[X-Newbies] Backup strategy needed

[Tony Johansen]

On 22/3/2006 5:26 PM, "Mark Taintor" <markwt at mac.com> wrote:

> I have a G4/533 running 10.2.8. 1 gig ram.  It has a 40gig primary
> internal drive, a 13 gig internal drive, and a 160 gig external drive.
> I'm down to just over 3 gb of free space on the main internal drive and
> am getting nervous about the lack of free space. I have everything
> backed up onto the external drive using Superduper.
> 
> What I'd like to do is to move my iPhoto and iTunes libraries to the
> external drive. This would free up about 20 gb and allow me to upgrade
> to Tiger. My concern is that I wouldn't then have a backup for my music
> and photos.
> 

>
> 3. If I do go with another internal drive, what kind of drive should I
> be looking for?
> 
> Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
> Mark

Mark,
 you didn't say if you have a OS 9 partition, but if you do it works well to
keep the music library on that partition, if like me OS 9 land has become a
dusty throwback rarely used it may have a few GB that could be put to better
use.

> Now onto my questions:
> 1. If I partitioned my external drive into several partitions, can one
> of the partitions serve as backup for another partition? Is that a
> smart thing to do?

Yes, but if you mean using one partition to house iTunes and iPhoto and then
backing them up on the other partition there is no point because if the
drive fails you may lose both partitions at once.

>2. Would I be better off buying a larger internal drive and moving
> everything on my current 40 gig drive to something larger internally?

Sort of as the important thing is to get the data duplicated on a separate
drive. However, something that kills your computer could easily fry both
internal drives

I have a 3 way system. The internal drive is (when up to date) duplicated
onto 2 external drives, so all going well there are 3 copies. The big
advantage of the external drives is that it is easy to store them at a
different location to the computer if your neighbourhood has a rash of
burglaries or a hurricane is approaching etc. Or as a general precaution. I
would recommend an external drive option as having many advantages.

 External drives are an excellent investment and a flexible option.

You would also be safe if you had 2 externals to have the iTunes and iPhoto
Librarys on the externals in its own partition and a duplicate on the other
external. I myself have iTunes in OS 9 but iPhoto is on the externals
totally.

I also have a partition on each of the externals that I call workbench,
which is simply an extension of the desktop and gives me more room for
dealing with big projects.

All the best

Tony
http://www.tonyjohansen.com
A Life Of Art