Backup

So what kind of backup strategies do the MacGeezers recommend and use? Well two kinds. One based upon Time Machine and the other on a great third party product called Super Duper.

Time Machine

Time Machine is the backup solution that Apple includes with Leopard 10.5. It’s really well done and works quite well, but has some limitations. You cannot boot directly from a Time Machine backup, and of course you have to be running Leopard 10.5 to have it. It is incredibly easy to set up: Just plug in a USB or Firewire external hard drive and the OS will prompt you if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup. If you don’t do anything else, at the very least you should set up a Time Machine Backup.

Super Duper

Once you set up and use Super Duper you’ll wonder - “Now why didn’t someone think of this before”. This “super” utility comes in two versions. One version is completely free and you can do manual backups till your heart’s content. The “paid” version costs $27.95(US) as of this date and adds the ability to schedule your updates to be done automatically AND does something called a “Smart Update” which is much faster than the manual process, because only the data that has changed is modified in your backup. Go to the Super Duper web site and try out this life saver.