Backup your OS X home directory to your iPod for safe keepin...

[MacBytes]

Category: 3rd Party Software
Link: Backup your OS X home directory to your iPod for safe keeping with iPodBackup (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20040816095829)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[idkew]

Is it smart enough to not double copy music?

Yes, you can "fine tune" it.

[jsw]

Actually, this is a pretty cool app, assuming it works (at work now, can't verify). I'd need to rearrange my home directory a bit, or else tweak the scripts, but the concept of a more automated way to backup to the 'pod is a good one. I'll try it tonight.

[JDOG_]

Or you could just get a 200 gig external firewire HD for about 1/2 the cost ;) But I guess it's cooler to carry it all with you in your pocket instead of a backpack. Or you could get one of these (http://www.physorg.com/news785.html) :D

[jsw]

Or you could get one of these (http://www.physorg.com/news785.html) :DWell, Yes, those would be cool. But since they'll come out about the same time warp drive and teleporters do, it won't be as big a deal, as I'll never be more than a milisecond from my drive.

The plus to the iPod is that I already have it, and so there's no net additional cost.... :)

[autrefois]

Or you could get one of these (http://www.physorg.com/news785.html) :D

These babies are going to be in the new iMac G5! I read it on macosrumors. :D

iPodBackup sounds like a cool app.

[redAPPLE]

does it really work?

does it sync any changes?

anyone tried deleting the home directory (of another user for test purposes) and copying it back?

[amake]

does it really work?

does it sync any changes?

anyone tried deleting the home directory (of another user for test purposes) and copying it back?
Hi. I'm the developer of iPodBackup.

Yes, it really works. The backup itself is performed by a program called rsync, which is a well-established utility for synchronizing data.

It performs an "incremental" backup, meaning that it will copy over any files that have changed since the last backup.

There is no facility in iPodBackup for restoring from the iPod. You will have to do that manually.

iPodBackup will ignore certain files and folders according to specific rules. By default it skips everything in the ~/Music folder except for the iTunes Music Library files. It also skips ~/Library/Caches, and a couple other things. You can see the details at the iPodBackup homepage (http://homepage.mac.com/amake/shared/docs/essays/backup.html).

[redAPPLE]

thanks amake!

i ain't an expert and after reading the webpage, i still don't understand all the information.

well, i will try it out. good job.

one more thing, i know that this is "illegal", but a simple "yes" or "no" would probably suffice. how about syncing only my music from my iPod to my mac? possible? please pm me, if you do not want to commit yourself here.

i am more interested in the theory than actually using it.

[7on]

How similar is this rsync with the psync that Carbon Copy Cloner uses?

[amake]

one more thing, i know that this is "illegal", but a simple "yes" or "no" would probably suffice. how about syncing only my music from my iPod to my mac? possible? please pm me, if you do not want to commit yourself here.
That's not illegal unless you're stealing music. There are many, many apps out there for extracting music from the iPod; I recommend PodWorks.

I don't plan to include an iPod-to-iTunes sync function to iPodBackup. Right now I'm able to leverage rsync to do all the actual work; doing what you suggest would probably require me to do some real programming. :)

How similar is this rsync with the psync that Carbon Copy Cloner uses?
I honestly have no idea, except to say that what I've gleaned from Google is that psync is like a slightly limited version of rsync. I imagine CCC's psync is also modified to handle resource forks; if that's the case, then they're probably pretty much equal.