Reliable Backup Methods?

[gastroboy]

I experienced a really nasty lockup of Jaguar. Only the cursor was mobile. I ran Diskwarrior and it tells me the desktop file is too damaged on one of my 2 internal HardDrives and to reformat it.

Unfortunately this is the bigger of the 2 (120Gb vs 10Gb) and held my Panther install.

I am backing up everything non-system to CDs.

What concerns me most is what do I have to do to secure all my preferences, email etc and things I have probably forgotten, that is probably buried in invisible files.

Can anyone suggest the best method and what to look out for?

Is this a case of going through everything with a notebook in hand recording installs, serial numbers, networking, settings etc?

[varmit]

I experienced a really nasty lockup of Jaguar. Only the cursor was mobile. I ran Diskwarrior and it tells me the desktop file is too damaged on one of my 2 internal HardDrives and to reformat it.

Unfortunately this is the bigger of the 2 (120Gb vs 10Gb) and held my Panther install.

I am backing up everything non-system to CDs.

What concerns me most is what do I have to do to secure all my preferences, email etc and things I have probably forgotten, that is probably buried in invisible files.

Can anyone suggest the best method and what to look out for?

Is this a case of going through everything with a notebook in hand recording installs, serial numbers, networking, settings etc?

Sorry no one answered you sooner, but the best method is to have one before you need one. I personally have a file server and send any important files over to it when I edit them. I also use Backup that comes with getting the dot mac membership. I send a backup to my iDisk that Apple hosts for me and to my fileserver, and that runs every night and backs up everything I find important.

I believe that its plist files, that should be in your Usernames Library file (open home folder and you should see Library in there), that hold the preferences for your applications.

I hope you have your serial numbers somewhere and the install CDs/files for the software that you have. Or you could just copy the software to the other drive, that is if the program was just a drag and drop to install, and didnt need an installer.

[martinchaoss]

carbon copy clone is a free app. You can download it from www.macdownloads.com. It copy's every file, even the invisible files, from one disk to another. You can even burn a bachup this way from your system.

Another nice app. is -Synchronize pro-. It's backs up all files you want (visible) from one disk to another and can be put on a time scedule.

grz, martin