Smart Backup
Here’s a little review for all the kids in the hall.
I was looking for a good back up solution for my black MacBook running Snow Leopard. I was not interested in Time Machine because I have no need or desire to back up my entire machine, rather just my working directories, my email and my keychain.
A lot of techie people use the built in RSync protocol to manage their back ups, but I wanted something with a nice, Mac-like interface. Also, I dislike scheduled backups, because I find that my schedule is not regular, thus a backup process would not fire because the computer is not on, or it launches while I am in the middle of doing something important. I needed something that I could run whenever was convenient for me. A novel concept, huh?
I looked at a lot of options and settled on SmartBackup (http://freeridecoding.com/smartbackup/). This is a very simple program with an elegant and easy to use interface. Simply select the directories that you would like to back up and the destination source and let the program do it’s thing. When selecting the directories to back up, the program offers helpful shortcuts to things that one would usually choose to back up.
Back up is a snap, as the program runs a comparison of the back up drive and your hard drive, then just copies what has changed. Quick, simple and easy.
Currently, the files that I need to back up fit nicely on a 32GB thumb drive. I am bringing a Synology Network Attached Storage unit online soon and will then back up to that device, but for now the thumb drive provides ample storage.
The cost for the program is $25 and they offer a free trial. If you are not into Time Machine or are not currently backing up your files, take a look at this one. I also use Jungle Disk as an online solution, and would write something about that if folks were interested.
