So I had a brush with death on the old mbp, and the ordeal, from which I luckily emerged unscathed, taught me that Time Machine alone isn't enough of a backup strategy.

I'd like to keep using it, but additionally use something that just helps me sync one or two (very voluminous) folders to an external drive. I'm not looking for imaging, but for something that will let me access files directly on the backup media. Something like Microsoft's Synctoy. And the drive will absolutely have to be formatted in FAT32 or some other way that would allow me to get at the contents from a Windoze or linux box.

So, any suggestions? I don't mind paying a bit, but I expect what I'm looking for should be available in freeware, because my requirements aren't really very complicated.

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http://ryanmead.net

I'm not sure if this is what you are after, but I love it..
http://www.bombich.com/
It clones my drives to an external every night. It is very customizable, so you can retain deleted files if you want etc...
-Free as well..

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http://www.christopherferreira.com

"Carbon Copy Cloner" for me the best one by a margin (donationware)

Quote ryan mead:

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So I had a brush with death on the old mbp, and the ordeal, from which I luckily emerged unscathed, taught me that Time Machine alone isn't enough of a backup strategy.

I'd like to keep using it, but additionally use something that just helps me sync one or two (very voluminous) folders to an external drive. I'm not looking for imaging, but for something that will let me access files directly on the backup media. Something like Microsoft's Synctoy. And the drive will absolutely have to be formatted in FAT32 or some other way that would allow me to get at the contents from a Windoze or linux box.

So, any suggestions? I don't mind paying a bit, but I expect what I'm looking for should be available in freeware, because my requirements aren't really very complicated.

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Ryan - what did time machine fail to do?

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Matt
www.krcollective.org

Quote matt keen:

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Ryan - what did time machine fail to do?

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Actually, it worked just fine in the end, but there was a hiccup along the way. I tried to do a full system restore from the backup, and it failed. After an online search, I encountered people who had got past that hurdle by reinstalling (snow leopard in this case) and then restoring from the backup.

This seems to have worked fine.

However, during the process, I was gripped by a bone-chilling fear. Suppose the time-machine backup(s) also became unreadable? Or (more likely) suppose my mbp had died permanently and I decided to jump the apple ship and port all my files to a windoze or linux box? I'd be screwed with nothing but backups in a proprietary apple format.

I'll give Carbon Copy Cloner a whirl; looks like it might be exactly what I'm after.

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http://ryanmead.net

Quote ryan mead:

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Quote matt keen:

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Ryan - what did time machine fail to do?

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Actually, it worked just fine in the end, but there was a hiccup along the way. I tried to do a full system restore from the backup, and it failed. After an online search, I encountered people who had got past that hurdle by reinstalling (snow leopard in this case) and then restoring from the backup.

This seems to have worked fine.

However, during the process, I was gripped by a bone-chilling fear. Suppose the time-machine backup(s) also became unreadable? Or (more likely) suppose my mbp had died permanently and I decided to jump the apple ship and port all my files to a windoze or linux box? I'd be screwed with nothing but backups in a proprietary apple format.

I'll give Carbon Copy Cloner a whirl; looks like it might be exactly what I'm after.

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Well you know what they say: If its not backed up twice its not backed up

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Matt
www.krcollective.org

SuperDuper is rock solid for me...

Quote matt keen:

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Well you know what they say: If its not backed up twice its not backed up

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Right but even if it's backed up ten times with Time Machine, it's not backed up in a way that's at all portable to anything running a non-mac OS, hence this thread.

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http://ryanmead.net

I have now got one external drive doing time machine, one that is a drag and drop for files of all sorts , and one online storage facility. I think you are right to have one extra backup that isn't time machine as some functions are not conducive to quick access. (photos) Dave

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My head hurts!