Psh, backups… whatever. What could possibly go wro——

And remeber, a backup is only a backup if you still have the source. I learned this the hard way when I was restoring some important files a few years back and my backup died.

I now make sure all my really really important data is saved in at least 2 or 3 places before I do anything catastrophic like wipe out my HD and start fresh.

43Folderers, of all people, should know that backing up will only work in the long run if it’s automated — if not in the software, then at least in your own personal wetware crontab.

There is also very good Mac OS X Backup strategy guide: http://matt.makalumedia.com/archives/000833.html

Check this out !

(Yes, thanks, I actually have modded almost every aspect of my setup in incredibly haphazard ways.)

As a fellow Mac-modder (since 1989), I’d like to know how you’ve modded your system, and certainly if any of it contributes (or doesn’t) to your productivity. (I know most of it on my system certainly does not. Hours of frustration in front of text files come to mind …)

BTW, the ass-phone podcast was quite amusing (and this comment posting system is cool).

We keep all our projects (we’re a design n’ advertising firm) on a server (250 GB LaCie) and use Retrospect Express to back it up nightly. Fortunately we haven’t lost anything yet, but you never know when it’ll all go kablooey.

Oh, and I’d love to see how you’ve modded your system, too.

I try not to mod too much since it sometimes slows performance.

Apropos 10.4.3 - if anybody is using MailTags, you do want to update MailTags. I just wasted a couple of hours trying to figure out why the heck my rules were not executed any more.

Kudos to the MailTags author - the update was out today, a day after 10.4.3.

1) Daily incremental user folder backup (via Retrospect) to 200GB external 2) Daily snapshot of current active files on itsy bitsy flash drive 3) Weekly incremental Documents and Preferences to CD (stored offsite) 4) Monthly whole disk clone to external drive 5) Monthly CD snapshot of critical programs and registration info 6) Semesterly refresh of all backup sets

Paranoid? Wha’chu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?

For backing up to an external drive, I’m in love with rsnapshot (avaiable for OSX via DarwinPorts). Keeps multple backup sets over different time intervals, but without needing tons of backup disk space. Every so often, burn the most recent backup. Caveat: some geekery required for configuration.

Hard links for the win!

http://www.rsnapshot.org/

backup to DVD? Yeah, right! I was having power problems recently and decided to do a backup. Normally I dont fuss about it too much, because I keep all my actual work on the server, which is a mirrored array, but it really looked she was going to blow, so I wanted to backup. I couldn’t do a DVD burn. It didn’t like one of my files and wouldn’t let me write a DVD. I ended up dropping individual folders onto the directory. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper :(