Oh Backups, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I backup my backups to my backups, and I love to try all the latest backup solutions. The one online backup solution I used for the last several years has been Dolly Drive. Dolly Drive was a unique backup solution because it used [...]
Continue reading about DollyDrive Takes a Big Step Forward With Revo
We all know that having a Gmail account has some wonderful advantages. The searching capabilities, the tagging, the archiving, and the ability to send and receive large attachments. But, the problem arises that your online mail history is at the mercy of Google. A very scary thought indeed. The solution is to have a backup [...]
I first became aware of Dolly Drive at Macworld in Jan. It won the Mac Life Best in Show for Software award. So I wanted to learn more. I’ve been using Dolly Drive for the last couple weeks on my Macbook Pro and the experience has been very painless and without incident. For back-up software, [...]
Continue reading about Dolly Drive: Making Good Use of Time Machine
There is usually one underlying reason why computer users do not backup their systems, and that’s because it can be a confusing and time consuming process. After all, backing up your system normally consists of two separate functions, the media to back up on and the software that sends your files to the media. Then there is the long and tedious process of having every file backed up while you patiently wait.
Apple has tried to overcome this natural aversion to backup by introducing Time Capsule, a combination of their Time Machine software and built-in media on their Airport Base Station. The idea was solid, wireless backup for any Mac on your network. Unfortunately the implementation has had it’s share of speed bumps along the way.
Enter the Clickfree Automatic Backup solution. Specifically, the C2 Portable Backup Drive. This is hands-down the most simple and fastest backup solution, especially for laptops, that I’ve ever used. Here’s why. Simply connect the Clickfree C2 to your computer, and Clickfree’s smart backup will automatically find, organize and store hundreds of file types, and will backup only what has changed each time you connect. There is no need to copy and paste files or install software. You can backup multiple computers, Mac or PC, and backup files will be organized by the computer name all on the same drive.
Let’s start at the beginning. The C2 Automatic backup drive comes with a built-in USB 2.0 cable attached and hidden away in the back of the small, and lightweight drive. You can plug the drive directly into the computer with that USB plug or use a convenient docking bay with a longer USB cable that will sit on your desk and hold the drive for a more permanent solution. (The Dock is optional). You simply plug the drive into your computer and the Smart Backup Clickfree software walks you though the process of naming your computer and deciding what you would like to backup.
One of the big differences between the Clickfree backup system and other backup software is that you can easily and very simply choose to backup just your documents, music, photos, or specific folder. You do not need to backup the whole operating system or clone the hard drive. You just backup the files you need to backup. Then each time you plug the C2 back into your computer it remembers the choices you made and it backs up your drive automatically. You can also leave the drive plugged into the computer and it will keep you backed up as you go. With C2 connected, plug any iPod or iPhone into another USB port, and the C2 allows you to import music and playlists directly into iTunes.
Another feature in the Clickfree software is the Smart Viewer. You can easily transfer photos to
another computer. You can email or print your photos directly from the backup drive, and share photos to Facebook, Myspace, and Flickr.
Secure data with powerful encryption by simply entering a password. C2 uses 256-bit hardware encryption that won’t slow down the backup. Then when you have to have the information in your backup, Smart Restore is what you need. Smart Restore helps you to migrate files to a new
computer, or when moving from older Mac versions to SnowLeopard. You can also move files
from PC to a Mac. Then you can create DVD or CD backups using the burner on your computer without having to install or learn complex archiving software. Restoring is as simple and easy as backing up your files.
The C2 Backup drive from Clickfree comes in 250 GB and 500 GB sizes. The prices are $139.99 and $189.99 retail. These drives are light as a feather and come in High-Gloss Black and High-Gloss White. It’s a combination that any computer user will say is a simple and easy method for backing up their system and simple and easy means they’ll back it up more often.
Last week I signed up for Amazon S3 to try their online backup and storage solution. I quickly realized that Amazon did not supply free backup and syncing software for users like most the other cloud storage sites do.
Now I realize there are several well-known applications that will work with Amazon S3 and I tried a couple of them and will probably try the rest of them over the next few months. But, it just so happened that right at the time I was looking for a software solution, App4Mac announced their release of Twin 1.0. I contacted App4Mac and they sent over a review copy for me to try out and report on. Let’s look at the application and see how it performed for me.
Leopard has been out for almost a year now, and those of us using Time Machine hopefully have had a good experience with it, I know I have. When I first setup Time Machine, I used a hard drive that I had partitioned, and well after about 8 months or so decided that Time Machine needed its own, much larger hard drive. I wasn’t able to go as far back in time as I hoped.
I purchased a new hard drive, and thought I could just drag my Time Machine backup folders from my original drive and drop them on to the new drive. Hmmm…….if only it was that simple. That just didn’t work!. After a few google searches I found the solution and thought, “I’d share it with everyone in 10 Easy steps.”
I have recently been looking at using online services to see if they would ‘enhance’ my workflow, back up strategy etc. I have written already about MobileMe and the total mess that Apple have made of it (and still are doing by the way!) but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of adding value. Having recently upgraded, jailbroken, and handed over my iPhone to Sands I am starting to figure out how we will benefit from it.
This week I am looking at a web service called SugarSync. I am fortunate enough to have two Macs. I keep one at home and the other follows me around. To make matters even more confusing, there is a PC box on my desk at the office. My challenge was to figure a way to keep the files synced between these various computers without becoming a slave to a thumb drive. These are the kind of problems that make my little geek heart go pitter-patter, obsessing over making sure everything is in sync rather than doing any actual work.
I tried a variety of ways to solve this problem ranging from thumb drives to iDisk and I wasn’t particularly happy with any of them. My biggest problem with these solutions is the way they add steps to my workflow. I don’t want to have to think about copying and synchronizing files every time I move from one computer to the next. I just want it done. Like Picard in his dome-headed glory, I just want to look at my Mac and say “Make it So.”
I’ve been a very stubborn individual when it came to using online servers as backup for my files. The main reason was because it was a slow, tedious process. It took so long to upload the first time and then you had to upload the same files next time, and it took almost as long as it did the initial upload. But something changed my mind. Believe it or not, it was the old Windows PC at the office I had to use.
It seemed that the office had no policy for backups. Everyone was on their own. Since my PC didn’t have a re-writable drive, DVD, nor CD, I decided to bite the bullet and try the latest online file repositories, or as they now like to be called, syncing services.
Continue reading about My Favorite Online Syncing: SpiderOak
