Back up issue: tape, MO, or another

[jguti]

To back up an entire computer on a medium.

First let me explain what I want to do (other than back up both of our computers).  I want to be able to have a spare medium that will allow us to restore the computer in order to continue as if it never had a problem after a crash or accidental erasure.  I don't want to get too complicated in using extra software designed especially for recovering a HD.  I want to simply be able to hook this device up and and load it back on a HD like installing software in the begining.  Providing that the device (computer) is salvagable.

What do you think?

[Paddy]

Me - I just have multiple hard drives and copy the entire drive with Carbon Copy Cloner, which does a great job. However, it's for OS X only (with OS X you cannot simply copy everything on your drive and expect to have a bootable system afterwards, which is unlike OS 9 - hence the need for this excellent $5 shareware). In OS 9 you can simply copy everything by dragging and dropping.

I have 2 internal drives on my Sawtooth and a Powerbook G4 - so I back things up regularly between drives and between the Powerbook and the Sawtooth. 3 copies of my documents files and 2 of my entire system for the Sawtooth.

An external drive (Firewire or USB 2.0 for speed) would do the trick. Or if you have large enough drives (or better yet, the ability to install 2nd drives in both computers) you could partition the drives and back each machine up with the other. Large drives are mighty cheap these days!

http://www.dealmac.com (Fry's/Outpost.com -  Maxtor 160GB drive for $99 after rebate)

and then pop it in one of these if you want an external backup:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm...tem=OWCMEFWU2A6

There may be cheaper enclosures to be had (try www.pricewatch.com ) but I haven't looked. OWC is very reliable.

[jwboyd]

I have used Retrospect for many years as my backup software, and it has saved the day for me a number of times. I have found it easy to use, both for backup and restore. It works well for restoring after a crash, and for transferring data from an older computer to a newer one.

For a long time, MO was my preferred media. After I got my new iBook a few months ago, I started using CDRW and find it less expensive and quite satisfactory. I have not yet had to restore from CDRW, so I don't know how well that works. I am confident, however, that it will be just as easy as from MO.

I used to backup twice a month, but now I backup daily. That decision came about during income tax season this year, when I lost two complex tax returns in a MAJOR crash (had to get a new computer).

Wishing you well.
Joe