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Backup Software

aphex

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
I have the following;

Mac Mini 160gb Internal (40gb used)
External 250gb FW (220gb used)
External 500gb USB (0gb used)

Is there a backup program that can automatically grab everything from both my mini and external FW drive and dump it on the USB drive every night?
 
I use:

iBackup (folder & file backup, scheduling available)
SuperDuper (similar to Norton Ghost - clones entire drives)
Mozy (automatic online backup)

I will NEVER LOSE ANOTHER FILE AGAIN!! Muhahahaha :evil:
 
A further explanation...

I use iBackup daily, either with my file server at home or with a 2.5" portable drive. I use SuperDuper weekly. SuperDuper creates a disk clone in the form of a file and can incrementally update it. I also have a smaller 2.5" portable drive that I clone the primary drive to on a monthly basis; that way I have a hot spare in case my primary disk has a problem. Lastly, I use Mozy for remote backup. It's automatic, it's online, and it's cheap. Works great in the background when you're not using the computer.

My backup scheme provides me with the following:

1. Daily file backup: I use iBackup's manual mode. If I'm at home, I just backup across the network to my file server. If I'm on the road, I backup to an external portable hard drive. It's as simple as pressing a button before I go to bed. I alternate my backups - I have an "A" folder and a "B" folder, so just in case I lose a recent file I have one from a day ago.

2. Hot spare: If my primary disk dies, I can just boot off Firewire. I don't update this too often because SuperDuper can't incrementally update a cloned drive, only a cloned image (file). I'm debating just using a fresh install of OS X instead of a full clone so that I can have a clean Firewire boot drive to use for #3.

3. Clone image: Updated weekly on my backup drive; if my boot drive dies I can boot off my hot spare from #2 and then load the cloned image onto the primary drive. I should probably do this daily, but my files change a lot so I don't. It's a hassle to reinstall and reactivate all my programs though, so I should do this more often so that I can get back up and running quickly. I've only had to do this a few times so it doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it's a lifesaver when you really need it. Why keep a clone image in addition to backup files and not just the image? Because it's easier and faster to find a lost file in a folder backup than digging through an image.

4. Online backup: Mozy provides me with remote, off-site backup that I can access pretty much anywhere. Zero work after installation. Love it!

I'm really looking forward to the Time Machine feature in Leopard; I won't even have to bother with iBackup. My plan for Leopard is Time Machine + Firewire boot drive with a fresh install of OS X + daily clone to file using SuperDuper + Mozy. MCE Tech offers a secondary hard drive to replace the optical bay in the Mac laptops, so you can have everything be automatic.

edit: Reading through the SuperDuper documentation, looks like you can simply mount the cloned image as a drive, browse the files, and copy over the ones you want. Ooo...gotta try that!
 
Super Duper is nice, but won't accomplish what i need, it only seems to be able to backup 1 drive, not 2, to a seperate external.

iBackup felt buggy to me, had issues when I clicked on 'Applications'

🙁

 
couldn't you use automater and use the disk utility to "restore" your HD's to the USB HD. The problem is then that it wouldn't be an incremental backup and it would take FOREVER.

But it does create a nice hot spare, I did this right before I upgraded the the WWDC Leopard build and thank god I did.
 
I think that Time Machine, in OS X 10.5, should be able to do this. You may want to consider that before spending money on a backup solution; although, 10.5 won't be here until October.
 
Originally posted by: timswim78
I think that Time Machine, in OS X 10.5, should be able to do this. You may want to consider that before spending money on a backup solution; although, 10.5 won't be here until October.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but I won't touch Leopard for at least the first few months, probably not for the first 6 months until they can really iron out all the bugs and everyone can get their software ported to 64-bit Leopard. Mmm, power.
 
Originally posted by: aphex
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: chcarnage
Maybe Carbon Copy Cloner is for you? I have no first hand experience though.</end quote></div>

🙁 <div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>While CCC 2.3 is PowerPC binary, it does run via Rosetta on the new Intel Macs.</end quote></div>

Thanks for the suggestion though!!

ttt!
Click to expand...

It works fine on both. I've used it quite a bit. I prefer SuperDuper for the scheduling capability and ease of use now.
 
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