Backing up a Mac, External hard drive... Options

[soramimicake]

Hello!

I decided that I finally need to have a back-up of the files on my Mac, but I don't really know a whole lot about it. I'm trying to decide both on what kind of an external hard drive I should get and what software I should use to transfer files to that hard drive. So, does anybody have any suggestions on hard drive type or software?

For the external hard drive itself, I'd like a fairly cheap one, but I also don't want to sacrifice cost for quality. I also want it to be small and portable. I've also heard that a Firewire port is important?

For the software, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Is it worth upgrading to Leopard to get Time Machine, or is there a better software to use?

Thanks!

[heyo-captain-jac...]

How big is the hard drive in your mac?

[mipadi]

So, does anybody have any suggestions on hard drive type or software?

Well, the main thing to remember is that the external hard drive should be as big, or bigger, than your Mac's internal hard drive. I know that's an obvious point, but make sure you pay attention to capacity.

I personally like the Western Digital My Book external hard drive. I use one for my own backups, and have had no problems with it. We also use a lot of them at where I work, without problem.

For the external hard drive itself, I'd like a fairly cheap one, but I also don't want to sacrifice cost for quality. I also want it to be small and portable. I've also heard that a Firewire port is important?

Firewire is faster than USB, meaning it'll take less time to copy stuff to a Firewire drive, but a USB hard drive is fine, too. (I use USB hard drives.) If you get a Firewire drive, make sure your Mac has a Firewire port. Also, there's a difference between Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 (a Firewire 400 plug won't connect to a Firewire 800 plug). Only really new Macs have Firewire 800 but no Firewire 400 ports.

For the software, I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Is it worth upgrading to Leopard to get Time Machine, or is there a better software to use?

Time Machine is awesome, and a very handy but simple backup solution. But there are plenty of simple utilities for Mac OS X 10.4, too. I recommend Super Duper!, which is mostly free; some of the advanced features require you to pay for the software, but the backup features don't. SuperDuper! creates a clone of your entire hard drive, so you can boot from the copy if need be; or if your Mac becomes totally corrupted, you can clone the external drive onto your internal drive very easily, and be up and running again in very little time. I used SuperDuper! for hard drive backups before I upgraded to OS X 10.5 a couple months ago.

[lucasnotreally]

if you decide on time machine, wait until snow leopard is released, it has a updated version of time machine

[Maccabee]

^why does he need the new version?

[lucasnotreally]

i mean, if he is going to update, why not just wait a month for the newer version with updates.

he doesnt need it, just seems like the smarter thing to do...

[Maccabee]

Waiting a month for an update? or he can just use it whenever he wants then update it when it comes out. Apple is really good about updates. It'll be easy.

[mipadi]

Waiting a month for an update? or he can just use it whenever he wants then update it when it comes out. Apple is really good about updates. It'll be easy.

Yeah, but why not wait? Snow Leopard is only $30, but why buy Leopard for $130 when Snow Leopard will be out soon?

[Maccabee]

O! I didnt see that last part! Then wait of course!

[soramimicake]

I've read that Tiger users will not be able to update to Snow Leopard directly, but will have to buy some package deal with Leopard, iLife, and iWork and then buy Snow Leopard on top of that....I think that's bordering on $200 I don't really want to spend. I'm going to the Apple store today, though, so hopefully I'll find out for sure.

I think I might end up going the SuperDuper route...

[mipadi]

Unless Apple does something dramatically different than they have in the past, you should be able to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard directly.

[batman]

ah fack, i should probably invest in another external harddrive and start actually using time machine. my mac scared me to death last night. it kept staying at the blue screen and refused to do anything else, plus i don't have the install disc on me atm. was about to go to apple store at 2am and remembered i wasn't in nyc T_T

anyway, it suddenly started working this morning, but i figure it's time to back shit up just in case i get another scare.

so how exactly does time machine work? do i get to select what i want backed up and how often? does it compress everything? bc the last time i tried, it said that my external didn't have enough memory (the thing was ancient) :(

wish i wasn't so computertarded

[mipadi]

so how exactly does time machine work? do i get to select what i want backed up and how often? does it compress everything? bc the last time i tried, it said that my external didn't have enough memory (the thing was ancient) :(

1. You should use an external hard drive equal to or greater than your internal hard drive in capacity.
2. Time Machine works by making a clone of your hard drive's contents the first time, and after that, basically copying just changes you make. It backs up every hour; at the end of the day, it saves the latest backup. It saves daily backups for the past month, and then weekly backups until your hard drive is full. The contents are not compressed, but Time Machine is pretty efficient in packing stuff onto a hard drive. For reference, I've been using it for about 2 months; initially I had ~95GB of data to backup, and in 2 months, I've used 155GB of a 1TB hard drive.
3. You can't select what you want to back up, because Time Machine backs up your entire hard drive (except for stuff you don't need, like temporary files and cache files). However, you can select files and folders that you don't want Time Machine to back up.