General Mac software discussions: External drive backup software?
External drive backup software?
by psames - 7/6/06 9:37 AMI bought a Western Digital My Book WDG1C3200, a 320GB external drive to backup my music, pictures, and other personal documents from my ibook g4. I'm running 10.3.9 for my system, and here's my dilemma: the software included with the external drive is HORRENDOUS. The first thing I wanted to do was copy my itunes music files to the drive, and the external drive refused to accept anything that had certain characters in the song name, such as /, ?, *, etc. Basically, the same restrictions that versions of Windows apply when you try to name a file. Anyway… aside from that headache, the external drive's software is very confusing and obstacle-laden. I have a ton of space on the external drive obviously and I want to use it efficiently in the future.
Does there exist any third party applications or shareware that I can download to manage file transfers between my ibook and the external drive? More importantly, I'd love to have an application that would automatically recognize new files on the ibook that HAVEN'T been backed up on the external drive. Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions!
That big drive
by mrmacfixit
- 7/6/06 1:09 PM
In reply to: External drive backup software? by psames
This is just a guess but I think that you did not initialze that drive for use with the Mac. While the Mac can still read it, and almost write to it, the thing is bound by the rules of DOS.
As you have decided that the software on it is not very good, you could copy that to your iBook and then initialize the drive using Disk Utility.
Then copy back the software that was originally on it.
If you have a .Mac account then Backup is available for free and this will perform backups to the drive. Retrospect is another good backup program but it has a price. There are a number of good backup utilities out there, check the apple site. Under the Apple menu, choose Mac OS X software and it will take you directly to the part of the Apple site that has all this neat stuff.
A decent backup program will do exactly what you are looking for.
Good Luck
P
External drive backup software?
by varase - 7/7/06 5:44 AM In reply to: External drive backup software? by psamesProbably need to reformat the drive to HFS+.
And to backup, I use SuperDuper!
Unfortunately, the others don't seem to backup the MacOS X metadata properly ...
What "others"?
by grimgraphix - 7/7/06 6:02 AM In reply to: External drive backup software? by varaseNot being picky... just asking if you advise avoiding a particular back up utility.
Thanks in advance. 
grim
I See Two Possible Option
by robertmro - 7/7/06 7:11 AM In reply to: External drive backup software? by psamesI have a MY Book external drive too, but I do my backups to DVD using Retrospect Express, which I love.
You should definitely reformat the MY Book drive for Mac (use Journaling) with the Mac disk utility. As mentioned above you can save the software included on the drive first, but I didn't bother.
The two solutions that I like are:
1. You can down load '1-Click' for free from LaCie http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10312
2. You can just drag and drop the folders to the MY Book drive as you tried before and I think I will work after reformatting.
You know that iTunes will allow you to put the music library on any drive. If I'm not mistaken it will make an exact copy but I can't remember if you have to erase the original library in the process.
Bottom line: try '1-Click' first.
Mac Backup
by squirri - 7/7/06 7:55 AM In reply to: I See Two Possible Option by robertmroI used to use Retrospect for many years when I was running Classic. Worked well and I was still using it to back up my old G3 OS9 box to an external drive attached to an OSX box until10.4.6 broke something in Appletalk and it stopped working. I'm still fiddling with it to try and get one of the other options(FTP) to work(I have a VERY old copy of Retrospect!)
For backing up my OSX machines I use SuperDuper - this is a simply brilliant program. The user interface is expecially well done - instead of the usual 'you want it you got it' it tells you exactly what is going to happen. You can also schedule regular backups easily, plus it will just backup files that have changed - much quicker than backing up the whole thing.
FWIW my external drive was a Lacie and it came with backu[p software called Sivlerlining. This seemed to work OK, except you have no fine control and when I started up from the backup drive it dropped into the OSX installer. Starting up from the SuperDuper backup is indistinguisable from booting the intrnal HDD - just atkes a little bit longer
SilverKeeper and Carbon Copy Cloner
by Apta Good - 7/7/06 1:47 PM In reply to: External drive backup software? by psamesTwo backup programs that I often recommend to my clients are LaCie's SilverKeeper (SK) and Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC).
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10097
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Both are free and both are able to create exact clones of the original drive. This means that you can start up from the external drive. Your My Book drive is Firewire so you'll be able to use it as a startup drive (as long as the firmware on the enclosure is Mac compatible). Of course, you don't have to make clones and you can just back up whatever folders you wish.
Both utilities back up only files that have changed since the last backup. Both can be scheduled although CCC requires a fix for schedules under Tiger.
SK has a unique feature. It'll wake up the computer if it's asleep and perform a scheduled backup. Of course, the external drive needs to be powered up.
I recommend SilverKeeper to newbies since its interface is an easy to use drag and drop window.
As an aside, since the 320GB drive is certainly much larger than your iBook's internal drive, you could set up partitions on the external drive and use them to back up other computers. And do remember to reformat the drive as HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).
Wake from sleep
by mrmacfixit - 7/7/06 5:46 PM
In reply to: SilverKeeper and Carbon Copy Cloner by Apta Good
I was interested in this little feature on the SilverKeeper software. Backup from Apple and Retrospect do NOT wake the machine up to do a backup.
I shall give this one a whirl, thanks for the tip
P
SilverKeeper
by taboma - 7/7/06 9:41 PM In reply to: SilverKeeper and Carbon Copy Cloner by Apta GoodI have that option with my Lacie External HD. I have not used this feature. I do a manual backup. Is SK used as a search and finder also? I thought that I read about this feature.
Thanks for the info.
-Kevin
Psynch - FREE and very nice
by miketkrw - 7/8/06 7:13 AM In reply to: External drive backup software? by psamesThat is what I use.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
