Backup Files In Tiger

[7302473]

Sorry, this has most likely been asked and I know everyone is sick with questions about upgrading/erasing/installing/etc Leopard.

But, I'm pretty new to Mac (Got mine in April/May '07) and I have already ordered Leopard and I am planning on erasing and installing Leopard on my Macbook when it arrives.

My question is, what is the best way to backup my mac? Is there a backup utility built into Tiger? Or is the best way to backup all my documents, movies, music, mail, bookmarks, etc just to drag my Home Folder (brgnewman) to an external HD?

Thanks guys!
- Barret

 

[overanalyzer]

There was an article on TUAW yesterday about preparing for Leopard that had some good suggestions:

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/19/tuaw-guide-getting-ready-for-leopard/

 

[tersono]

Sorry, this has most likely been asked and I know everyone is sick with questions about upgrading/erasing/installing/etc Leopard.

But, I'm pretty new to Mac (Got mine in April/May '07) and I have already ordered Leopard and I am planning on erasing and installing Leopard on my Macbook when it arrives.

My question is, what is the best way to backup my mac? Is there a backup utility built into Tiger? Or is the best way to backup all my documents, movies, music, mail, bookmarks, etc just to drag my Home Folder (brgnewman) to an external HD?

Thanks guys!
- Barret

The latter works just fine and is all most people need to do. Leopard comes with backup software, but with Tiger you're on your own. If you want something simple and automated, though, take a look at Chronosync (you'll find it at VersionTracker or MacUpdate)

 

[MAW]

I had the same question and the friendly forum users here recommended a free app called superduper which makes a clone of your tiger drive on an external hd.i used it yesterday and it worked great.

 

[overanalyzer]

I had the same question and the friendly forum users here recommended a free app called superduper which makes a clone of your tiger drive on an external hd.i used it yesterday and it worked great.

SuperDuper is one of the suggestions in that article I mentioned, though it's only free for the basic version without scheduling, smart updates, and some other features.

 

[chiefillini]

I am going with superduper. I have had my macbook for 9 months now and I am amazed at all the crap I am deleting before starting the backup.

 

[overanalyzer]

I am going with superduper. I have had my macbook for 9 months now and I am amazed at all the crap I am deleting before starting the backup.

I've been testing Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner today for comparison. I'm leaning toward Super Duper because I'd really like to run a nightly clone, and the Smart Update mode is a huge benefit over a complete erase and rewrite. Both programs took 3-4 hours for a full first clone, and I'm quite sure that much sustained writing and heat every night will not help the life of the external drive, so paying for Super Duper seems worth it. I now have 2 partitions, each with a clone of the drive, so I'm going to try booting from both and compare what was backed up for each, but it's looking like Super Duper will be my choice unless I run into any issues.