Backing up g4 iBooks, G5PowerMac, Intel-Macbook (and Snap Server?)

[DanAshley]

Lets see if I understand the instructions correctly:
I have a G5 Power Mac ( Panther, 80gig) and my wife has an Intel Macbook (Tiger, 60gig) and my two college daughters drop by twice a year with their G4 iBooks (20 gig, panther and 40 gig Tiger). We have a hard wired ethernet LAN with a Snap Server (80g) serving as networked attached storage for all our shared files. (Yes I know that SuperDuper cannot backup ethernet networked attached storage. )

User accounts: each daughter has a user account for herself, plus boyfriend, plus "admin" with administrative privileges, plus "guest". Dad and Mom each have several user accounts on their systems, too.

So according to the instructions I should:
1. Get a big firewire external hard drive.
2. Get two licensed versions of SuperDuper, one for my PowerMac G5 and one for my wife's intel Macbook. They are different software versions.
3. For the rare occasions when my daughters visit home, get the free version of Superduper.
4. Install the SuperDuper software on each computer, using the user account with the administrative privileges, in each case.
5. Format the external hard drive as extended journaled and divide it up into five partitions: 80 gig for Dad, 60 gig for Mom, 40 gig for daughter #1, 20 gig for daughter #2. The fifth partition will be for the balance of the big external hard drive for future use.
6. Plug the firewire drive into Mom's Intel Macbook. Log into all the user accounts to open them up, entering passwords as necessary. From the Admin account start SupeDuper and back up to the correct partition on the external firewire hard drive. This will back up all user accounts.
7. Repeat for Dad's PowerMac G5.
8. Repeat for daughters, when they come home from college. This will back up all user accounts, (including boyfriends!)
9. Set Mom and Dad's fully licensed SuperDupers to do smart updates. The daughters can be the free version and do full backups when they drop by the house twice a year. Or we can upgrade them to the full version and set them for smart backup, too. Maybe they will come around more often - we do love it when they drop by!
10. If I want to back up the 80 gig Snap Server ethernet network attached storage, simply put a second hard drive, 80 gig, into the G5 PowerMac's empty bay, and copy the SnapServer to it. Then back up the second hard drive to the external hard drive, in this case the fifth partition to the external hard drive.

Right?

Thanks very much!

- Dan Ashley, Chicago

So, and

[dnanian]

A few things:

in #5, you partition before you format (which happens as part of the partitioning). Make sure you use "Apple Partition Map" as the Partition Scheme, since you have mostly Power PC Macs.

In #6, no need to "log into all accounts" a tall.

In #10, I don't think you can do that, because I doubt the Snap Server is formatted as HFS+.

[DanAshley]

Thank you very much!

- Dan Ashley

PS: The Snap Server uses a custom operating system derived from Linux (or a customized version of Linux?) It stores files that Macs write to it, Windows PCs write to it, and PCs using DOS write to it, plus probably a lot of other things I don't even know about. So you are absolutely right.