I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.
That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect of
it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,

question #1: what software do I use to enable me to backup and restore as
much of the current contents and system behavior as possible? Is it possible
to actually back up all of the customizations?

Question #2: can I make the external drive bootable, such that instead of
restoring from it, I can simply boot off it, and again, hopefully have the
same exact system I had when I did the backup?

Question #3: if it can be bootable, then I wonder: can I use it to boot a
different piece of hardware than the machine which created it? For example:
suppose I make a bootable backup on this external firewire disk of my 2003
PowerBook. I then take it to a 2000 desktop Mac (which has OS9 on its
internal disk) and boot off the firewire drive containing Panther and all
that. Will it boot, or is such a backup hardware-specific? This sounds like
an easy way to check to see if my older hardware will like OS X without
having to muck around with my OS 9 volume, and as recreating my environment
on whatever machine is available!

If anyone has any thoughts on this "cloning" problem, please cc: your post
to mlevin77@comcast.net. Thank you in advance!!

Mike

--

Mike Levin
mlevin77@comcast.net

Michael Levin <mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>...
> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.
> That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
> messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
> everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect of
> it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,
>
> question #1: what software do I use to enable me to backup and restore as
> much of the current contents and system behavior as possible? Is it possible
> to actually back up all of the customizations?
>
> Question #2: can I make the external drive bootable, such that instead of
> restoring from it, I can simply boot off it, and again, hopefully have the
> same exact system I had when I did the backup?
>
> Question #3: if it can be bootable, then I wonder: can I use it to boot a
> different piece of hardware than the machine which created it? For example:
> suppose I make a bootable backup on this external firewire disk of my 2003
> PowerBook. I then take it to a 2000 desktop Mac (which has OS9 on its
> internal disk) and boot off the firewire drive containing Panther and all
> that. Will it boot, or is such a backup hardware-specific? This sounds like
> an easy way to check to see if my older hardware will like OS X without
> having to muck around with my OS 9 volume, and as recreating my environment
> on whatever machine is available!
>
> If anyone has any thoughts on this "cloning" problem, please cc: your post
> to mlevin77@comcast.net. Thank you in advance!!
>
> Mike

See here: http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

--jim

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 15:11:22 -0800, Michael Levin wrote
(in message <BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>):

> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.
> That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
> messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
> everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect of
> it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,

You may have good reasons for backing up that often but it seems
excessive, maybe even counterproductive. You may mess up the system,
save it and find you have saved a messed up system that will not work. I
caught a virus once and had it for a couple of days. When I did my
scheduled weekly Norton update the first file I opened set off the alarm.
I was archiving on 100 mg Zip disks (state of the art back then) and
saving to floppies. The floppies were all infected. But my archives were
all clean including a good recovery floppy and image. Do you really need
to back up your environement more than once a week at the most? I use an
external HD to back up as well. The rest of the time I keep it stored
away so what ever gets my hard drive will not get it as well. I have a
thumb drive I back up stuff on day to day. Every once in a long time I
go nuts and burn back ups to CD. There are programs that can save a back
up copy to a folder and you can do a dump to it nightly if you want. Or
go the other way and save everything to the thumb drive and copy it back
to the computer.

Very good point. Just out of curiosity, was the virus you caught on a Mac?
That's pretty rare, no? Or is OS X more prone to such things? Do I need an
anti-virus program now? OS 9 was fairly immune, I think.

On 11/22/03 4:19 AM, in article
0001HW.BBE46A120033F731F02845B0@news.west.cox.net, "John Biltz"
<biltzjohn@cox.net> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 15:11:22 -0800, Michael Levin wrote
> (in message <BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
>
>> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
>> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
>> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
>> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
>> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.
>> That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
>> messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
>> everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect of
>> it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,
>
> You may have good reasons for backing up that often but it seems
> excessive, maybe even counterproductive. You may mess up the system,
> save it and find you have saved a messed up system that will not work. I
> caught a virus once and had it for a couple of days. When I did my
> scheduled weekly Norton update the first file I opened set off the alarm.
> I was archiving on 100 mg Zip disks (state of the art back then) and
> saving to floppies. The floppies were all infected. But my archives were
> all clean including a good recovery floppy and image. Do you really need
> to back up your environement more than once a week at the most? I use an
> external HD to back up as well. The rest of the time I keep it stored
> away so what ever gets my hard drive will not get it as well. I have a
> thumb drive I back up stuff on day to day. Every once in a long time I
> go nuts and burn back ups to CD. There are programs that can save a back
> up copy to a folder and you can do a dump to it nightly if you want. Or
> go the other way and save everything to the thumb drive and copy it back
> to the computer.
>

--

Mike Levin
mlevin77@comcast.net

In article <BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>, Michael Levin
<mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:

> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.
> That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
> messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
> everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect of
> it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,
>
> question #1: what software do I use to enable me to backup and restore as
> much of the current contents and system behavior as possible? Is it possible
> to actually back up all of the customizations?
>
> Question #2: can I make the external drive bootable, such that instead of
> restoring from it, I can simply boot off it, and again, hopefully have the
> same exact system I had when I did the backup?

Answer to 1 & 2: there is a new 'Restore' pane in Disk Utility. Simply
select it, choose your source and destination disks and it will make an
exact bootable copy of you original. do the opposite to restore the
backup.

> Question #3: if it can be bootable, then I wonder: can I use it to boot a
> different piece of hardware than the machine which created it? For example:
> suppose I make a bootable backup on this external firewire disk of my 2003
> PowerBook. I then take it to a 2000 desktop Mac (which has OS9 on its
> internal disk) and boot off the firewire drive containing Panther and all
> that. Will it boot, or is such a backup hardware-specific? This sounds like
> an easy way to check to see if my older hardware will like OS X without
> having to muck around with my OS 9 volume, and as recreating my environment
> on whatever machine is available!

I believe an installation of Mac OS X will install everything needed by
all machines and will therefore work as you describe, assumimg that the
2000 machine is a supported machine, i.e. it has built in USB.

Rob.

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 3:37:03 -0800, Michael Levin wrote
(in message <BBE4B48F.12DD%mlevin77@comcast.net>):

It was Windows back in 1998. I caught it from my work computer that was
infected over the network. The whole network was infected and I brought a
powerpoint presentation I was working on home to finish. The only virus
I was ever infected with. I don't think there is a OSX virus yet.

> Very good point. Just out of curiosity, was the virus you caught on a Mac?
> That's pretty rare, no? Or is OS X more prone to such things? Do I need an
> anti-virus program now? OS 9 was fairly immune, I think.
>
> On 11/22/03 4:19 AM, in article
> 0001HW.BBE46A120033F731F02845B0@news.west.cox.net, "John Biltz"
> <biltzjohn@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 15:11:22 -0800, Michael Levin wrote
>> (in message <BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
>>
>>> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
>>> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard
>>> drive;
>>> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac
>>> to
>>> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
>>> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if
>>> needed.
>>> That is, the restore would give me exactly the Mac I had before something
>>> messed it up: all my data files, apps, preferences, customizations, etc. -
>>> everything exactly the same. I've done a lot of tweaking of every aspect
>>> of
>>> it, and I want it to remain if I need to restore. So,
>>
>> You may have good reasons for backing up that often but it seems
>> excessive, maybe even counterproductive. You may mess up the system,
>> save it and find you have saved a messed up system that will not work. I
>> caught a virus once and had it for a couple of days. When I did my
>> scheduled weekly Norton update the first file I opened set off the alarm.
>> I was archiving on 100 mg Zip disks (state of the art back then) and
>> saving to floppies. The floppies were all infected. But my archives were
>> all clean including a good recovery floppy and image. Do you really need
>> to back up your environement more than once a week at the most? I use an
>> external HD to back up as well. The rest of the time I keep it stored
>> away so what ever gets my hard drive will not get it as well. I have a
>> thumb drive I back up stuff on day to day. Every once in a long time I
>> go nuts and burn back ups to CD. There are programs that can save a back
>> up copy to a folder and you can do a dump to it nightly if you want. Or
>> go the other way and save everything to the thumb drive and copy it back
>> to the computer.
>>
>
>

In article <BBE405C8.A85%mlevin77@comcast.net>,
Michael Levin <mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:

> I have a new OS X (Panther) Powerbook laptop and am wondering about backup
> options; please share your wisdom. I've got an external firewire hard drive;
> my ideal solution would be something that allows me to synchronize my mac to
> it nightly (i.e., only replace files which had been changed), and most
> importantly, would allow me to recreate my environment *exactly* if needed.

I've got what you need: Carbon Copy Cloner.

It's donationware from http://www.bombich.com and bloody marvellous. Full, perfect, bootable clones, scriptable
syncing.
--
Cheers,
_Chas_
http://www.apple.com/switch
non-spammers can write to chasm at mac (dot com)