[philc]

Does the burning software provided by Apple allow you to span a burn across multiple CD/DVD's? As an example if we need to backup 15 gigs of photos can we do this easily? Or do we need to split the files manually into seperate jobs/folders?

I realize this could easily be accomplished with Toast or the like but would like to avoid incurring more costs. Is there a recommended freeware or Unix utility for accomplishing this?

Thanks,
Phil

[tooki]

Neither the Finder's built-in burning nor Toast will break up files/folders across discs, because they're not backup programs -- they burn "simple" data discs, where files must be complete.

You can use a program like StuffIt or gzip to compress and segment files into chunks which then fit onto separate discs.

I think there's also a way to break up disc images into "parts" using the command line.

tooki

[philc]

Tooki, thank you for your advice. When the machine arrives I will figure it out and send a script back so that everyone knows how to do this. I would buy some backup software but my wallet is a little empty after buying the power book

Phil

[mrchin]

Or if you have a .Mac account, there's an option. You have the Backup application to span discs for you. It'll backup to CD or DVDs without issue, walking you through labelling the discs including which one to label the master. You can then choose to restore all or part of the files you need if it's ever necessary.

And, no, you don't need to worry about having to worry about the question, "What if I don't have a .Mac account anymore when I wasnt my files?" As only backups to iDisk would need you to still be an active member. Backup would allow you to still use it to backup/restore to and from media and harddrives even if you've expired.

[Person Man]

Originally posted by mrchin:
Or if you have a .Mac account, there's an option. You have the Backup application to span discs for you. It'll backup to CD or DVDs without issue, walking you through labelling the discs including which one to label the master. You can then choose to restore all or part of the files you need if it's ever necessary.

Weak backup option. You can only backup things in your home folder. It could be argued that that's enough, but I prefer to backup my whole system (System, Applications, and all). Why do that when you can reinstall everything? Time. The time it takes to reinstall the system, and reinstall 50 different applications with 45 different CDs and hunt for 20 different shareware registration codes can take hours or days. With a complete backup, just restore and go. (You may still need to re enter a few registration codes, but it's not nearly as big a hassle).

Backup would allow you to still use it to backup/restore to and from media and harddrives even if you've expired.

Even if you've expired, huh? I don't know about you, but I'm not Sam (from the movie Ghost). I think it would be pretty hard to restore a backup once I expire.

[Laurence]

The easiest and cheapest way to backup any Mac system is to just use a second internal HD (or firewire HD for laptops) and Carbon Copy Cloner. It has a scheduler and works great. I have it setup to back up my entire HD every wednesday night. The advantage of this is that if something ever goes wrong with your main HD you can just boot up off the clone and restore from there.

[philc]

Playing off of Laurence's advice does it sound like a decent approach to periodically copy my Home Directory on the PowerBook to a folder on our PowerMac?

At the same time space permitting copy my wife's Home Directory to the PowerBook?

I have my eye on an external Lacie when money permits.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Phil