Filed under: OS, Rumors, Productivity, Internet Tools, Security
Backup not all it's cracked up to be?
I don't rely on .Mac's Backup, but I tinker with it from time to time. It's never seemed to be the killer app to fit all my needs, but others in the Mac web who are more passionate and knowledgeable about backup software seem to be quite upset with it. In particular, Jonathan 'Wolf' Rentzsch, Michael McCracken and Erik Barzeski more or less echo the same opinion: Backup needs help, and a lot of it.All three of these notable Mac personalities have penned horror stories and useful overviews of what is so wrong with the little .Mac app that (someday) could, and I found them with a recent Apple kbase article John Gruber linked concerning a silly restriction of working with Backup 3 files.
After reading through these, I think I might leave my Backup tinkering as just that, and rely more on ChronoSync since it does machine syncing in addition to straight backup. Though the fact that I haven't seen ChronoSync written up as good or bad in any of the recent reviews makes me curious. Has anyone heard anything?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kane said 5:06PM on 10-24-2006
I have been using ChronoSync since they released a UB because I got sick and tired of retrospect. I back up to a raid with it and it works very well. While not the fastest solution it works great for incremental nightly backups.
I also do a weekly SuperDuper disk image backup to a drive stored in a firesafe, and quarterly backups to DVD. My data is my livelihood so I don't trust it to just one application, medium or method.
I am looking forward to trying out Time Machine for incremental backups.
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Javiso said 5:17PM on 10-24-2006
I use Backup and Chronosync. Backup is used for backups to .Mac. It restored my iTunes playlists beautifullyl. Chronosync I use to backup my data to another physical machine on my network. It rocks. SuperDuper! I heard is pretty good too.
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Ben C said 5:23PM on 10-24-2006
SuperDuper does indeed rock! I use it to backup my MBP to an external FW drive. It's simple, relatively fast, and most of all, it just works. I'm guaranteed that if I have to restore, my machine will behave exactly as it used to. I do a weekly image of my entire machine, but I really need to start doing individual image backups so I can do partial restores from any point in time. Just need a bigger external drive...
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Andre said 5:23PM on 10-24-2006
I always believed that backups should be totally platform independent and application independent. I can't rely on a specific application to restore my backup. What if I need to pull a file in an emergency, and I don't have my mac-specific application available? Backups should be totally autonomous, available everywhere. I use a set of scripts to copy the files over to an external HD. It takes more space than compressed formats, but I am sure I will always have access to my files, no matter what
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Jon said 5:57PM on 10-24-2006
Backup just saved my ass about 3 hours ago (no kidding).
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escargot said 6:00PM on 10-24-2006
I use Synk (http://www.decimus.net/) for both backups and synchronization. It's basically the same as ChronoSync, but nicer-looking and with some additional features. Apples Backup lacks features and isn't nearly transparent enough.
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Nik Fletcher said 6:41PM on 10-24-2006
SilverKeeper from LaCie is hardly the most robust solution, but it works well and is free!
http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
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Daniel D said 7:10PM on 10-24-2006
I use super duper and its great I back up about once every 3 weeks or after i have done a major thing (like most recently i moved all my photos to iPhoto, as opposed to viewing them in folders in the finder). I cant see my imac and my external HD failing me both at the same time.
superduper side point: I came across a macbook in need of an OS and didnt want to fork out for the macbook version of OS X so I just accessed my EXT HD and deleted all the files bar the O.S and used that to copy back onto my macbook and it worked a treat (although with isync it think its the same computer so I dont use that).
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Zach Everson said 8:05PM on 10-24-2006
Backup runs automatically on my computer every Friday night. The two times I tried to restore information from iDisk, it didn't work and the Genius didn't seem surprised. I'm not sure why I still bother.
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icerabbit said 8:53PM on 10-24-2006
Backup is part of .mac a.k.a. the fifth wheel on the wagon, which Apple gives too little love, support and attention to.
Very sad for a paid service. It could and should be the cream of the crop.
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bufflo said 9:29PM on 10-24-2006
I'm having a friend of mine buy my .Mac email address. No more paying $99 for features I don't use!
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Janeiro said 9:54PM on 10-24-2006
I tried most everything about backup, I even bought some off them. Finaly I still use Chronosync. The interface his ugly but it's work very very well. I own a licence of SuperDupper too, but I don't the way it's work : I have to back up the entire hard drive, since I don't need to backup everything... just my files and library folder. With chronosycn, sync my PowerMac and my MacBook Pro work smooth via network.
Janeiro
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Landry Blume said 10:02PM on 10-24-2006
I used Backup to take care of all my info and settings on my MacBook Pro before sending it into AppleCare. To my surprise it was Horribly difficult to restore any data from the files after Apple reinstalled 10.4 on my system. Some of my files would downright not access... and most of the settings back ups caused more problems than they might fix. Keychain was a nightmare, don't even go there with Backup. Basically I've figured Backup is good just for backing up photos and your purchased music from iTMS.
Hopefully Apple can either address this App or Trash it, it's basically setting it's customers up for a catastrophe. (...why we don't use windows)
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ToeKnee said 10:42PM on 10-24-2006
Along the same lines of recent TUAW threads on why .Mac sucks, every iteration of Backup has sucked, and it's pathetic that Apple hasn't done something about it. I recently let my .Mac subscription drop after many years (original iTools user), and I've wondered why Apple can't include a backup utility along the lines of the one Microsoft included with Windows 98 and (I assume) every OS since. It did incremental backups, and it always worked when I needed it.
It's bad enough you have to pay for .Mac to get a backup utility, it's inexcusable how bad it works.
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Thayne Miller said 11:38PM on 10-24-2006
perhaps I'm going to be the only one to say this, but I bought .mac and the thing that put me over the top was backup. This app is by far the best backup solution I've used yet. One thing people don't realize is it's one thing to backup a drive, but then restoring files quickly and painlessly isn't very common. Backup does a great job of this. I have used it so many times to restore my complete home directory and sometimes just random files. Also, the iDisk backups work great for me. Saved my ass countless times! I make daily backups with apple backup and it has not once ever failed for me. I don't know why people are having so many problems with it.
I think if you just leave it alone and let it do its thing and not mess with any of the files you will be in alright shape. Also, of note, about once every 2 weeks I do an entire full backup just to give it all a refresh.
All of these backup woes will be cured when time machine hits. I've used it. It simply rocks. You'll see. Time machine = apple backup 4.0.
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Ilya Smirnov said 12:37AM on 10-25-2006
Can't wait for Time Machine... In the meantime, try out iBackup (http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup/). Works great for me, plus it's free! Does all that Backup does (far as I know) and more.
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systemsboy said 2:05AM on 10-25-2006
I own and use ChronoSync. And I like it a lot. It has never failed me. My favorite CS feature is that it will run a backup whenever a specific firewire drive mounts. So I keep certain files between my home and work computers in sync using CS and a firewire drive by simply plugging in the drive every day on each machine. I also use CS to backup certain kinds of files (Final Cut files) on a regular basis. I don't generally use CS for full drive backups (I use a script), or bootable backups of the system (which it's not really designed for anyway), as it will not run unattended (a logged-in user is required), so I can't speak to its effectiveness there. But for what I use it for it's always worked great and never given me a problem.
For a great smack-down of Mac-specific backup tools, particularly in terms of metadata preservations, here's a very useful link:
http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/
Be warned, though. According to the article only recommended backup software is Super Duper, which frankly doesn't do what I need, namely what I listed above. I still, personally, like and recommend CS.
Anyway, my two cents. Man, I'm tired.
Zzzz...
-systemsboy
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hessi said 5:14AM on 10-25-2006
I own, use and like Chronosync, although its interface is a little weired and it has its inconsistencies.
I once lost an important disc image during reinstall, which in my opinion CS simply did not syncronize. I tried countless times to recreate the problem, but every time it synced fine, so maybe I really messed up during setting up the sync...
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nik riviera said 6:05AM on 10-25-2006
i also use ChronoSync, and have had no problems with it (touch wood). one thing i *would* like is the ability to backup to a remote server using it though, as we live and work in the same place, and have to burn off multiple DVDs every once in a while to send offsite for fear of fire/burglary
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Scottyboy said 10:48AM on 10-25-2006
For all of you who say Backup is great, why don't you try restoring your data...then tell me how much u love it. Take it from me and many others who have been burned, it SUCKS! You have now been warned.
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