As many of you may know from some of my early articles I am a BIG advicate of backing up. As a matter f fact I showed off Super-Dupper to my Mac User Group tonight. That said the new version of Carbon Copy Cloner is out. According to the web site, it has added a better user interface and a few other new features listed here.

• Support for block-level disk-to-disk clones.
• Synchronization built-in, not bolted on.
• Support for backing up across the network to another Macintosh.
• Advanced scheduling capabilities — Backup tasks can now be scheduled on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or you can indicate that a backup task should run when the backup device is attached (e.g. an iPod).
• CCC recognizes iPods specifically, allowing time for the iPod:iTunes synchronization to complete.
• The ability to drill down into folders to select exactly what gets copied and what doesn’t (you can drill down indefinitely).
• Built-in software update feature notifies you when updates are available.

I will be testing out the new CCC this week to get a better feeling for it. Some may ask why switch from Super-Duper. My answer is free, or a small donations, for CCC is better than the 27.95 Super-Duper wants.

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New Mac owners this post is for you. If you have had you mac for a while this may be a reminder to you. This week I had a service call for someone who needed to install the X11 that is included on the OS 10.4 install disks that apple sends you when you buy the computer. This person said she did not even remember the disks coming with the computer. Why am I telling you this? Because when the stuff hits the fan and you need these disks to reinstall your operating system, or add something that came on them to your system its a real good idea to know exactly where they are. It will cost you even more time and money if you have to search around for the disks when you have a service tech at your office or home. Now I am sure that i will get comments on the fact that you can call apple and have them ship you replacement disks at the charge of $40 (US) give or take a few dollars, but I hate to give any company and more of my money than I have to.

My advise you, new Mac owners, is to get these disk that come out of the box and first make a copy of them and place them in a very safe location. Then you need to take the originals and put them in a different safe place. There are many tips on the internet for not misplacing your restore disks. What we do here at New Mac User is to put one copy in the Drawer in my desk that has all the CD/DVD’s that I have purchased. (its a real big Drawer.) For my Parents I bought a Handstands 11307 CD and DVD Storage Binder and we put all their disks in it.

A quick side note we also put a monthly backup of all the pictures they take on a DVD and put it in the notebook. The at the end of the year we take all 12 DVDs and put them on One or two Disks.

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The Fine folks aver at the MacTipper.com Blog put together a really nice back up strategy that is really worth looking at.

“Backup is one of the most important things you should do on your computer. If your HD has problems. If you accidently delete something (for good) etc. The odds of you wishing you had a backup increase every time you boot-up your computer or install software. The question though, is ‘What do I need to backup?’. Well, here’s the minimum that I suggest you do.
Every year, backup your entire computer to DVD/CD.

Every month, backup your entire computer to an external HD.

Every other week backup your user to an External HD.

Every week, backup your critical files (I would suggest a jump-drive, external HD or internet service such as Mozy). What are these? Well, that’s what today’s tip is REALLY about.

Here’s what I suggest you backup:

1: Your current project and all associated files. I would suggest that when you’re working on a project, that you save all your files to one folder.

2: Clean up you desktop and backup everything on it. The reason for this is that if after you clean up your desktop, there are still files there, then obviously those are relatively important.

3: Backup your ~/Library/Preferences/ folder. It would be nice if you could backup your entire library. (My library is only 350 MB) But, I would suggest that you backup this folder in particular.

4: Backup your ~/Library/Application Support/ folder. This will save important stuff like your iWeb templates and such.

5: Backup your bookmarks. To do this in firefox open firefox and go to Bookmarks>Organize Bookmarks… and then go to File>Export…
To do this in Safari, go to File>Export Bookmarks…
I would suggest that you save your bookmark.html files to ~/Library/Application Support/Safari/ (You might have to create this folder.)

If you have the room, I would suggest that you backup MacHD/Library/ and MacHD/System/Library/ However, be warned that these folders are usually large.

So, that’s my two cents on what you should backup. Do you backup? If you do, what do you backup? What I’ve mentioned? More? Less? Leave an answer in the comments!”

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Freeridecoding has released a significant update to the backup program SmartBackup, bringing it to version 2.1. The tool can backup data to hard drives, network sharepoints, webDAV, usb sticks, iPods and other locations. It supports the use of Spotlight’s “saved searches” as backup items or to define exclusion, allowing for dynamic sets of data. The new release can be launched with superuser privileges, has improved cleanup and archiving, improved handling of metadata, improved backup to network shares an updated interface, German localization and several bug fixes. The software is priced at 15 EUR (about $20).

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• Carbon Copy Cloner 3 is out
• The Dream Apps releases Involer 1.2 for Mac OS X – Adds New Features

Mozy has introduced their 2 gig online backup solution to the Mac. This service gives you 2 gigs of online storage for free. they do have a fee-based service. There are many different fee-based options ranging in price from 4.95 to just under 50.00 a month. Over the next week we will be useing this software and putting it through the paces.

Mozy Mac Back up

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While reading some of the bloggs today i cam across this tip for you. Use your Web hosting companys hard drive as an off-site backup stroage center. http://www.tuaw.com/2007/04/02/backup-your-mac-to-dreamhost/

I have a few other ideas about this but will post them seperatly.

UPDATE:
Today on Lifehacker.com they did a reviw of some very good (and some free) back up utilites. This is very worthy of a look.

Lifehacker Post

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