ChrisH3677 said:
I want to backup my kids' data. They each have their own login. Even tho I am an administrator, I can't access their directories.
I want to use Toast to backup them all at once rather than having to do it individually.
How do i do that?
thanks
PS Am running 10.3.4 and Toast 6
My personal preference is not to back up to CD or DVD (I can't because my own user account has more data than will fit on one DVD-R), but instead to "clone" my entire system to a FireWire hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. This way, I'm confident that I've backed EVERYTHING up, and the backup is bootable, which means minimal hassle if I need to restore my system (just format the main HD, then clone the backup to the main HD, then boot from the main HD). I also have it set up to automatically back itself up in the middle of the night each morning (when nobody's using the computer).
If you want to back up all the user accounts with Toast to one (or more) CD/DVD, but also want to avoid having to log in as root to gain access, there is another method. Log in as each user that needs to be backed up, then create an image of their entire user account, and place the image in a folder accessible to you (such as their Public folder, or your Drop Box inside your Public folder) - using either Toast or Disk Utility (it doesn't matter which program you use). After that, burn the image files (not just their contents) to the disc with Toast. When you need to restore, you can simply open the images you backed up and overwrite each user folder with the contents of the image (be sure to promptly log out of that account after you do this).
If you decided to go ahead with the root user, once enabled, there isn't any place you can log in as a regular or administrative user that you can't log in as the root user instead. As far as I know, there isn't any way to switch users like that. Remember that root is just another user account (albeit a powerful one), like your own, and thus is subject to the same login methods that you use.
Be careful with the root account. It is possible to delete/move files as root that will prevent your system from booting.