I bought the iMac in December of 2007. I couldn’t believe how fast and responsive everything was. Especially compared to my old PC. But things aren’t quite as ripe as they once were.
One of the many cool things about the Mac (er, Leopard) is Time Machine. I have a 500GB external drive (primarily for photos) that I partitioned. I’m now using 300GB for Time Machine and 200GB for photos. It’s pretty cool to know that everything is backed up automatically, all the time.
But here’s the kicker, I can’t remember ever needing a backup. Of anything. And the truth is, I’m starting to notice a slight lag in load times and such, and it’s always when I hear the external drive boot up to process the automatic back ups. It seems like, as the back ups increase, the load times get slower. I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it. I can’t believe how spoiled I am, because if you’d use it for a day and I pointed out the times when I think it’s “lagging”, you’d probably think I was crazy. But in this day and age, every (milli)second counts.
What would you do? The right answer is probably to keep the backups. But I’m on the edge, here. If I notice any more decline in performance, Time Machine is history (pardon the pun).
01
Dewey Finn on Wed Apr 09 at 04:12AM
Give up, just quit, because in this life, you can’t win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end you’re just gonna lose, big time, because the world is run by the Man. The Man, oh, you don’t know the Man. He’s everywhere. In the White House… down the hall… Ms. Mullins, she’s the Man. And the Man ruined the ozone, he’s burning down the Amazon, and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! And there used to be a way to stick it to the Man. It was called rock ‘n roll, but guess what, oh no, the Man ruined that, too, with a little thing called MTV! So don’t waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome ‘cause the Man is just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourselves a favor and just GIVE UP!
02
supaspoida on Wed Apr 09 at 06:18AM
Not a time machine (or even Mac) user, but when reading about Time Machine that was one of my first concerns. I’m not a fan of having lots of extra things running in the background, and Time Machine sounds like it would easily lead to poor performance and wasted HD space. I recently set up a Raid 1 array, and while it’s not as flashy as Time Machine, and doesn’t protect you from user error (accidentally deleting a file) at least I know I’m protected from drive failure.
And believe me, you definitely do need backups. As someone who has suffered the loss of irreplaceable data, I can attest to this. But there are probably better solutions out there than time machine.
03
Nick on Wed Apr 09 at 06:48AM
Ryan – Since I have a Powerbook G4 running Leopard, I simply connect to my 500GB external drive every few days for a backup. But, if you’re using it for photos, too, I can see why you’d keep it up and running most or all of the time.
But, if you want my opinion, you are spoiled. :-p
I’m running a 1.67GHz G4 and you’re on Intel…and that iMac is so beautiful… :-)
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Ryan on Wed Apr 09 at 08:20AM
@supaspoida—I don’t think I’d hold up very well in an argument for ignoring backups, but honestly (in my case), I use a computer for 3 main reasons:
The only concern of the above is web development, but I keep everything under version control, so it’s not crucial that those files are backed up. I guess the true test would be to format without thinking about anything before hand. I’d puke more than likely, so the reassurance of backed up data is definitely a desired one, but I might just need to seek another alternative.
@Nick—That’s not a terrible idea to just unplug it when it’s not needed. I also need to look into the Time Machine options, there may be a setting to only back up if I’m idle or something. And you’re right. I shouldn’t complain at all. But if I, the consumer, did not desire faster and faster technologies, where would that put us? (my justification)
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Dave O. on Wed Apr 09 at 10:06AM
I hook up the drive once a week for use with Time Machine. So I guess I’m with Nick.
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supaspoida on Tue Apr 15 at 03:35PM
Do you keep all your source images for web development in version control as well? My files tend to bloat up pretty quickly as I like to try out many different layer combinations etc. and I never felt it was practical to keep huge .psd/.ai files in version control. And for my more artistic files some of them climb up to 1gb each! Def. not a candidate for version control.
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Ryan on Tue Apr 15 at 03:53PM
Typically, I do keep all of my images for web development in version control. I usually just put a “psd” folder beneath an “images” folder of whatever project I’m working on. I’m back and forth between the iMac and MacBook Pro, and if I want to access stuff from work at home, and vice-versa, it’s almost a necessity.
Of course, the files I tend to deal with aren’t even close to 1 GB, at least not for web development. My post-processed photos can get up there, though. I bought a 500GB external drive thinking my problems would be solved, but I already feel like I need more space!