Best Backup software?

[Hoggy]

Hi there,

I've been looking for some backup software for a while. To be honest, I didn't think it would be this difficult but I'm struggling to find something that will do what I want. Can anyone recommend something that will do the job?

Here is what I am trying to do:

I have a Powerbook G4 1.67GHz, which has a 100Gb internal HD. I have a 100Gb partition set aside on an external FireWire drive. The plan is to maintain a complete clone of the internal HD on this drive. What I'd like the software to do is copy the whole drive across the first time I run it, and from then on just run some sort of "sync" routine, so that files I have updated on the internal HD get updated on the backup.

The theory behind it is that I'll have a backup I can swap straight onto if the internal HD crashes or the laptop is stolen.


So far I've tried Synchronize, which appeared to choke on the number of files (over 500,000 - which surprised me). I use Synchronise to keep track of a couple of project folders and it does that very well, but it doesn't seem up to dealing with the larger backup task.

I also tried SuperDuper. It crashed and didn't complete the first backup, so I didn't get the chance to try it out properly. I'm reluctant to waste another couple of hours trying it again, unless anyone can persuade me otherwise.

I have used CarbonCopyCloner in the past, and it certainly does a good job of backing up a drive, but I'm not sure about keeping the backups synchronised.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something that will be up to the task?

[underdog]

I wont try to persuade, however SuperDuper is great. I had trouble with my first backup also. Contacted Shirtpocket and and recd the following reply.

"Sounds like it's not responding right; I'd stop it, power everything, including all peripherals, off. Then, start up again and give it another shot."

My problem was I had the Isight camera attached. SD does not play well with I sight. Afterthe first clone everything is fine with the firewire camera attached. Check out http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6

[Hoggy]

Thanks for the reply!

Originally Posted by underdog

I wont try to persuade, however SuperDuper is great.

How do you find it for synchronising after the first backup? Does it manage that without choking?

Cheers, Stuart

[underdog]

Have had no trouble, updates the original backup with no problem.

[jbarley]

Originally Posted by Hoggy

Thanks for the reply!



How do you find it for synchronising after the first backup? Does it manage that without choking?
Cheers, Stuart

I have a registered copy of SuperDuper, and have been using it for several years without any problems.
I maintain cloned backups to firewire partitions daily, weekly and monthly, so at any given time I have 3 bootable backups of my system.
My system normally sleeps, auto wakeup at 6:00AM, auto startup of SD which then mounts my firewire drive, does the cloning and then unmounts the drive, finally sleeping my system again and quitting.
These incremental clone backups take between 5 - 10 minutes depending on how much data on my system has changed. The main thing is it always works without fail.

jb.

[Hoggy]

OK, looks like Super Duper gets another try - I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks!

[Captain Code]

SmartBackup looks like a good app to me however I haven't used it myself.
http://freeridecoding.com/smartbackup/

If you want online backup, check out mozy.com, you get 2GB free space which you can use for more important files. I'm using the unlimited paid version myself and have 80GB stored online.

[nealt]

I like Silverkeeper from Lacie. What is more is that it is free!