[geeks] MacOS backup software, media spanning, incremental...

[Shannon Hendrix]

I need to get a backup program for my Mac.

It needs to a "real" backup program, not a glorified mirror, and that  
means it needs to be able to write to media.

I can't afford the time or expense of dozens of DVDs every week, so I  
need something that will run like traditional UNIX backups with hanoi  
sequence or some similar incremental setup.

I have been playing with Toast, and it does media spanning nicely, but  
doesn't really have any kind of serious backup option.

I'd appreciate any pointers or better yet, direct experiences.

If I can't find anything, then I'm probably going to try and find some  
way to coax an existing media spanning program into doing what I want,  
assuming they can be scripted or something like that.

"Get Backup" from BeLight might be interesting once they finish, but  
right now they just bought it from Dobry and have not finished  
rewriting it.

I have Superduper, but that's really just a mirror, and I run Time  
Machine for "Oh crap!" situations, but don't consider it a real backup.

The rest of this is just my notes on DVD media:

Over the last two weeks I've been testing a lot of DVD media, and  
thought I'd share some of my results:

Memorex: CDs are fine, DVDs are reliable but burns a little slow, or  
rather a little bursty.

RiData: They seem to be OK, sometimes, but lot's of coasters.

TDK: Not bad at all, but harder to find.  No longer made in Japan.

Verbatim: Excellent.  Fast burns, reliable.  Tested both normal DVDs  
and Dual-Layer, both are faster than just about anything else.

Taiyo Yuden: I don't have any, but know people who do and they are  
roughly equivalent to Verbatim.  Unfortunately Taiyo only make single  
layer DVDs that are DVD plus media.  They sell DVD-R DL media, because  
-R is more popular in Japan, and don't do high volume yet so they are  
hard to find.  Their CDs are excellent as usual.

Sony: They are not bad, but nothing exceptional either.  No coasters.

Generic: They suck.  Even if they work well in the beginning, in 2-4  
years they start giving read errors.  A good drive and software can  
still often read them, but they suck.  Buy the high end stuff.  The  
extra cost will save your butt later.

The drives I tested with:

	Pioneer DVR-112D
	NEC 3520A
	NEC 3540

Oh, and one more thing: I updated my Pioneer with the latest firmware  
and removed the region code restriction, and the drive is faster  
writing almost all media, and a whole lot faster reading.

Definitely don't forget to update your firmware if you have a DVD   
burner.  Most of what comes with the drive is outdated and buggy  
unless you get a drive late in its life cycle.



-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."