EventVideographer.com ~ Painless Backups

Painless Backups [2:54] More Tutorials

[Notes]
Having had a string of bad experiences losing data I'm big on back ups. DejaVu from Propaganda Productions is the easiet way to back up that I've tried. Mactel users should download the Universal beta. For those running PPC machines the standard release is available for the current and past operating systems.

Configuration
DejaVu is very easy to configure. I have it set up to mirror my main drive to a dedicated external 120gb FireWire drive. That means DejaVu scans my drive and then scans the back up drive. Anything that isn't on the backup drive gets copied over, and anything that is on the backup drive but is no longer on the main drive gets deleted. Its like cloning your drive on a schedule. I have a second 'Client's' drive that has everything I need to complete a project: graphics, project files, iRiver recordings, captures from wedding-day edits, pictures for photo shows etc. That drive also gets mirrored to a second firewire drive dedicated to back ups. What I like about this system is how fast it is. FireWire speeds are 10x's as fast as network based storage options and twice as fast as USB 2.0 enclosures. Also, at least this is the case for me, I like the fact that the FireWire back up drives spin down after 10 or 15 minutes of non-use. They can be plugged in all the time and they only spin up when the back up initiates. USB drives never spin down for me. I don't know if that is a Mac-specific characteristic or not. I know that USB drives do spin down for others.

Scheduling
DejaVu is scheduled to kick in at 3:30am every night. I use the Energy Saver preferences to wake up the computer a few minutes before the back up is scheduled via the Energy Saver preference pane. In the Energy Saver settings select the Options tab and click the Schedule button in the lower right. Set the Start up or wake time to be just before DejaVu is scheduled to mirror the drives.

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