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mediahound · Sep 22, 2005, 09:48 AM

Now that I've installed a 2nd hard drive in my G5, I'm wondering what the best way to backup to it is. Is there an application that I can use to do it periodically and automatically in a one click type of way?

I'm also wondering what I should backup exactly. I assume the user folder and other folders at the root level of my drive but not the applications folder. Anything I'm missing?

SpaceMonkey · Sep 22, 2005, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by mediahound

Now that I've installed a 2nd hard drive in my G5, I'm wondering what the best way to backup to it is. Is there an application that I can use to do it periodically and automatically in a one click type of way?

I'm also wondering what I should backup exactly. I assume the user folder and other folders at the root level of my drive but not the applications folder. Anything I'm missing?

I think most people can get away with just backing up their User folder, as long as they've been saving everything in their default locations (Documents, Music, Movies, etc.). There's a good shareware program called Synk that I've used in the past for backups. It has pretty customizable scheduling settings so that it will automatically perform back-ups without you having to do anything at all. I didn't use it for anything more extensive than backing up one specific folder though, so I can't vouch for its ability to back up an entire User folder. But it's definitely something to look into.

OogaBooga · Sep 22, 2005, 01:49 PM

I would just buy .Mac.

mediahound · Sep 22, 2005, 02:41 PM

"I would just buy .Mac."

that's not enough space to backup everything.

solecist · Sep 22, 2005, 02:51 PM

I use Deja Vu which gives you a control panel interface and utilizes Psync

t500 · Sep 22, 2005, 05:33 PM

I use carbon copy cloner. Works great. I have an exact duplicate of my startup drive...
I have 2 of the same size drives in my G5, so its a pretty quick process.

hotani · 06:37 PM

see sig.

If you're not into doing the massive data swapping required to set that up (need a 3rd drive to use while you set up the mirror on the other 2), Deja Vu is excellent backup/scheduling software and is what I used before the mirror.

If/when I have a HD failure, the hardest part will be figuring out which one it is (Disk Utility doesn't exactly say "the one on the bottom"). Then I just replace it and the OS will "rebuild" the set.

Lee33 · Sep 22, 2005, 11:08 PM

Before you make a decision be SURE to check out SuperDuper. Outstanding program and customer support. Here's a link to their website: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html

OogaBooga · Sep 23, 2005, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by mediahound

"I would just buy .Mac."

that's not enough space to backup everything.

.Mac gets you a nice Apple-made backup program called Backup. And the new version just came out which adds some new features. It gives you the option to backup to another form of storage such as a hard disk or DVD/CD. .Mac also gets you a bunch of other things.

action · Sep 24, 2005, 11:19 PM

carbon copy cloner to make a copy of the bootable hard drive and then deja vu to do the incremental backups.

deja vu is great and would recommend it but i have not been able to get it to make a bootable copy but it will do the imcremental backups to the bootable drive and still keep it bootable.

it's a one click solution.

if you making a bootable copy of tiger, make sure to boot from your backup and let it do the spotlight index. i have found by doing this is it keeps the incemental backups from deja vu bug free. figured this out after much trial and error. don't know if this is a universal issue but it worked for me.

cheers,

chung lee

SuperHard · Sep 27, 2005, 05:15 PM

It seems there are several good apps these days for making backups on OS X. My solution is to use two apps, SuperDuper! and Impression. Each of these apps accomplishes something different and they are both fantastic. Both developers are extremely responsive. SuperDuper! has a great pdf that explains things as if someone is talking to you (nearly worth the $20 alone). As mentioned in a previous post, SuperDuper! makes a bootable clone of your drive. I'm a laptop user and my fear is I could lose everything in one catastrophic accident. Having a clone (on an external Firewire drive) would allow me to connect that external drive to any mac that supports boot via FW, and be up and running as usual - though on a different computer. SuperDuper has other quite advanced features (Safetyclones and nicely done customizations) which are also...super (sorry). Impression is terrific this is my app for incremental backups. It can backup to external drives or DVD's. It will split files across many DVD's if needed; truly powerful. (IIRC, it may not do network backups check on that if that's part of your strategy.) Anyway, these two apps are my top choice. I used to use Retrospect Personal, but now there is no way I'd use that anymore.

By the way, I'm no way affiliated with the development of these apps, just an impressed user. And I have the peace of mind knowing my backups are good (i.e. restorable w/o errors, I've checked).

Good luck!

hwdor · Sep 27, 2005, 06:26 PM

I just started using SilverKeeper from Lacie. It does not require a Lacie drive to work. I have it scheduled to run backups every night to an external drive and so far its worked great. It gives you the option of making the backup drive a bootable drive, too, but I have not tried that.

Oh - and its free.

http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/

bbales · Sep 28, 2005, 09:16 AM

I have heard fabulous things about SuperDuper. I use chornosync and it does a great job, too. I actually use that for incremental backups, and to sync documents between desktop and laptop. For backing up my entire desktop, I use BounceBack, which came with my Seagate hard drive. (I actually got it first with a CMS drive, and have since upgraded to the OSX version.)

I would definitely check out SuperDuper. And I'd also check out ChronoSync.