore or a little rsync action (possibly to a remote file system) now and then is definitely a strategy worth considering.

I second Charles's suggestion to see how much of the data you can recover from the TM drive manually. Also, have you tried checking the TM volume with something like Disk Utility or Disk Warrior? If it's just a screwed up directory those tools will likely be able to help.

CharlesS · Nov 28, 2009, 11:24 AM

It's worth checking, but it's possible that the TM drive is fine and Migration Assistant is just being stupid. This is why it's nice that TM just leaves the files straight on the disk for you to copy off with the Finder however you like.

Eug · Nov 30, 2009, 07:21 PM

So yeah, you can look in the file structure yourself to see if it's there. However, somehow Time Machine alone still makes me uncomfortable, which is why I always make secondary backups by cloning the disks every so often.

1.5 TB for Time Machine, and two separate drives for clones of my two main partitions.

msuper69 · Dec 1, 2009, 06:24 AM

I've noticed that the Finder often takes what seems an interminably long time to calculate the size of folder contents.

I'll bet the TM backup of that account is fine.

Doc HM · Dec 12, 2009, 03:01 PM

Is it just that you have to turn any one account off? If so you could always come back and do that account afterwards. M.A. lets you migrate additional accounts at a later date so you don't have to do all the accounts at the same time.

besson3c · Dec 12, 2009, 03:09 PM

You never know when a HD will die, a file system will become corrupt, backup software fails, or whatever. Having a second backup is never a bad idea.

I believe that the TM restore will do a disk check/repair prior to a restore, but have you tried doing a thorough long smart disk check on your drives to make sure they are healthy?