I have Backup setup to backup my documents folder, various other things, and my iphoto library which is 13gb. Backup says it can do it using 2 DVD's. Obviously it is leaving something out. What gives?

I BU the whole HD by cloning to a external HD via SuperDuper, then I BU again. I keep one copy on site and the other off site. I try to do this weekly, but often fall behind. It is saved my a$$ a coupe of times.

If I lost my house I would have the off site BU, but I would have a lot of other severe problems to deal with!

Any BU is better than no BU!

I am among those here who believe doing partial, segmented backups are a less desirable use of time and resources. With HDs so big, cheap, and abundant, there is no longer any meaningful barrier to doing full backups.

For extra flexibility and security, doing bootable backups. And backing up to more than one destination. And as suggested above, storing at least one portable HD offsite. It's that last measure of security that offers the most peaceful sleep.

My house burned down in 2006. I regret not taking that final step. All my backup drives were destroyed along with my main drives. They were in the same iocation. Not much use having a backup in a situation like that.

Most of us need backups for a less drastic emergency. A typical mechanical or data HD failure.

Why mess around with backing up chunks of this and that, putting them on optical discs? Full backups offer the fastest rebuild path, you can be back up and running in 20 minutes, instead of spending half a day reloading the OS from retail discs, and installing your stored folders and documents from multiple DVDs. Or start up immediately, by simply booting from the backup hard drive.

It's like if your car gets wrecked, you either get your car restored by having a series of boxes delivered, with various mechanical parts, and you have to rebuild your car by hand. Or--you just get a perfect duplicate of your car, all gassed up and ready to go.

Perhaps you're just experimenting, not really doing a serious backup. I've done that. It sounds like you're just getting a feel for the software, not really backing up yet.

Should you need to use your backup to recreate your original boot drive, you ideally want it to be complete, not partial. If you have a choice, full backups are the easiest and offer the most benefits.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2008 05:52AM by guitarist.

It would fit on 2 DVDs if they were dual layer DVDs. Maybe that is what Backup is referring to.

---

I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making
him carry me, and yet assure myself and others
that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his
lot by all possible means — except by getting off
his back. - Leo Tolstoy, novelist and Philosopher
(1828-1910)

It may not be measuring precisely, it might be an estimate.

Also, does Backup do compression? It might be archiving the material into a compression format.

The Help or Read Me might have more info.

Quote
guitarist
My house burned down in 2006.

Sorry to hear that!