Back-up..best way or best program.

[Bigtree]

Just switched from windows back to the iMac24 and need to start a back-up. I have an external hard drive and need know how to go about it.

Any help? Thanks!!!!!

 

[xJulianx]

Depends what kind of a backup you're doing. If you want a regular solution, try SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

If you just want to backup films or music, you could just drag and drop.

 

[billy920]

I just searched through the forum for answers to this and it seems that there are a few approaches - I'm about to switch so am in a similar situation to yourself...

.Mac - some backup ability included here, see apple.com for info
SuperDuper - popular backup program
rsync - search for more information on this, command line option

 

[Millwood]

The only way I can recommend is the only way I've tried....superduper!
Excellent for cloning your harddrive to your external.

 

[clevin]

I would just copy the data to external HDD.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Where is compuwar when we need him?
I was using Carbon Copy Cloner until I read one thing and learned another. CCC doesn't transfer metadata. Sucks for photographers. CCC is not reliable and the backups made are often corrupt.
I will now use SuperDuper.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I use SuperDuper to backup my complete Boot Drive every friday, to two different locations. Both bootable. So at any given moment, I have a bootable copy of my OS on 3 drives. One is an internal drive, the other is an external.

I also then use ChronoSync to backup the data on my other drives. I use a Mac Pro, so I have 4 internal drives and 2 external drives.

the combo of the 2 basically gives me pretty crazy redundancy. I have it like this:

Boot backs up to seperate internal drive and external2 drive every friday
Any files that are important back up to external1 every night. The same files also back up to external2 every friday.

Basically, I have a nightly external, and a weekly external. ChronoSync has been awesome.

Oh, also, I have a syncronizer profile I use to sync my Mac Pro files to an external USB drive, which then I sync with the same files on my iMac at home. By doing this, my iMac and Mac Pro have the same work files on them anytime I plug in the USB drive. ChronoSync is set to sync the USB drive any time the drive is plugged in.

 

[glennyboiwpg]

Why can't you just wait until leopard and use time machine?

Don't rip me to shreds, just curious.

 

[clevin]

Why can't you just wait until leopard and use time machine?

Don't rip me to shreds, just curious.

well, anything can happen in 2 month, such as a HDD failure.

 

[sushi]

Where is compuwar when we need him?
I was using Carbon Copy Cloner until I read one thing and learned another. CCC doesn't transfer metadata. Sucks for photographers.

Not sure about the metadata issue.

Since I use CCC all the time, maybe compuwar can explain the specifics...again.

BTW, there is a new version of CCC (Beta). So if, and that is a big if, there is an issue with metadata then maybe the new version has fixed it.

CCC is not reliable and the backups made are often corrupt.

Never had a problem with CCC.

I use CCC to clone PowerBook, Powermac, and Intel iMacs with no problems. It works great for me.

However, I've had many problems with SuperDuper to the point were I just use CCC because I don't want to waist my time with SuperDuper.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

However, I've had many problems with SuperDuper to the point were I just use CCC because I don't want to waist my time with SuperDuper.

What problems have you had? I haven't encountered any problems, in fact SuperDuper has been pretty awesome.

 

[sushi]

What problems have you had? I haven't encountered any problems, in fact SuperDuper has been pretty awesome.

For example, here are two that come to mind when backing up my PowerMac with a 500GB HD:

- Not completing the clone operation / Program stalling out.

- Completing the clone but not being able to boot from the clone.

Never have these problems with CCC.