Time Machine or SuperDuper or What to backup?

I just installed Leapord and want to backup my hard drives.

I have a Raid drive in my computer 750GB seagates X 2 = my 1.5TB RAID DRIVE.

I have reserved a Maxtor 1.5TB External for backing this up.

I tried to use Time Machine and due to the fact that my entire computer drives exceed 1.5TB for my Maxtor it gave me an error message.

I cant seem to designate that it just back up my Raid Drive.

So my question
What do you guys use?

I have heard SuperDuper is great.
Do you have a better suggestion?

Thank you much.

I think you'll find Time Machine "problematic" for backing up video. It's more suited for all the little stuff that changes day-to-day on a "normal" system.

What you want is an incremental back-up program that can run at a specific time each day and selectively back-up. I believe many people use Retrospect for this and there are many others. I played with ProSoft's Data Backup 2.0 a couple of years ago and it seemed capable.

You want configureability and need to take the time to set up correctly. You're working with very large pieces of data and I doubt that the mindless "one touch" systems are going to serve you well.

we're using silverkeeper. a nice little program (and free!)

silverkeeper

I use and like deja vu.

[propagandaprod.com]

$25

"Déjà Vu offers an innovative new approach to backing up your files. It's a "preference pane" that lives in your System Preferences, and it allows you to schedule unattended backups of important folders, or even your entire system."

Simple and convenient. I have mine set to back up in the early hours of the morning every day. I back up my video project folder and home folder.

Phil Cramer
Indianapolis

I guess it depends on what you mean by "back up?"

I use SuperDuper as well, but doesn't it only clone the drive making a bootable system disk?

Will Deja Vu automatically back up only the files that have changed in a chosen folder since the last backup?

Exactly what it does. You have the choice to make it "mirror" the folder you are backing up in which case it will delete any files you delete. The backed up folder exactly matches the folder you are backing up. You also may choose to have it *not* do any deleting but keep copies of files you delete in your main folder. Make sense? I mirror my folders. When I delete something I make sure I really want it deleted.

In my G5 I use Deja Vu to back up my Projects folder onto my second internal 750 Gig HD that is also a media drive. My FCP is set to Autosave to that drive too.

Full info at

[propagandaprod.com]

BTW, several years ago I used Silverkeeper but gave up when it became flaky. Abandoned it for Deja Vu which I've enjoyed ever since. Simple and elegant.

Phil Cramer
Indianapolis

Wow - LaCie have a backup program. I'm not saying anything.....

FWIW I use Super Dooper to backup my system drives - I'll give Time Machines a go when I get a chance this week on my MB which has just been upgraded to Leopard.

My file management is good enough that I can backup all current projects with one click and drag. Good enough for me.

Never had any problems with silverkeeper myself. What sort of flakiness are we talking about? I'd hate to find out after a crash...

I've never used SilverKeeper but I have had a couple of LaCie drives crap out on me.

But I don't really hold that against them, with the amount of use they get I think a little of that goes with territory.

The only drives I won't use are Maxtors [not that we need to get into a debate about drives]...