Backups In A Time Machine World

November 16th, 2007 | Free Friday

With the introduction of Leopard, Apple has given users an easy to use, no need to think about it way to do backups with Time Machine. It’s slick, and I think people will actually use it. However, with that said, there’s not really any reason for Time Machine to become the only piece of your backup repertoire.

If you haven’t upgraded yet, you’ll probably want to make a backup of your important data before switching to Leopard (it’s always a good idea to back data up before making major changes to your computer), and even if you already have Time Machine crunching away at your files, it’s still a good idea to have periodic backups for your backups. The external drive that Time Machine uses is just as fallible as the one in the computer you’re using it to back up, so you’d hate to have that drive go belly up and still be without your backup. Having another backup that’s not stored in Time Machine and connected to your computer all the time also ensures that nothing that could wipe out your system will take down both your computer and all of your backups.

Let’s face it: stuff happens. The more ways you back up your most important information, the better! But, if you’ve already spent money on Time Machine and external drives, you’re probably asking, “Ok, how much more will this cost me?” You want another way to back up data, but it should be cheap, reliable, and easy to use. Enter, SuperDuper from Shirt-Pocket Software. It’s more than just a cute name!

SuperDuper has been my trusted backup software for several years now. The interface is clean and simple, and you don’t have to think very hard to understand it. It even gives helpful information in plain English about what it’s going to do when you tell it to start. Because of this explanation, I am usually fairly confident that the program and I are in agreement of what it’s going to do before I even start.

superDuper

Now, the free version of SuperDuper is rather bare-bones. It does make a serviceable backup, and it’s not limited to a “trial period” so it’s perfectly usable as-is when you download it from the website.

As with a lot of free software, when you purchase registered version ($27.95 ) you’ll have access to more flexible backup options. Once you’ve registered you’ll have options for doing incremental backups (this only backs up files that have changed since the last time you backed up, so it’s much quicker to back up after the initial time) and scheduling backups to occur regularly so you can’t forget to do them alond with other tricks. Really for the price, SuperDuper is quite simple and powerful, so it’s an excellent option for creating backups without or in addition to Time Machine.

As of this writing, the current version of SuperDuper is only compatible with OSX versions earlier than Leopard, but Shirt-Pocket software assures us on their website that the Leopard-compatible version will be out lickety-split.

127 comments ↓

#1 Missy on 11.17.07 at 12:49 am

Thank you for this blog!
I got my first mac in september, and this has been so helpful to me!!

I do have a question…
should I have 2 external hard drives then?
one for backup and one for super super?

Thank you again!

#2 liz on 11.19.07 at 11:25 am

Hi Missy,

Thanks for your question. You’re right; one cost I forgot to account for if you choose to keep a running backup in Time Machine and another backup using Super Duper would be that you’d need another external drive to back up to.

Many people will recommend that you have at least two separate backups to ensure that your data is safe even if one of them is corrupted or destroyed.

If you’re particularly worried about your data, you might want to consider finding a place to keep one of your backups outside your house. That way, if your house catches fire, is robbed, whatever, you’ll have another backup that is still safe. So, if you wanted to ensure your data to this level you could keep the second drive at a local relative’s house, a safe deposit box at the bank, etc, and then bring it home occasionally to make a fresh backup.

So, yes, if you want to keep backups as securely as described in these scenarios, you would probably want two backup drives regardless of what backup software you’re using.

If you only have a small amount of extremely important data to back up, you can probably burn it to DVD periodically, but space will be pretty limited there so it will depend on how much data you need to back up.

To use Time Machine successfully, you’ll probably need a pretty large external drive. The good news is, you wouldn’t need another one as huge for Super Duper (or other third party) backups - just one large enough to back up the important stuff once. If you have a smaller drive leftover from making backups on an older computer, you could use that, or you could purchase another smaller drive.

If you already have Leopard installed and Time Machine running, you’re already doing more to back up your data than most average home users. Time Machine is great because it means that backups are just happening all the time and are not reliant on us users saying, “Well, I should back up…” and never getting around to it. By using Time Machine, your data is backed up once so anything beyond that just means extra security - it’s up to you how far you want to go to preserve data.

Of course, if you’re not using Time Machine, or you need to make a temporary backup while upgrading to Leopard, you can still use Super Duper with just one external hard drive.

Liz

#3 Pwktputa on 11.05.09 at 6:57 pm