[mfirst]

Has anyone had any positive experience with .mac backup?
Comments are appreciated


and do you have to maintain an active membership to use it? or once you sign-up (even if you never use .mac or even connect to the net) can you continue to use it. There are few .mac features I need or want, but I need a good simple backup solution.



michael

[Randman]

Yes, you have to pay for it. I prefer the syncing more than the backup but the Backup application itself is quite nice. I've used it to backup data to my external hard drives and every 6 months or so, I use it to burn a DVD of my system, all the music, photos, etc.

If you aren't in need of some of the other .Mac benefits, however, you are better off looking elsewhere for backup solutions.

[mfirst]

But - I am having a hard time finding better (and not expensive) backup options

[Sosa]

Do a search for backup software on these forums. A while back I was looking at my options and found an excelent thread that discusses various good commercial options, most of which were quite affordable.

Backup worked fine when I had it, but towards the end of my .Mac membership it started to do weird things, like not backing up my bookmarks or preferences, not showing the size of folders that were backed up, freezing and unable to complete backups, etc. These problems were reported on the apple forums and may have been related to OS updates. Either way it was frustrating and part of the reason I quit .Mac.

I'm now considering picking it up again because I like the whole package for my family and I've heard Backup has been improved.

[Mr. Blur]

there have been many threads about backup software - have a search of the forums, or search over at versiontracker.com and read the reviews (with a grain of salt...)

for whatever kind of backup strategy you want to use you should be able to find an inexpensive solution, from the simple free silverkeeper to $19.95 shareware like superduper.