Grex Micros Conference

View Responses

Grex Micros Item 71: Backing-up
Entered by rcurl on Fri Jan 14 14:44:52 UTC 1994:

I am starting to get more anxious about memory on my two Macs, as the
megabytes increase and time passes. I think of the hours that would be
wasted in all the files lost, much less reloading all the applications.
I think it is time for some backups. However, between the two machines
there can be >120MB - and that's a lot of floppies to backup to (and to
restore from). So what other options are there that are most economic
for this scale of backup?

3 responses total.

#1 of 3 by rcurl on Fri Jan 14 14:52:23 1994:

I'm considering an external hard drive. In particular, the 170 MB Tsunami
(LeCie/Quantum) now being offered for $239. I'd appreciate anyone's
opinions on this, or the options in general. In particular, I'd like
to know whether this single SCSI drive can be used to store the images
of the HDs of an SE with a 45 MB external HD, running Sys. 6.0.8, and
a Powerbook 145B with a 80 MB internal HD, running Sys. 7.1. That is,
can backups from disparate Systems be stored and recovered from the same
drive? (I'd also like to hear thoughts on using backup software to 
backup, compared to just copying each HD to the backup HD.)

#2 of 3 by srw on Sat Jan 15 06:42:41 1994:

Yes you certainly can mount your proposed new drive on a sys 7 and sys 6
system alternately. The only hitch will be the need to rebuild the
desktop file each time you alternate. That can be avoided if you get
and use the "Desktop Manager" for 6.0.8, as it is built into sys 7
and will give you desktop file compatibility too.

Using a hard disk for backup works. I considered doing it that way myself.
However, I went to a different approach. I was not happy with the idea
of shelling out a lot of buck for a system that was closed in terms of
capacity. Disks were more expensive then, too. I bought a SyQuest
44M cartridge drive. They now make 88M and 105M versions.
The 44M is hard to find new these days, but there are used ones
for
about the $239 you would spend on your new tsunami.
The advantage is that when your backup was done, you remove the cartridge,
andinsert another. I find it helpful to maintain 2 generations
of bcakup, and that would be out of reach with the tsunami.

Other choices, MO (expensive drives, cheaper and more reliable media)
and DAT (even more so than MO, but you lose random accessability).
For your needs, these $700+ drives make littles sense.
For people with GB to backup, they do.

Finder copies work fine, you don't need backup software.
Backup software will do the backups faster because only changed
files will be copied.

#3 of 3 by rcurl on Sat Jan 15 07:29:00 1994:

Very encouraging. I already have Desktop Manager on the 6.0.8 (it was
hard to find, but I needed it for Comment Keeper, which keeps the
comments in the Get Info boxes when you rebuild the desktop (I like to
put information there about when I downloaded software, etc - if I
remember to.) Yes, the cartridge drive is the alternative. However with
the HD daisychained, I'd have 250MB (less ca. 70 for the backup), which
provides a little extra space for perhaps lesser used but big apps. 
(The Tsunami price is a "sales price" - now, will the price go up or
down when the sale ends???)

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.