Backup Software
I'm an old time PC user and am getting pretty paranoid of not having a good back up software for my newly acquired iMac G5.
I'd like to be able to make an image of the hard drive on DVDs and keep them in case of disaster. I also have a USB 2.0/Firewire external drive which I could use for this purpose if I have to... Since the prices for hard drives have dropped so drastically, I can always pickup a new hard drive just for this purpose.
Can anyone recommend a good backup software for OS X? It would be great if the software could do full images (backup and restore), partial (incremental) backup and selective restore to external devices and the SuperDrive.
Thanks,
-- Mehdi ?
I'd like to be able to make an image of the hard drive on DVDs and keep them in case of disaster. I also have a USB 2.0/Firewire external drive which I could use for this purpose if I have to... Since the prices for hard drives have dropped so drastically, I can always pickup a new hard drive just for this purpose.
Can anyone recommend a good backup software for OS X? It would be great if the software could do full images (backup and restore), partial (incremental) backup and selective restore to external devices and the SuperDrive.
Thanks,
-- Mehdi ?
Comments
http://www.versiontracker.com
There are plenty of choices. I use the .MAC backup because it comes with the subscription, but I do believe CCC is better.
Originally posted by mehdi
I'm an old time PC user and am getting pretty paranoid of not having a good back up software for my newly acquired iMac G5.
I'd like to be able to make an image of the hard drive on DVDs and keep them in case of disaster. I also have a USB 2.0/Firewire external drive which I could use for this purpose if I have to... Since the prices for hard drives have dropped so drastically, I can always pickup a new hard drive just for this purpose.
Can anyone recommend a good backup software for OS X? It would be great if the software could do full images (backup and restore), partial (incremental) backup and selective restore to external devices and the SuperDrive.
Thanks,
-- Mehdi ?
I used to use Retrospect but found it a bit too complicated for my needs so now use Synchronise Pro X. It's really simple but also quite powerful and has an auto sync feature which makes it all streamlined and you don't have to remember doing it yourself.
Originally posted by fieldy
I used to use Retrospect but found it a bit too complicated for my needs so now use Synchronise Pro X. It's really simple but also quite powerful and has an auto sync feature which makes it all streamlined and you don't have to remember doing it yourself.
If you want to backup to multiple-DVD sets, Retrospect is the way to go. It has full support for incremental backups, file filters (for include and exclude), and sub-volume backups. It can also do backups over networks, to harddrives, to tape drives... etc. The only major problems with it are that it doesn't produce bootable backups, and the company is a bit sluggish in responding to reported issues. The UI sucks big-time, as well.
If you're backing up to a network server or a harddrive, you should check out Carbon Copy Cloner, or, if you don't care about bootability, read the man page for rsync.
Originally posted by mehdi
I'm an old time PC user and am getting pretty paranoid of not having a good back up software for my newly acquired iMac G5.
...
Can anyone recommend a good backup software for OS X? It would be great if the software could do full images (backup and restore), partial (incremental) backup and selective restore to external devices and the SuperDrive.
Why don`t you just create a copy of your most important files (eg. entire documents folder) by dragging them over to an external hd? Archive them and then drag them over, if you prefer. For this purpose i simply don't get the need of a devoted backup utility. A bit bloated to get precise.
If you were asking for a dedicated backup solution which keeps your hot folders
synchronized on different computers, i'd strongly recommend Intego, - "Personal Backup X", this is the one you should look for. A cherry schmatz to configure even for Backup ladies like me, though.
Retrospect is way too "overorganized", if you ask me. I almost always prefer simple solutions
Originally posted by staphbaby
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The UI sucks big-time, as well.
...
You name it
Originally posted by staphbaby
If you want to backup to multiple-DVD sets, Retrospect is the way to go. It has full support for incremental backups, file filters (for include and exclude), and sub-volume backups. It can also do backups over networks, to harddrives, to tape drives... etc. The only major problems with it are that it doesn't produce bootable backups, and the company is a bit sluggish in responding to reported issues. The UI sucks big-time, as well.
Here's what I found annoying about Retrospect when I was trying to use it. I haven't used it in over a year, so perhaps some of this stuff has been fixed:
1) Even though the software is smart enough to know how to break up a back-up set across multiple discs, it is (was?) too stupid to know how to do the same trick using multiple files on one volume. I have a 250 GB drive on my networked PC that I wanted to use as back-up for my Mac, but the idiotic Retrospect software says "That's a non-Mac volume. Sorry, the max I'll save on any one non-Mac volume is 2 GB." A 2 GB limit for a whole damned drive???
As a software engineer that annoyed the hell out of me, because I know they could have easily solved the problem by using multiple under-2GB files stored on the same volume. In fact, that's exactly what happened when I used the round-about solution of running an FTP server on my PC, and using the FTP backup method instead.
2) Using automatic filters for what to backup/not back up (like cache folders) was a mutually exclusive choice from making my own choices -- plus the GUI for selecting files/folders was painfully slow. Just because I want to make a few of my own choices doesn't mean I want to pay the price of having to manually hunt down and uncheck every damn cache folder and temporary file.
3) Incremental backup NEEDS settable limits! When I used Virtual PC, those big 10-15 GB VPC files were usually considered modified every single time a back-up was performed. I wanted to back up these big files, but I didn't want the size of my backup set to grow 30 GBs every time I backed up! What I need is a simple update-and-replace option, at least for some files, or a limit on how many previous versions of a file are saved, maybe an expiration date... something.
I ended up alternating between two back-up sets, throwing one complete set away while using the other set, and then starting a new alternate from scratch every few backups, all in order to prevent excessive growth of the size of my backup sets.
Does anyone know if Retrospect now fixes these issues, or if some other software does?
2 other problems with Retrospect.
No Command line interface and you can't see the status of the backup from the command line. What a bunch of TW%Ts! This is meant to be server stuff guys!
2nd prob is performance. I use an LTO2 drive (Neo Overland 2000) and have a 1.2 TB backup set. It takes just over 22 Hours for 1.2 TB. Native throughput for the drive is just over 100GB per hour.
On my Sun E280R I can backup 2TB in 22 Hrs.
On my HP ML380 I can backup 1.4 TB in 18Hrs.
All backup the same XRaid and use the same speed SCSI.
ES Backup took it down to 17Hrs but I don't see why I should fork out another $3000 when I already have bought Retrospect for $2500.
Dobby.
Nuff said.
Originally posted by kcmac
SuperDuper!
Nuff said.
kcmac: Thanks for the suggestion. I read a few good reviews on SuperDuper already. It seems like everyone likes it. I'm certainly going to give it a shot.
Thanks again,
-- Mehdi --
Originally posted by staphbaby
If you're backing up to a network server or a harddrive, you should check out Carbon Copy Cloner, or, if you don't care about bootability, read the man page for rsync.
CarbonCopy Cloner is on my short list and I am planning to give it a try. From what I've read so far however, it seems like CCC only does an image, and cannot perform incremental backups.
Thanks for the help,
-- Mehdi --
Originally posted by Vox Barbara
Why don`t you just create a copy of your most important files (eg. entire documents folder) by dragging them over to an external hd? Archive them and then drag them over, if you prefer. For this purpose i simply don't get the need of a devoted backup utility. A bit bloated to get precise.
I'd like to have a image copy of the hard disk in the machine. I don't have much data at this time to worry about, and feel a lot more comfortable if I can duplicate the machine's disk image in case of disaster.
If you were asking for a dedicated backup solution which keeps your hot folders
synchronized on different computers, i'd strongly recommend Intego, - "Personal Backup X", this is the one you should look for.
I only have one Mac at this time, so no need for synchronization at this time, yet.
Thanks for the help,
-- Mehdi --