Please suggest a backup solution.

[Steven Jackson]

Hi,

Here's my current set up:

I have an iMac with 500GB internal drive, backed up via Time Machine to a physically connected 500GB external drive.

I also have a physically connected 1TB external drive which holds my iTunes Library (currently a bit less than 600GB). I allow iTunes to organise files as it sees fit.

Thus I have a backup for everything on my internal drive (documents, photos, etc) but not my iTunes media.

I am at the stage, I think, where it would be foolish not to have a comprehensive and foolproof back-up solution. I would be devastated if I lost my iTunes or iPhoto Libraries, and seriously inconvenienced if I lost my documents.

I want to be covered against drive failure/corruption, burglary and fire so I obviously need to keep copies of everything off site.

I have at my disposal:
3 x 500GB external drives
1 x powered USB hub
No money! Not even a little bit.

Suggestions please!

Steve.

 

[reclusivemonkey]

So basically you want a free terrabyte of off site storage. Me too please.

 

[edesignuk]

Yeah, masses amounts of free anything a few and far between. Good luck until you have some sort of budget

 

[Steven Jackson]

No, no, you misunderstand.

I simply need a program that lets me use my three empty 500GB hard drives to create:

a) a bootable backup of my internal drive.
b) a full copy of my external iTunes library (obviously split in two as the original is bigger than 500GB)

I will then take these 3 drives and store them at work. I will periodically bring them home to update the backups.

I'm not expecting anyone to give me free storage. I just want a free app, if possible.

Sorry for the confusion.

Steve.

 

[edesignuk]

^ ok, that seems more reasonable

I really don't know what to suggest. The only way to make smaller volumes appear as one larger one (as you seem to need) is with RAID, but you don't really want to RAID0 external drives that aren't even plugged in all the time. I don't know of anything that will intelligently take a source and span it over multiple disks either.

 

[Steven Jackson]

Thanks for the reply. I've been Googling but I can't find anything, either. I want something that will recognise the drives when I plug them in, automatically do its backup magic, then let me remove the drives and take them to work.

Hmmm.

Steve.

 

[belvdr]

The only way to make smaller volumes appear as one larger one (as you seem to need) is with RAID

Well, you could use Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to do this without RAID. However, I don't own a Mac any longer, so I'm not sure it's even included with OS X.

You can check by going to Terminal, and running:

vgdisplay

and see if it outputs anything.

If not, you're hosed, but if it outputs anything, you could put these together into a logical volume and use that.

As for the backup portion, I think you'd be best to find an rsync utility and backup your data that way. It wouldn't be automatic, but it sure would take as much time.

For mirroring your bootable drive, I ask why. Why not just backup your data, and if your boot drive fails, fix it, reinstall the OS, and restore your data?

 

[Consultant]

Search Macupdate, Versiontracker, or even google MR. Plenty of backup apps.

 

[Steven Jackson]

Here's what I've gone for.

I've combined two of my 500 GB hard drives, with Disk Utility, into a concatenated disk set. This gives me, effectively, a single volume with 930GB of space.

I downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and had a little play. I haven't actually set it up yet, but it seems I will be able to make an incremental backup of my external iTunes library whenever I connect my concatenated drives. I can also make a bootable clone of my internal drive on my 3rd 500GB hard drive.

These three drives can then be stored at work and I'm safe whatever happens. And I still have my local Time Machine backup for day to day catastrophes.

Looks like it will work well.

Thanks for the help.

Steve.

 

[Steven Jackson]

Unless both my home and work burn down at the same time.

In that case, I'm buggered.

Steve.

 

[edesignuk]

Pretty sure CCC doesn't do incrementals (or it didn't last time I used it). I thoroughly recommend SuperDuper! (which does do incremental).

 

[Steven Jackson]

It says it does!

Haven't tried it yet, though.

I'm keen to use CCC, if possible, as it's free. I did look at SuperDuper, but it's a bit pricey.

Thanks again,

Steve.