Backup Advice

[lukin]

Hello, thanks in advance for any help.

I'm new to macs, backups, basically all of it. I have a new MBP, and a D-Link DNS-323. I would like to start making backups and was pointed to Super Duper.

I'm not exactly what I'm after, so if I can get some advice as what method to backup, what I should expect, etc, I would appreciate it. Here are some places where I have questions after reading the manual.

I have a NAS, obviously, so if I was to save a bootable backup, is there anything I can even do with it? Since it's not connected straight to the computer will I be able to boot from it somehow and get it on the MBP?

Since it's a NAS, would I be better off just backup up my important files and then reinstalling and moving the files back over in case of the need of a restore? If this is the case, are all my important files (mail backup, photos, music, located in my actual user folder? etc /users/lukin

I used the trial version and saved a backup, but I really have no idea how I would go about restoring from this so any help would be appreciated on this topic.

Does Super Duper save old versions of the files, or does it delete the old version from the backup?

Thanks for any input!

[dnanian]

Hey, lukin. Did you review the User's Guide (Help > User's Guide)? Many of these questions are answered there (in the Introduction, "Backing up over a network" and "Recovering from a disaster").

If your only backup is to a NAS, you'd likely want to copy the image on the NAS to a local external drive should you need to do a full restore, or have a small drive that contains a full OS install (so you can get access to networking).

[lukin]

Thanks for your reply. I did read those sections but I still don't feel very comfortable with the process. I realized it's probably the osx restore process I don't understand. With windows it was a fresh install followed by moving files back over. With osx it's restoring from some bootable image and not having to do a fresh install?

If my only computer is down how can I move the files from my nas?

[dnanian]

That's the problem with using a NAS as your only backup.

You can prepare for a restore from a NAS by doing a small install to a convenient device, as I said. Then, you can start up from that device and restore from the NAS, because you'll then have full access to the network.

[lukin]

I see. Now my last question (hopefully!)... Where would one find out the minimum list of files necessary for that small restore? Thanks!

[dnanian]

Just do a basic OSX install from the DVD, leaving out all the printer drivers, languages and optional applications.