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!

[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.