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What's your total backup solution?

I

Illegit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 24, 2007
26
0
How do you keep all of your data safe? Do you rely solely on Time Machine or do use other 3rd party services like Mozy or JungleDisk?

I am looking for a total backup solution for both OS X and my Windows Boot Camp partition. For me, Time Machine is not enough. I want a way to protect against total hard drive failure, so if my hard drive fails I can boot from an external drive (for both Windows and Mac). What's would be my best backup solution?
 
I use Time Machine for my MBP but also use Syncopation to keep a backup of all my music/podcasts from my MBP on my Mac Mini which is connected to a MyBook. For my pictures I use Mozy and do a twice-a-week backup for those. I don't backup my Boot Camp drive, however, since it's only games and they are on Steam.
 
I use time machine, for my Macbook pro. I then use chrono sync to copy everything over to my other to macs.

But before i do a reinstall, i will use super dooper
 
A single data backup or single site data backup can not be considered a "total backup solution" as you put it.
 
I use time machine every few days and then copy my entire Home folder to a different external drive twice a month. I never had luck with other software.
 
Timemachine Backup on a 320gb Mybook
All important Data lies on a 1TB Mybook which is synching twice a week a an other Mybook 1TB using SuperDuper.
 
System wide:
Time Machine; 1 or 2 bootable image backups updated periodically (usually at least back to last OS update; emergency boot with minimal install plus Disk Warrior, etc; bootable copy of Leopard Install from Mac disk 1, updated to 10.5.7
purchased music: gets backed up both as Audio disk and as hybrid data for the AACs;
composed music: 2 or three across hard drives and DVD/CD, depending on how fond I am of the source
images - multiple hard drives (including RAW and Aperture vaults) one of which is Time Machine, plus DVD/CD multiples; quantities and type also depend on how fond I am of source
Video - harddrive and at least one DVD of RAW - 2nd hard drive for active projects; dual backup of project (minimum) and same for output

I also have 1TB free for Video and composed/live music, plus spare space on several 750's for temp drive image backups or temp media backup.

To do all the hard drive backups: Internal 320 7200 > 1TB FW800 > 750GB FW800 > 750GB FW800 > 750 FW400 > 750GB FW400 > DVD Burner LS

There's also a spare FW800 cable off the 2nd 750 FW800 for 2.5" portables - 320 7200 (Spare Mirror for internal), 200 7200, 160 5400, 100 5400.

USB2 only used for the 160GB, all the rest are FW800/FW400
 
IMO, anything more than Time Machine to an external drive is excessive unless you have lots of mission-critical data. I back-up my entire MacBook drive (other than some large system files such as dictionaries) to an external drive. The chance that both will fail at the same time is very slim.

Music is in my Music folder which gets backed up with Time Machine. Can restore the entire system from that backup via the Install CD. Older archived files are in Zip files in a "Safe Keeping" folder. Don't need more than that IMO.
 
Saladinos said:
IMO, anything more than Time Machine to an external drive is excessive unless you have lots of mission-critical data. I back-up my entire MacBook drive (other than some large system files such as dictionaries) to an external drive. The chance that both will fail at the same time is very slim.
Click to expand...

Are your external drive and your computer living in the same house? Because the chances of fire or theft are also "slim" but they happen.

I've been making a TM backup to an external in my home office for awhile, but the knowledge of how *completely f'd* I'd be if the unthinkable happened got me off my ass. I now have an additional super-duper-ed bootable backup at the parent's house, which I update monthly. When me and my 'puter are at the 'rents, my TM backup is at my house, so my back-ups are never at the same location.

I also got a free dropbox account that I intend to use to backup recent files, for a little added protection between my monthly offsite backups.
 
I use Time Machine to backup my Macbook which holds my pictures and music and documents.

I use an external 1TB drive to manually back up all my digital media, programs and documents.
 
I have two Time Machine backup drives. One I keep on my desk at all times to perform regular backups. The other is in my safe deposit box in my bank's vault. Depending on much data needs to be backed up, I usually go to the bank to swap drives every other week. Sometimes it's every week if I'm busy, sometimes it's once per month if things are slow (which they are in the summer).

I'm paranoid with my data. I probably have no reason to be, but I'd prefer to keep my files secure. This system works for me.
 
Time Machine to a USB of all things, seems quite fast. Then Apples Backup to a Time Capsule device and ChronoSync to a FireWire device. No rest for the wicked. Oh and I keep my iPod updated with my entire library of music and movies... paranoid much?

woops... forgot CarbonCopy and SuperDuper.
 
I've had a couple of bad experiences with Time Machine. Every time i try and use it to restore from time machine - when i have to reinstall os x the whole thing fails. I have rebuilt the backup numerous times thinking it was a corrupted file but to no avail. However when I clean installed with the disc I could then restore everything - documents music pics and everything.

Since this has happened more than once I now also use SuperDuper! scheduled for week nights as well.

This also helped when i needed to format a 2.5inch hdd and didn't have a case spare. I simply put it in my macbook, booted from SuperDuper and did it from there. All good :)

So yeh, don't rely on only time machine!
 
I realy wouldn't want my data backed up at some site like Mozy. Do you really want your tax returns and personal stored there for some jerk at the company to break the encryption on and snoop around? What do you do when the company goes out of business? What about privacy policy? Suppose the company is bought out by another company and implements their own policy where they're allowed to review your data for "illegal" content. Use your own external HDs and store one in a secure place. Almost any encryption can be broken with enough computing power.
 
UCABL009200_02_L.jpg

  • Supports both SATA 2.5" HDD and 3.5" HDD up to 1.5TB
  • PC connection: e-SATA / USB 2.0
  • Complaints with USB 2.0 transfer up to 480Mbps
  • Complaints with e-SATA transfer up to 3Gbps
  • Flash Media Card Reader (SD / MicroSD / Memory Stick / Sim Card )
  • SIM card reader/writer supported
  • USB 2.0 2-Port Hub
  • HDD and Power LED indicators
  • Dimension: 130 x 150 x 115mm (approx.)
  • Weight: 312g

And then I just store the HDDs off-line in foam padded shipping containers.

HDDs suitable for back-up are between $50 and $100 for 500GB to 1.5TB.
I perform a backup about once a week Either using SuperDuper's "Smart
Update" or a saved task in Carbon Copy Cloner's "Incremental Backup"
plus scheduler. Either works well, is extremely fast and can be used
interchangeably. After a week of working there's usually a 20 to 100
gigs that need to be copied and that only takes 5 minutes to an hour
depending.

Keeping the drives off-line is extra insurance against system-wide
electrical failures and natural disasters - not to mention spilling the
beer. :D
 
My data gets stored on my old win2k dell server which I got for free. I then added some sata drives to it using an add on sata controller. Its got 4x 500GB SATA drives which are really two seperate mirror sets so thats a total of 1TB of mirrored storage. I've also got a 1TB firewire drive attached to the box which does a weekly backup of the data.
 
toolbox said:
Does anyone when there backups are done taken them offsite or hide them in the house to protect against theft or fire damage?
Click to expand...

YES! for my photos.
I have 2 bare SATA drives (I use a SATA to USB adapter to hook the up) I keep in my garage in a box of old electronic junk. I also have a WD passport drive I keep at work.
My system back sits next to the computer (mybook 500GB) and is done weekly via superduper plus a internal time machine disk.
And finally I use Mozy free account for my quicken, word and excel stuff.
 
My first total backup solution

This is an overview of my backup solution. I use a combination of Time Machine, Carbon Copy and Super Duper. All the traffic goes through my Mac Mini server. From that point there are several backup routes ;)
 

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I use a pair of external 1TB HDDs - one for Time Machine, and the other for a Carbon Copy Cloner clone of my drive that is regularly updated.
 
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