[badtz]

Couple of questions

1. Does apple's backup program (2.0 beta) require .mac to use it?

2. Are all three based on Psync? If so, what's the advantage of each then?

3. Which one is all around better? UI? Features?

4. Is this the best backup utility for OS X?


Thanks!!! Trying to figure out how to backup my laptop to my external FW

[Sven G]

1. Yes, sadly.

2. Only Carbon Copy Cloner (psync is an optional install from the preferences) and PsyncX: Backup is something completely Apple-developed, AFAIK.

3. Depends on your needs: for hard disk cloning (as you seem to want to do), CCC is the best option.

4. They are freeware/donationware (except Backup, which could be called "subscriptionware"): so, in their field, they indeed seem to be the best available options; LaCie's SilverKeeper is another similar free backup application. There's always Retrospect if you want a commercial option, anyway...

[badtz]

after the initial backup, I would like to be able to keep the data synchronized daily.. .....

would is still be a good idea to use pSyncX/CCC ???

are they good programs for incremental backups as well?

thanks!

[Sven G]

Yes, they should all be good solutions also for incremental backups (at least once the problems with psync on Panther are solved, which should be rather soon); you might also want to try Déjà Vu - which is also included with the new version of Toast Titanium (6), BTW...

[badtz]

Are there options offered in either CCC or PsyncX that the other program doesn't have that might be useful?

As I've yet to try either.

I'm currently using Tri-Backup, but the interface is very "blah"

[TomAnthony]

Originally posted by badtz:
Are there options offered in either CCC or PsyncX that the other program doesn't have that might be useful?

As I've yet to try either.

I'm currently using Tri-Backup, but the interface is very "blah"

Does CCC keep running scheduled backups with the app closed?

I know that PSyncX does, which is the reason I recently migrated from Tri-Backup to it myself. Works great on 10.2, but couldn't get it working on 10.1.

[C.J. Moof]

When you schedule a backup with CCC, it puts the task in /etc/crontab, so it's gonna get executed as long as the computer is running at the scheduled time.

[MacGorilla]

You can also use Mac OS X's built in rsync to do back ups. Here is an example: Open a Terminal and type:

rsync -avz /path/to/folder /path/to/folder

This puts rsync in archive mode and also transfers pref files and hidden files. I have a spare harddrive I use so mine is:

rsync -avz /Users/chris /Volumes/Backup/Backup

Note the space between the two paths.

This command can be made into in AppleScript like this:

tell application "Terminal"
do script "rsync -avz /Users/chris /Volumes/Backup/Backup"
end tell

Now you can just double click your droplet. It will open a terminal and run the command.

The first time you use rsync it will take a while as it is building a backup databse. Further backups will go quicker because rsync will only backup changed files.

[Sven G]

BTW, there's a new - unofficial! - psync (for Panther) available for CCC on Bombich's CCC web page...