Best way to back up

Leo,

I believe what you are saying to access the drive via file sharing right?. As far as the partitions, I am still debating to do it or not. What are the benefits? One thing for sure is that I'm not wasting any more time trying to decide how to format it as FAT32 or Journal.

I already plugged the EXT HD and it was quiet and it came formatted as FAT32. So far so good because other users complained that it made too much noise

Could you elaborate more what I need to do in order to make the Drive bootable.

RAID is not for me for now, I'm a bit intimidated may in the future

Thanks

nothing saved on a HDD is a true backup. HDD is archive/repository storage as they can fail as catastrophically as those in your system taking everything with them in the process.

Better back-up options are DAT tape or/and DVD's. I know DVD's are a PITA because of all the files and multiple diskes needed you have but keep a catalog and regular updated print outs of what is where. That way when your drive croaks or you need a file that has gone missing from your HDD and archive you can simply look up what you need and drag out that disk or tape.

I prefer multiple DVD's for more important info. Just be sure and enable compatibility mode or you might not be able to read it on other DVD drives/players.

I keep at least two DVD's for each project I am on...for daily stuff I use DVD-RW disks...for long term I use plain old write once read many DVD-R's...and I make 2-3 copies of the data on those if it is really important.

And more important, verify all back-up and make sure you can do a restore in the event of "the worst"...

I too have my eye on those new 1TB drives myself, but as an NAS option...

brecklundin wrote in post #5787503
nothing saved on a HDD is a true backup. HDD is archive/repository storage as they can fail as catastrophically as those in your system taking everything with them in the process.

Better back-up options are DAT tape or/and DVD's. I know DVD's are a PITA because of all the files and multiple diskes needed you have but keep a catalog and regular updated print outs of what is where. That way when your drive croaks or you need a file that has gone missing from your HDD and archive you can simply look up what you need and drag out that disk or tape.

I prefer multiple DVD's for more important info. Just be sure and enable compatibility mode or you might not be able to read it on other DVD drives/players.

I keep at least two DVD's for each project I am on...for daily stuff I use DVD-RW disks...for long term I use plain old write once read many DVD-R's...and I make 2-3 copies of the data on those if it is really important.

And more important, verify all back-up and make sure you can do a restore in the event of "the worst"...

I too have my eye on those new 1TB drives myself, but as an NAS option...

I think you have this backwards. HDD makes a good backup device but it is not good for archival/repository storage because, as you pointed out, it can fail catastrophically. A backup device duplicates what's already in another drive. An archival or repository storage does not and would require it's own backup in case of failure.

brecklundin wrote in post #5787503
nothing saved on a HDD is a true backup. HDD is archive/repository storage as they can fail as catastrophically as those in your system taking everything with them in the process.

Better back-up options are DAT tape or/and DVD's. I know DVD's are a PITA because of all the files and multiple diskes needed you have but keep a catalog and regular updated print outs of what is where. That way when your drive croaks or you need a file that has gone missing from your HDD and archive you can simply look up what you need and drag out that disk or tape.

I prefer multiple DVD's for more important info. Just be sure and enable compatibility mode or you might not be able to read it on other DVD drives/players.

I keep at least two DVD's for each project I am on...for daily stuff I use DVD-RW disks...for long term I use plain old write once read many DVD-R's...and I make 2-3 copies of the data on those if it is really important.

And more important, verify all back-up and make sure you can do a restore in the event of "the worst"...

I too have my eye on those new 1TB drives myself, but as an NAS option...

One might dispute HDD vs. tape, but one CANNOT think of backup on burnable DVD as archival, when DVD dyes are organic dyes which are attacked similar to organic dyes of color film, which is widely known to be affected by light and chemical fumes, etc. The ONLY DVD type which can at all approach 'archival is the DVD+R type. No one should ever think of DVD+-RW as anything but short term data redundancy. Magnetic recording (tape) is thus far the only storage proven for 50+ years in actual usage, the rest are artificial accelerated testing result theories only.

ione wrote in post #5787280
Leo,

I believe what you are saying to access the drive via file sharing right?. As far as the partitions, I am still debating to do it or not. What are the benefits? One thing for sure is that I'm not wasting any more time trying to decide how to format it as FAT32 or Journal.

I already plugged the EXT HD and it was quiet and it came formatted as FAT32. So far so good because other users complained that it made too much noise

Could you elaborate more what I need to do in order to make the Drive bootable.

RAID is not for me for now, I'm a bit intimidated may in the future

Thanks

Which Mac system do you have? The older PPC-based or the newer Intel-based system? If PPC-based, you will need a firewire attached hard drive. If it's Intel-based, either firewire or USB attached will allow you to reboot from that drive. I use SuperDuper! to back up my system drive and it has a feature that makes the backup a bootable back up. I cannot say whether that's true with the other backup program, though, since I have no experience with them so you might want to check that out for the backup software you are using.

BTW, in order for the external drive to be bootable, it needs to be formatted as a Journaled drive.

And the easiest to boot into the USB or to try to boot into the USB, press the option key when you hear the apple boot chime. Also, instead of SuperDuper! you can try Carbon Copy Cloner. That's the one I use primarily.