"Best" Back Up Strategy

According to Apple, I have a corrupt Leopard install and I need to back up my Mac and clean install Leopard again. I had originally intended to use Time Machine for my back ups, but since I also have a Airport Extreme, I wanted to use a HD connected to this for my back ups. Unfortunately, this won't work; the HD must be connected directly to the APE.
So, I am looking for the best back up strategy that will -
1) Let me back up all my info to a external drive, so I will have everything I need to get my Mac back in the same shape it was after I reinstall Leopard, i.e. everything on it, including mail, itunes, photos, etc. I can connect directly to a drive for this part.
2) After this, I want to back up 2 Mac Book Pros regularly to the external drive connected to the Air Port Extreme. I would like to be able to access this back up in a native format, i.e., find a file and open it from the back up without having to restore it or any other gymnastics. I don't know if Time Machine is the best solution; looking for suggestions.
Is this possible?
Thanks for your help!

Hi,
1. Get the biggest external drive you can afford. You cant have enough storage space.
2. Use Carbon Copy Cloner from here...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
That will clone the entire content of your computer on to the external.
3. Time Machine won't work in this scenario. As I understand it, Wireless back ups were removed from the list of goodies in Leopard at the last moment. It may become available in later releases of Leopard. It may not.
Regards
Ian

Similar Messages

Best back up for college lap top

We currently have 3 mac computers all connected to external hard drives for the time machine use only. We just purchased a macbook pro for my daughter for college in the fall and are curious on the best back up source for that. The apple consultant sold us the "mobile me" software and told her she can back up most all her needed files on the mobile me account and that would be good. I, being older and having lost valuable info in the past, am not convinced that mobile me is the absolute best thing she can do. Would there be a reason to not connect a laptop to an external "time machine" type drive once a day and use the mobile me account for school files as well?
Additionally would there be a reason to use a smaller "mini" type drive that requires no additional power or would we want a standard A/C plugged in back up drive. Currently we are using all g-technology back up drives and have never had a problem with any of their operation or the time machine operation when we needed to fix a "human" error! I like the small mini type drives, but if it's used basically as a back up for the entire machine anyhow, would it be more beneficial or just simply smaller. I did note that there does not appear to be a kensington lock slot on most of the smaller drives and she is worried about locking things up in her soon to be dorm room.
All you help is very appreciated and please ask me anything if I rambled and didn't make sense!
thanks!

Whether MobileMe is good backup for your daughter is all relative. Off-site backup is the best kind of backup you can have, so in that respect, MobileMe is good. However, there are some major drawbacks. First, it's slow. A large backup might need to run overnight. Second, space is very tight. You've only got 20 GB to share between all MobileMe features (mailboxes, backups, web site, iDisk storage, etc), and since it's shared, you won't want to fill all 20 GB up with backups. My user folder is 51+ GB. Third, you have to use the Backup app, downloaded from the MobileMe iDisk, to perform backups to MobileMe. Backup kinda stinks. There are far better backup apps out there... Backup is just not one I can recommend relying on.
Now, if your daughter's data fits fine and she can schedule large backups for times when it won't get in the way, MobileMe might be a good part of a backup strategy. Keep in mind that she needs to have a couple different backups at a minimum before ditching MobileMe outright.
Another option would be Time Machine with any drive you like. Since she's worried about things getting stolen, maybe make sure she's got a long USB or Firewire cable and can lock the drive up in a drawer or closet while it is still connected to her machine. Or look into a second online backup, like Carbonite.

Back up strategy with Maxtor OneTouch II

I just bought Maxtor OneTouch II 300GB. I need help with the backup strategy with or without Retrospect. The external Maxtor should be used for storage and backup.
My questions, since the instructions and Help in Retrospect are confusing:
When I want to first backup the entire startup disk can I simply drag it to Maxtor on the Desktop or should I use Retrospect?
In Retrospect, should I use "Removable Disk" or "File"?
How long does it take with Maxtor FW 800 ? I've got 70GB startup disk to copy. Is it hours?
Can the copied volume on external disk be used as startup disk?
I would appreciate your experience.
Milan

I suggest you use Disk utility to partition the drive so you have a space large enough for your boot drive. Then use carbon copy cloner, which you can find from versiontracker.com to "clone" your boot drive to the partition. you need to use a program like this, because various files needed to create a "boot drive" are hidden.
please note, the best back-ups are completely disconnected from all computers and power sources. Just something to consider.

Best Back-up UPS for MAC Pro?

What is the best back-up battery system to provide UPS and to allow my computer to shut down before the battery runs out? UPS modesl with Parachute worked in the past but I've seen reviews that they are not compatible with Lion.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks.
JPB

Lion has some built in support. I switched from APC RS to CyberPower Sinewave, both 1500VA.
http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Compatible-1500VA-Tower/dp/B00429N 19W/
It works to protect modem and router, my RS1500 would cause interference and poor connection at best with high ping MS.
http://pondini.org has a Mac tip page
Sugar site is not up.
This had a ton of input
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11677938

Apps Backing up Strategy

We are currently in the process of developing a new back up strategy for Oracle Application .
What I understand currently is
- RMAN can be used to back up the dbf files.
- The application tier does not need to be backed up unless there is a patching or customization. The probability of this seems less in production. However we may need to back up the concurrent manager logs/output files.
In application tier, the strategy seems to be copy the relevant directories to a tape or a disk drive maybe on a daily basis. This is a hot back up and hence there might be a data loss. Is this correct ?
But there are some directories which cannot be copied hot. Which are those ? Is there any solution apart from going offline the least amount of time?
So what is a good strategy for backing up the application tier ?

Hi,
What I understand currently is
- RMAN can be used to back up the dbf files.
- The application tier does not need to be backed up unless there is a patching or customization. The probability of this seems less in production. However we may need to back up the concurrent manager logs/output files. Correct.
In application tier, the strategy seems to be copy the relevant directories to a tape or a disk drive maybe on a daily basis. This is a hot back up and hence there might be a data loss. Is this correct ?There will be no data loss at the application side as all the data are stored in the database. If you have no customization or patching on daily basis, then you need to backup log files and concurrent requests log/output files.
But there are some directories which cannot be copied hot. Which are those ? Is there any solution apart from going offline the least amount of time?What is the OS? If you are on Linux/Unix, you should be able to copy the files, but on Windows this is not possible.
So what is a good strategy for backing up the application tier ?I believe having a weekly offline backup should be enough. For the daily changes, consider taking a backup of the log/output files mentioned above.
Please search this forum for similar topic, and you will find many hits.
Regards,
Hussein

Start up disk is full, and need new storage and back up strategy

I am maxed out on nothing my iMac and Mac book pro and recognise I need to introduce a new external hard drive into the equation.
I currently have an apple time capsule with 2gb drive, that backs up the 600g iMac and 250g mac book.
I would like to understand if I could point applications such as iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie towards an external drive ( as long as it is always connected to either the machine...or perhaps network so all machines have access to the external drive)....and hopefully I would also be able to access my iTunes library ( on the external drive) via an Apple TV...without any fuss.
I would also like to use my apple time capsule to back up from both the iMac and Mac book internal drives...as well as recognising the data on the external drives that points to the respective computers.....eg the iTunes library etc.
Is this at all possible???
If so, which external hard drive solutions should I use ( I have seen some mention synology...but looked at the website, and so many models and not sure what I would need)???
And how would I go about lifting and shifting data, redirecting applications to read and write to external drives, and getting time capsule to back up as above.....and possibly even have an additional back up strategy that allows me to take regular copies of all hard drives and keep content in an off site location for data security...possibly in a bootable format???
Welcome all help and advice please.

You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your iMac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Other things you can do to gain space.
Once you have around 15 GBs regained, do a search, download and install OmniDisk Sweeper.
This app will help you locate files that you can move/archive and/or delete from your system.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Good Luck!

Review back up strategy

Hi there
Been trying to work out the best backup strategy. I have been using a 1TB TC to back up an iMac and Macbook (about 300gb each) using Time Machine. Have come to the conclusion that it's not right for me as I don't need to access old versions of documents etc, and I'd like to back up folders to the TC, but also to be able to access them from another computer.
I bought Chronosync, but it doesn't seem able to put a bootable copy onto the TC. My investigations seem to indicate that putting bootable copies onto a TC aren't possible. A bootable backup would be good for all my settings and downloaded applications, however if possible I'd like to avoid buying an additional hard drive for this purpose.
My questions for the expert panel are
1. Is it right that it isn't possible to store a bootable backup on my TC?
2. If a horrible event occurred and I restored my computer from the original disk, is it possible to restore all the settings etc from a selection of folders copied to the TC?
3. If 2 is possible, what folders would I need to copy?
Hope that makes sense
Thanks

OK, wrong board. Will post in the right one.

Need more advice on overall back up strategy

Based on my previous post, "Need advice on setting up a portable external hard drive", I set up a portable backup strategy for the iBook G4 consisting of a 250 GB hard drive in a firewire enclosure which contains two bootable clones. In a similar fashion, I set up a 320 GB drive in a firewire enclosure which also has two bootable clones and also an empty partition for the MBP.
Also, I have a 160 GB La Cie firewire desktop drive that was purchased in November of 2006 which has Time Machine and some other backups on it, some of which are unique.
Since I had to dig pretty deep into the piggy bank to buy the drives and enclosures, I really don't want to buy any more hardware for a while. I also didn't expect I would have to worry about archiving anything for a while since I thought I had lots of capacity, so I hadn't intended to post this question for a while. However, circumstances have changed rather suddenly.
After getting the logic board reballed and replacing the original 30 GB hard drive with the 120 GB drive, I decided to give the iBook to my rather cyberphobic Significant Other, along with a red iPod, a DynoScope, and the 250 GB backup drive as a first computer, little realizing what was about to happen. Even after 27 years of marriage, someone can still surprise you.
My SO started digitizing our music collection, and once all the CD's were put into iTunes, started in on the vinyl collection. The iPod is already full, and both cyberphobia and hard drive space are rapidly evaporating. The vinyl files seem to be much bigger than the CD files. The 120 GB internal drive and 250 GB external drive that seemed so huge is now beginning to look too small. The overall strategy is still fine, but I'm about 60 GB's away from having to archive some of the music collection to free up more hard drive space both on the internal drive and on the backup clones. On general principles, I would rather do the archive on a third drive, and this drive does not need to be portable.
I do have quite a bit of excess capacity on my MBP and MBP backup drive, and perhaps this could be utilized in the short term. I could use the La Cie, but the problem is that an archive would likely use up most of the free space remaining.
So what I probably need advice on is what to plan on setting up that will accommodate both computers. The iBook is running Tiger and has iLife 06 on it. The MBP has Leopard and is running iLife 08. I already know that if a photo is in iPhoto 08 it cannot be put into iPhoto 06. I don't know how it works with iTunes--both computers seem to have the same version of iTunes--v. 7.6.1. So I don't know if the iBook needs to have a separate drive or if it could use the same drive as the MBP.
Also, I am wondering if there is any way of finding out about impending failure of an external hard drive since S.M.A.R.T. status is not supported. I can verify the disk using Disk Utility, but was wondering if there was anything else to do other than pay attention to how old it is and how noisy it is. I imagine it is still true that over time, all hard drives will fail.
Would setting up a RAID be something to consider? Does that give some protection against the failure of individual hard drives? (I don't know much about RAIDS.)
I apologize for the length of this post. I wanted to try and include all the relevant information about my situation. There seem to be so many possible options that I am in a real quandary about just what to do, both for the short term and for the longer term. But I would like to have a sensible long term plan worked out in advance, so that when the time does come to buy more hardware, I will have a clear idea of what to get and how best to set it up. Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Thanks for responding!
You are right about the AIFF format. I will have to burn the DVD's on my MBP since the iBook can only burn CD's, but I don't see any problem about doing this except for a question about DVD's.
I have read several times about CD's degrading over time so that the data is lost and the CD's just turn into little gold frisbees. I think this is mostly true of the super cheap store brands, and I don't know if it's also true of DVD's.
So I am wondering about the projected life span of whatever DVD's I choose to burn onto, and also, how best to store them. I have a stack of Verbatim DVD's which are supposed to be a good brand, and I have a much smaller stack of Archival Gold (by Delkin) which are supposed to be good for 100 years. 100 years is probably in excess of what we really need, but I would like to think in 10 or 20 or 30 years, the DVD's would still be good. If not, then I just need to know how often to reburn them.
I tend to worry about the longevity of digital media. I had burned the iPhoto library onto inexpensive CD's, and used these to put it on the iBook. On every disc, there were unreadable files. The iBook can't read one of our purchased CD's, even though we have played it many times elsewhere. We'll try it on the MBP and another external CD drive that we have to see if we can digitize it.
I think the DVD's for the large vinyl files are a great idea and I will plan to start doing this at some point soon. I will also burn either CD's or a DVD of anything which is an only copy. Right now there aren't many of those, but of course that could change and probably will.
I can see we need to sort a few things out, but I think the road ahead is much more clear now. I addition to the original CD's and DVD's that I plan to burn, I will probably still keep redundant copies the entire iTunes library on a couple of different hard drives, since I have a lot of capacity open on the MBP. The music itself will be well backed up with discs, but since it has taken so many hours so far to put music into the library and will take many hours more, I also want to be sure in a way to back up those many hours of effort.
Thank you very much for all your help. I want to keep this topic open a bit longer in case my SO has any further questions, but I think my concerns are pretty well answered.
Many thanks again!

Back Up Strategy Advice Sought

Hello!
I'd appreciate some advice on how best to set up a back up regime, please.
I've just bought a Western Digital My Passport external drive for backing up purposes. At first I thought I'd simply back up my home folder to it on a regular basis and - I presume - all my documents, photos, music would be backed up 'en masse.'
Having read up a bit on it (partly on these forums), I note that some do a 'clone' of their entire hard drive.
Is there any mileage in doing a clone of the drive since I'm aware this is very useful to get up and running swiftly in the event of, say, the internal hard drive failing? My external drive is USB only, and I gather it isn't possible to boot from it (Firewire required?)
If it is still worth having a clone of my system, should I partition the external so the clone goes on one partition and other 'often changing' files go on the other? (e.g. bookmarks/iTunes store-purchased music).
If it is suggested I go the 'clone route' do I require something like Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper! (I think I read that cloning can be done via Disk Utility?)
Space-wise I'm fine: my new external drive is 160GB and my mini has an 80GB hard drive with, to date, 35GB used.
I hope I'm making some sense here - your thoughts and advice would be much appreciated.

retrieve 'other stuff'...
Address Book and iCal have a Backup function in their File menu. I usually save the files regularly to a USB stick and sync them to .Mac (now MobileMe) too.
Safari, from the File menu >Export Bookmarks"
The folder "Mail" in yourusername/Library.
Software Update has a function in its "Update" menu bar item - "Install and keep Package".
The trick here is remembering the correct order to install the updates. Some are obvious, others less so and Installer does not always give a reason that is easily understood, when can't run an update. It might just say "The software cannot be installed" or "Error (number)".
It would be nice if it would say "You need to install version xx, before you can install version xy", but I think we might have to wait a long time for that.
Also consider that many individual updates will require a restart before proceeding further. By the time you have worked through manual updates from your archive, Software Update would probably have done the job faster anyway.

Best back up software and hardware requirement for the same

Good morning to all,
I would like to know about back solutions. We are a small organization around 60 employees, currently we have windows server 2008 r2 and using symantec backup exc and we back up on external USB drives. Management not happy with Symantec
We plan to upgrade our servers , and moving to VMs and plan to implement network storage.
So we want a back up solution which could back up VMs ,Shared folder and other required data.
What are the best practice and solutions for backups.

Nopes :)
It depends on you. I've been using Symantec from many years now ;)
Arnav Sharma | http://arnavsharma.net/ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading
the thread.

What is the best back up solution for me?

I have a Macbook Pro I use for music and photos only.
What would be the best way to back up my media and
free up space?
Thanks.

Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
     used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
     requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
     drive being backed up.
3. Time Machine requires a backup drive that is at least double the
     capacity of the drive(s) it backs up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
1. Cool Drives
2. OWC
3. WiebeTech
4. Firewire Direct
5. California Drives
6. NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

New User Trying To Set Up Best Backing Up Scheme

i am trying to set up the best system to upload my photos from my camera and maintain a good backup procudure, and i am a little confused on the best way to do this.
i have a new sony dsc-tx5 that i got around the same time i bought my lightroom software, so am learning new things all around. the camera is great, but the software that came with it is not very good, (PMB).
- i have backed up all my photos from my camera into one main directory on my PC for my original photo files - using the Sony PMB software.
- i then backed this directory up to my external harddrive. and whenever i backup new photos to this directory, i will also back these new files to my external drive as well - using Windows 7 explorer to do this task.
- then i copied all the original photos to another directory on the same hard drive, but i divided all the photos in this new directory into several sub-directories to the approximate size of a dvd data disk, and then backed those up to dvd data disks; and whenever i get enough files in a new sub-directory about the size of another dvd data disk, i back them up to a dvd disk as well - again using windows explorer.
- so far so good, but now i am unsure about how to incorporate Lightroom into this whole process. The PMB software from my sony camera downloads all new photos and puts them into my main directory to store my orignal files as i had mentioned in step one here. and in fact, PMB keeps an index of all files and directories, and any changes to them, etc. in my "My Pictures" Directory on my PC. so i dont need lightroom to mange that part at all.
- the original photo files should remain separate from anything I do with lightroom right now, so i have a separate directory of photos for lightroom to use and play around with my files, without involving the originals at all. it is a completely separate directory with copies of the original files that i only use to lightroom as i learn my way around the propram.
- right now i made a new directory of all my files and renamed it as something for just lightroom to use. but i also see in the lightroom subdirectory in the "my pictures" directory on my PC are serveral other sub-directories named in the "Download Backups" sub-sub directory, and i can see some of my same photos in there too. so now i am lost about what is what and where, etc. this part is a bit confusing, and i am not sure how to incorporate a way and/or where to backup the finished modified photos, etc.
- and the issues of backing-up catalogs vs regular back-ups has me confused too.
- am i using the best method to mange my files before and after using lightroom so far, or am i way off track here?
any help one might offer to straighten this whole confusion up before i get heavy into the editing process would be much appreciated! where to look for instructional info to clear it all up, etc. what terms to search for on the help resources, etc.
thank you for you support!

Thank you for your assistance dj_paige.it was helpful to confirm what i am doing is on the right track. but in finally having the time to get around to trying all this out, it has of course brought a few more questions!
before i ask my questions though, i just wanted to more specifically reiterate what my "setting up" process has evolved to, thus far:
- I use the photo management software tool that came with my Sony camera, named PMB, to upload all of the latest photo files i've shot to my computer into a directory, without any sub-directories, named it something like "Sony Photos <with latest upload date added to this name>". Besides uploading the newest photo files, I do no other tasks with PMB, other than just keeping track of what is where, which it updates automatically somehow.
- The "Sony Photos" directory is placed as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC.
- I have another sub-directory, named "Sony Photos Organized To BU To DVDs", also located as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC. Within this subdirectory, are several sub-sub-directories which are named according the the date ranges of the photo files within them were shot. The files within these sub-sub-directories are copies of the same photo files in the previously mentioned "Sony Photos" directory; the only difference here being that i have divided each of sub-directories in the "Sony Photos Organized To BU To DVDs" to each be approximately 4 GB in size, so that I can then easily copy the subdirectories onto DVD data disks which are also approximately the same 4 GB in size.
- I also have another sub-directory, also located as a sub-directory in my "My Pictures" parent directory on my PC, which is also one big directory holding all of my photos from my previous digital camera, named "Cannon Photos". Since I no longer shoot with this camera anymore, there are no new images to worry about here, and they have all been backed up to my external drive as well as DVD disks. So it is just an issue to keeping track of them in Lightroom, more on that later.
- The last of the four photo-related subdirectories within my "My Pictures" parent directory is the Lightroom directory, simply named "Lightroom" of course. There is one file and one sub-directory in this Lightroom directory. The file is named "Lightroom 3 Catalog" and the sub-directory is named "Lightroom 3 Catalog Previews.Irdata".
- When I am backing up all of these 4 photo-related sub-directories to my external harddiskdrive, I am also backing up the entire Lightroom directory, which includes the "previews subdirectory" as well as the catalog file. Even though this directory is relatively small, it sure does take a long time to back up this preview directory, i guess it is because there are so many files to copy/transfer - I have a huge number of photo files.
- * So my first question is: Are both the aforementioned "catalog" file and the accompanying sub-directory in the Lightroom directory considered as a group that should be kept together during backups, or is just backing up the "catalog" file by itself okay? Ie.: Do I need to back up the previews subdirectory as well?
- Next Question: Do I need to use the PMB software in this situation at all, or should I figure out how to use just Lightroom by itself, without the help of PMB to manage this set-up situation?
- Which leads to my last question, does this all seem like a good method for setting up my photos for uploading, backing-up, to keeping track of things, etc.?
Thank you again for you time, dj_paige. If you, or anyone else reading this, has any other suggestions here please let me know!
- tee

Best back up scenario?

Hi. I've got an 8-core 3.2ghz Mac Pro, used mainly for Protools, digital audio. All four drive bays are loaded with 1.5 TB drives in each. There is a system drive of course, and Protools audio drive, a virtual instrument drive, and a SAMPLE/loop/video drive. My question is, What is the best scenario for backup of all of these? I DO NOT want to lose anything, and this is a much bigger/newer system than i have had in the past. Any info or suggestions would be most helpful. thank you!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
The best scenario for you depends on how much data you have on each of those drives, how often it changes, and how important it is to you.
You should probably have at least two complete sets of backups.
For "primary" backups, Time Machine is likely best for your OSX drive and any others with data that changes frequently. TM can back up from multiple volumes, but only to a single volume. Since it keeps "archived" versions of things you've changed or deleted as long as there's room on the backup drive, it usually needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing up to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum).
Other drives might be better backed-up via CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or the like. Those are most often used to make "bootable clones" of an OSX drive, but can back up data-only drives, too. That's a one-volume-to-one-volume setup, but you can have multiple routines scheduled to run at various times. [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
For "secondary" backups, CCC or SD would work well also. Consider doing these to portable external HDs, so you can take them to a secure off-site location and be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.
If you have a MobileMe subscription, Apple's Backup app is very basic, but not bad to get small amounts of data off-site to your iDisk daily. Such things as AddressBook, preferences, settings, perhaps some documents, etc. would be good candidates. But anything going to the internet will be quite slow, and Apple recommends no Backup Plans over 1 GB for iDisk.
There are many other options, of course, some quite sophisticated. See Kappy's post on Basic Backup.

Best Back Up option

Speaking of my 10 gigs of music....
I also have a bunch of stuff I recorded on Garage Band and other important documents and files. I want to back all this stuff up, but I only have a CD burner, not a DVD drive. I don't know that I want to spend crazy money buying a DVD burner just for back up purposes...but if that's what I have to do, so be it.
Are there any other ideas? What's the best way to back up my entire computer?

I'm with the others that an external FireWire drive is definitely your best bet. Personally, I'm using a 160GB LaCie drive, partitioned to back up with 80GB and hold movies on the other 80GB. The nice thing about LaCie is that it comes with a backup tool called SilverKeeper. You can pick the things you want to back up and the things you don't want to back up (such as internet cache files), click Go, and it'll do everything else for you. While it won't back up stuff as-you-go, it does have the option to schedule backups, so that might be in your best interests.
I've done the CD route before, and wasn't satisfied. It was enough to keep the music I'd written backed up, along with some of my documents and financial information, but if my computer had totally died, I'd still be out a lot of data. CDs are a pain because they don't hold much, and you have to be nice to them. (I've scratched many CDs before...but [knock on wood] haven't killed a hard drive...yet.) You can go the DVD route, and they'll hold more than CDs, but if you're going to spend the money (which is definitely worth it for the amount of time you save and amount of information you can safely back up), an external hard drive is definitely your best bet.
-Greg Turnipseed

Best back up for Mac Book Pro

Hi Guys,
Having recently made the big step of purchasing a MacBook Pro I am all over the moon about it (really not sure why I hesitated for such along time). I don't want this to become a nightmare of losing some of my data etc. and wanna get a good and easy backup system. Had a look through the Apple Store for their backup system but not quite sure which one is the best one. Obviously the Time Capsule would be the preferred one but didn't want to spend that kind of money.
Can you suggest any other good and easy to use backup system? Thought about spending around £80.00.
Thanks.
K.

Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. MimMac (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

"Best" Back Up Strategy

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