[OS X TeX] Lost in Mac space

[cfrees at imapmail.org]

On Sat 13th Dec, 2008 at 20:39, Maarten Sneep seems to have written:

> On 13 dec 2008, at 20:32, cfrees at imapmail.org wrote:
>
>> But you back up, right? Backups existed long before Leopard. Indeed,
>> even if I was on Leopard - which I'm not - I would not trust solely to
>> TM backups given what I've read of others' experiences with it. I use
>> Carbon Copy Cloner although there are other options and CCC does crash
>> on me from time to time. Something where you can automate backup is
>> crucial I think. All you need is an external drive with (for PPC and
>> preferably for intel,  too) a firewire port.
>
> I did backup before Leopard, but time machine ensures I do it on a regular 
> basis - before there was no plan, it was ad hoc.

Yes. But TM is not necessary for this. CCC and other similar utilities
can also be used to automate it. So I have a backup run once a day.
Once a week, it uses the weekly target and archives changed/deleted
files. The other days it uses one of two additional targets (separate
partitions on the same drive) and doesn't bother archiving.

>
> Yes, I've used it to restore, and it works for me. I've hard though that a 
> network TM backup is not quite as reliable (or speedy) as a direct (FireWire) 
> connection. I have a FW800 drive, and no complaints at all about the speed.
>

I know it can work well but as I understand it - which is not well
being on Tiger still - you can't really test the backup. The nice thing
about creating a "clone" is that you can boot from it to test it out
so you have some assurance that if you need it, it'll work. The fact
that you can test it in use is quite nice.

> TM is far enough out of my way to ensure I have a current backup - it is 
> completely automated, and _anyone_ can set it up. I do recommend you invest 
> in a _silent_ external drive though. I don't bother with an additional backup 
> beyond TM.

However nice, it isn't an option for those of us pre-Leopard. CCC is
not at all difficult to set up - especially version 3 which works on
Tiger and Leopard. I can't say about the other backup utilities
available but some people do prefer them. (I think they offer more
options in some cases.)

None of this is to criticise TM - I've never even used it. But those on
pre-Leopard systems shouldn't wait until they update to backup!

- cfr

>
> Maarten