Recommendation for simple backup needs
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From: Martin S Taylor on 24 May 2010 04:33 Tony Hall wrote > I'm a photographer, and working on the theory that 'if it doesn't exist > 3 times, it doesn't exist at all" I'm trying to work out a simple way to > backup my photos folder. It may not be what you need, but I find a Drobo really useful for keeping my (huge) library of video files on-site, as it just looks like a hard drive, but keeps redundant copies automatically without you having to worry. Check out: <http://www.drobo.com/> MST
From: Chris Ridd on 24 May 2010 04:43 On 2010-05-24 09:33:40 +0100, Martin S Taylor said: > Tony Hall wrote >> I'm a photographer, and working on the theory that 'if it doesn't exist >> 3 times, it doesn't exist at all" I'm trying to work out a simple way to >> backup my photos folder. > > It may not be what you need, but I find a Drobo really useful for keeping my > (huge) library of video files on-site, as it just looks like a hard drive, > but keeps redundant copies automatically without you having to worry. While it makes your storage more resilient (by adding redundant disks) it isn't quite the same thing as making redundant copies and it definitely isn't the same as having a backup. -- Chris
From: Elliott Roper on 24 May 2010 05:44 In article <1jiz575.t17czy1a826ufN%spam(a)tony-hall.net>, Tony Hall <spam(a)tony-hall.net> wrote: > Hello, > > I'm a photographer, and working on the theory that 'if it doesn't exist > 3 times, it doesn't exist at all" I'm trying to work out a simple way to > backup my photos folder. Sound theory! > > What I would like to do is have 4 copies of my photos folder: > - Main 'master' photos folder on the secondary internal hard drive of > desktop Mac, used for storage - this is the folder that needs backing up > - Backup on portable hard drive, to live with PowerBook > - Backup on external hard drive, main backup > - Backup on external hard drive for off site storage > > (FWIW the primary internal drive is used for the OS, apps, downloads > etc. and is being backed-up using a Time Machine external drive) > > Ideally, when one of the external drives is mounted I'd like the backup > program to launch automatically and synchronise changes to the photos > folders. > > Currently, I'm using 'SuperDuper!' and this works well (detects presence > of external drive and immediately starts a 'smart' backup). > > Problem is it deals with volumes rather than folders. So while I'm using > a script that tells SuperDuper to only backup the photos folder, it > erases all other other data on the recipient drive (found out the hard > way - oops!). I'd like to store other stuff on these external drives. There is a trick for that. Ask SuperDuper! to back up to a sparsebundle on the externals. Mounting a sparsebundle is really fast, so it will work OK on your Powerbook (You will have to use it read only to retain backup integrity of course) You might lose SuperDuper's autostart on mounting the external. Currently I have a SuperDuper schedule which alerts me after it fails to find the offsite disk when it still is. Slack I know, but manageable. I use it that way for my movie clips, but for photos, nothing beats Aperture vaults. I'm running three vaults, one offsite, as well as my managed library on a RAID 0 for speed. In practice it works like SuperDuper's smart update. (It does not take long if you have not changed much) My current problem is vault size. It has just made all my old 500GB disks obsolete. With great reluctance, I'll split my library of 20,000 +, mostly RAWs. I have only needed to restore from vault twice, and at 50MB/sec and 500GB, that's 10^4 sec aka a lo-ong time. (You can reach an individual master inside a vault by inspecting package contents in the Finder. A real time saver when only one picture goes walkies.) -- To de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$ PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248
From: zoara on 24 May 2010 06:06 Tony Hall <spam(a)tony-hall.net> wrote: > > So could you recommend a backup application, that will: > - Automatically detect mounting of one of these external drives, then > perform a backup > - Perform 'smart' backups, ie. mirror just the changed files, not copy > the whole folder every time (currently it's only 170 GB, but obviously > it will continuously increase in size) > - Leave other files on the recipient drive untouched > - Schedule routine backups, in case one of the drives has not been > used > recently > - Run on PPC Macs under OS 10.5.8 Chronosync? -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 24 May 2010 07:08
On Mon, 24 May 2010 09:43:21 +0100, Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: >On 2010-05-24 09:33:40 +0100, Martin S Taylor said: > >> Tony Hall wrote >>> I'm a photographer, and working on the theory that 'if it doesn't exist >>> 3 times, it doesn't exist at all" I'm trying to work out a simple way to >>> backup my photos folder. >> >> It may not be what you need, but I find a Drobo really useful for keeping my >> (huge) library of video files on-site, as it just looks like a hard drive, >> but keeps redundant copies automatically without you having to worry. > >While it makes your storage more resilient (by adding redundant disks) >it isn't quite the same thing as making redundant copies and it >definitely isn't the same as having a backup. What I say three times is true. RAID is Not Backup. RAID is Not Backup. RAID is Not Backup. Which is why I schedule nightly backups of my RAID-5 box to an external USB JBOD box full of the previous generation of disks from the RAID. Cheers - Jaimie -- You are standing at the gate to Gehennom. --more-- Unspeakable cruelty and harm lurk down there. --more-- Are you sure you want to go in there? y So be it. You fall down the stairs. -- Nethack 3.31 |