Apr 23, 2007

Back dat s*** UP!

I use several different backup packages, depending on the job and the need. Deja Vu, SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner (though I haven't gotten scheduled backups to work in its latest Intel-ready version) are great for bootable backups, and Deja Vu also works well if the user doesn't want the backup to get in their way (or you don't want them to screw it up ;-).


Recently, I've come to absolutely adore ChronoSync for just about every other task, esp. backing up to a networked volume. ChronoSync will email you when a backup is complete; it also organizes your backup sets in the most logical, and least screen-hogging way.

3 comments:

G-man said...

Yeah - I haven't had much luck with CCC but really would like an alternative to psync? I can't get that sucker to work either.

G-man

j2 said...

CCC is great, but I don't like it for scheduled backups or for saving and reloading settings. I also want to point out that the very free SilverKeeper from LaCie is even more limited than CCC, and has some pretty serious bugs to boot. I would ask that any of my clients still using SilverKeeper please give me a call.

The Mac Whisperer said...

Amendment to this discussion: SuperDuper is not just for cloning. It can actually be set NOT to delete files from the backup drive (i.e. an "incremental" backup instead of a clone (which SD calls a "smart update")). What I recommend (emphatically) is that you partition an external drive so that one partition is exactly the size of your internal drive, minus 10%, to receive a perfect clone of your internal. In case of failure, you can actually boot to that external partition. Then, the second partition can either get an incremental backup of your home folder (everything you care about), or simply any files you just want to clear off your internal.

So, Deja Vu also does bootable backups, and so does Carbon Copy Cloner, but a bit of caution if you do bootable: After you do the first clone, test it by trying to boot to it.