backup 3

[karismac]

I have just got a new hard drive on my laptop after a complete failure (after only 14 months which is dissapointing!) I had backup 3 and obviously do not now, I cannot find any online instructions of how to restore the data off my external drive can someone help? Thankyou

[ElDiabloConCaca]

If you don't have Backup 3 installed on the new hard drive, you need to download a new copy from www.mac.com.

Once you have it installed on the new hard drive, select "Restore from backup..." from the "Plan" menu of Backup 3. Choose "hard disk" and click "Continue." Select the previous backup, and click "Open."

[wicky]

On this subject...

Using Backup, is there anyway to access the archive other than via the Backup App? Does using Backup mean that I am committed to having a .Mac account? ... regardless of how much that might cost in the future?

Am I correct in thinking that this terrible? I think Backup is a handy enough application, and I have no problem with paying my subscription to .Mac.

However, at some point in the future, I may not wish to carry on with .Mac, and I don't want to find out that I can't access any of my old backup's when that happens.

Please tell me I'm wrong about this. I hate the idea that Mac are going down the M$ route.

[ra3ndy]

I'd bet that for the purposes of restoring your Mac, you need to use Backup.

In the future, however, if you just want to make regular backups, say, to an external Hard Drive, there are tons of other programs out there for you. Carbon Copy Cloner & SuperDuper! are two favorites. Both of these apps will simply copy files to another loaction, thus useable universally.

If you want to back your data up to an internet server, then you're talking a slightly more complicated process if you don't want to use Backup & your .Mac account.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by wicky

On this subject...

Using Backup, is there anyway to access the archive other than via the Backup App? Does using Backup mean that I am committed to having a .Mac account? ... regardless of how much that might cost in the future?

As far as I know, Backup will not work at all (not even to CD/DVD or a hard drive) without a .Mac account -- so you will be able to use Backup as long as your .mac account is active. If you let your .mac account expire, then yes, your archives will probably be useless.

With that being said, Backup's backup files are simply .DMG files inside of a package. Just right-click the backup file, select "Show Package Contents", then navigate inside the /Resources/Contents (or something like that) and you'll see the .DMG file that can easily be mounted and backup files extracted.

[lbj]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

As far as I know, Backup will not work at all (not even to CD/DVD or a hard drive) without a .Mac account...

How sure are you of this? I've been a regular user of Backup, and I also have a .Mac account, but my back-up settings are both to an external HD and to DVD.

Are you saying that if I decide to let my .Mac account expire, that all of a sudden my back-ups to DVD and external HD will become inoperable?

I don't believe that to be the case.

[wicky]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

.....With that being said, Backup's backup files are simply .DMG files inside of a package. Just right-click the backup file, select "Show Package Contents", then navigate inside the /Resources/Contents (or something like that) and you'll see the .DMG file that can easily be mounted and backup files extracted.

Perfect! I didn't know about the show package contents command. That's great. I use Retrospect at work for a scheduled server server backup, but had a large backup to do to multiple DVD's a few days ago, and used Backup for it's complete simplicity. Knowing that the files are so easily accessible makes it a fairly worthwhile program.

Cheers ElDiablo... once again!

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by lbj

How sure are you of this? I've been a regular user of Backup, and I also have a .Mac account, but my back-up settings are both to an external HD and to DVD.

Are you saying that if I decide to let my .Mac account expire, that all of a sudden my back-ups to DVD and external HD will become inoperable?

I don't believe that to be the case.

This was the way it was before Backup 3 -- previous versions of Backup would check for a valid .mac account when you launched Backup and refuse to launch if a valid .mac account wasn't present.

It seems now that Backup 3 will allow you to backup to media other than an iDisk even without a valid .mac account, so backups are safe.

If one chooses to let their .mac account expire, I would highly recommend backing up Backup 3 (hehe), since the only way to download Backup 3 is by logging into .mac and downloading the software.