Copy changed files without TimeMachine

[bexrumors]

I am looking for a backup solution other than Time Machine to back up files incrementally to an external drive. I like the concept of TimeMachine and would like to use it; however, I have significant work that must be accessible to PC sys/appl, so I cannot format it apple-journaled (FAT32 appears best r/w solution for multi-platform). AppleCare advised there is no other incremental solution than that, and thus they don't have a solution and suggested I "search the web". Discouraging news for a recent migrator.

I have considered the following:

1) Time Machine but must be in apple-journal format. Yes I have considered purchasing another external drive, but am confident I don't have to spend even more money to transition to the Mac world. Please no, "but harddrives are so cheap" replies as I have already spent considerable hardware and software $$$ making this transition. Thanks.

2) Mac search query to constrain on changed files only (e.g archive bit, change date, etc), however, I need them to be copied to the directories they exist in. Not sure they will be copied to their original directories but rather copied to whereever I drop them on the external drive.

3) Terminal prompt. I know enough to be dangerous around unix commands and am confident there is an incremental solution at the command level - something like xcopy (win world). I just don't know it.

Is there a viable solution out there within the walls of OSX-SL? My Mac hardware/software woes have grown more than I hoped during this transition and I'm hoping someone out there can offer me some tangible solutions.

Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[jman240]

Not sure this solves your problem but...

Time machine keeps your directory structure in tact ie, if you browse the time machine drive from finder it looks just like a normal file system.

This app will allow you to read the Journaled file system from a PC http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html

 

[chown33]

Here's an app I found with very little effort:

http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/

I just googled search terms mac backup and ignored the online-backup and Time-Machine articles. In the first page of google results are articles for using rsync, as well as this Lifehacker article:

http://lifehacker.com/248943/geek-to-live--complete-free-mac-backup

from which I got the link to SilverKeeper. That article also mentions SuperDuper. Whether any of those will meet all your requirements, only you can decide.

You should know that copying a Mac OS X file (any file) to a FAT-format disk will always lose ownership and permission metadata, unless special action is taken by the code to preserve that data. I mention this because if you're committed to a FAT-format disk, you may be making a tradeoff that degrades fidelity of the backup. You may be willing to accept such a tradeoff, or you may not. In any case, using FAT-format on the backup disk may be at least as much a hindrance as a help.

There is also a difference between "make a backup for safety" and "make a copy for sharing" or even "share the original file with Windows". This may affect your decision to use FAT.

 

[bexrumors]

Thanks jman240 and chown33 for your feedback. I'm narrowing down my solution and your replies helped me in that process.

chown33, thanks for the info on ownership/metadata loss using FAT file systems.