Extreme .Mac/Backup Disappointment

[cleo]

I just upgraded my iTools account to .Mac a few minutes ago. OK, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Steve say something in the keynote about being able to synch the files on two or more Macs using iDisk? I thought I would be able to do this doing Backup, but it turns out that if I backup my iBook, then backup my iMac, it completely erases my iBook backup! So basically you can only backup one computer at a time to your iDisk! Please tell me that I'm missing something here - otherwise, this Backup stuff is entirely useless to me.

 

[szark]

I'm not certain, but it sounds like something that might require iSync???

 

[Geert]

somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that it was iSync, which will be available sometime September, that has this ability to automatically sync with iDisk.

I don't know though if this would only be true for 1 comp or for several ones.

 

[cleo]

According to the press release on iSync (which is the only info on it that I can find), it only synchronizes address books and iCal. Grrrrrrr.

 

[szark]

Sorry, cleo. Looks like you can only backup one computer per account:

AppleCare Knowledge Base

This is definitely not a good sign, if they want people to get a separate .Mac account for each computer.

 

[cleo]

Thanks, szark, for the KB link. I don't know what others think, but I'm totally disappointed with Backup now. I was so looking forward to an easy way to make sure I had the same files on both computers (especially school documents, desktop patterns, icons, etc). This is crap. Does anyone know of any other programs that can do this?

Again, big f*cking grrrrr.

 

[macktheknife]

This is so wrong

If you can only backup files from one computer, then what's the use? I mean, what if I want to backup some big PowerPoint or Excel files at work (not an unlikely possibility) so that I can take it home? Also, can I access my files on iDisk from another computer? It doesn't sound like I can.

Anyhow, I think this whole .mac thing is a big rip-off. As I stated in another post, Apple has every right to charge people for their services. However, I think that $50 (not to mention $100) is too much to pay for e-mail and storage you can access from only one computer.

 

[cleo]

You CAN *access* the backed-up files from any other computer, and of course, you could always just manually drag files to your iDisk. But the Backup program itself only allows you to backup one computer at a time. Additionally, it backs your files up into a read-only folder, so if you back some stuff up then decide to get rid of it, you're screwed. Yes, the files belong to you, and yes, you've paid for the disk space, but no, once you've used backup you can't touch the files.

Bullsh!t, if you ask me.