[X-Newbies] Re: Hard Drive backup

[Charles Martin]

On Jan 7, 2008, at 12:27 PM, x-newbies-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com 
  wrote:

> From: "Paul Simpson" <psimpson_1 at msn.com>
>
> First, let me thank you all for the help you've given me so far. I  
> just
> inherited a 400mhz Power PC with a MAC OS X Panther Ver 10.3.9  
> Operating
> System and am attempting to back it up so that I can completely  
> recover
> everything if needed - that includes the Op Sys, all applications,  
> files,
> settings, etc. I need to do this because I have no access to any of  
> the Op
> Sys, programs, settings, etc. because the person who we inherited it  
> from is
> gone. Also, I know nothing about the MAC but have worked in data  
> processing
> all my life with responsibility for large data centers running large
> mainframes and Windows PC networks - during my last 20 years in  
> management
> prior to retirement.

Your prior experience will actually be a big hindrance to you, but  
don't worry, you can unlearn it all in no time I'm sure! :)

> BUT based on my experience backing up Windows PCs,

There's that stinkin' thinkin' I was talking about! :)

Relax. This is a Mac. Let SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner handle  
everything for you.

> And once backed up when the MAC hard drive fails,

Not to be picky, but let's correct this bad habit now.

Your computer is called a Mac. It's short for Macintosh. It's not an  
anagram or acronym, so don't call it a MAC. This will just confuse  
Ethernet admins who think a MAC is an machine address (which it is).

> will recovery simply be a reload to the replacement drive and will the
> recovery bring me right back to where I was before the failure?

You would boot from the cloned drive, and run SuperDuper or Carbon  
Copy Cloner and clone the clone onto your new replacement drive. This  
will bring you right back to where you were at the last backup. For  
this reason, I recommend SuperDuper, since it can do the initial  
"clone" and then just change those few files that have changed since  
each day (or however often you wish).

The latest OS has a feature called "Time Machine" that does this in a  
different way, but this is moot in your case as a 400MHz G3 isn't  
going to be running Leopard.

> Since I
> haven't attempted to aquire SuperDuper yet possibly their  
> instructions will
> answer all those questions but I thought I'd bounce them off you all  
> before
> I commited.

You can try both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper for free, so give  
them a try and see which one you like best. I think you'll find that  
spending the $24 on SD is a no-brainer (not that CCC is inferior, it's  
just different).

Cheers
Chas