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What backup software do you use?

hcuar

hcuar

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 23, 2004
1,065
0
Dallas
Well... my new 200 GB Seagate HD is coming tomorrow. I want to start doing backups due the enormous number of pictures of our baby daughter. I'm going to install this drive in my Rosewill external enclosure and utilize it for backups.

My question is what backup software do you guys use? :confused:

I have lacie silver keeper pro and backup 3.0.1... I've seen some other programs, but I don't want to spend a bundle. Backup seems to do a seperate backup file each time... that's going to kill space fast. Lacie Silver Keeper Pro does a nice job of doing an incremental backup, however I'm concerned it's backing up pointless system files.
 
I just use the Finder to drag my whole /users/(username) folder and drop it on the new drive. No extra copies, and any changes I made to files on my hard disk get copied over the older versions on the backup drive. Files I delete on my hard disk don't get deleted from the backup drive, but remain backed up.

Good luck, and congratulations on being smart enough to back up your data.


Crikey
 
I have a 100GB hard drive in my PB. I have a 300GB external hard drive. I partitioned that into a 100GB drive and 200GB drive. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a complete and bootable backup of my system drive. to the 100GB partition of the external drive. If my internal drive where to every crash, not only do I have every file, app, preference, etc, but I also can boot from the firewire drive and get going until I can get a hold of a new internal drive.
 
hcuar said:
Well... my new 200 GB Seagate HD is coming tomorrow. I want to start doing backups due the enormous number of pictures of our baby daughter. I'm going to install this drive in my Rosewill external enclosure and utilize it for backups.

My question is what backup software do you guys use? :confused:

I have lacie silver keeper pro and backup 3.0.1... I've seen some other programs, but I don't want to spend a bundle. Backup seems to do a seperate backup file each time... that's going to kill space fast. Lacie Silver Keeper Pro does a nice job of doing an incremental backup, however I'm concerned it's backing up pointless system files.
Click to expand...

Backup doesn't do a completely separate backup each time. It seems that way, but it doesn't. I've used deja vu, silverkeeper, and chronosync in the past, but I like backup 3 the best. Incremental backups are a must when you have a lot of data. I can't imagine having to backup 100 gigs of data or more on a nightly basis.
 
I use SuperDuper! [sic]. I like the app; not so crazy about the name/silly punctuation ;) .

The UI is a straightforward and clear as can be and it's done an excellent job of making bootable back-ups, etc. Haven't had a single problem w/it.

Frank
 
i have a question related to this topic-

i have a question related to this topic-

my friend is running panther 10.3.9, and when i come to visit him for the holidays wants me to help him install tiger. the problem is that he has cubase and other music apps filling his hard drive with all kinds of files associated with them.

is there a way to back all the data (ie carbon copy cloner, or something else) without pather, install tiger and put it all back?

he has something like 300gb of stuff so i really need to make sure that his data is OK.



thanks
 
camomac said:
i have a question related to this topic-

my friend is running panther 10.3.9, and when i come to visit him for the holidays wants me to help him install tiger. the problem is that he has cubase and other music apps filling his hard drive with all kinds of files associated with them.

is there a way to back all the data (ie carbon copy cloner, or something else) without pather, install tiger and put it all back?

he has something like 300gb of stuff so i really need to make sure that his data is OK.



thanks
Click to expand...
Install by using the archive and install method. It will install a fresh copy without losing data, preferences, apps, etc. If you have an external drive, I'd do a backup first. While an archive and install works most of the time, you can never be too safe.
 
grapes911 said:
Install by using the archive and install method. It will install a fresh copy without losing data, preferences, apps, etc. If you have an external drive, I'd do a backup first. While an archive and install works most of the time, you can never be too safe.
Click to expand...

does that take up very much extra drive space to do?
 
camomac said:
does that take up very much extra drive space to do?
Click to expand...
No. It archives all the data, preferences, apps, users, etc. Then it installs the system without overwriting the archives it just made. Next it un-archives the files and puts them in the proper places. The archives are deleted so no space is unnecessarily used. It can take a while if you have a lot of stuff, but I recommend using this method.
 
Carbon Copy Cloner does a full bootable backup early Monday mornings. Apple's Backup does my iTunes library file and app preferences every morning at 6AM (I'm rarely awake, and if I am, I go to bed soon after ;))
 
grapes911 said:
No. It archives all the data, preferences, apps, users, etc. Then it installs the system without overwriting the archives it just made. Next it un-archives the files and puts them in the proper places. The archives are deleted so no space is unnecessarily used. It can take a while if you have a lot of stuff, but I recommend using this method.
Click to expand...

thanks, i just remember when i installed tiger from panther that i had some issues, and i just wanted it all to go smoooth for him.
 
What happens if your machine is asleep when backup is scheduled to run? How do you restore individual files from a backup... Say, I'm cleaning out my iTunes library and I accidently delete a song... I want to restore that single song from my backup. Is that possible?
 
camomac said:
thanks, i just remember when i installed tiger from panther that i had some issues, and i just wanted it all to go smoooth for him.
Click to expand...
There can always be issues. That is why you have to make every attempt to mitigate all risks. I for instance, have a full and bootable backup.
 
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