I'm looking for backup software which is easy to use, "idiot proof" once set up, flexible enough for different scenarios and preferrably something which does as much as possible on its own without my interaction. It should be reliable enough for use in a home business, so I'm not necessarily looking for the cheapest solution (although I don't like paying more than necessary) 
After having read several threads on the subject it seems I should go for either Chronosync (US$ 40) or Synk (US$ 40 for the "standard" version/US$ 60 for the "Pro" version, but a special offer at MacZot until this weekend ends for US$ 25). However, needing MacOSX 10.6 I'd have to resort to an older version as I have a Powerbook running 10.5 (the final OSX version PPC Macs can use).
I have two backup scenarios which I need to cover:
1) backing up my internal 250 GB Powerbook hard drive to an external 500 GB Firewire drive: Time Machine should be able to take care of this, but I want my backup drive to be bootable as well and I don't like the fact that combining a bootable backup copy made with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper copy together with Time Machine backups means backing up the same files twice. As far as I understand Chronosync can make both bootable backups and fully replace Time Machine with its incremental backup/archive feature and automated backups at regular intervals, right?
But is it as easy to use (once set up), especially when restoring data or finding a particular file say 3 weeks back in time?
2) backing up multiple external Firewire drives: I have a Proavio S4 Firewire drive enclosure with four removable drive bays and I have several hard drives which I insert into the enclosure as I need them.
Each drive has a unique, descriptive name (e.g. "Private files 1", "Business 1", "Business 2" etc.) and I've got two backup drives for each source drive (e.g. "Private files 1 BACKUP" and "Private files 1 ARCHIVE"). The "BACKUP" drive will be used for regular backups as often as I can/need to, but should also have older versions of the same files (incremental backups) as Time Machine does, so I can find a certain file I created a month ago, but have since updated. The "ARCHIVE" drive is a backup just like the normal backup drive, only that it doesn't get updated all that often. That's because I keep it in a physically different location (in case of fire, theft etc.) but ensures that in worst case scenario I don't lose absolutely all my files, but get to keep at least some older versions of my stuff, and maybe only lose the latest files I didn't get a chance to back up.
Most of these drives are pure file-storage drives so they don't need to be bootable.
To make things easy it would be great if the backup software could be "idiot proof" in the sense that if I told it to back up say "Private files 1" it would check to see if the "Private files 1 BACKUP" was also available, and if not it would tell me to find and insert that drive (instead of just messing up another drive (with a different name of course) or refusing to do anything. Like I said, it should be idiot-proof
So, can Chronosync handle this, or should I go for Synk and save a few bucks in the process (assuming the license allows me to use a version which is compatible with my system and still functions satisfactory)? Or something entirely different?
After having read several threads on the subject it seems I should go for either Chronosync (US$ 40) or Synk (US$ 40 for the "standard" version/US$ 60 for the "Pro" version, but a special offer at MacZot until this weekend ends for US$ 25). However, needing MacOSX 10.6 I'd have to resort to an older version as I have a Powerbook running 10.5 (the final OSX version PPC Macs can use).
I have two backup scenarios which I need to cover:
1) backing up my internal 250 GB Powerbook hard drive to an external 500 GB Firewire drive: Time Machine should be able to take care of this, but I want my backup drive to be bootable as well and I don't like the fact that combining a bootable backup copy made with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper copy together with Time Machine backups means backing up the same files twice. As far as I understand Chronosync can make both bootable backups and fully replace Time Machine with its incremental backup/archive feature and automated backups at regular intervals, right?
But is it as easy to use (once set up), especially when restoring data or finding a particular file say 3 weeks back in time?
2) backing up multiple external Firewire drives: I have a Proavio S4 Firewire drive enclosure with four removable drive bays and I have several hard drives which I insert into the enclosure as I need them.
Each drive has a unique, descriptive name (e.g. "Private files 1", "Business 1", "Business 2" etc.) and I've got two backup drives for each source drive (e.g. "Private files 1 BACKUP" and "Private files 1 ARCHIVE"). The "BACKUP" drive will be used for regular backups as often as I can/need to, but should also have older versions of the same files (incremental backups) as Time Machine does, so I can find a certain file I created a month ago, but have since updated. The "ARCHIVE" drive is a backup just like the normal backup drive, only that it doesn't get updated all that often. That's because I keep it in a physically different location (in case of fire, theft etc.) but ensures that in worst case scenario I don't lose absolutely all my files, but get to keep at least some older versions of my stuff, and maybe only lose the latest files I didn't get a chance to back up.
Most of these drives are pure file-storage drives so they don't need to be bootable.
To make things easy it would be great if the backup software could be "idiot proof" in the sense that if I told it to back up say "Private files 1" it would check to see if the "Private files 1 BACKUP" was also available, and if not it would tell me to find and insert that drive (instead of just messing up another drive (with a different name of course) or refusing to do anything. Like I said, it should be idiot-proof
So, can Chronosync handle this, or should I go for Synk and save a few bucks in the process (assuming the license allows me to use a version which is compatible with my system and still functions satisfactory)? Or something entirely different?
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