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New year's resolution: A backup plan
#2
redgeminipa 
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 06:55 AM
I've always used Time Machine, but found its hourly backups can be annoying, especially if you're working with large temporary files - DVD ripping.
To the rescue, Time Machine Editor. It lets you select a time of day for backups. Essentially, it turns on Time Machine at that selected time, performs the backup, then closes Time Machine. It's a great little app that's been working flawlessly through Snow Leopard and now Lion with no maintenance.
I use a Time Capsule, and my backups are wireless. It works like a charm, too. It's obviously much faster to run an ethernet cable if I have to restore my entire Mac. It's made upgrading my hard drive or buying a new Mac basically painless. EVERYTHING is exactly how it was after a restore from backup completes. I love it!
To the rescue, Time Machine Editor. It lets you select a time of day for backups. Essentially, it turns on Time Machine at that selected time, performs the backup, then closes Time Machine. It's a great little app that's been working flawlessly through Snow Leopard and now Lion with no maintenance.
I use a Time Capsule, and my backups are wireless. It works like a charm, too. It's obviously much faster to run an ethernet cable if I have to restore my entire Mac. It's made upgrading my hard drive or buying a new Mac basically painless. EVERYTHING is exactly how it was after a restore from backup completes. I love it!
#3
nokin
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 07:28 AM
redgeminipa, on 26 December 2011 - 06:55 AM, said:
I've always used Time Machine, but found its hourly backups can be annoying, especially if you're working with large temporary files - DVD ripping.
To the rescue, Time Machine Editor. It lets you select a time of day for backups. Essentially, it turns on Time Machine at that selected time, performs the backup, then closes Time Machine. It's a great little app that's been working flawlessly through Snow Leopard and now Lion with no maintenance.
I use a Time Capsule, and my backups are wireless. It works like a charm, too. It's obviously much faster to run an ethernet cable if I have to restore my entire Mac. It's made upgrading my hard drive or buying a new Mac basically painless. EVERYTHING is exactly how it was after a restore from backup completes. I love it!
To the rescue, Time Machine Editor. It lets you select a time of day for backups. Essentially, it turns on Time Machine at that selected time, performs the backup, then closes Time Machine. It's a great little app that's been working flawlessly through Snow Leopard and now Lion with no maintenance.
I use a Time Capsule, and my backups are wireless. It works like a charm, too. It's obviously much faster to run an ethernet cable if I have to restore my entire Mac. It's made upgrading my hard drive or buying a new Mac basically painless. EVERYTHING is exactly how it was after a restore from backup completes. I love it!
I solved this by using time machine preferences to exclude a folder (or disk) that i use for temporary work files that din't need to be backed up. That way I don't needlessly copy large temporary files to the TM backup, I maintain the benefit of hourly backups of important data, plus I have a single place that I can keep (and delete) temporary files.
#5
wessew10
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 08:17 AM
I woud start with bootable backups as a top priority. First, not everyone runs Lion so they do not have a recovery mode if they do not. Second, if you need to keep working right away after a hard drive problem the only way to do so is with a bootable backup. Third, if your time machine backup drive becomes corrupted and you do not have a bootable backup, you are in a world of trouble if your primary drive fails.
#6
legionary14
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 10:40 AM
One great advantage of having a good backup plan is that dire hardware failures will cost little or nothing. Some years ago my precious Power Mac went into paperweight mode. I was upset, but could carry on working with a retired eMac (although it was slow) using a SuperDuper clone. No need to pay for data recovery. The Mac couldn't be fixed but I did at least have a way to go on working.
#7
glj
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 12:00 PM
I'd like to back up my files offsite, but I'm concerned about security. I could convert my personal files into secure pdf files before storing them on a server, but that would be a lot of work, and I'd lose the original format of the files. Is there a way to store files offline, and not worry about the files being read while they're being sent to/from the server, and while they're on the server?
Thanks.
Thanks.
#8
craydale
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 12:39 PM
glj, on 26 December 2011 - 12:00 PM, said:
I'd like to back up my files offsite, but I'm concerned about security. I could convert my personal files into secure pdf files before storing them on a server, but that would be a lot of work, and I'd lose the original format of the files. Is there a way to store files offline, and not worry about the files being read while they're being sent to/from the server, and while they're on the server?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Lion supports encrypting any disk so under Lion you can use any backup strategy that uses an attached disk (Time Machine, CCC, TimePreserver, SuperDuper, etc. etc.) and have Mac OS X encrypt that disk. Now you can rotate your backup disks offsite (swap them with a friend who lives some distance away, store them at work, etc.) and you have secure offsite backup.
#9
KevinC867
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Posted 26 December 2011 - 03:27 PM
legionary14, on 26 December 2011 - 10:40 AM, said:
One great advantage of having a good backup plan is that dire hardware failures will cost little or nothing. Some years ago my precious Power Mac went into paperweight mode. I was upset, but could carry on working with a retired eMac (although it was slow) using a SuperDuper clone. No need to pay for data recovery. The Mac couldn't be fixed but I did at least have a way to go on working.
My experience is similar. My primary machine (a MacBook Pro) died last year. I was creating nightly incremental clones with Super Duper!, so a short time later I was up and running on a borrowed iMac. It took Apple a week or two to replace the motherboard, hard drive and battery on that computer. (I'm very glad I bought AppleCare!)
Time Machine is great for quick recovery of damaged/lost files. However, if your disk fails, it's a huge bag of hurt compared to having a clone standing by. I'm so happy that Apple makes it easy to boot from a clone, even if it was created on a different model of Mac.
#10
WhiteKnight
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Posted 27 December 2011 - 11:19 AM
CrashPlan also allows you to back up to a friend's disk for free. I'm looking into installing a new hard drive at my parent's house and backing up to that. It is off site and I'm over there from time-to-time in any case, so I'm maintaining it myself. I'm also going to partition so they can back up to that same disk and then CrashPlan to a disk I have at my house for their off site backup.
#11
bastion
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Posted 28 December 2011 - 06:31 AM
wessew10, on 26 December 2011 - 08:17 AM, said:
Third, if your time machine backup drive becomes corrupted and you do not have a bootable backup, you are in a world of trouble if your primary drive fails.
On this particular point, can you explain how a bootable backup is in any way superior to a Time Machine archive?
#12
sensel
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Posted 28 December 2011 - 08:26 AM
I use Time Machine which backs up to an external. However, I bought two identical external drives and keep on locked in a fire safe while the other is backing up day to day. Every month or so, I swap them. The ensures I have one back up, back up drive that is only a month or so out of date. But both drives have been working fine. If my system drive crashes, I can go right to the latest external and back up.
I cannot update to Lion since I still use two older programs regularly (thanks Apple) so I no longer use Mobile Me but when I did, I only backed up documents to it as an off site back up. So far, none of the offsite options appeal to me. I like Amazon because it is cheapest but the whole process to access it from a Mac is stupid. I am waiting for someone to make an Any Cloud Service "Dropbox" App that a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac can back up automatically to!
I cannot update to Lion since I still use two older programs regularly (thanks Apple) so I no longer use Mobile Me but when I did, I only backed up documents to it as an off site back up. So far, none of the offsite options appeal to me. I like Amazon because it is cheapest but the whole process to access it from a Mac is stupid. I am waiting for someone to make an Any Cloud Service "Dropbox" App that a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac can back up automatically to!
#13
JohnWTucker
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Posted 28 December 2011 - 11:35 AM
Dropbox is great but it is not really a backup service. It is great for having files available across different machines, but is expensive and does not automatically store files that are not in the Dropbox folder.
Also a little surprised a service like Backblaze is not on this list. It is the easiest online backup service available and runs great on Macs, in fact it runs better than Crashplan which you did include.
Also a little surprised a service like Backblaze is not on this list. It is the easiest online backup service available and runs great on Macs, in fact it runs better than Crashplan which you did include.
#14
LadyQuark
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Posted 30 December 2011 - 06:48 AM
bastion, on 28 December 2011 - 06:31 AM, said:
wessew10, on 26 December 2011 - 08:17 AM, said:
Third, if your time machine backup drive becomes corrupted and you do not have a bootable backup, you are in a world of trouble if your primary drive fails.
On this particular point, can you explain how a bootable backup is in any way superior to a Time Machine archive?
You can run your Mac with a bootable backup.
My hard-disk failed in college and the replacement drive was going to take a week to arrive. But I could finish assignments using the bootable clone (external HD) created using CarbonCopyCloner.
