Please back me up!

[shivstar]

I've decided that I need to stop living life on the edge and start using a nice little feature I found collecting dust in my Apps folder... Time Machine.

Been doing some thinking (and procrastinating) but mostly thinking, and having trouble trying to decide which set up is best. I know each person and scenario is different, but I just wondered what you do and how is it working out?!

So far (feel free to add or shred) I have 2 options:

Option 1:
MBP ---usb--- External Drive: Time Machine
MBP ---wireless--- Wireless Router ---ethernet--- Network Drive: Supplementary Storage

Option 2:
MBP ---wireless--- Time Capsule: Time Machine
MBP ---wireless--- Time Capsule: Wireless Router ---usb--- External Drive: Supplementary Storage

So it comes to: do I buy a Time Capsule (option 2) or a USB powered External Drive (option 1)?

Also on a side note: I have a 250GB drive in my MBP, what size is realistically enough for Time Machine? Looking at WD passports at the moment.

Any help would be great... Thanks!

[andytlr]

The more space you have on the drive, the further back in time you can go. So if you get a 320gb external it will keep a current backup, then 70gb of extra back-in-timeness.

I've got a 160gb hd so I bought a 1TB external and partitioned a 250gb slice for Time Machine and left the rest for other storage.

Personal preference but I wouldn't use wireless.

[ClockWork]

Wireless backups are hellishly slow.
I'd be incline to either go for Ethernet or for FireWire 400/800.

Click here for an a colourful run down, on externals... and no - WD Passports can't be found there... as they're not all that wonderful...

[iCarllovesapple]

I use Time Capsules, and I love them! I do not use ethernet. The only time I used Ethernet was when I did my initial backup. It is a lot quicker! If you don't want wireless then I do recommend FW800 drives. They are simply faster. I recommend the Western Digital My Studio edition.

[pengu]

I'm using a LaCie Biggest Quadra 4000GB (4 1TB disks in RAID5, 2.7TB usable) connected to my Mac Mini (which replaced a G5 PowerMac) via FW800.

This backs up the internal drive of the Mini (120GB), two LaCie external drives (1TB and 500GB) and the MacBook Pro (160GB) and a portable LaCie drive I use with the MBP for VMs (500GB).

I was backing up wirelessly when it was connected to the G5, and yes it's slow, but it depends what the majority of your changes to data are. If it's mostly things like Office/iWork documents and some pictures in iPhoto, it's not a problem. It's when you have hundreds of MB to backup that it will be a big problem using wireless.

If (like me) you have a lot of data in say iTunes, this stuff won't really change, so once its backed up it's not likely to need to be backed up again soon.

Personally, I spent quite a bit for a "home" backup drive ($3500) but that was AFTER I'd learnt the hard way, that losing data can really fuck you around.

[Mecha]

I'm also looking at what methods I can take for the easiest way for me to backup.

Backup speed is not an issue as ill leave it overnight.
At the moment I'm looking at getting 2x 1TB WD passports. One for each of my computers, and just plugging them in via USB every week or so to backup.

Whats the simplest way to maybe consolidate the two drives into one and do the whole thing over wireless?

PS. $779 for a 1TB Time Capsule seems a bit pricey for what it does.

[canonafficionado]

I back up on a dynamic and ad-hoc basis using ethernet based drives plugged into a wireless router. I've tried a little with USB drives to the router and been less impressed, but it has also worked.

The ethernet drives (different single-disk Lacie 1TBs) are permanently plugged into the wireless router and always appear in Finder, which has been an ideal solution, so it could be something to consider.

This also meant that in terms of an incremental approach that drives have been added only as and when needed.

The other solution, is to buy a stacked-drive NAS type solution (ie QNAP etc) for more (raid) control and options, but a higher front-end price tag.

[shivstar]

thanks for the feedback guys... still debating over portable drive or network one... swaying a little more to the portable one, as it means if I'm away for extended periods i can still keep my back up with me. I'm in the same situation as you Mecha, backup speed is not too much of a issue, but $799 for Time Capsule seems excessive. Am I able to have a 500GB Time Capsule and just attach a 1TB usb drive to it and use that for Time Machine?

Question...if I use Time Machine on a drive, can i still access the drive and use it to drop files in like another drive or is locked out to just Time Machine?

(Also considering putting my VMware on an external drive... although bit concerned about the performance hit it will have.)

[andytlr]

Originally Posted by shivstar

Question...if I use Time Machine on a drive, can i still access the drive and use it to drop files in like another drive or is locked out to just Time Machine?

You can access it but I personally prefer to partition the drive. Just so one partition is purely for backup.

It puts everything in a Backups.backupdb folder.