Tuesday, May 10, 2005


OS X Backup


Lazyweb, I invoke thee.

You would think this would be a simple request, but you would be wrong. I’ve been having a devil of a time finding an OS X backup utility that meets my needs. I’m not asking for much. My requirements:

  1. Allows me to do a full system backup, spanned over multiple DVD-R’s
  2. Allows me to do interim incremental/differential backups, spanned if necessary
  3. Does the above, predictably, reliably, and without a lot of hand-holding

Yes, I know about .Mac backup, and it fails number 3 spectacularly. Retrospect still feels like a Classic app, frankly, and it’s rather expensive. Most of the existing backup apps I’ve looked at are oriented towards duping to another mounted volume, which, though useful, is not what I need. I’m not averse to picking up a reasonably priced tape drive if I have to, but DVD-R media costs are such that I’d really like to stay with optical discs over tape if possible.


:: Dave Walker 09:16 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/tech/computers/os/osx/applications]
:: tags:

:: Comments (2)

Comments:

ssp wrote:

Title:

Date: 5/10/2005 11:41:57

Response:
Please let us know your results if you get some. In OS9 I could easily just copy whole volumes over and they'd start up fine. and when I worked in my civil service we just used Retrospect. As you say, these days there seems to be no good solution :( I just burn things every now and again or dump them on my dad's hard drive when I visit my parents. And that feels a bit unreliable...
d.w. wrote:

Title:

Date: 5/15/2005 19:42:10

Response:
As of right now, Impression is in the lead…



Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. -- Eric Hoffer