I recently switched to the Macintosh operating system, and doing so helped me realize how badly I need to perform regular backups. Having someone recover a damaged hard drive can be very expensive (we’re talking thousands), and I generally don’t trust anyone else with my data. When a friend of mine told me about DriveImage XML, it got me thinking about backups again.
Immediately, I started thinking “I wonder if I can find a Mac equivalent, or maybe just virtualize it through Parallels?” Then the dummy factor wore off, and I remembered that Mac OS 10.5 (aka “Leopard”) includes an application called Time Machine. It’s bloody brilliant, and it actually uses very little processing power (imagine that, right?). It’s really more of an incremental backup system (as opposed to the image-based approach in DriveImage XML), and it works a bit differently.
Screenshot of Apple’s Time Machine
In fact, Apple’s strategy with this app has been working so well that they’ve just announced an external drive component called the Time Capsule. (Apple designers are amazing… gotta love that aesthetic and minimalist design!) But I digress… I’ve been told that Time Machine works with almost any storage device, whether it be internal, external, or even network-based. Amazingly enough, all of this is included for free with the Macintosh operating system, and I haven’t been using it! That’s how it works, though, right? I get this amazing tool that I’ve been needing for so long (the MBP), and then I forget to use half its functionality.
Anyways, don’t be like me and forget to back up your data. Regardless of your operating system, you’re going to need some sort of hardware to actually store your backups. There are a lot of options, and I’m currently trying to decide which one to use. Some of your choices include:
- Secondary internal hard drive
- Internal hard drive connected by an external drive enclosure
- External hard drive
- Network Attached Storage (NAS)
- Optical media (CD/DVD/BD) or old-school tape
I’ve even heard of some people using Amazon’s S3 service as a sort of network-based drive. If you’re using a Mac, it’s pretty clear that your best option is Time Machine. If you’re using a PC, however, you probably have more options than you know what to do with. Do you have a preferred way of backing up your data? If so, tell me in the comments!
Feb 15th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Aside from DriveImageXML (of which I appreciate the reference up above!), I also use a tool to keep all of my development projects backed-up on my webserver.
For team-based projects, I’ve used CVS, SVN, and BitKeeper. Of those three, I highly recommend SVN or BitKeeper. CVS is tried and true, but I don’t like it as much as these newer tools.
Since I don’t don’t do any team-based work from home, I don’t worry about any true source control (not right now, at least). I do, however, use a built in synchronization tool that comes with the Aptana plug-in for Eclipse. It basically allows me to upload, download, or synchronize files via FTP with a server all from within the IDE - I just use my webserver since I’m already paying for it =).
Feb 16th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Tom, I’ve heard really good things about SVN, but I’ve yet to use it. I think if I have time, I would like to use it for some web development projects, simply to keep a record of the development process for reference.
Also, you may be interested to hear that Amazon’s S3 service experienced a major outage this week. I don’t know if it’s the first time ever, but apparently it’s a pretty big deal. (Some people even host their entire websites directly from S3, including SmugMug and PageFlakes. Maybe they should’ve had a *backup* strategy!)