Time Machine best backup option on Leopard?

Dear Lazyweb,

Is the best way to backup Mac OS X Leopard, Time Machine? Will it give me full, reliable restores, in case all goes to hell?

On Linux, I use rdiff-backup, which is a phenomenal tool, that is quick and easy to use from the command line. Its restores are proven (even across Linux distributions). Do I need to bother with it on OS X?

Is Time Machine space efficient? My Macbook comes with a 250GB hard disk, and the largest 2.5″ disk I can buy is a 320GB disk, and that’s currently what I use for Time Machine backups (no, I will not carry a 3.5″ disk for backups – I travel a lot).

Thanks

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  • Time machine will tell you when the disk is full and you can then discard entire snapshots to make space available again, more or less similar to the --remove-older-than option to rdiff-backup.
  • Thanks Peter! I'll just use Time Machine and hopefully, never have to worry about running out of space on the 320gb disk...
  • Time machine does take a bit more space on your backup disk, as it will backup your WHOLE system, not just the dirs you'd point rdiff-backup at, but I think the conveniece of restoring to a working system would outweigh the space issue.
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