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<TITLE>Re: [X4U] Back up ideas/suggestions needed....</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:02:16 -0500, Ed Gould <edgould1948@comcast.net>wrote: <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">> I am going over my backup plan and have basically decided that my <BR>
> current backup system is no longer adequate and need some insight for <BR>
> a new backup system.<BR>
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This is what I do to back up my Macs:<BR>
I have two external drives devoted to each machine. Each has the same or larger size as the Mac’s internal HD. Each has been cloned from the internal HD using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. The Mac can boot off of either. I know, I’ve tested them.<BR>
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Once a week, in rotation, I do an incremental backup to one of the external HDs. This is a painless and quick process which usually takes less than a half hour, because the software copies only the files that have changed. I do this for each Mac.<BR>
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The drives live in an insulated picnic cooler in the trunk of my car. I don’t have to remember to take them with me (assuming that I’ll be home during the fire/flood/burglary/visiting grandkid).<BR>
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On top of this, I maintain DVDs of files I feel worthy of archiving in storage at an undisclosed location.<BR>
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And finally, I use Leopard’s Time Machine to maintain a constant backup, updated hourly, to yet another external HD which lives on my desk. I highly recommend this; it is the killer application which justifies upgrading to Leopard. <BR>
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This belt-and-suspenders approach gives me one backup on my desk plus two more offsite, with an investment of less than an hour a week total for the two Macs I use regularly.</SPAN></FONT>
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