looking at backup softwware

[cmdrspidey]

I have a question that I am guessing someone can answer. I recently purchased a laCie firwire HDD and I want to back up my disk. I am used to burning specific disks to DVD, but that wont help if I have a crash.

I have looked at .Mac backup, Intego personal backup, etc. I was directed to this software and now I am confused. Does this software do incremental backups? I think I might have to reformat my drive since Tech Tool found a bad block. How easy would it be for me to get everything back to the way it was prior to the reformating? Also, I assume, it is just as easy to backup my photos, settings, etc.

I apologize for what seems to me to be newbie questions. I have not used backup software before. Just burned stuff to disk.

Thanks alot

Cmdrspidey

[dnanian]

Hi, Cmdrspidey. Have you taken a quick look at the User's Guide? It's in your Help Menu -- there are specific chapters on restoring and backing up, including how to do an incremental backup.

Take a look there, and then pop back if you have any questions!

Hope that helps!

[cmdrspidey]

Hey Dave,

ok, here goes my ignorence. Help menu where? I have not downloaded the program yet. Should I do that and then look at the help menu? Again, I apologize. I have done some additional looking around and it seems that this program will do what I am looking for (Apple forums are helpful in that regard).

thanks

Kyle Perkins

[dnanian]

Ah! Sorry -- you don't have to download the program if you don't want to: instead, you can just download the User's Guide. It's available right on the SuperDuper! page on this site in the right hand sidebar -- and is a PDF that you can easily read, search and print...

Hope that helps, Kyle!

[cmdrspidey]

Dave,

Just wanted to say thanks. I purchased Superduper and backed up my hardrive to a FW 800 external. I am amazed at how easy that was (I am a complete novice at this stuff). Then I booted from the external drive just to see what would happen. There was no difference in performance. I then fumbled through a reformatting my orignal HD and just copied everything back to the HD when i was done. I was worried about backing up and then erasing my boot HD, but it was extremely easy.

Thanks for your help and for such a easy and smooth product.

Kyle P.

[dnanian]

You're quite welcome, Kyle -- happy to hear you're happy!

[DrDan in MA]

... I then fumbled through a reformatting my orignal HD and just copied everything back to the HD when i was done. I was worried about backing up and then erasing my boot HD...Hi -- new paid SD! user here. I too have read thru the User Manual.pdf file a couple times and am graaaadually coming to grok the notion of the benefits of having a sandbox on my PowerBook's HD. I'm thinking I'd do it straightaway, if I had more free space on a larger HD -- but my Ti-PbG4 has 60G and about 47 of it are already taken. Time for a slim-down before I can install a sandbox, I guess. Meanwhile I guess I'll use SD! to backup to a new LaCie ext 160Gb FW drive.

Reason for my barging into this thread is to ask: Is there any advantage in (A) creating an ext HD backup file, (B) making it bootable, (C) booting from it, (D) reformatting my PowerBook's internal HD, and then (D) copying back all the ext HD stuff to the internal HD and making it bootable once more? Does doing all this this sorta brute-force optimize the internal HD by laying down all the files in order, or something? If not, why would I do it? :)

Can someone point me to step-by-step doc of how I would do this last (the reformatting of my PbG4's internal HD and sending ext HD backup info to it)? I know it's gotta have been written already! :)

[dnanian]

It's in the Appendix to the User's Guide, Dr. Dan (just do what's there without repartitioning), and there's a white paper about this rough "defragmentation" for download from the SuperDuper! main web page.