Good backup program?

RieniO

RieniO

Well-known member
I have all my video files on 2TB external drives and want to keep backups on external 4TB drives. Since I need to backup to multiple drives I can't use TimeMachine for this because that supports only one backup medium. I use TimeMachine for backing up my system drive and that works fine. For backing up my video files I've been trying different programs now and all of them have one or more disadvantages. What I am looking for is a backup program that allows me to create multiple backup plans and that will check automatically for new/changed files at least once every hour and simply duplicates all files and directory structure to another drive, thus no zipping etc.

Doesn't have to be free.

All suggestions welcome.
 
SuperDuper is superb but only works on entire volumes (hard drives or partitions). Sync Pro X is great because it can work with any folders or single files if desired. I use both SuperDuper and Sync Pro X every week. My travel raid I use for video editing away from the studio has a copy I keep updated regularly and use Sync Pro X for that. Then weekly, I use SuperDuper to make offsite backups of ALL drives, OS, raids, etc.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I just tried SuperDuper but the problem is that you can't back up two 2TB drives to one 4TB drive. If you backup drive 2, the files that are on drive 1 but not on drive 2 will be deleted on the backup drive. I already tried Synchronize x plus which works quite well but the problem is that when running it for the first time, it will copy all files even though they are already present on the backup drive. Since copying a 2TB drive takes about 10 hours (Firewire 800 on a MacBookPro), this is a bit of a problem but still acceptable. My backup drives are Western Digital MyBooks of 4TB and they came with software named "backup anywhere" and that works ok, the only problem is that you can't set the target directory, the software writes its own complicated directory structure (user/backup/user/volume/user etc etc). I'm going to look into Carbon Copy Cloner now and will keep you posted.
 
I think you are going about this the hard way. Partition that 4TB drive to match the 2 x 2TB drives you have, SuperDuper will work perfectly as designed. I can't speak for the WD backup software, but I would go with the best standards and those are the 3 listed already, SuperDuper, Sync Pro X, Carbon Copy Cloner, another good one is Chronosync.

I think you want to do something that is not the normal way of creating backups. These apps are what everyone uses, have for years. They work and work the best. Alter your method to fit the software and things will be fine. The brilliance of something like SuperDuper for volumes is that after the first time backup, the rest are very quick if little has changed in the content.
 
Last night I tried Synchronize X plus again (which is a $29.95 version of Synchronize Pro X) and found some extra settings for chosing at what time back-ups should be ran, something I had not seen when I first started using this software. So Synchronize X plus does everything what I was looking for. I simply never thought about creating 2 x 2TB partitions, I guess with that, programs like CCC and SuperDuper would be suitable as well.
 
chronosync-310195-1260272267.jpeg


+1- Chronosync is my recommendation
 
Have used both Chronosync and SuperDuper. The thing with SuperDuper is it creates a bootable clone plus the SmartUpdate feature (mentioned by photonashville, but not named) only copies what's changed. Admittedly, I haven't used Chronosync for quite awhile but, at that time, it didn't create bootable clones and SuperDuper was a set it for a whole disk and forget it type of thing, while Chronosync required some forethought and maintenance; especially if your directory structure was changed. Plus SuperDuper has this cool interface where it tells you exactly what it's going to do before it does it and then keeps you updated as it proceeds. Very smart app with great support. I'd vote for SuperDuper.
 
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