Comments on: How I Backup My Macs: January 2009 http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/ The Life and Times of Geof F. Morris Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:03:05 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: In Which I Share My Not-So-Inner Geek | GFMorris.com http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-2/#comment-10558 In Which I Share My Not-So-Inner Geek | GFMorris.com Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:06:36 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-10558 [...] II, the every-night-cloned-by-SuperDuper! backup drive that ensures I’ll keep running if HAL 9000 goes, well, insane. “Daisy, Daisy, give me [...] [...] II, the every-night-cloned-by-SuperDuper! backup drive that ensures I’ll keep running if HAL 9000 goes, well, insane. “Daisy, Daisy, give me [...]

]]> By: GFMorris.com » Give Me All the Bits, Dammit! http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-2/#comment-9380 GFMorris.com » Give Me All the Bits, Dammit! Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:19:08 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9380 [...] though. I’m sometimes asked why I don’t buy many digital downloads of music, or why I hoard hard disks like they’re gonna stop making them. The answer is pretty simple: I want all the bits. I believe in a future where our compressed [...] [...] though. I’m sometimes asked why I don’t buy many digital downloads of music, or why I hoard hard disks like they’re gonna stop making them. The answer is pretty simple: I want all the bits. I believe in a future where our compressed [...]

]]> By: Jason http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9367 Jason Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:02:40 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9367 Bert: That's the tricky bit.... getting multiple pieces of hardware to be backed up... in your case: laptops. Robyn Harris had some tips from this CES show: http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=377 See the first few paragraphs where he talks about 'Clickfree'. Backing up laptops sucks for many reasons... the laptop wants to be 'on the go' but it needs to stay still for quite a while for a full backup... The full backup will tax the system pretty hard, meaning it's not so usable while the backup is going on, and it'll take a while, even over Firewire. There are two main philosophies of how big enterprises grab laptop backups: 1) They don't. Any data on the laptop is unprotected, and each user must have all real data on a real server (which is RAID'ed, backed up, etc). 2) there is a program installed which backups the laptop whenever it's plugged into the production network. Often what happens is the executives get the special case backups, and everyone else is left to fend for themselves. Personally? I have a hard drive that I keep at work. I bring it home, plug it up, back up to it, and then take it back to the office... often over my lunch break. --Jason Bert: That’s the tricky bit…. getting multiple pieces of hardware to be backed up… in your case: laptops.

Robyn Harris had some tips from this CES show: http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=377 See the first few paragraphs where he talks about ‘Clickfree’.

Backing up laptops sucks for many reasons… the laptop wants to be ‘on the go’ but it needs to stay still for quite a while for a full backup… The full backup will tax the system pretty hard, meaning it’s not so usable while the backup is going on, and it’ll take a while, even over Firewire.

There are two main philosophies of how big enterprises grab laptop backups: 1) They don’t. Any data on the laptop is unprotected, and each user must have all real data on a real server (which is RAID’ed, backed up, etc). 2) there is a program installed which backups the laptop whenever it’s plugged into the production network. Often what happens is the executives get the special case backups, and everyone else is left to fend for themselves.

Personally? I have a hard drive that I keep at work. I bring it home, plug it up, back up to it, and then take it back to the office… often over my lunch break.

–Jason

]]> By: Alain http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9365 Alain Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:51:59 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9365 I use SoftRAID RAID software for both redundancy and backup. I Mirror three disks, one which goes off site, about once a week, and all you need to do is connect the disk to rebuild (in the background). Then off it goes. They were showing a new version at MacWorld, which claims to do rebuilds of huge volumes in minutes, by only rebuilding the changed parts of a disk. The new version is not shipping yet. There were a bunch of other features being announced, like disk testing and email alerts. As far as I know it is Mac OS X only, there is no windows version. I use SoftRAID RAID software for both redundancy and backup. I Mirror three disks, one which goes off site, about once a week, and all you need to do is connect the disk to rebuild (in the background). Then off it goes.

They were showing a new version at MacWorld, which claims to do rebuilds of huge volumes in minutes, by only rebuilding the changed parts of a disk. The new version is not shipping yet. There were a bunch of other features being announced, like disk testing and email alerts.

As far as I know it is Mac OS X only, there is no windows version.

]]> By: links for 2009-01-11 - chrishubbs.com http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9364 links for 2009-01-11 - chrishubbs.com Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:30:12 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9364 [...] GFMorris.com » How I Backup My Macs: January 2009 (tags: cjh_comment) [...] [...] GFMorris.com » How I Backup My Macs: January 2009 (tags: cjh_comment) [...]

]]> By: Geof F. Morris http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9361 Geof F. Morris Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:45:51 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9361 Bert: Just think of the Drobo as an independent storage array. You can use it for Time Machine backups, set up volumes on it for disk imagining or incremental backups, etc. The Drobo is a hardware RAID box without being a classic RAID, if that makes any sense. If you're going to NAS it, yes, a DroboShare would be the way to go; I expect that you'd just mount it to any machine that needs to be backed up as a network share, then dump the data there. Bert: Just think of the Drobo as an independent storage array. You can use it for Time Machine backups, set up volumes on it for disk imagining or incremental backups, etc. The Drobo is a hardware RAID box without being a classic RAID, if that makes any sense. If you’re going to NAS it, yes, a DroboShare would be the way to go; I expect that you’d just mount it to any machine that needs to be backed up as a network share, then dump the data there.

]]> By: Bert http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9360 Bert Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:41:12 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9360 :-) As it happens, after reading your article I just ran into drobo on a Dutch Mac forum. I visited the drobo site (cute girl on the video), but sure what to do with it. I can connect one to my server, I guess, for making backups. But how about the the other computers on the network (or the laptops from my employee who logs in onto the server). I've not a clue how to get those backed-up as well. Apparently droboshare is needed there (fine), but how does the laptop know what to drop where/how does the droboshare thing what to collect from the laptop? Bert :-)
As it happens, after reading your article I just ran into drobo on a Dutch Mac forum. I visited the drobo site (cute girl on the video), but sure what to do with it. I can connect one to my server, I guess, for making backups. But how about the the other computers on the network (or the laptops from my employee who logs in onto the server). I’ve not a clue how to get those backed-up as well. Apparently droboshare is needed there (fine), but how does the laptop know what to drop where/how does the droboshare thing what to collect from the laptop?

Bert

]]> By: Geof F. Morris http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9359 Geof F. Morris Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:14:51 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9359 Bert: AWESOME. Thanks for the tip! Bert: AWESOME. Thanks for the tip!

]]> By: Bert http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9357 Bert Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:50:24 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9357 I haven't had time to look into it for my own company (currently I have a RAID 1, an external firewire (every hour incremental) and weekly DVDs stored outside the premises), but CrashPlan Pro may well suit your future needs now. http://www3.crashplan.com/landing/index.html Bert I haven’t had time to look into it for my own company (currently I have a RAID 1, an external firewire (every hour incremental) and weekly DVDs stored outside the premises), but CrashPlan Pro may well suit your future needs now.

http://www3.crashplan.com/landing/index.html

Bert

]]> By: Chris Hubbs http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9356 Chris Hubbs Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:53:36 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9356 While sympathizing with Bryan, I do think we need to revoke his geek card for this one, Geof. Here's my backup scheme for my Windows laptop: I have a copy of all my media (iTunes, photos, etc) on the laptop HDD. I'm running a freeware backup program (currently IdleBackup, though I have used others in the past) to back that up to a 500GB HDD sitting on my Linux tower in the basement. I backup that 500GB HDD to another HDD within that tower. It's not perfect, but it's double redundancy, works pretty much automatically, and was cheap. Every six months or so I make an incremental DVD copy and take it in to work with me. It's a less-than-optimal off-site backup, but it's better than losing *everything* in the event of a house fire or similar disaster. At the point that your theoretical backup devices become available, I'd be happy to sign a reciprocal agreement with you. :-) While sympathizing with Bryan, I do think we need to revoke his geek card for this one, Geof.

Here’s my backup scheme for my Windows laptop: I have a copy of all my media (iTunes, photos, etc) on the laptop HDD. I’m running a freeware backup program (currently IdleBackup, though I have used others in the past) to back that up to a 500GB HDD sitting on my Linux tower in the basement. I backup that 500GB HDD to another HDD within that tower.

It’s not perfect, but it’s double redundancy, works pretty much automatically, and was cheap.

Every six months or so I make an incremental DVD copy and take it in to work with me. It’s a less-than-optimal off-site backup, but it’s better than losing *everything* in the event of a house fire or similar disaster.

At the point that your theoretical backup devices become available, I’d be happy to sign a reciprocal agreement with you. :-)

]]> By: Geof F. Morris http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9349 Geof F. Morris Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:31:43 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9349 Yes, but have you ordered a hard drive yet? If not, why not? Yes, but have you ordered a hard drive yet? If not, why not?

]]> By: bryan http://gfmorris.com/2009/01/10/how-i-backup-my-macs-january-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-9348 bryan Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:30:33 +0000 http://gfmorris.com/?p=5442#comment-9348 jsdowifjeoif efiwefo fnweiue dwieoinef foifofjweie jsdowifjeoif efiwefo fnweiue dwieoinef foifofjweie

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