Best method for incremental offsite backups?

I currently have multiple Macs and a Windows PC running XP. I also have a 1TB Time Capsule, so all the Macs are backed up via Time Machine. However, I want to have offsite backups as well, so I purchased 2 matching Seagate GoFlex 3TB drives. My plan was to backup up verything, then have one drive offsite and another at home away from the computers.
However, it takes a very long time to move the drives from machine to machine, backing up all the files. I would like to find a good solution to do an initial backup, then do incremental backups after that. It would also be great if I could hook the drives into the network, so I didn't have to move them around to the various computers.
So, I have a few questions:
Can I hook up the external drive to the Time Capsule via the USB port, point Time Machine to the external drive and do a backup that way? If so, will it screw up my regular Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule? Will it just do an incremental the next time I hook up the external drive to the Time Capsule?
If Time Machine is not the answer, is there third party software to do it?
How do I handle the Windows machine backup?
Is there a better option than doing incrementals?
Keep in mind--I've tried cloud solutions like Carbonite and Mozy, and neither worked for me based on the large multimedia files I use. I could never upload fast enough to make it practical. That's why I went to external drives for offsite backup. I also don't want to leave the external drives hooked up--just hook them up long enough to do the backups.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would suggest CrashPlan. They offer a mode that allows you to use your own computers (or even your own local devices) as the backup destination. CrashPlan runs on Windows and Macs.
I currently use CrashPlan to backup my laptop to a in house Mac mini. I think that as long as your Macs and PCs can see the Seagate GoFlex 3TB drives, either attached to the TimeCapsule, or attached to any Mac or PC in the house, then CrashPlan on any device at home should be able to incrementally backup each system. And if the GoFlex is attached to a system in the house that is running a CrashPlan server, you could even use CrashPlan to backup a laptop while you are away on vacation or business trips.
You will be using your own local (hopefully faster) home network, which should be much better than the Carbonite and Mozy options which require pushing your data out of the house using your generally much slower up-link broadband connection.
NOTE: CrashPlan (again the free option) can specify a computer that you control (yours, or a family member, or friend) can be used as the backup target.
An alternative for Macs ONLY would be SuperDuper (shareware) and/or Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware), which do very good incremental backups. Generally both are used with direct attached external disks, and they make bootable clones. HOWEVER, both of them can be used to backup over the network. In the case of SuperDuper, you would mount the remote volume and then backup into a .dmg container file. For Carbon Copy Cloner you can backup over an ssh connection to a directory subtree on a remote system. I think it should be possible for Carbon Copy Cloner to use a container file (similar to SuperDuper).
Sorry, but I do not know what backup utilities are good on Windows.
Finally, you might be able to roll your own using rsync. In fact Carbon Copy Cloner uses rsync as its copy engine, and the rsync buried in CCC is generally the most up-to-date rsync for Mac OS X. Not sure if rsync is available for Windows, but if it is, then that might be something to think about.
Message was edited by: BobHarris

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Hi,frank
thank you.I create my page as follows:
1.drag a view "roleInfo" as "search form" from datacontrol,iteartor is "roleinfoiterator",
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lixinzhu
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lixinzhu

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Most Simple Back Up
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Best way to do offsite backups of iMac?

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ecd1211, Welcome to the discussion area!
I'd prefer to only back up my iTunes library, photos, and documents. I don't see a way to do that with Time Machine.
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HT1229 what is the best method for using a iphoto with an external hard drive for greater capacity?

what is the best method for using a iphoto with an external hard drive for greater capacity?

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I am in the process of embedding 3 mp3's into a PDF to submit as a portfolio. The PDF also has text, and two scores included, and with the 3 embedded mp3's it can't be more than 10mb.
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MUYconfundido wrote:
I am in the process of embedding 3 mp3's into a PDF to submit as a portfolio. The PDF also has text, and two scores included, and with the 3 embedded mp3's it can't be more than 10mb.
So my question is: When bouncing a project out of Logic, what is the best method for getting the smallest file size, but retaining the best audio quality?
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So if you know the length of your tracks you can calculate what bitrate you need to keep it within 10 MB total.
I consider 128 kbps the lowest bearable bitrate for popsongs and other modern drumkit based music. Deterioration of sound quality is often directly related to the quality of the initial mix and the type of instruments used in it. Piano(-like) tones tend to sound watery pretty quickly at lower bitrates, as do crash and ride cymbals. But don't take my word for it, try it out.
And once it's out of Logic and it is an mp3 or other type of audio file, is there a best format for compressing it further, and still maintaining the relative quality?
You can only ZIP the whole thing after that, but that is just for transport. You'll have to unzip it again to use it. And no, you cannot compress an MP3 any further and still play it.
I bounced out the three projects into wav's. Now I am using Switch for Mac to compress them down to smaller Mp3's.
That is silly, you could have done that in Logic, which has one of the best MP3 encoders built in. And how good encoders are will especially come out at bitrates around or below 128, which you might be looking at.
I basically need them to be about 3 mb each.
So, one more scrap of info we need here: how long are those three pieces, exactly? I'll calculate the bitrate for you - but please bounce 'm directly out of Logic as MP3's. They will very probably sound better than your WAV-conversions made with Switch.
!http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/4996323899_071398b89a.jpg!
Two of the recordings sound OK at that size, but they are just MIDI(one project is piano and string quartet, the other is just piano- all software instruments. The recording that combines MIDI and Audio and has more tracks (three audio tracks and 10 Midi/software instrument tracks)and sounds completely horrible if I get it under 5 mb as an mp3. The problem is that I need all three to equal around 9mb, but still sound good enough to submit as a portfolio for consideration into a Master's program.
Length of the piece? And does the .Wav bounce you have sound OK?

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