Backups have always been a cumbersome thing for most home computer users to take the time to set up and maintain. Before Leopard, you had to install a third-party backup program and deal with proprietary formats, data structure, and compression. Apple recognized these problems with the implementation of Time Machine, and the easy "set it and forget it" method of backing up has been a great option for most home users. However, there are still times when Time Machine will not work properly. It will stop backing up certain items, give frequent errors, or have odd behavior that has the user question whether the backups are working properly.
