Will Mac Time Machine damage a file?

[lpm]

I’m transitioning my primary FM development from PC/WinXP to Mac/10.6.3 and will use Time Machine (along with a WD external HD) for backups. I understand that Time Machine will back up hourly (“in the background”) those files that have changed since the last backup and that the backup will occur while I’m developing.

My question/concern: If I’m working in a file that has changed since the last backup, is there any danger in TM backing up (copying) that file while I’m working on it and it is open? I thought that you should never copy a file when it is open except when using “save as”.

[Lee Smith]

How are the files going to be accessed? Peer to Peer, Server, IWP, etc.

Lee

[Kris M]

Always err on the side of caution. Its costly (time = money) to repair corruption because the only proven method to COMPLETELY repair corruption is 100% rebuild using none of the original objects (new file with no data, tables, scripts, cf's, graphics, layouts.. etc.. No copy paste of anything even with Clip Manager or the like)

I never backup an FMP file with any method but FM Server. I also never virus scan an FMP file while it is open... regardless of the reason its open.

[Vaughan]

Time Machine is a poor choice of backup strategy because live FMP database cannot be backed up: the copy will have consistency errors because FMP caches data and the file on disk is not always complete.

The best bet is:

Join TechNet and get the development copy of FileMaker Server, and run that on your computer. Host your development databases in FMS. (This immediately gives you protection from FMP crashing.) Set FMS to back up hourly or whatever. Set Time Machine to ignore the live hosted database folder, but allow it to see the FMS backup folder.

The second best bet is to create a folder where your "development" files live, and exclude this from TM. Every 30 minutes or so, save a copy of your db to a "backup" folder outside this folder that TM can see.

[lpm]

Thank you all! I'm a TechNet member, so I'll look into the FMS related solution. Thanks again! lpm