Looking for a good backup program
I am relatively new to the Mac and know it's time for a good backup program. I have looked and seen backup programs such as Silverkeeper and Retrospect. I will be backing up to a hard drive that's attached to a airdisk and at times as well to a Lacie Firewire drive. I keep the Lacie in a safe for a 2nd backup in case of fire/theft or failure of my main backup.
Also I keep a 3rd backup on DVD offsite but this one isn't backed up often.
The way I like to do my backups on my server drive is on a weekly basis do a complete system backup and on a daily basis at night do a backup of any data (safari favorites, documents, quickbooks data, etc).
I have been a PC user for years and used Acronis most of the time and would either do a system backup or select certain directories to backup. I tried a trial of Silverkeeper when i first got my system. Maybe I did something wrong but it seemed hard to use and seemed to only have the full system backup option. What are some backup programs I should try? I know TimeMachine is coming out but I at least need a good solution until Oct.
Also I keep a 3rd backup on DVD offsite but this one isn't backed up often.
The way I like to do my backups on my server drive is on a weekly basis do a complete system backup and on a daily basis at night do a backup of any data (safari favorites, documents, quickbooks data, etc).
I have been a PC user for years and used Acronis most of the time and would either do a system backup or select certain directories to backup. I tried a trial of Silverkeeper when i first got my system. Maybe I did something wrong but it seemed hard to use and seemed to only have the full system backup option. What are some backup programs I should try? I know TimeMachine is coming out but I at least need a good solution until Oct.
Comments
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html
or carbon copy cloner (free but PPC):
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
I prefer Superduper and I've had no problems with it but I only use it for a one time clone and then I do manual backups.
Several months ago, MacWorld had an article on backup programs and, while the mag didn't pick it for first place because others were more full featured (like archiving), it did say SuperDuper was one of the easiest to use. You can download a truncated version free. It does only full backups of the entire drive or of "Users'. To get the version that does incremental backups, it costs between $25 and $30.
SuperDuper can even make a bootable backup of your entire HD. So if something goes wrong, you can just boot up from your external HD. Works like a charm !
Bootable backup works only if you are using a Firewire hard drive, NOT USB.
get backup 3.0 it does the same incremential backup for free on any hard drive should they be FAT or NTSF ... unlike Super Dupper
you dont wanna pay
get backup 3.0 it does the same incremential backup for free on any hard drive should they be FAT or NTSF ... unlike Super Dupper
Free? Don't you have to subscribe to .Mac at around $100 a year?
Bootable backup works only if you are using a Firewire hard drive, NOT USB.
Huh?
I currently own just one 500GB external HD, which I am backing everything up to. I also use this same external drive to store other large files (music, video) that, for reasons of space, I can't keep on my MBP. So far, I've placed all the storage files in one folder named, not unreasonably, Storage, and I've backed up using SuperDuper's Newer method to avoid having the storage files wiped.
My question is simple: is this the best method to achieve my goals, or should I be looking into partitioning my external HD? I don't fancy buying a second external HD purely for backup purposes just yet.
Thanks,
Ste
Huh?
I got that "No USB' from SD's site. However, when I used a USB HDD, the program 'Said" it could be used to reboot. I never had to reboot so I don't know from experience - just SuperDupers' caveate????????????
A while back, an AI member "explained why USB boots don't work", so I 'm befuddled. Does it or doesn't it?
Also I keep a 3rd backup on DVD offsite but this one isn't backed up often.
I use JungleDisk to do offsite backup to Amazon S3. $0.15 per gig/month storage + $0.20 per gig transfer. I haven't seen a bill above like $5 from Amazon so its not a wallet buster.
I currently only save my iPhotos and smaller files to S3 and not iMovie stuff. Works well for me and a lot more convienient than any other offsite storage I could do. Since the files are encrypted with 256-bit AES its reasonably secure.
http://www.jungledisk.com/
I would imagine if you have 500GB of stuff this wouldn't work so well for you...but that's a lot of DVDs too...
Vinea
http://shirtpocket.com/SuperDuper/Su...scription.html
System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later (including 10.4 "Tiger")
Please note that SuperDuper! is not designed to back up to CDs, DVDs or Tape, and needs a location (other than the boot volume) to store the backup - typically a volume on an internal or external (FireWire) drive.
Note also that USB drives do not allow booting Power PC based Macintoshes under any version of Mac OS X: this is not a SuperDuper! limitation, but one of the OS. If you would like to boot from a backup stored on an external drive, and have a Power PC based Mac, please purchase a Mac compatible FireWire drive.
It doesn't say anything about Intel Macs, so if you are using an Intel Mac, it may be possible to reboot with a USB HDD.
It doesn't say anything about Intel Macs, so if you are using an Intel Mac, it may be possible to reboot with a USB HDD.
At this very moment I am backing up my macbook to a 500 GB Lacie usb 2.0 external disk using SD. When it is done, I will try to boot from it and report back here.
Power PC Macs can't boot from USB drives, but Intel Macs can, assuming they're properly partitioned for the Mac.
--
Dave Nanian
Shirt Pocket
Well, that clears that up. Now all I need is an Intel Mac.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow !!!!!!!!!
Power PC Macs can't boot from USB drives, but Intel Macs can, assuming they're properly partitioned for the Mac.
Yup, both the core duo iMac and the core2duo macbook boot perfectly from their respective backup partition on the lacie usb2 external disk.
\tName : \tWDC WD1600JS-40NGB2 Media
\tType : \tDisk
\tDisk Identifier : \tdisk0
\tMedia Name : \tWDC WD1600JS-40NGB2 Media
\tMedia Type : \tGeneric
\tConnection Bus : \tSerial ATA 2
\tConnection Type : \tInternal
\tPartition Type : \tGUID_partition_scheme
\tDevice Tree : \t/PCI0@0/SATA@1F,2/PRT2@2/PMP@0/@0:0
\tWritable : \tYes
\tEjectable : \tNo
\tMac OS 9 Drivers Installed : \tNo
\tLocation : \tInternal
\tTotal Capacity : \t149.1 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
\tS.M.A.R.T. Status : \tVerified
\tDisk Number : \t0
\tPartition Number : \t0
And, connected to it, through FireWire, is the following (from DiskUtility) external drive:
\tName : \tLaCie Group SA
\tType : \tDisk
\tDisk Identifier : \tdisk1
\tMedia Name : \tST316002 3A Media
\tMedia Type : \tGeneric
\tConnection Bus : \tFireWire
\tConnection Type : \tExternal
\tConnection ID : \t58629654000500590
\tPartition Type : \tGUID_partition_scheme
\tDevice Tree : \t/PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@d04b5c1400ff6e/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
\tWritable : \tYes
\tEjectable : \tYes
\tMac OS 9 Drivers Installed : \tNo
\tLocation : \tExternal
\tTotal Capacity : \t149.1 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
\tS.M.A.R.T. Status : \tNot Supported
\tDisk Number : \t1
\tPartition Number : \t0
They are partitioned (because I have BootCamp installed) the same and I regularly backup to the external FireWire drive. I have used CarbonCopyCloner, CopyCatX, Synchronize Pro, and SuperDuper. I have been trying for over a year to be able to generate a "Finder Usuable" and also "Bootable" backup. These backup volumes do show up when you cold-startup or restart with the "option" key down. This indicates they are supposed to be "Bootable". But what happens when you select one of them is that the boot process takes a little longer than usual; and then the volume that actually boots is its corresponding volume on the INTERNAL drive.
It's almost like the initial evaluation of the 2 internal volumes AND the 2 external volumes says that all 4 ARE bootable; but something occurs a little later, during the boot process, that says whoops! Anyone have an idea how to get this done?
Many Thanks,
Bob