Backup 2.0 Public Beta (and Sticky Brain 2)

[MacRumors]

Apple's .Mac service (http://www.mac.com/) has introduced a Public Beta of Backup 2. (briefly noted (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/08/20030823150543.shtml) previously)

The new version features allows you to back up to external hard drives, mounted volumes (including FireWire hard drives, iPods, and network servers) and make backup CDs and DVDs using 3rd party optical drives.

In addition, Apple is giving .Mac users Chronos' StickyBrain 2 (http://www.chronosnet.com/&/products/sb_index.html) software for free.

[cb911]

i don't know if that link was supposed to take you to the page 'www.mac.com' but i couldn't see anything about StickyBrain 2 there.

try this page:.Mac Member benefits (http://www.mac.com/1/memberbenefits.html)

it's listed at the top.:)

[joed]

Cool, will download this when I get home.

About time they introduces hard drives etc as a backup option. I have not been able to use that programme cause I don't have a burner.

Just another benifit of being a .mac member :)


James.

[zim]

Downloaded StickyBrain 2, it is interesting, not sure what I will use it for, I think I was a little overwhelmed by all the palettes, so I quit it.

Backup is nice, already backed up to an external firewire, worked great, and this update came just as I was looking into back up software because my iDisk was getting a bit crowed, way to go apple, you just saved me some cash. :D

[Nermal]

Originally posted by cb911
i don't know if that link was supposed to take you to the page 'www.mac.com' but i couldn't see anything about StickyBrain 2 there.

try this page:.Mac Member benefits (http://www.mac.com/1/memberbenefits.html)

it's listed at the top.:)

Weird, I don't see it :confused:

[zim]

Originally posted by Nermal
Weird, I don't see it :confused:

You need to log into your .mac account to get it. Just goto mac.com and log in, Backup is at the top and the StickyBrain is near the middle.

[punter]

is there some software for doing these hard disk back ups without .mac?

[zim]

Originally posted by punter
is there some software for doing these hard disk back ups without .mac?

Retrospect, I think it goes for $60. I am going off memeory but I think we had it backing up to another computer vs tape.

[Nermal]

Originally posted by zim
You need to log into your .mac account to get it. Just goto mac.com and log in, Backup is at the top and the StickyBrain is near the middle.

Oh OK, I don't have a .mac account so didn't see it. I just went back to www.mac.com and can now see both items, which is strange. But to make things even weirder, it says i'm logged in as "benjuk"! I've got no idea who this is, or why it thinks I'm logged in as them :confused:

[cb911]

yeah, you need a .mac membership to actually download it, but at least you can read about it in that link that i posted. and now therer's that link for the Chronos site as well.

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by Macrumors
The new version features allows you to back up to external hard drives, mounted volumes (including FireWire hard drives, iPods, and network servers) and make backup CDs and DVDs using 3rd party optical drives.


3rd Party optical drives provided you connect them via a motherboard provided USB/Firewire port I'm sure. :mad:

[Victoriatus]

Originally posted by SeaFox
3rd Party optical drives provided you connect them via a motherboard provided USB/Firewire port I'm sure. :mad:

A-ha. Just like all the other pheripherals out there, they all need to be connected to a motherboard USB or FireWire. Mice, keyboards, webcams, digital cameras, scanners, you name them. If you stick them to any other port, they'll probably work, but the device or OS manufacturer is not responsible if they won't. Totally sucks, right? Actually, it means nothing. :rolleyes:

[neilt]

Originally posted by punter
is there some software for doing these hard disk back ups without .mac?

better than retrospect (ie. Free) is Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner
www.bombich.com

only works with osx. It's free. and it works great.

Install it, then under preferences, choose the install psync option. You can then schedule it to backup your entire disk to another disk. And once you do the initial backup, you can have it "sync" to target. That means it only copies over the stuff that has change. On top of that, it will setup a cron job to run your backup at certain times...just make sure you have the disk you want it to backup to plugged in when the time you set comes around.

sorry for the long post...but I think carbon copy cloner is one of the best utilities around. also, his site has some great information.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by neilt
better than retrospect (ie. Free) is Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner
www.bombich.com

only works with osx. It's free. and it works great.

Install it, then under preferences, choose the install psync option. You can then schedule it to backup your entire disk to another disk. And once you do the initial backup, you can have it "sync" to target. That means it only copies over the stuff that has change. On top of that, it will setup a cron job to run your backup at certain times...just make sure you have the disk you want it to backup to plugged in when the time you set comes around.

sorry for the long post...but I think carbon copy cloner is one of the best utilities around. also, his site has some great information.

Yeah it works great if you have another hard drive to backup to. I have another drive now but didn't before so I needed a program to backup to an optical drive and I found Tri-Backup (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/4606) and Impression (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19902) to be the best options. They both allow you to backup to DVD or CD and will split the data so that it will fit on the disks. Also they do this without the need for compression.

That's what I hate about Retrospect. Once you have it on the disc you can't see what's on it without opening retrospect because everything is archived in it's own proprietary format. Honestly Apple's Backup would be perfect if it would backup Apps also.

[syrreg]

/begin rumor/

I guess this means Sticky Brain 3 is coming out in October.

/end rumor/

[backspinner]

Originally posted by punter
is there some software for doing these hard disk back ups without .mac? I use Data Backup X (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17692) as my daily backup tool. It has "Evolutive Mirror Backup" which means that it syncs *and* that it keeps a number of daily copies (if anything changed). Very handy for documents!

BTW, I think this is just a rebranded TRI-Backup.

[Sonofhaig]

Originally posted by zim
Retrospect, I think it goes for $60. I am going off memeory but I think we had it backing up to another computer vs tape.

Retrospect or Retrospect Express are both fantastic back-up programs.
The Express version has fewer bells and whistles. For home or small office purposes, it's great. You can back up to another drive (including external) or tape. Maxtor gives you this program with its external hard drives. I'm looking forward to seeing how the express version compares to this beta.

[hayesk]

Originally posted by Nermal
Oh OK, I don't have a .mac account so didn't see it. I just went back to www.mac.com and can now see both items, which is strange. But to make things even weirder, it says i'm logged in as "benjuk"! I've got no idea who this is, or why it thinks I'm logged in as them :confused:

Someone with that username logged into .Mac from your computer once. (or you copied cookies from another machine) .Mac sets a cookie when you log in.

[network23]

Backup is useless to me until they remove the requirement that I be logged in. I want my backups done in the early AM, and other people use my computer, so I can't keep myself logged in all the time.

[zim]

Originally posted by network23
Backup is useless to me until they remove the requirement that I be logged in. I want my backups done in the early AM, and other people use my computer, so I can't keep myself logged in all the time.

I am assuming that based on what I have read of Panther, this will be possible. Someone please correct me, but I think that if another user logs in, your log in stays active, having the ability to perform tasks but is hidden to the new user. This was just my impression of what the new log in option does, I could be completely way off

[gopher]

The real question here is whether the backup made by the new software will preserve permissions and make it possible to make a bootable backup. If it doesn't there are others that will here:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@95.sLC6aSB2d2Z.28@.3bbe262c

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by network23
Backup is useless to me until they remove the requirement that I be logged in. I want my backups done in the early AM, and other people use my computer, so I can't keep myself logged in all the time.

Panther will most definitely let you do this with fast user switching. All processes that you start will remain running under you screen name while other users are able to use there personal login. As if there were multiple interfaces accessing on cpu.

[jmck]

the contextual menu for clipping whatever text you have selected and sending to to a sticky is invaluable for me. I use it every day to store web information, et cetera.

Other great features -- alarms attached to stickies, and the Sticky Browser (for searching too).

It's another one of those applications that tries to manage all your notes. It is one of the better ones.

[bikertwin]

Backup 2.0 beta won't allow you to backup to DVD in a DVD+R/RW drive. It won't even let you burn CDs on those drives.

Presumably DVD+R/RW drives burn CDs (not DVDs) in exactly the same fashion as CD burners and DVD-R/RW burners. So this should not be a limitation in Backup 2.0.

If Apple doesn't want to sell DVD+R burners that's one thing. But for it to continually insist that "they don't exist" is really annoying.

Does anyone know if Panther supports DVD+R drives or combo +/- drives? Would Backup 2.0 work on Panther?

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by Victoriatus
Actually, it means nothing. :rolleyes:

Well it means a beige G3 owner using OSX with a .Mac account cannot use the new Backup for anything other than iDisk backups.

Zip drives don't care what kind of USB port you plug them into (as long as they're powered).
Toast doesn't care what kind of USB port your burner is on.

My Microsoft Plug-In-Play SideWinder, which is not even listed as supported on a Mac, works on my thrd party USB card under OS9. Yet all of the Gravis gamepads require a native port and all the Apple iApps require external devices use a native USB port to be compatable.

[sjk]

Originally posted by MacBandit
... Impression (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19902) ...I like Impression, but it's intolerably s l o w on my iBook 600. It's more "efficient" cloning the entire internal drive to a Firewire drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. I still haven't found an ideal solution for more frequent "incremental" backups of important, dynamic data, which I'd hoped Impression would be useful for. And apparently there's some doubt whether certain CD-R(W) media can be trusted for any longer-term data archival so that adds more confusion.

[guzhogi]

It sucks that you have to be a full .Mac member to actually be able to use all the features of Backup. Not only that, but a .Mac subscription doesn't really have anything to offer me that I really want/need. And paying $99/year for just one program is just stupid.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by sjk
I like Impression, but it's intolerably s l o w on my iBook 600. It's more "efficient" cloning the entire internal drive to a Firewire drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. I still haven't found an ideal solution for more frequent "incremental" backups of important, dynamic data, which I'd hoped Impression would be useful for. And apparently there's some doubt whether certain CD-R(W) media can be trusted for any longer-term data archival so that adds more confusion.

Well I don't remember which one but one of the programs that I mentioned can track your hard drive or a selected folder for changes since your last backup and just copy the changed files to your backup disk of your choice.

[sjk]

Yeah, I'm not impressed with .Mac acting as a DRM for Apple Backup. ;)
Originally posted by MacBandit
Well I don't remember which one but one of the programs that I mentioned can track your hard drive or a selected folder for changes since your last backup and just copy the changed files to your backup disk of your choice. Carbon Copy Cloner uses psync to do incremental backups. Not sure how Impression handles them, but if it's like psync it needs access to the original backup for change comparison. That's not an option for me since I want to do "incrementals" to alternate media with my Firewire drive offline.

For now CCC works quite well for complete backups and I'll figure out a way to make smaller subset backups of important files without relying on the full backup for comparison.

I haven't found a OS X solution that I fully trust to backup and recover HFS+ filesystems as easily and accurately as dump/restore programs with UFS filesystems. Maybe Retrospect can do it, but I don't like relying on a third party solution to recover data.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by sjk
Yeah, I'm not impressed with .Mac acting as a DRM for Apple Backup. ;)
Carbon Copy Cloner uses psync to do incremental backups. Not sure how Impression handles them, but if it's like psync it needs access to the original backup for change comparison. That's not an option for me since I want to do "incrementals" to alternate media with my Firewire drive offline.

For now CCC works quite well for complete backups and I'll figure out a way to make smaller subset backups of important files without relying on the full backup for comparison.

I haven't found a OS X solution that I fully trust to backup and recover HFS+ filesystems as easily and accurately as dump/restore programs with UFS filesystems. Maybe Retrospect can do it, but I don't like relying on a third party solution to recover data.

What do you mean by recover? Do you mean reinstall? I don't think there is a better way then CCC or another program that will clone. I think Tri-Backup will clone and also do your incrementals to disk like you want.

[sjk]

Originally posted by MacBandit
What do you mean by recover? Do you mean reinstall? I don't think there is a better way then CCC or another program that will clone.I want the ability to do a complete restore of the entire system and also to restore individual files from archive backups covering a certain period of time.I think Tri-Backup will clone and also do your incrementals to disk like you want. Thanks for the suggestion. Its "evolutive" backup sounds like it may handle the "N revision" archiving, tho' that's a $50 solution. CCC already handles cloning just fine.

I noticed new versions of Déjà Vu and SilverKeeper are out. I'll see if they're useful since the prices ($15 and free) are more within my current budget.

I'd be clearer explaining this if I weren't half asleep. Zzz.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by sjk
I want the ability to do a complete restore of the entire system and also to restore individual files from archive backups covering a certain period of time.Thanks for the suggestion. Its "evolutive" backup sounds like it may handle the "N revision" archiving, tho' that's a $50 solution. CCC already handles cloning just fine.

I noticed new versions of Déjà Vu and SilverKeeper are out. I'll see if they're useful since the prices ($15 and free) are more within my current budget.

I'd be clearer explaining this if I weren't half asleep. Zzz.

Yeah, CCC does a great job but if you are cloning with CCC then Tri-Backup doesn't have a backup history and will not be able to do incremental backups.