[X-Newbies] Hard Drive Backup Questions

[Al Poulin]

On Nov 27, 2007, at 3:49 PM, Paul Simpson wrote:

> I just inherited a 400mhz Power PC G3 with a MAC OS X Panther Ver 
> 10.3.9 Operating System and want to back it up to a Seagate External 
> Hard Drive which is Mac compatable. I erased the External Hard Drive 
> which was NTFS formated as directed and am trying to reformat using 
> the MAC. I’m given 2 format options and don’t know which to choose – 
> MAC OS Extended (Journaled) OR MAC OS Extended.
>  
> My questions are: (1) Which format to chose?, and (2) What software 
> should I use to backup the following data folders – music, pictures, 
> favorites, and contacts?

Hello Paul:

Keeping things as simple as possible, you could just drag/copy your 
selected files to the external drive.  For this it does not matter 
which format you use.  If you keep all your data in the Documents 
Folder, I would drag/copy that in one hunk.  But you need to know that 
you have no application which keeps its data within its own folder.

Assuming that your G3 has its original, relatively small hard drive, by 
today's standards, and that your external drive hooks up via Firewire 
and is of generous size, I recommend you aim to make it a bootable 
drive.  That is you would be able to start up your machine from the 
external drive, handy when you old, internal one breaks.  For this, it 
is best to use the Journaled option which keeps track of your most 
recent changes in case of power out or other failure.  Also, this means 
using either Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) which is free for a donation, or 
SuperDuper which has a nominal cost.  Either one gives excellent 
service, but some people consider that SuperDuper is easier to use and 
more flexible in its features.  Once you've set up your external drive 
this way and you can start up from it and work your data as usual, that 
gives you an excellent opportunity to give your internal drive some 
fresh legs with a reformat of its own, journaled, or course.  Then you 
can use your back up software to load it from your external drive with 
your system and data.  This process identifies and bypasses bad spots 
that inevitably develop on hard drive platters.

Al Poulin