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Best way to backup entire HD to an external?

M

munckee

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 27, 2005
1,219
1
I have an new drive coming that I'd like to put in an enclosure (and I have one already, but its sort of...used...right now). I want to put an 80GB partition on the new drive to serve as an exact backup of my PB drive. Figure I'll back up the entire drive every few days.

Questions:
1. What's the best way to do this? Is there an app in Tiger that will facilitate this, or do I need 3rd party software? I think I'd prefer to do it manually rather than having it happen automatically, but I'd like it to be easy (open program, push button...).

2. Given that I'll be backing up 80GB at a time, can I assume that a FW800 enclosure will make a notable difference in how long it takes vs. a FW400 enclosure?

Thanks!
 
Thanks Robbie.

I have a number 3 as well:

3. I have a G3 B/W tower that I've been debating turning into my music computer/external hard drive. I think it will cost me ~$120-150 to get wifi access and an IDE HD controller card in there. IF I decide to do that, I've been told that I can "network" my PB to the G3 via firewire. Would this be faster/slower/the same as the external drive?
 
adk said:
1. Carbon Copy Cloner Is the best. It's straightforward and gets the job done, but it's free unlike SuperDuper.

2. Yes, FW800 will make a noticeable difference. I have a 100GB drive and backing it up over FW400 takes at least two hours.
Click to expand...
to #1... SuperDuper is free as well if you don't want smart backups, which save you about an hour and 50 minutes.

to #2... see #1. You could get that backup done in about 10 minutes if you pay the $$$ for superduper.

munckee said:
IF I decide to do that, I've been told that I can "network" my PB to the G3 via firewire. Would this be faster/slower/the same as the external drive?
Click to expand...
That will be slower than a regular external drive, but it will work.
 
Total techy newbie

emptyCup said:
Yes. Free to copy your whole drive. Worth the $20 for smart backup though.
Click to expand...
Would SuperDuper be overkill? I've never backed anything up before and I figure it would be nice to have a bootable copy. But as for the incremental backups, lemme just make sure, the Smart Backup features finds only the new data and only transfers that data?

My primary interest after making a bootable clone, would be to keep my documents, movies, music, and photos updated-- hopefully w/out me manually moving every little thing?. Would SuperDuper be worth the $28? Or could say CCC also do that?

Thanks.
 
Carbon Copy Cloner can do it if you install the free rsync plugin and SilverKeeper is made for that and is also free.

Can anyone tell me if there is something the paid version of SuperDuper can do that SilverKeeper can't? I don't see any reason to spend money on it when there are free options.
 
If you are on a budget you can boot from your Tiger install DVD and run disk utility. You can click on Restore and copy one drive to another. Be careful! :eek:
 
yippy said:
Can anyone tell me if there is something the paid version of SuperDuper can do that SilverKeeper can't? I don't see any reason to spend money on it when there are free options.
Click to expand...

It does scheduled backups and it didn't crap out on me when Apple released Tiger. The import thing, though, is to backup. Go to version tracker and read the comments on all the backup programs. Pick the one that suits you best. Backing up is import. Arguing about how to backup is not.

Best wishes
 
Another vote for SuperDuper here. It was the only cloning tool of the "Big Three" that worked with Tiger on Day One. If you used CCC or SK, you had to wait for an update that took weeks.

I don't know about you, but that was worth it right there. There was no way that I was going do a major OS update without a clone to restore from.

Smart Updates and full Tiger compatibility from the beginning is worth paying money for.
 
SilverKeeper does to scheduled backups.

You are right, they were a bit slow at updating it for Tiger, but it works now. and maybe it is because I am a poor collage student and the difference between a free program and a $30 one had better be HUGE for me to consider paying for anything.
 
Please be patient with me... :eek:

Using CCC: So I select the source, and the target disks... And bootable is selected, so the "Clone" button will create a full, bootable copy of everything that is currently on my Mac's HD right? (How do I double check that my external HD has been properly formatted to enable firewire bootup? I've read the Help section, but it's like a foreign language to me.)
Make bootable
Create the necessary Darwin links (/etc, /tmp, /var) and empty directories (/Network, /Volumes, /dev) as well as bless the System and System Folder (if present). This option is required for a NetBoot set and is disabled for a disk image (except when the NetBoot or ASR options are enabled) because it is unnecessary and inappropriate.
Click to expand...

What about subsequent backups? How would I backup only the newly added documents, music, movies, and photos? Is that possible using CCC?

Sorry, I just don't get it... but I'm trying!
 

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