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pen-helm - Nov 1, 2007 - 4:56 pm

I'm looking for reliable backup software.

I'd like to backup to CDs and to my external hard drive. Maybe I need two programs.


"Retrospect" gave me 3,066 errors when trying to restore.
"Impression" failed twice during backup.
"Carbon Copy Cloner" did not make a perfect copy.

Any recommendations? I read mixed reviews of Silverlining and SuperDuper!


My specs: Mac mini 1.25 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 55 GB internal HD; 111 GB FireWire external drive, OS 10.4.10. It can burn CDs.
I have fixed permissions and used Disk Utility to Repair Disk. Connected to my machine are a keyboard, mouse, and printer.

leonard.leotech - Nov 1, 2007 - 5:41 pm

Pen-Thanks for choosing Macosx.com!

Could you just clarify-what do you want to backup? Personal files like music, photos, and documents, or applications or system files or the operating system?

Thanks,

Leonard Slutsky
Macosx.com Tech

pen-helm - Nov 1, 2007 - 7:01 pm

The whole schmeer, a bootable exact copy, OS and all.
(Though I realize the CD backups will not be bootable.)

leonard.leotech - Nov 1, 2007 - 7:29 pm

CD backups are good for a just the files. In order to have enough room to store the contents in order to be bootable and contain your entire system, including personal files and system files, you'd need to have hundreds if not thousands of cds being booted from simultaneously!

The solution is to use an external firewire (my emphasis) hard drive. These are just like having a second hard drive. You clone your system directly to the device, then if your hard drive dies, you can boot from it and be just like new.

Does this make sense? Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Leonard Slutsky
Macosx.com Tech

BTW: CD's are bootable, if you make them the right way.

pen-helm - Nov 1, 2007 - 9:39 pm

As I said, I'm looking for reliable backup software. To CD's and/or my external hard drive. Any recomendations?

leonard.leotech - Nov 2, 2007 - 6:18 am

Sorry for the confusion-I just wanted to clarify this for you.

To make a bootable backup to an external hard drive, I would recommend either SuperDuper! (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html) or Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html). They're both equally as good-just make sure each has all of the extra features you want.

Is this what you're looking for?

Leonard Slutsky
Macosx.com Tech

pen-helm - Nov 2, 2007 - 1:29 pm

As I said, "Carbon Copy Cloner" did not make a perfect copy, and, I've heard mixed reviews of SuperDuper. But maybe I'll try it.

peter_ob - Nov 5, 2007 - 5:07 am

SuperDuper works fine for me but now that I installed Leopard it's now Time Machine for me. Check it out you might like it. ; )
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html

Bests,

Peter