In reply to a post by goldenoldie:

I've had TM sulk before - very worrying .

Yes, it is... my main HDD (1TB) is getting a bit full, so I thought I'd do a check of what I've got on it.

The iTunes media folder is a smidgen under 700GB, if the worst happened then to re-rip all my CDs and DVDs would take several weeks at least, and to replace what I've bought from the store would cost me something over £500, not to mention what it would do to my download allowance

These things sort of creep up on you... time for a major rethink on external storage media and backup strategy methinks!!!!

I don't back up onto either of my MBPs hard drives - each machine has a dedicated external Desktop Drive which is only for back ups .

Each External has 2 partitions - one for TM and the other for SuperDuper. If I'm away from home BOTH External Drives are taken to a friend just before I go and they are kept safely while I'm away.

My Main MBP has a portable external which is used the same way BUT it comes with me when I travel . I also have a portable external which is dedicated to my Aperture Library

The only serious flaw with your strategy is that both TM and superDuper backups are on the same physical drive, so if the drive fails as it WILL one day, you could lose both backups. Sod's law says that your computer internal drive will also fail on the same day.

One word of advice (not always easy to implement, but de rigueur if you are responsible for enterprise systems). As you have discovered, you should never rely on a backup solution that you haven't tested.

The worst time to discover that there are problems with your backup regime is when, under pressure, you are trying to restore a vital computer back to it's previous state. If at all possible, practice this process under controlled conditions and document any special steps that you need to take to complete the process.

What you do with that advice is up to you, and I realize that it can be difficult to implement. But if your job depends upon keeping a particular system running then you'll never regret the time spent practising disaster recovery.

This is true re the possibility of the drive failing BUT remember that for the main machine I also have the portable Drive with back up on it

When I have the cash [ please note WHEN ] then another Desktop type external will be got so that TM and SuperDuper are on separate drives - till then fingers and toes are crossed

I didn't really make it clear- the backup is to an external 1TB drive, but I think I need to get my iTunes stuff off the iMac's HDD and on to another external, and QRecall and TM each on their own drives... I'm going to end up with a lot of external 1TB drives (don't entirely trust the 2TB ones yet)

What about the new 3TB drives - trust them?

In reply to a post by billford:

I didn't really make it clear- the backup is to an external 1TB drive, but I think I need to get my iTunes stuff off the iMac's HDD and on to another external, and QRecall and TM each on their own drives... I'm going to end up with a lot of external 1TB drives (don't entirely trust the 2TB ones yet)

Might be worth having a look at a Drobo box. They aren't cheap, but look pretty secure. You can also add drives as your needs increase.

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

They aren't cheap,

Thanks for the tip, but that's not quite how I would have put it

I had in mind something that didn't need a comma in the price... including the HDDs

In reply to a post by Tacitus:

Might be worth having a look at a Drobo box. They aren't cheap, but look pretty secure. You can also add drives as your needs increase.

I use a Drobo (4x1TB) drives connected by Firewire 800 to the iMac for Time machine, been working fine so far. I also have an online backup account with Carbonite, though it does not backup very quickly. (I used to use Mozy but they have dropped the unlimited storage option and increased their prices, they were much quicker than Carbonite).