Back up hardware and software recommendations needed

Sounds good to me. If you had a SuperDrive I would keep some essential files backed up there, too. Just in case. (Hint: Use DVD-RWs to keep the cost down...burn em again and again and again.)

Otherwise, you sound good. Better than I do. (I don't, but I should. Keep backups that is.)

i use the free Silverkeeper to back up to a firewire drive. can't schedule it, but that's okay, i keep my firewire drive in a different part of the house, anyway (in case of a break-in).

i also back up a subset (of the really, really important stuff) using apple's Backup to .mac.

I personally like Carbon Copy Cloner and clone my hd to a small firewire drive.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

For software, check out SuperDuper.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper

Please tell me what your Hard Drive "acting up" looks, does, or sounds-like?

You say you are thinking about an external HD.
LaCie and EZQuest and perhaps others, come with backup software.
I imagine if one bought one of these, the packaged backup software would be fine for basic (none server, networked or commercial) use. So perhaps your question puts the cart before the horse.

I back up by burning DVDs.
I have not used back-up software.

At a quick glance, Quickback looks basic and uncomplicated.
It was part of the package with some drives that packaged Speedtool by Intech

http://www.speedtools.com/QuickBack.shtml

Speedtools perhaps offer a good test suite to look at the hard drive.
Some hard drive acting-up problems might be OS related. I erased and zeroed the HD and started again sans HD problems.

If I got an External Hard drive with no back-up software, I have software that will sync and I can run schedules that start such software when I might like.

Having not tried that yet, I know not if it be a pain.
But $80-90 for Retrospect seems a pain when it appears a lot of what it can do, is more than I need. But I speak without experience.

If you are looking for something small, look at these LaCies:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10061
OR these:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10105

A better solution is to get an iPod!
up to 40GB of portable storage!!!
iPod is very underrated as a storage solution,
well its not as fast as a standard FW-disk, but its as fast as a few years old hd,
which is still much faster than a dvd...

I've used my 1st Gen iPod to rescue a friends iMac a few years ago.
The machine could also boot from the iPod...

edit: didn't see your sig... you have a ipod... use it for backup

if you are a .mac subscriber then you can get Backup free on the idisk. I believe it is free to a trial .mac too.

zimv20 said:

i use the free Silverkeeper to back up to a firewire drive. can't schedule it, but that's okay, i keep my firewire drive in a different part of the house, anyway (in case of a break-in).

i also back up a subset (of the really, really important stuff) using apple's Backup to .mac.

Click to expand...

The newer versions of Silverkeeper do permit scheduled, synchronized backups, even bootable ones (so it claims).

I use this to daily backup my boot drive to another internal at home and at work.

It comes free with any external Lacie drive and you can also download it for free.

Problem with Retrospect: You need to have Retrospect running to uncompress the archive (set) so if your boot and app drive goes down...

oooo, silver keeper seems much better than CCC. It shows # of items copied and such. I'm letting a backup run now, so I haven't checked the outcome. I like the feedback you get while using Silver Keeper too. I have to see if it gets custom icons and hidden **** and the like. so far so good. I just hope it deletes stuff that isn't on the source.

EDIT: I am satisfied with SilverKeeper.

It gets the 7on stamp of approval.

7on said:

oooo, silver keeper seems much better than CCC. It shows # of items copied and such. I'm letting a backup run now, so I haven't checked the outcome. I like the feedback you get while using Silver Keeper too. I have to see if it gets custom icons and hidden **** and the like. so far so good. I just hope it deletes stuff that isn't on the source.

EDIT: I am satisfied with SilverKeeper.

It gets the 7on stamp of approval.

Click to expand...

Yes, it deletes stuff that isn't on the source.

But watch out for those preferences, make sure that any newer files that can accidentally end up in Destination, by somebody's clumsy messing
don't end up on source.

A bitter lesson learned...

I use my iPod for this. I've got a 3G 20gig iPod, and "only" about 6 gigs of music. This leaves plenty of room for everything that's in my home folder. The only caveat is you don't want to copy all your iTunes files a second time, since they're already on the device.

I've been using Carbon Copy Cloner, but you can also just drag-and-drop your home folder onto the iPod if you've enabled firewire drive mode - assuming, once again, that your iTunes music files aren't included. I've got my iTunes set up so it uses a folder called /Tunes, which is not in my home directory.

The advantages to this are that you don't need an extra dedicated device, plus you'll generally always have your backup copies with you even if you don't have your computer handy.

Darbydoggy said:

For software, check out SuperDuper.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper

Click to expand...

I strongly second SuperDuper, it's a great app. Think Carbon Copy Cloner and then some. It's shareware but you owe it to yourself to check it out.