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by ursus80 on Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:39 am
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Okay, I am sure by now you are all getting tired of my questions regarding Mac/PC/Etc. Here is my latest installment ;-)

I have finally gotten around to booting up my new 15" MacBook Pro. I am basically treating it as a whole new start for me, but as I move forward I want to get backup drives established in the beginning so everything runs smoothly. I have the off the shelf 500 GB 5400 rpm internal, and someday I will switch that and my superdrive for a pair of OWC SSD's. But besides the 500 gb internal the only external drive I have to use as a backup is a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB drive. I want to get these squared away before I even begin to play with Aperture/CS.

So my questions are as follows:

1. What should I buy as a second external drive? Another GoFlex?
2. I assume I set-up one as a Time Machine backup and the other as a file/image backup? Do I also need to set-up a bootable back-up, can this be done on the same drive as Time Machine? And if so, how?
3. If the Time Machine back-up is for only that, the other one is for image backup, and I want to keep my outer running fast by keeping as much as possible off the current internal 500 gb hd, do I need a third drive?

I am sure these are not new questions for many of you, and I apologize for my ignorance. But I have searched without finding the answers I crave here in the forums and online.
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Mundy
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by ursus80 on Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:20 pm
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Someone please throw me a lifeline :-)
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Mundy
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by rbaumhauer on Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:06 am
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Drives are expensive right now because of the Thailand flooding, so whatever you can afford to get will have to do for now.

You can combine a bootable backup and Time Machine on the 1TB drive by using SuperDuper! (www.shirtpocket.com - $28) - you definitely want a bootable backup, since it's so easy to set up with a Mac and can really save you major headaches if the internal drive fails. I believe the GoFlex has different interface modules available (USB, FW800, and Thunderbolt on the way) - while USB is fine for backup, if you ever had to boot from the GoFlex, you'd want at least FW800 to get acceptable performance.

There's really no reason to keep data off of the internal drive - you will get decent performance from it, better than any external short of a Thunderbolt drive, so you should use it. If you want a second, live copy of your photos on an external, use whatever drive you can get at a reasonable price - the faster the better (again, FW800 or better if possible). You can use SuperDuper! to do a nightly backup of your photos, or use something like PhotoMechanic to import to two locations at once.

I would also recommend an offsite backup of some sort - a drive (or two) that is stored at a different location than your computer. Bring it home once a week, and use SuperDuper! to set up a backup job that syncs it with your internal drive when you plug it in. This protects you from a major disaster (fire, etc).
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by ursus80 on Sun Feb 19, 2012 6:39 am
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Thanks Rick!

I think I will go with my existing drive + get Firewire 800 cord for it. Then get another FreeAgent (cheaper than Mac only version of GoFlex) + Thunderbolt adapter + cord for a total of about $350.

I don't have an offsite location, so I can store a drive in our firebox with our documents.
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Mundy
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by Greg Forcey on Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:44 pm
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Since you have an internal drive to use, look at the Newertech Voyager Q which allows you to use swap bare drives in and out easily for backup. Bare internal drives are really handy for storage too as they take up much less room than external drives with a case. Plus it's a lot chapter to buy bare external drives and use them for backup as exposed to external drives with cases. To protect the bare drives from static (and for general protection), I use a product call drivebox by wiebetech.
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by ursus80 on Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:36 am
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Where can I find out and learn about what the advanced features are in SuperDuper? I was looking at them in their online site and I have no clue. Before I spend the $28 I want to know what they are. Thanks
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Mundy
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by ursus80 on Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:03 am
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I would really like to get your feedback on what I have ended up with.

1. 500 GB HD
2. GoFlex Portable 1.5 TB
3. Second GoFlex Portable 1.5 TB
4. GoFlex Portable 1 TB

I am going to keep one copy of my image files on my internal harddrive, one of the 1.5 TB externals (with firewire 800 or thunderbolt), and a second copy on the 1 TB external (with firewire 800 or thunderbolt). The second 1.5 TB external I have Time Machine and SuperDuper set-up (with thunderbolt or firewire 800). I am going to try using referenced library in Aperture.

Does this sound right/good? Am I missing anything? What should I use to back-up and synchronize between the internal and two external copies of my raw files?

I assume that via Time Machine I have a back-up of my Aperture reference library, or no?
Cheers,

Mundy
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by rbaumhauer on Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:06 am
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Mundy - that all looks good.

What are you planning to download your images with - just Aperture, or something else? If you are using Aperture, you should be able to use its 'Import' dialog to create a second copy of your images - there is a 'Backup to' selection there that allows you to make a backup copy in addition to the main copy that is referenced in your library, though I'm not certain how automated it is for creating folders, etc. (I use Photo Mechanic for download, keywording, etc). In any case, this will work for your first backup copy.

From there, you can use SuperDuper on a daily schedule to backup from your first backup drive to your second - this should be fairly straightforward, assuming that these drives are only being used for image backup.

Time Machine will backup an Aperture library, but I believe it's best to quit Aperture when Time Machine is running to make sure that the library file is closed and not locked. I believe it may be better to exclude the Aperture library from your Time Machine backup (you can do this via the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences), and instead use a vault on one of your external drives to back that up.
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by rbaumhauer on Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:16 am
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ursus80 wrote:Where can I find out and learn about what the advanced features are in SuperDuper? I was looking at them in their online site and I have no clue. Before I spend the $28 I want to know what they are. Thanks
The main feature that a normal user would use from the registered version is using it to use 'Smart Update' - incremental backups that only copy new or changed files since the last backup. This allows the backup to go much faster after the initial backup. You can also exclude files and folders from backups with the registered version, as well as setting a backup job to run when a particular drive is plugged in, rather than on a set schedule. This would work well for your second backup, since it is wise to have a backup that isn't always plugged in, just in case a power issue knocks out your system and all attached drives at once (lightning strike, etc) - you could store the second backup in your safe and plug it in after any major changes, and just set SuperDuper to kick off the backup job (configured for Smart Update) when you plug that drive in.

It's well worth the $28 - it was one of the first applications that I bought after I got my first Mac in 2006, and I've never regretted it (especially since all of the updates since then have been free).
Rick Baumhauer
Photographer/Consultant
http://www.baumhauerphoto.com
 

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