Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
- From: Chris Hart <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:17:46 -0400
- Thread-topic: AUGD: Backup software solutions
This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I have presented this topic to
our MUG membership on many occasions (in presentations and in the
newsletter). Plus, I'm always beating the backup drum at our meetings, so
members don't forget.
In my travels as a computer consultant, I see so many people who have a poor
understanding of backups. They shy away from using them, because they are
intimidated, or are under the impression that it has to be expensive (which
was of course true a decade or more ago, but has not been the case for many
years now).
Below I am including a comprehensive list of backup software for Mac so that
you can see for yourself what you think is best.
But I will tell you my favorites, to save you some time:
AppleBackup
DejaVu
Carbon Copy Cloner
Super Duper
Retrospect
As has been discussed, Retrospect is expensive and hard to work with. But
for a business, it is definitely my "go to" backup solution. In every other
scenario my favorite is DejaVu.
As you are probably aware, some of these backup solutions provide for
"versioning" (like Time Machine and DejaVu), where you can access multiple
past versions of your files. I much prefer this approach to a straight
mirror/clone. But the straight mirror backups are typically easier to
configure and are better than nothing for people who refuse to learn how to
use their software.
Versioned backups require that the user occasionally manually remove old
backups to make room on the backup drive. (TimeMachine being the exception,
as it is designed to do this automatically. Of course it doesn't always do
so reliably.)
DejaVu makes this pretty easy, because you can simply empty out the
SafetyNet folder on a regular basis.
While Retrospect doesn't have the built-in ability to remove old versions of
backups, you can set a schedule on an occasional basis which will "recycle"
your storage set/backup media. The problem is, it resets the entire backup
to zero when it does this. You can avoid this pitfall by configuring 2
storage sets and 2 scripts/schedules (with staggered recycling schedules).
But again, we are talking about a non-trivial configuration process and a
need for plenty of backup disk space.
I would definitely be selective about what backup options you present to
your members. I have found that if I give our members a long list of
software options (for any topic we cover) they rarely explore them. They
want someone to say "Here are 2 (at most 3) options that you should look
at."
At MUG meetings, I usually recommend DejaVu, SuperDuper and Carbon Copy
Cloner. Because they are cheap, easy to configure and reliable.
Push your members on setting their backup schedule to daily. I constantly
run into people who say "oh, that's excessive, I just want to do weekly."
Then what happens is that they don't have their machine powered on during
the backup time window (they either don't want to set auto-power-on, or
forget it, or don't like it), or the backup software fails for some reason
and then their backup is 2 weeks out of date. While that's better than
nothing, when disaster strikes, most people are looking to get at the file
that they just made/saved/changed yesterday.
I also encourage members to do occasional backups to DVDs, because we all
know that hard drives are fallible (and people make mistakes). Almost
everyone is looking to backup more than will fit on a 4.4 GB disc, so I
always suggest using Toast or Disco ( $20 discoapp.com ). They both do disc
spanning, so you can literally drag a 50 gig home folder onto either of them
and they say "ok you'll need 13 discs" and then you just start burning and
tossing in blanks. I urge people to put this manual disc backup on their
iCal with an alarm on a quarterly basis.
Sadly, I must recommend against DataBackup by ProSoft. I have a license for
it and was using it here in my home office for probably a year. But it has
a significant problem: restoring from versioned backups takes forever.
Just restoring 5 gigs of old data took something like 10 hours. And when I
contacted them about it, they took a week to reply via email and then just
said "well, that's the way it works." Lame.
FYI, I have just started testing Personal Backup X5 and Get Backup and both
appear promising. (Get Backup is also bundled with versions 9 and 10 of
Roxio Toast Titanium).
I dearly wish that there would be some sign of life out of Propaganda
Productions who develop DejaVu. The app has gone without updating for an
exceedingly long time and they do not reply to emails that I send. While
the software is excellent, it definitely needs some improvements and I have
personally sent them 3 or 4 suggestions for improvement over the last 2
years (with zero acknowledgement, but no bounce back). That worries me as
this is one of the easiest, friendliest, slimmest backup apps for Mac and I
would hate to see it go away.
Apple Backup is unfortunately in the same category, as Apple has not
improved it in several years now. But, in general, it's reliable and gets
the job done and I rely on it daily.
Chris Hart
President of Connecticut Macintosh Connection
http://www.ctmac.org
Mac Backup Software:
http://www.apple.com/mobileme/ AppleBackup (with subscription)
http://www.silverkeeper.com Silverkeeper
http://propagandaprod.com DejaVu
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html Tri-Backup
http://www.belightsoft.com/getbackup/ Get Backup
http://www.intego.com/personalbackup/ Personal Backup X5
http://www.qdea.com Synchronize! X Plus and Synchronize! Pro X
http://www.bombich.com Carbon Copy Cloner
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper Super Duper (like Carbon Copy
Cloner)
http://www.subrosasoft.com CopyCatX (similar to Carbon Copy Cloner)
http://www.emcinsignia.com Dantz Retrospect
http://www.prosoftengineering.com Data Backup X
http://www.yousoftware.com/synchronize/ file synchronization software
http://www.softobe.com/ FoldersSynchronizer X
http://www.bakbone.com/products/netvault_mac/ BakBone NetVault --
cross-platform
http://homepage.mac.com/sweetcocoa/imsafe/ iMsafe OSX backup software
http://www.hillmanminx.net/basicbackup/index.html BasicBackup
(donationware)
http://freeridecoding.com/smartbackup/ SmartBackup
http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup/ iBackup (free for personal use - no
scheduling ability)
http://psyncx.sourceforge.net/ PsyncX
http://archive.macosxlabs.org/rsyncx/rsyncx.html RsyncX
http://www.whimsplucky.com/Whimsplucky/BackityMac.html BackityMac (some
functions similar to apple backup)
http://www.econtechnologies.com/ ChronoSync does
sync/mirror/backup
http://www.decimus.net/ Synk
http://www.memeo.com Memeo TimeAgent both local and offsite backup
http://nemesys2.dyndns.org:8080/FileSynchronization_EN.html folder
synchronization for cheap
http://www.cmsproducts.com/products/bounceback/bounceback_mac.html
BounceBack (for both Windows and Mac)
Internet-based off-site Backup Services:
Personally, I use MobileMe. DropBox is very widely praised and SugarSync
has a web interface (to your archived files) unlike any of the others. Many
people like Mozy and it's a strong value, but I personally did not like
their Mac client.
http://www.apple.com/mobileme/
http://www.mozy.com
http://www.getdropbox.com
http://www.sugarsync.com
http://www.jungledisk.com/
http://www.crashplan.com
http://www.rsync.net
http://www.backjack.com
http://www.ibackup.com
http://www.backupright.com/
___ Dave G at <email@hidden> wrote: ___
> Hi all,
>
> We are doing an upcoming meeting on backups and there are quite a few
> different programs out there these days. I'm trying to create a short
> list of products to review, to cover, and then to raffle off, so
> please let me know your favorite backup program and why off list (or
> on if this would be helpful to other leaders).
>
> The program should be leopard compatible and universal and not a beta.
>
> Retrospect was once the leader, but as we know...they are way behind the
> curve.
>
> Dave
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