Best Size For Back Up Disk?

What is peoples experience with the best or minimum external HD size to use with hourly back ups via Time Machine? I would imagine that at least double the GB of the drive that is being backed up would be necessary, but should it be even greater? Or less? and why?
I need to know before I buy an external HD. I don't want to regret getting something too small in the long run.

artistjoh,
It is generally recommended that you use a volume at least twice the size needed for the space being consumed on your startup volume (in other words, based on your disk usage, not the size of the disk). IMO, anywhere between 2x and 3x the size needed will do just fine.
Here's one nice thing about Leopard, though: we can now dynamically partition and re-size "live" drives and volumes (provided we use the GUID partition scheme)! The implications for Time Machine usage are great, here. I recommend you get the largest (and fastest) external drive you can find, then partition it for use with Time Machine. This makes a lot of sense anyway, because one's cost per GB goes down as drive size goes up (up to a certain point).
You can partition the large drive using the GUID Partition Scheme, creating one volume of an appropriate size for your current Time Machine needs, and a second (or third, fourth, etc.) for your own use. If you find at any later time that it would be beneficial to expand the Time Machine volume, subsequent partitions can be deleted, then the Time Machine volume expanded into the resultant free space. Only the data on the "deleted" volumes will be erased.
The only requirement for this usage is that the Time Machine volume be the first one on the drive (at the top of the volume diagram in Disk Utility's "Partition" pane).
Scott

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Best size for previews

What is the best size for standard previews when working with a 27 inch iMac? screen size 2560 by 1440
Also would you go high quality preview or just low.
Stepping back a little - here's my work flow
Import
Convert to DNG fast load previews
render embedded and Sidecar
applying a preset to auto set lens corrections
assessing in library
view / select - 1st run thru check images through larger thumbnails
weed out - full screen / 100%zoomed in images
Develop modeThis assessing is where things fall down, often the rendering takes 4-8 seconds, sometimes starting with a totally pixellated image.
files and LR data are stored on firewire 800 RAID 5 external hard drive
Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2 Previews.lrdata
Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2.lrcat
Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2.lrcat-journal
Lightroom 2 Catalog-2-2.lrcat.lock
images
cache is on iMac set at 50 Gb
So - any thoughts on the below would be appreciated
size for standard previews
render - embed and sidecar or standard
Thanks
hamishNIVENPhotography

Rob, you read the Help??
For archived files 1:1 is completely unnecessary and you should have noticed, I have the space.
Have you noticed that if you zoom in on an archived image with a standard preview a 1:1 is automatically generated, too easy!
If you are wanting to recover from previews then you need to look at your back up strategies. Or just export full sized jpegs!!
Rob Cole wrote:
The points in having 1:1 previews for archived images are:
* So you can zoom in if you want.
* To maintain the potential for recovery.
* So you don't have to bother computing an optimal size for standard preview, nor wonder if you computed it correctly or not, nor remember to recompute it when you buy a new monitor...
Granted, if you don't have enough space, or you'd rather use the space for other things, then yes: standard preview size matters. But since I've never been faced with such constraint, I've never computed an optimal preview size. The general principal though is to save a preview that will fit nicely in the area you will be using to view it. So if I were to compute an optimum, I would:
* Compute viewing area.
* Figure out how willing Lightroom is to upsize an existing preview before rendering a larger version (if image is online), and how willing I am to view reduced quality upsampled image if Lightroom is willing to upsize some (or if image is offline).
And from that one could derive the optimum size for standard preview on their system and workflow.
UPDATE: From the Lightroom help file:
Standard Preview Size
Specifies the maximum pixel dimension for the rendered preview. Choose the size that accommodates the display you’re working with: select a standard preview size that is equal to or larger than the longest edge of your screen resolution. For example, if your screen resolution is 1920 x 1200 pixels, choose Standard Preview Size > 2048 Pixels. If your screen resolution exceeds 2048 pixels, Lightroom generates a 1:1 preview instead.
Rob

What is the best app for backing up my mac. I do publication work and need to save my work?

what is the best app for backing up my mac. I do publication work and need to save my work?

My answer does not have the black Apple logo but the hardearned black belt of (bad) experience.
There is one problem with TimeMachine. It can get corrupted out of the blue with no warning and it will not want to restore correctly (as an added "bonus" you get to find this out the "hard" way, when you need it most). Plus it takes ages for the data to be copied back, sometimes days. Haven't tried my 600gb backup on Mavericks but Mountain Lion had this knack of breaking Timemachine after a couple of months.
To back up my entire server is use SuperDuper. It mirrors the drive to an external one (usb for example) The cool thing is you can use that usb drive and start the OS X from it (by holding Alt when you hear the boot chime).
This way you have a working copy of your entire machine. You can even go to another mac and boot it from there. I literally ran the OS X Server in my company from a usb drive on an old MacBook Pro until i got around to fix the problems with the actual server machine.
This has saved me twice already as the Hitachi drives Apple uses, tend to die like clockwork after 4000-5000 hours of use with no warning.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
PS. As a sidenote... SSDs are more reliable than a normal HDD (not to mention faster) I can't stress this enough, my Server is on two SSDs now. I can't tell you how stress free the setup is, it doesn't feel like a computer but more like a router, it just works... forever. After two years with SSDs my server has had two days of downtime and their health is at 97%, they will literally last 100 years with normal use. I'd go so far as to recommend you buy an SSD and move your old HDD to an external enclosure and use that as a usb backup. (for SSDs i use Plextor / Lite-On M3s (older) or the M6s (newer))

Best size for SSD boot drive?

Hi,
I am looking to replace my optical drive from my iMac 27" with an SSD to be used as a boot drive and to hold my applications for faster loading etc..
I was wandering what would be the best size for a boot drive so that I dont overspend as SSD's are expenive.
Thanks for any help in advance.

The best size is the size you need to store OS X and your apps without getting the SSD full. For example, if OS X and your apps take less than 100 GB, you should consider a 128 GB SSD, and if they take 150 GB, go for a 256 GB SSD.
You can buy the SSD at OWC to guarantee the compatibility > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/

Best size for facebook marketing picture?

Hello,
has anyone experience with designing a facebook post / timeline picture for marketing purpose? If yes, what is the best size for desktop and mobile and how would you do the fill.
In my opinion it should be a size that fills a large part of the users screen so they must see. For the content I think a teaser and then a click to the webpage for more info.
I'm curious what other designers do or would do.
Thanks,
Jorik

Hi Jorik,
Facebook will actually resize any photo you post to fit the timeline. With that said, even if you upload an extremely large screensaver image 1600x1200px, it will appropriately fit and scale it according to the window size. This will also scale appropriately on mobile devices. Generally speaking, that means the larger your image the better. This is because when displayed on a desktop or large screen, you can still view it at a high resolution, but when scaled down to a mobile device, it won't make a difference. Note the maximum photo upload size is 2048x2048px.
One other thing to note, is that Timeline previews the image as more square and vertical. This means that if you have a landscape photo or very wide photo, the two sides will probably not be visible in the preview. So for marketing purposes, aim important content in the center of the composition. If you want your marketing content to PERFECTLY fit the Timeline post displayed on Facebook, you would want to design an image 404x404px.
For more Facebook Dimensions, check out this website: Facebook Timeline Image Sizes Made Easy
Hope it helps!
Clarice

What is the best method for backing up photos in IPhoto?

I have over 10,000 photos in IPhoto and am looking for the best method for doing a backup (or an archive?). I'm now using ICloud and it appears it's just photo streaming and does not have storage capability. External hard drive, copying to a DVD, other suggestions?

Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate
My Routine
My Library lives on my iMac. It’s Backed up to two external hard disks every day. These disks are permanently attached to the iMac. These back ups run automatically. One is done by Time Machine, one is a bootable back up done by SuperDuper
It’s also backed up to a portable hard disk when ever new photos are added. This hard disk lives in my car. For security, this disk is password protected.
I have a second off-site back up at a relative’s house across town. That’s updated every 3 or 4 months.
My Photos are backed up online. There are many options: Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug etc. However, check the terms of your account carefully. While most sites have free uploading, you will often find that these uploads are limited in terms of the file size or the bandwidth you can use per month. For access that allows you to upload full size pics with no restrictions you may need to pay.
Every couple of months I test the back ups to make sure they are working correctly. It’s very easy to mis-configure a back up application, and the only way to protect against that is to do a trial restore.

Best practice for backing bean population? (also, ActionListener RANT)

Hello,
I am about 3/4 of the way through development of a small to medium size JSF application. Sometimes I really like JSF, but much of the time I am left puzzled or frustrated for hours trying to find workarounds to JSF's bugs/glitches and design flaws.
For example, early on, I was impressed with how easily it was to invoke a method from a page using an actionlistener. Now that I'm actually building things with JSF, the actionlistener funtionality still seems cool, but incredibly half baked. I find myself using request parameters LIKE CRAZY to work around the fact that JSF doesnt support passing parameters directly to backing bean methods. This feels awkward and wrong considering the fact that JSF is intended to abstract the HTTP underpinnings. To add insult to injury, I often have to iterate through ALL of the request parameters looking for one that has an id with an ending matching my desired property name (since JSF appends it's own crap to the beginning). I don't like doing things in a hacky way. This seems very hacky, and I feel dirty doing it.
So, my first question is, what is the best practice for populating backing beans??? How do others accomplish this. I can think of several other approaches, but none feel less hacky.
Second, are there plans in the next spec (please say there are) to allow parameters to be passed to backing bean methods? If not, WHY THE HECK NOT?
Even though JSF expert group people have been conspicuously absent from this forum of late, I'd really appreciate responses from you as well.
Thank you for your thoughts.

Hi BrownBear,
I've been using JSF for about 6 months now and I'd be glade to help as much as I can.
Concerning parameters, I'm not sure what your issue is but I use the f:param tag to pass them. If you could post an example of what you are trying to do, I could see exactly what your issue is. Maybe the f:param can't help you.
As for best practice for populating backing beans, I personaly try to let JSF do as much as possible. For example, if I have a backing bean with five properties, I make sure that they all are on the JSP page the bean serves. If one of the property is just there as an Id like, lets say, a Person ID (DB row key), then I put it on my JSP page as a hidden input field. I do the same with the properties that only for display, if I want them to be back in my bean when request comesback.
Hope this help some how. Please, feel free to ask specific questions related to your specific problem and I monitor this post and trnasfer to you the ;little JSF experience I have.
I'm pretty happy with JSF as it is but it sure needs improvements. :) What the heck, it's version 1.01 after all, and the next release should be a great one with the integration of JSTL.
Cheers

Finding the "best" application for backing up

Any advice for a computer illiterate who needs to find the best app to use for backing up to a portable external drive.
I have seen many mentioned. I need a user-friendly, cheap, reliable one (for tiger). I am computer dumb, so please understand if I have to look up computer terms.
Here are some I have read up on but clueless when it comes to the computer terms.
MimMac 1.9.1
Personal Backup X5 10.5.2
Sync!Sync 3.5.2
Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
carbon copy cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6897/synchronize!-pro-x
Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
Thanks for taking time to help me. : )

I use SuperDuper on our home systems, and my kids use it on their systems, too. I would recommend it as a top notch backup program. As it's preparing to backup or restore, It explains what the program is going to do in non-technical terms. While you can use it for free, paying the fee unlocks features that make it an even better program. For example, the free version backs up the entire disk. The 'unlocked' version gives you options, for example, to back up only those files that have changed since the last backup, which makes for a much quicker backup.

What is the best method for backing up movies?

I've been using Handbrake to rip out movies that I OWN so I can watch them on my apple tv. Everything works great, I'm just wondering what the best way to back up these files is. Any ideas?
I own about 400 DVD's and would like to have them all in my Itunes Library so I can watch them in my apple tv. I've spent many many many many hours with Handbrake and putting them on external firewire hard drives and I really love this system. I can watch any movie any time without loading up my DVD.
BUT, I would hate to have a hard drive failure and loose all of this time I've spent doing this. Any ideas on the best way to back up these movie.MP4 files? I guess I could burn a ton of DVD's, but I'm guesssing there is another easier way.
And PLEASE, leave out the copyright comments, I BOUGHT these DVD's, and there is NO reason I shouldnt be able to watch them on my apple tv...
thanks,
Brown.Recluse

I'm in a similar situation including movies I've purchased from iTunes...
Here's my setup:
I have all my iTunes data (music, movies, etc.) as well as about 10 GB of photos stored on a nework storage device that uses RAID-5 with SATA disks. This is basically a little toaster-sized NAS machine with four hard drives in it (www.infrant.com). If one of these drives dies, I get alerted and can insert a new one without missing a beat since the data is stored redundantly across all drives. I can also just yank out any one of the four drives while the thing is running and my data is still safe (I tried this after I bought it as a test).
That's how I prevent problems with a single disk... Redundancy
Now onto "backups"...
Nightly, my little RAID toaster automatically backs itself up to an attached 250GB USB drive. However, these backups are only of my critical data... documents, photos and home movies... I don't bother backing up my "Hollywood" movies since I can live without them in a disaster.
... I actually don't permanently store anything I care about on a laptop or a desktop. It all goes on the NAS box (Network Sttached Storage) and then my other computers use it as a network drive. It's attached via Gigbait to my main computer and via wireless to most everything else.
My achilles heel is that I don't store anything outside of my house yet. If I was smart, I'd alternate two USB drives attached to my NAS box and always keep one of them somewhere else (Safe Deposit Box?).
...and that's just one way to do it.
-Brian

What is best "size" for Share- Media Browser then iDVD?

What is the best "size" to "Share to Media Browser"? What is the closest equivalent to the format that iDVD burns movies at?
I don't want to waste time using Large if it converts it to something like Medium uses. There is nothing on the list about DVDs. Just iPods, .Mac, YouTube, Apple TV, computer ...
Note: The current video camera I have is a standard definitive Sony TR730 digital video camera. Most of the time our relatives borrow our video camera to take stuff. None of them have an HD video camera.

I also know that iMovie '06 is a dead product.
Of the dozen or so people that I know making movies with iLife 08, all use iMovie 06 for most of their movie making.
Please bear in mind I am NOT an "iMovie 08 hater" (I use both iMovie 08 and iMovie 06). iMovie 08 is a wonderful program assuming that you're using it for what it was designed to do, assemble simple videos to share on the Internet.
I use iMovie 06 (with iDVD 08) if I think I will ever put a movie on a DVD.
Remember that Apple includes iMovie 06 as a free download to iLife 08 owners. (THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE IT!).
Also when you install iLife 08, iMovie 06 is not removed from the computer. Previous editions of iMovie were always un-installed when upgrading in the past. Apple leaves iMovie 06 on your system, because they want you to have it.
Want a DVD, use iMovie 06.
Want YouTube, use iMovie 08.
Just my 3 cents (inflation).

Best method for backing up macbook air?

Please tell me what would be the best method to back up my macbook air?

Yes, this i know, Since I have nearly 100 HD laying around, when I clone my system, its bootable, and the second HD becomes the defacto recovery
at the very worst, you can reload the OS online. But yes, youre correct, but Superduper is FREE, and CCC surely isnt.
as a "clone it all" option, Superduper is great for HD upgrading and emergency backup for laptop HD. Since laptops HD are prone to failure (not SSD as in the AIR), keeping a cloned backup is a great idea.
But yes, your right, ......I consider a second cloned HD a "recovery HD", ......but not in the sense you imply.......
An ERROR that both superduper and CCC make in a CLONE, however, is they write the BOOT FILES in a diff. location, so if you install the replacement HD after a crash, it will (not 1st time which is always slow) cause slightly slower startup from poweron.......in which case you have to reinstall the OS on the CLONE...........that IS if you care that much about a few extra seconds boot time on your replacement cloned HD.
But LION and MOUNTAIN LION systems *also* have "Network Recovery", which can download and install without a recovery volume.

Best option for backing up iPad via iTunes .?

I need to know best option of backing up iPad via iTunes .
I am given an option there , but dont know the best one to use.
Thank you.

I've always done mine the other way and three years later, no issues.
I'm not worried about the passwords so the encryption wasn't an issue for me.
Encrypted or not, my personal opinion is that backing up via iTunes is a better way to backup than trusting the cloud.
You know, if you're not sure, you can always do it both ways. I've never tried it so i'm not sure if one backup erases the other or if they have different names and can co-exist. That said, every time I've done a backup, I just look in my recycle bin and find the old backup there (iTunes throws it away), so I can go into the recycle bin and move the file elsewhere and preserve it.

'Photo's resizing? Best size for best quality?

Hi, I want to put a London underground tube (metro) map on the 'Photos' section on my iPhone. I know that iTunes resizes all images before they go onto the phone, but that is the best size and quality to ensure the image comes out the clearest on the phone? Thanks.

Really hard to say. Quality is subjective. But the "optimizing" a sync does does make it hard to get large images onto the phone and still look good to zoom in if you have that much detail.
Will say, what a person did for the NY and DC subway/metros maps, they took the image and sliced it into multiple pictures, each being the size of the screen (so resize the original first to be proportional). Then they named them in order from top left to bottom right. Then made a folder named SubWayMap and put those images in it and put that folder in the folder they sync
In the end, they can access their photos, all the thumbnails side by side reveal the full map, then you click which part of the map to see (thus go into one image) and that image could zoom and still be clear to read what they needed.

Best size for plasma & LCD screens

Just wondering, what is the best size to start with images then into DVD spro - for the best compatability for use on plasma & lcd screens - with a standard DVD player feed??
PowerMac G5/2.3GHz Mac OS X (10.4.10)

The pixel dimensions of the standard DVD palyer are effectivley 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL. You'd be best off scaling your images to that size (starting at a size of 720x534 or 768x576, see page 85 of the user guide) in your favorite graphics program.
All LCD monitors you're thinking of using have a much higher resolution, and will upscale the image. Many 4:3 plasma screens are that resolution (especially older plasma, or ones below 42 inches). New plasmas will upscale it too.
The most you can really do is give the video as much data rate as you can, but keep your total data rate to 8 mbps or lower, so that less capable DVD players can keep up.

Best Size for Web bound Video Clips

I have been making all my videos at 320x240 pixels, is that still the best size to go for or should I be brave and go a bit bigger, if so how much bigger? Any advice from you experts appreciated.

Bigger is always better.
But you don't have to change what you've already published as there are simple html codes that can "change" the default dimensions of your QuickTime files. There are plenty of other html "tricks" that can change the display properties of those files.
Trick number one; the "Scale" command:
Most applications use the default size of the QuickTime file as part of the html code but you can do more.
Scale="tofit". The "tofit" command overrides the actual dimensions and uses the values you enter in the html code.
This allows you to use a 320X240 file and display it at "double" size by simply adding the command and changing the values in your page code. In most modern video codecs (especially H.264) your file will look just fine at double size but you save the bandwidth by using a smaller file size.
QuickTime Media Link (.qtl) file. These are simple text based files that automatically download when clicked and launch the file via the QuickTime Player app. These files can have "special" properties (like Full Screen playback) and even open the QuickTime Player app (even if not already opened).
Since they are text based files you only need a text editor to create them and they can be inserted in any Web page as a "link". Nothing loads (no bandwidth used) until the URL is clicked. One of my files as an example:
http://homepage.mac.com/kkirkster/.Public/Tiny_Movie.qtl
You can also use the special "href" tag code to "call" the QuickTime Player app (bypassing the browser plug-in). Another example:
http://homepage.mac.com/kkirkster/64/
Lots of tricks you can do to make "small" files look "large" and save bandwidth at your Site.

Best Size For Back Up Disk?

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