Backups Don't Get No Respect

That's the title of Bill Howard's November 30th column in PC Magazine. The article describes Howard's own backup preferences, including a few Geek Extraordinaire extremes. Overall, the approach to backups is one I recommend myself: keep some on-site and some off-site, and above all keep them. Backups may not be exciting, but they're important--kind of like auto insurance.

FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 11-26-04: Mac Backup Utilities

Thanksgiving is over and it's time to get back to your backups. This week we're having one of our rare Mac features, thanks to feedback from readers and a little research. If you're not a Mac user, you may want to skip the contents—but don't skip the backups.

Mac backups used to be a very simple thing—you could just drag and drop your entire hard drive onto another drive (or, once, a floppy—I remember those days). But with the advent of OS X, things have gotten more complicated, so making a backup which includes program files as well as documents and data is more difficult.

The main commercial software for making complete drive mirrors (along the lines of Ghost or TrueImage for PCs) is Dantz Retrospect. Some version of Retrospect is bundled with many external hard drives, and there is a Windows version in addition to the Macintosh version. You can compare the features of different versions of the product on the Dantz website. (Retrospect will also work with earlier versions of the Mac operating system, if you're one of those who hasn't migrated to OS X yet.)

I also found a great review of three Mac backup products on AppleLinks.com. The author discusses Synk 5.0, Prosoft's Data Backup, and LaCie SilverKeeper in depth, with screenshots. All of these utilities allow you to schedule file backups and to make drive mirrors. At least one of our readers has used SilverKeeper, which is freeware, with good results. All three of these products get positive reviews. Most require Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

Readers of the article also recommended the following Mac backup software:

Carbon Copy Cloner (donation-ware from Bombich Software)

YouSynchronize ($49.95 from You Software)

iMsafe (free beta until September 2005, $19 after that)

I'm not in a position to recommend any one of them above the others, but would recommend trying the freeware products first. Some of the others have free trials, so you can check them out before deciding whether to purchase.

And remember, the most important thing about any backup system is that you USE it!

More backup news next week,
Sallie

FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 11-19-04: LockBox Drive

Dear FileSlinger™ clients, colleagues, and friends:

It's time to make backups again, and time for me to return to the subject of backup hardware. I've talked about external hard drives more than once before as the easiest way to keep your entire computer backed up. I've also talked about the value of having at least some of your backups stored a nice safe distance from the computer you're backing up.

I haven't talked about what might happen if someone picked the XHD up and walked out of the office with it.

It's possible to encrypt just about any file, and you can even password-protect a whole drive. I just tested a trial version of Magic Lab Software's StorageCrypt 2.0 and in less than 5 minutes was able to make my drive totally invisible—the only way to get at the files on it was to enter the correct password in StorageCrypt.

There are lots of encryption programs out there, as a quick search on 'drive encryption' will reveal. It's a good idea to keep at least some of your data (like passwords) in an encrypted file, even if you only use the basic password protection that comes with your operating system.

But for those who want to combine security with simplicity, MicroSolutions has invented the LockBox, an external hard drive with one-button security. It comes with fingerprint-recognition software which controls access to the drive. Install the software, connect the drive, and put your finger on the scanner.

Reviewers rate the LockBox high for ease of use and because of its Really Cool Gadget appeal. They also like the fact that you can create up to 8 separate partitions so different people can have secure storage on the same drive. It has a proprietary USB 2.0 connection, so it's fast (as long as you have USB 2.0 on your machine). The LockBox comes in 80, 120, and 200 GB capacities, starting at $200—the fingerprint technology makes it pricer per gigabyte than an ordinary external hard drive.

I don't know how the LockBox would interact with drive mirroring software, because none of the reviews mentions it, but since the fingerprint recognition technology requires Windows to operate, I don't think this would be a good drive to depend on to rescue your machine from a total collapse.

If you hate trying to create and remember passwords, share an office, or just have sensitive information you want to keep away from prying eyes, the LockBox could be a good option.

Before you rush out and buy one, though, remember that your fingerprints deserve as much privacy as your data. Be careful where you leave them.

By next week, the site transfer should be finished. Even if it isn't, I'll be back to remind you to make backups—and to talk, at last, about backup software for the Mac.

Until next week,
Sallie

FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 11-12-04: How far would you go for backups?

Dear FileSlinger clients, colleagues, and friends:

First, thanks to those who have made comments and suggestions. I'm working on following up on them for future issues of this newsletter.

This past week I had a heart-rending chance to experience what not having backups can mean—but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. It's still too painful for me, and I doubt very much that the client it happened to wants to see it here so soon. I don't even know yet how much the data recovery people were able to get back.

So I thought I'd tell a different story instead, one about how far a man will go for his backups, and why.

About a month ago, the Ur-Guru bought a new workstation, a machine of unbelievable power and speed, never mind storage space. (The old workstation had developed mysterious hardware problems which caused it to reboot every few minutes.)

Now, as it happens, he has had nothing but problems with this machine. Real Geeks have computer trouble too. I won't describe everything that's gone wrong, but it's been an absolute nightmare, requiring several replacement parts, and so he hasn't been able to properly install and use it.

The Ur-Guru owns more computers than I can count, including a pretty good model of laptop and the once top-of-the-line machine that his mother now uses to surf the web. One might think that with all these computers sitting around, hooked together in a network and running a 24/7 mail/web/ftp server, one of them might be able to serve as a backup and allow him to get some work done.

The problem with that theory is that those other computers aren't sitting idle. To quote the Ur-Guru himself, "Right now I can't even host local Ghost images since the machines are all hosting the massive backups for the new workstation and new server."

Which means that the Ur-Guru is unable to do any work and has at times been barely able to complete an e-mail message.

Why would he do that? Why are the backups more important than the possibility of getting something done in the present?

When I asked, he gave me the following answer:

"Well, these backups do contain my life's work of data and many years of configuration buildup, source code, book collections, you name it. I have backups on DVDs and CDs but if I have to roll it all back to a new working machine from those it would take me many weeks of sorting (and backing up the data in its current form is no option unless I buy 80 DVDs and spend time writing the data to all those).

"The only way for my data to be properly backed up is to have it on another machine, two other machines in fact. The server and backup server. I could turn the backup server into a workstation given a few days time but I would then have to rely on just one machine hosting the massive backup and that...that's too damn scary, especially after all the computer failures and crap I have been experiencing the past months. I just KNOW murphy would come for me if I do."

Given my own recent experience, Murphy probably would. In fact, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that there is no natural limit to the number of things that can go wrong with a computer. There will be limits to the number of backups you can store, but please, for my sake as well as your own—make them.

And if you or someone you care about has no backup system in place—call me!

Until next week,
Sallie

FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 11-5-04: Karen's Replicator

Dear FileSlinger™ clients, colleagues, and friends:

This week I want to talk a bit about my new favorite program for making scheduled file backups. It's called Karen's Replicator and I'm now using it in place of RapidBackup to make sure that my most important files are backed up to my external hard drive at least once a day.

Why did I switch?

I had two problems with RapidBackup, though it was and is a useful tool. The first is that it backs up every file in a directory—you can't tell it just to back up a certain file or files with a certain extension. So you can end up backing up more files than you need when it comes to things like Quicken data.

The second problem is that RapidBackup duplicates your directory structure exactly. What that means in human terms is that if your original file is in, say, the Quicken folder in the Program Files folder in the C drive, what RapidBackup will put onto the destination drive is a series of folders: C:\Program Files\Quicken. I had already set up my destination drive (X, for eXternal) with the folders X:\Data\Quicken, but there was no way to tell RapidBackup to put the files there.

With Karen's Replicator, you can select the files you want copied (or exclude files you don't) and you can select the directory you want them copied to. You can schedule the backups to run at particular times, and you can put a shortcut into your startup folder so that the program runs when you first turn your computer on, which is what I did. The first backup takes a while, but after that it only copies files which have been changed. (Which makes it a pretty handy tool for synchronizing between two computers, as well.)

It's also easier to use than RapidBackup. And it's free! You can download it from http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp. Karen also has a number of other handy tools, some of which may appeal to you.

Unfortunately, this is another Windows-only item. Any suggestions of good equivalents for Macs will be welcome.

Meanwhile, whatever method you use, make sure you protect your data. Drive failures cause enough misery without your losing the project you just completed.

Until next week,
Sallie