Backing Up Your Mac’s Files Is Easy With ChronoSync
The Mac360 routine for a discussion on backing up your Mac consists of a little fear mongering. Imagine this scenario. You start up your Mac and nothing happens.
Your Mac’s hard drive is dead, and all your files—music, photos, documents, utilities, applications, movie clips, email, everything—is gone.
What do you do? What’s your backup strategy? Here is half of my strategy for practicing safe Mac.
The need to back up your Mac’s files is in direct proportion to the value of what’s on your Mac. If you have nothing.... (excerpted).
5 Reader Comments
Jared B. said:
I am one of the fortunate ones. I own a quad pro. Actually Ron when time machine is an internal hard drive such as mine it restores pretty fast. I had to use it once and I don’t think it took longer than a half hour. I was under 200 gigs then, now I am pushing 317.9 gigs worth of stuff mostly bought from Itunes store. For my clone drive I also use an internal hard drive using super duper. I have never once had a problem with super duper performing a clone. I only keep a 500 gig external fire wire hard drive on the desktop to transfer files to my MacBook from my quad pro. I have by far overcome what I can use Idisk for backing up and or transferring files. I now only buy Sea Gate Barracuda hard drives and no other brand. Maxtor has left me in the dust and so has Western Digital long before those hard drives should have died.
friendofwoz said:
Here’s the problem with these clone and synchro utilities: you have to test them regularly. That means, if you clone your Mac to another hard drive, it pays to start up your Mac from that hard drive to see if it actually cloned and works.
I’ve had a few surprises where I cloned a back up, then a drive died, and I found out my back up drive was corrupted.
Warning. Check the back ups regularly.
Blankmeister said:
The only thing missing from ChronoSync is some kind of always-on Agent which monitors your Mac’s files, then automatically backs them up the way Time Machine does. TM only does it once an hour.
iggy pence said:
I second the emotion for Super Duper and Chrono Sync. I have not lost a file on my Mac since I started cloning the hard drive a few years ago. Between clones I use Chrono Sync to back up important files. The new version actually does a full back up which lets your Mac start up from another drive, all files intact.
Share Your Comments With Mac360's Writers
You may post your own comment on this article. Or, post in the Mac360 Forums. Either way, it's mostly anonymous, there's no obligation, and no cost. Posting comments is free, fun, low in calories, low in carbs, non-fat, mildly addictive, and may give you mild euphoria (due to the false sense of literary prowess).
Comment Posting Rules
Your comment may be anonymous, if you prefer. Or, use a cute name-- something everyone can remember. An email address is required only if you want to be notified of new comments by other posters, and is always shielded from email spam harvesters (but don't use a Gmail or Yahoo! or Hotmail or any free email service address-- too much spam).
Keep your comment on topic, relevant, worthy, and funny. Or, pick any three. We moderate the comments before posting so SPAM links will be deleted (Spammers-- you're a blight on society, not to mention your body odor, so don't waste your time or our time).
Post Your Comment Here
Please Note: Your comment will not show up immediately. We moderate all reader comments to eliminate spam, off topic posts, and silly arguments. Otherwise, don't worry, post your comment and enjoy. Your email address is never displayed.
- Are Your Apple Predictions As Stupid As These? by Alexis Kayhill, (878 views)
- Mac30 Twitter Tweets
Copyright © 2004 - 2010 Ron McElfresh, Honolulu, HI USA. All Rights Reserved.
Mac360 is best viewed in Safari 4.x or Firefox 3.x browsers. Microsoft Internet Explorer is not supported.
Mac360 is developed on a Mac and powered by an Apple Xserve at ServerLogistics.
This Mac360 page was created in 0.0759 seconds.
Chas said:
Me three! I regularly use Superduper, and have just started using Chronosync to sync my 3 Macs I currently use. The maker’s of Chronosync also have a great upgrade policy—free upgrades of new versions! I love supporting great software, and these two companies are great examples of why the Mac kicks you-know-what!