Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Backup software solutions
- From: John Brandt <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:44:11 -0500
Beware DejaVu. I had installed and used DejaVu a while back. Due to a
glitch, it began eating free space on my main hard drive. I didn't notice it
until it got to a critical point, leaving almost no available free space,
and about to gobble the rest. No matter what I tried, I couldn't free up the
"locked", hidden or eaten free space. No app, such as WhatSize and many
others, indicated anything was amiss. I should have had tens of GBs
available, but there were only a handful. DejaVu was completely unable to
release it.
Eventually, I deleted DejaVu in a "final" attempt to release the missing
free space. Didn't help. Many calls to customer service of the company
distributing DejaVu couldn't/wouldn't help in the slightest. Calls to the
developer himself elicited no fix. Both companies were among the least
helpful I've encountered. They didn't seem to CARE.
Eventually, I realized that backing up the disc (I used Carbon Copy Cloner,
which is now my favorite backup app), wiping the original drive and
restoring, actually worked. All my free space was back, visible and fully
usable.
I notified the customer service kids of my own discovered fix, so hopefully
anyone encountering the same problem in the future will have a faster fix,
if the app hasn't yet been rewritten to repair the problem completely.
DejaVu is not an app that will ever again live on my Macs. The
potentialand realdamage is immense, and the support was abysmal.
John Brandt
>
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
> Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
> Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
>
> This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Augd mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden