[B Gallagher]

Hi all,

I love Time Machine. I love Backup, even though right now it's crippled, being in demo mode for me. I love these both for one simple reason - incremental backup. I've googled, and have found a few options - SilverKeeper (not currently available for 10.5 it seems), iMsafe and Incremental Backup. Just wondering if anyone else has used these, and has any comments, or any other suggestions for alternative programs?

Thanks.

[OreoCookie]

Synk does incremental updates. I bought it when I was still on 10.4 and still use it for offsite backups of my data. There are three versions and for most people the simplest or the Standard version will be just fine ($25 and $35).

Setting up a simple backup set takes about a minute or so. Don't get confused by the extra options, though
To create a backup set for an incremental backup, do the following:
1. Create a new script.
2. In the Folders tab, select a folder or a group of folders you want backuped and a destination folder.
3. Click in the Archive tab, check `Archive changed or deleted files' and select a folder you want these archived files to be saved in. If you want to delete older backups, check `Automatically delete subfolders older than xx days' where you replace xx with an appropriate value.

If you want to schedule that backup, you can do that, too. The software is pretty self-explanatory for the most part.

[Hal Itosis]

Ditto that for ChronoSync, which will maintain multiple older file versions in a folder called "_Archived Items"

[64stang06]

I'll throw my hat in for SmartBackup.

[mduell]

rsync

[Warhaven]

There's a little more to incremental backups with rsync, as you really need a script in order to do it. Rsync by itself won't do the incremental backups, as you'll need to rename the previous backups before doing an rsync with the --link-dest flag pointing to the last backup. And then there's a little bit more setup if you want to back up to a remote server, rather than an attached HD.

It requires a little work, but on the hand, you can do all sorts of clever things with rsync that you can't do with Time Machine, such as excluding specific files, file types, or directories, or excluding an entire directory except for a specific file, and such. Apple put a really pretty face to rsync, but they removed a lot of the functionality you get from doing it manually.

SuperDuper! is another (and really great) alternative which is basically Time Machine with a LOT more options.

[edit]
I don't recall if SuperDuper! does incremental backups or not...

[Hal Itosis]

Originally Posted by mduell 

rsync

Fantastic features... but the GUI sux.
[[ ]]

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Warhaven 

There's a little more to incremental backups with rsync, as you really need a script in order to do it.

On FreeBSD I've always used rdiff-backup which uses rsync, but makes incremental backups. Rather easy to use if you know your way around the command line. I'm not sure if it is available for OS X, though.

Originally Posted by Warhaven 

SuperDuper! is another (and really great) alternative which is basically Time Machine with a LOT more options.

Time Machine does a lot of things that SuperDuper can't (e. g. you can restore to a backup of choice (i. e. time) via Migration Assistant from a Time Machine volume, it integrates into the Finder and it automatically deletes backups (e. g. hourly and daily backups that are no longer needed).

Originally Posted by Warhaven 

[edit]
I don't recall if SuperDuper! does incremental backups or not...

AFAIK no. They offer `smart updates,' but that just means SuperDuper only copies files which have changed. It doesn't keep older versions of the same file like Time Machine, Synk or other apps do.

Originally Posted by SuperDuper User's Guide

But, it is possible that a user won’t notice a problem in a “bad file” until they’ve already overwritten their backup, thus losing any chance of recovery with a “full copy”. While this is a problem for some, we have a good solution: rotate more than one full backup.

[ph0ust]

what about dropbox? anyone try it yet? seems like it not only has pretty cool backup features (like real-time backup whenever you change a file), but also lots of media interfaces with sites like boxee. i haven't tried it yet, but just read about it while looking at boxee (which is also pretty cool).

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Hal Itosis 

Fantastic features... but the GUI sux.
[[ ]]

Least worst GUI ever.

Originally Posted by ph0ust 

what about dropbox? anyone try it yet? seems like it not only has pretty cool backup features (like real-time backup whenever you change a file), but also lots of media interfaces with sites like boxee. i haven't tried it yet, but just read about it while looking at boxee (which is also pretty cool).

Yes, I use it and even paid for the upgraded storage. Their backup/revisioning system is convenient, but AFAIK comes with no guarantees so I wouldn't trust it.

[Hal Itosis]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Least worst GUI ever.

Now *that's* a funny joke.

PS: You should probably specify that you mean version 3.x -- and not v. 2.6.9 that comes with OSX, right?
Either way, having to learn complex syntax to do exclusions etc., etc., etc., is not friendly to *typical* users.

We're atypical. (most prefer to point-&-click)

[Warhaven]

I forgot to mention Carbon Copy Cloner from Mike Bombich's site. It's a really nice front end for rsync. He even makes it easy to add pub authentication keys to computers you want to back up from. You can also save your backup task as a cron job and do automated backups. It also does incremental backups.

And it's free.

[QSilver]

CCC is donation-ware:

(from the link in Warhaven msg)
CCC is considered donation-ware (uncrippled shareware). I worked hard developing CCC and its methodology and documenting it on the internet for the rest of the Mac OS X community. If you find CCC indispensable, please consider making a donation. Please note that if you are using CCC for an educational institution, you should NOT donate to Bombich Software. My heart is in Education and all software that I write shall always be free to Education.

[Peter]

retrospect is the ultimate incremental backup app
UI sucks ass though

[cgc]

Another vote for Synk...