Backup Solutions

Hi Folks,

I am now after a better solution than Time Machine for backing up my MBP - I was rather peeved at losing all my music/apps/movies etc, so will see another option[s].

Firstly;

1) A new Time Machine (one, or two TB)- for safer backups? It was shocking that I could NOT recover the TM's. W/l will be better, and will back up more regularly and easier too.

2) Better backup software, in addition to TM really.

Any/all good advice is gratefully appreciated.

MTIA.

CarbonCopy is pretty good for making complete copies of a disk.

Just loaded it.

Thanks AEP. I'll read more on it later. Looks ok.

Cheers.

Steven.

I use SuperDuper, and occasionally Carbon Copy Cloner to create weekly bootable backups of my Macs - except the wife's Macbook which lacks the essential Firewire port, but a full backup nevertherless. I aso use QRecall on all machines to create incremental backups at intervals of about 3 hours.

QRecall is a much understated application that does everything Time Machine does only a lot better. I have lost count of the number of Time machine backups that have been irretrievably corrupted, and while any backup can get damaged QRecall has built in tools to put things right and it tells you what it has done. The latest beta is faster than the production version but also rock solid, and the developer is very good at responding swiftly to questions and problems.

One of the main advantages of QRecall over Time machine is that the incremental backups are done at a block level so it copes quite happily with things like large database files only saving those bits that have changed.

Oh, I also use Crashplan for an online backup of my important data.

Belt n braces is my motto.

Edited by Adrian (Tue 08-Mar-11 18:50:20)

Super Duper - it creates a bootable copy

As used by some Apple Trainers

Thanks loads for all of that - Very useful!!

Qrecall loaded and ready. Just need to plug in the External Drive tomorrow. Many thanks!

I have a feeling that Qrecall will not get any chance to do a 'small' incremental back-up. Not for a while at least.

My SD pass was lost, as was lots more. I need reminders of things that I 'used-to' have on the MBP. Hopeless.

Argh!

Thanks - shall load/pay for that again.

Adrian recommend Qrecall so will try that.

So much to load - Too much to remember.

Do you remember all your apps?

While I love QRecall and think it is infinitely Superior to Time Machine, I would still urge you to have a second backup using a different method and if you can't keep it away from your home, at least keep it somewhere remote from your computer. Disaster and break ins do happen, sadly.

Yes I am paranoid about backups!

Did you get the beta release?

I AM going to use a couple of different solutions. I do with my PC in case one mucks up. Much safer.

No, just QRecall 1.1.4?

I've used TM for over three years to backup an MBP and two iMacs. I've had to do a full restore to the MBP and one iMac twice and never lost any data. I've also done partial restores as required. I use two 2TB Time Capsules and backup to them on a rotating basis on a daily basis. I prefer to do manual backups rather than rely on TMs scheduling.

I also manually backup all my important 'stuff' to external Western digital hard disks on a weekly basis and to DVDs on a monthly basis. All programs and data I download from the internet is backed up to DVD. I use Drive Genius to ensure my hard disks are kept in top condition.

Having worked in IT support for over thirty years I'm also well aware of the importance of regular backups and good houskeeping.

Good luck in finding a solution that works for you.

In reply to a post by Adrian:

While I love QRecall and think it is infinitely Superior to Time Machine, I would still urge you to have a second backup using a different method and if you can't keep it away from your home, at least keep it somewhere remote from your computer. Disaster and break ins do happen, sadly.

Yes I am paranoid about backups!

I guess I'm in the minority here Adrian, in that I've never had a problem (so far) with Time Machine and I have used it a few times.
Nevertheless I take your point about using a second backup system and Qrecall seems to have a following on the forum.
Can the two backup systems be used on the same computer?
-If so I might invest.

As far as I know there is absolutely no reason why Time Machine and QRecall can't coexist.

Odd this thread should come up now as Time Machine has just informed me that it has not recognised my external hard disk and has been unable to perform a backup for the last 51 days! All the lights were on in the external hard disk and I just assumed it was quietly ticking over in the background. After unplugging and plugging in the cables, Time Machine is backing up again. Maybe manual backups are not such a bad idea. Any ideas as to why it would be unable to recognise the external hard disk?

Thanks for your helpful advice - I'll definitely get something sorted now.

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful, very wise advice.

TM does seem to sulk now and then... never had it fail to recognise the external HDD, but a few times it's decided to stop backing up- everything seems to happen normally, but a look in the system log shows that only a few hundred bytes were copied over .

I only noticed when, after downloading about 6GB from iTunes, it clearly didn't run for long enough!

Switching backups off then on again usually cures it, but once I had to do a full reboot.

Giving serious thought to QRecall...

Have you ejected it? Maybe do a restart with the ext drive plugged in securely?

Your TM images may be borked. I'd redo a fresh image 'just in case'.

I've had TM sulk before - very worrying .

This is why I like the double back up of TM and SuperDuper.

I've found that if I have a problem with SuperDuper the best thing is to contact them and I get an answer surprisingly quickly

Can they both get saved onto the same HDD?

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).

Hey, now that is an interesting solution - Online storage. It's an idea!

I have the 500GB MBP, which shall be back to normal soon - and my PC, which has a few Terabytes - so unlimited sounds ideal.

I can try the two of them for nothing, so that's ok. It's good that you mentioned them, I thank you for that.
I'll read up some more about online storage, including the security of, and all of the costs involved. A UK one may provide a faster up/download for backup/recovery?

There is a review of some of the available companies here





Edit: speeling

Edited by TheHorseman (Sun 13-Mar-11 21:37:50)

In reply to a post by Guest_Again:

Hey, now that is an interesting solution - Online storage. It's an idea!

I have the 500GB MBP, which shall be back to normal soon - and my PC, which has a few Terabytes - so unlimited sounds ideal.

I like the idea of online backup too, but work out some times... even on my 10Mbps uplink, the first backup would max it out 24/7 for over 8 days .

Apart from anything else, I doubt BT's ability to hold the line up for that long!


eta- Oh, and check whether your ISP meters uploads!

Edited by billford (Sun 13-Mar-11 16:46:56)

Another good point Bill.

Be* don't meter up or down, thankfully.

I don't mind upping at a lower speed, especially for a good cause (my Backups!). 1.4 meg up will do - It'll HAVE TO lol.

Minted. Thanks!

In reply to a post by Guest_Again:

Be* don't meter up or down, thankfully.

My ISP doesn't count uploads either, but I think if I were going to send the best part of a terabyte it would be politic to have a word with them in advance

In my case, any need for a full restore would be problematic, it would put me waaaaaaaaay over my monthly allowance

Even in your case, it might trip the FUP.

There has not been a single post saying about someone receiving any word or warning about exceeding the FUP.

For re-installing Steam here, it was many GBs. Plus all the updates etc etc. No worries.

Some even d/l loads of distros too with no issues. Thanks for that though.

Mozy maxed out my upload for about 4 days or so uploading some 50GB, however Carbonite does not. They apparently throttle the upload. It is currently 33GB of 133GB and has been running for nearly 18 days, so it's going to take around 2 months to complete.

NOT so good!?

It was when I was replying to Guesty that I realised the big snag with online backups... a restore can get very expensive!

I'm not on an unlimited connection, and at a rough estimate a full restore would cost me around £500 - £600 in excess download charges. I could have a whole bank of backup HDDs scattered around the house for that money

I can understand the need for a remote backup when you've got data that is vital for some reason, and has to be protected from total loss from a fire or something, but I'm not really in that position. In a total loss situation, the data would be the least of my worries.

Edited by billford (Sun 13-Mar-11 22:13:12)

I do a weekly backup to external hard-drive and then put the drive in a fire-safe. They needn't be that bulky or expensive.

That's worth considering... cheers.

At the local Apple User Group we had a talk on back up methods and there was mention of a company that collects the hard drive from you by a courier motor bike and takes it to a secure location - returning the previous level hard drive. The back up hard drive being created on a frequency the business or user requires.

Sorry I cannot remember the name of the company.

A bit slow really but this is the initial backup, it will be better once that has completed. They have 2 levels of throttling, one kicks in after you have uploaded 32GB and the next level is at 200GB.

a restore can get very expensive!

I think the idea is that online backup is an insurance policy, not a substitute for ext HD storage - so restore shouldn't be an issue in all by the most extreme cases.

Acknowledged, but that doesn't give it any immunity from being costed out and compared with other approaches.

What kind of speeds do you manage through the different stages?

if you ever had to use the backup (probably fairly unlikely) you could download it via someone with an unlimited connection.

not ideal, but cheap

It seems to work in an odd way, sometimes I have seen it max out my upload for a few mins but normally it just sends a short burst of data. if you monitor the network throughput you see a series of spikes varying between 30KB and 100KB. They seem to aim for 2GB per day.

Mozy however, just maxed out the upload at around 140KB/sec and if you started to use the machine the mozy client would reduce its upload so as not to get in the way.

I always factor Sod's Law into these things- if I ever needed to do that, everyone I know with an unlimited connection would just have gone on a fortnight's holiday

I'd probably have bought this if it had been available.

http://www.thesafeshop.co.uk/downloads/sentry_qe4531...

Looks good, but probably a bit OTT for my needs... something more basic like this would probably be adequate for me.

Backblaze will ship you a USB hard drive anywhere in the world for a fairly reasonable price given that you would only want to do this in extremis. Crashplan will only ship within the USA, and although I am a Crashplan user, and not in the USA, my cunning plan, should it ever need to be used would be to ship to a friend in the USA who would then send it on to me. More expensive but I hope my backup strategy will never make this necessary.

Both companies are still offering unlimited backups for a fixed fee.

That would be fine for paper (probably) but wouldn't be any good for digital media or hard drives which are damaged at much lower temperatures. Advertising!

In reply to a post by john2007:

That would be fine for paper (probably) but wouldn't be any good for digital media or hard drives which are damaged at much lower temperatures. Advertising!

Fair enough, when I looked at the spec in more detail.

But the electronic combination lock and USB feed-through on the one you linked to is something I don't need! That's what I really meant by "OTT".

I came to this thread after learning that Backjack has been bought by Mozy. They are unilaterally switching me to the Mozy service, which has made me have a look at other options. I found this site which seems to review a very wide range of online backup services: www.onlinebackupdeals.com

As far as I can tell, it seems fairly evenhanded and is not just some ill disguised way to promote one particular service. Backblaze seems to come out best.

I used to use Mozy until they removed the unlimited storage as it was going to more than double the cost. I now use Carbonite, unlimited storage but the uploading is heavily throttled by them, C'mon guys less than 100KBps nowadays??

I do not think that I will be renewing my subscription with them and will look at other options when it becomes due. It's a pity that there are a few out there who seem to be Windows only.

Just in case anyone reading this thread is using backup for any data that is subject to the UK Data Protection Act, bear in mind that it is not necessarily acceptable to store data in the US, because US data protection rules are not consistent with UK rules. You need to check that the company is on the following US government list:
https://safeharbor.export.gov/list.aspx

I can't see Backblaze on the list.

Edited by deleted (Thu 28-Jul-11 16:03:12)

Post deleted by lenaspell

In reply to a post by koru:

Just in case anyone reading this thread is using backup for any data that is subject to the UK Data Protection Act, bear in mind that it is not necessarily acceptable to store data in the US, because US data protection rules are not consistent with UK rules. You need to check that the company is on the following US government list:
https://safeharbor.export.gov/list.aspx

I can't see Backblaze on the list.

An organization's absence from the list does not mean that it does not provide effective protection for personal data or that it does not qualify for the benefits of the safe harbor.