A brief history of Time Machine (2024)
19 days ago
- #Time Machine
- #Mac OS X
- #Backup Technology
- Before Mac OS X, Apple lacked a serious backup utility, with Retrospect being a common choice.
- Time Machine debuted in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in 2007, revolutionizing Mac backups.
- Initial Time Machine versions relied on HFS+ features like directory hard links for efficiency.
- Time Machine faced criticism for lacking bootable backups and issues with FileVault encryption.
- Mobile Time Machine was introduced for notebooks, using primitive snapshots on HFS+.
- APFS integration in High Sierra replaced Mobile Time Machine with snapshots for backups.
- Catalina introduced a new backup determination scheme due to slow snapshot delta computations.
- Big Sur added APFS backup storage support but excluded System volume backups.
- Modern Time Machine uses synthetic snapshots for quicker, space-efficient backups.
- APFS backup stores pose challenges for transfer due to lack of tools.