backup solution for mac

Does anyone know of a good way to backup solution for OS X? I can't use Time Machine because my HDD is only 128GB and my networked storage are all formatted in NTFS/EXT2

 

Superduper has a good reputation

 

manually perhaps?

also, time machine supports file exclusion. you can tick which folder time machine will backup.

if you're after another program, then superduper.

all these backups software require you to format to HFS+ with GUID (intel) or Apple Partition Map (powerpc)

 

So even superduper require HFS+? Isn't there any other backup software that could backup to ntfs network shares? What about Carbon Copy Cloner?

 

Get a WD hard drive that is MAC compatible and use their backup software. It comes with their higher up hard drive. Anything above the home edition.

 

Mac can't write to NTFS drives, unless you put one of the third party software that lets you (but not something I would ever do with something like a backup, which can be critical).

I'm not sure that the WD's backup software is Mac compatible..... Better to just get any WD Passport drive, format HFS+, and then use Time Machine. More reliable, and almost cheaper in the end.

 

But I already have usb HHDs that I could use time machine with. I want a solution that doesn't require additional wires attached to the computer - I only want 2 cable: (gigabit) Ethernet and power.

I was just wondering why NTFS formatting would matter if it's on a networked share? The host computer is the one that's actually writing the data to the drive. I just have to get OS X to recognize the SMB network, right?

 

anyone...?

 

surely someone must have tried to backup their Macs to windows based network shares?

 

there are tutorials available to enable TimeMachine to work over a NAS.. Just google for "Time Machine AND NAS"

I don't remember the exact steps I toook, but I was able to achieve TM to work on a NAS only to discover the real reason why Apple disabled it in the first place.

To start with, the first back up (on a new Mac - which means the backup size was small) took amazingly long. I started the backup at night, crashed off and it was nearing completion when i woke up (over a wired 100mbps ) after 6 hours

Anyway, hoping that it the incremental backups won't be long, I tried TM again (this time over wireless g)
Turns out that mounting the Multi GB backup volume on the NAS takes forever on a network

I tired it over Wired LAN again, but it still took a long time

That's when I gave up and just created a 40GB HFS+ partition for backups on my portable drive

I do an incremental backup once in a week or two and it hardly takes any time now

 

What's your NAS formatted in? I read that some TM backups are corrupted if not put in a HFS+ formatted drive. How long does your incremental backups take when you were on a 100mbit connection? Thanks a lot

 

The NAS is ext3
It took so long for TM to just mount the backup that I just gave up on the idea as I couldn't be bothered about waiting that long to just mount the backup
I am guessing the actual incremental backup may have taken a relatively short amount of time, but mounting the backup is something you need to do each time

 

I've been using Time Machine with both of my Macs backing up to an external USB drive connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station. It works, I haven't had to do anything to baby it, and have had no problems restoring not only files, but entire machines if necessary.

 

I use Data Backup 3 from Prosoft Engineering. It works very well.

 

WD digital come with a backup software that works only in windows, even though their drive works for both mac and windows.

I have a WD external HDD, and partition it to HFS+ (time machine backups) and FAT32 (storage).

 

Mounting the backup? Could you please explain that further? I'm not exactly familiar with the operating system yet.

 

Macs can't inherently write to NTFS partitions (but can read them) I can't speak to the present but traditionally NTFS writing has not been completely reliable. If you could use an SMB server or similar NAS configuration it could work for you as it could handle the translation.

There are many levels of backup. I prefer doing a weekly image backup to a USB hard drive using SuperDuper. Then your MAC can be restored to its original state quickly and easily by booting from the USB drive and running SuperDuper in reverse to overwrite your corrupted or replaced Mac hard drive.

Than I do daily backups to a service like MOZY ($4/month unlimited storege - first backup takes forever but then they are usually short and painless). You could also use something like Mac Backup or Time Machine to backup to NAS.



But to me my programs and configurations are almost as important as my data so I need a full bootable image as well as a data backup.