Backing up is hard to do, part II
After I used SuperDuper! to make an image of my hard drive, I decided to look around for some other options. One option, of course, was to pay the $27.95 to unlock all the features of SuperDuper!. These options would include what they call “Smart Update”, which I’m assuming only backs up changed items, which really would save time. I’m also assuming it would still create a bootable backup. However, being the curious guy that I am, I started looking around. What I found was that backing up files on the Mac is not a simple case of copy the file and forget it. There are a number of items related to a file that needs to be (or should be) backed up including metadata, flags, forks, attributes, and so forth. I won’t go into the gory details here, but based on what I read, it appears that SuperDuper! really is super-duper!
Basically, I’ve decided to stick with SuperDuper! as my full backup plan and LaCie’s SilverKeeper for incremental backups. I use my external MyBook as the repository for both. So far it’s worked quite well. I used SuperDuper!’s image file option to save to a sparseimage file. Based on SuperDuper!’s documentation, using an image file won’t be as easy as using the entire drive as a backup — for example, I can’t boot using an image file — it still sounds pretty easy to restore in case the worst happens. In order for it to be useful, though, I need to make the time to keep the image updated. As much as I try to stay the Freeware route, it looks like I’ll be forking over the $28 for the ability to do Smart Updates. 🙂
For the more probable case where I’ve gone and deleted some files I shouldn’t have, I’m going to rely on SilverKeeper. I’ve done a number of backups using SilverKeeper, and it’s pretty quick because it’s only updating the files that have changed since the last time I updated. (of course, the first backup took a little time) It’s a nice feeling to know that if something happens to my photos, I have a backup of them stored away. By the way, if you’re looking for a backup program that keeps versioned copies of your files, SilverKeeper doesn’t appear to be the program for you.
Anyway, here are the links I found most useful in my search for a backup solution:
Let me know what you use to keep your precious data safe! 🙂
Tales of a Switch-hitter 