A few pre-purchase questions

[Turner111]

Hi all-

 

I downloaded the demo, but some questions still remain - some quick background info - I have my G5 and an external 250 gig drive (two, now, actually) and a total of about 400 gigs "used up".

 

I mainly want to back up to DVD, and after my first "official set" will be backing up only things that change.

 

I'd like to backup -everything-, but burning that many DVDs is way too cumbersome if Retrospect is checking everything, therefore,

 

1) what's the most efficient way to simply copy lots of files to multiple DVDs? For example, I want to back up my entire projects folder, and then delete all the projects (lots of them) which aren't currently active. Basically, I'd do this with my whole drive I think.

 

2) Can I tell Retrospect to compare what it just wrote for each DVD, instead of having me re-insert each one? Now, I burned 7 DVDs, and have to re-insert each one in order for Retrospect to check them.

 

3) I'd rather not use compression - I have lots of DVDs Other than space, is there any reason I should be using compression? I'd like to have DVDs I can catalog and basically see the contents normally.

 

Thanks,

Andrew

[CallMeDave]

>1) what's the most efficient way to simply copy lots of files to multiple DVDs?

 

Define a folder as a subvolume, and use that as a Source in your Backup Set. You can have multiple Sources in any Backup Set, so you can backup just what you want without using Selectors or scanning an entire drive.

 

I want to back up my entire projects folder, and then delete all the projects (lots of them) which aren't currently active

 

You would probably _not_ want to delete anything until you have more then one backup. If it were me, I'd want multiple backups in multiple locations, preferably in different formats. For example, Toast does a good job of writing a group of Finder readable disks, which would allow you to retrieve files without having to have and launch Retrospect. But Toast can't add new files to such a group, so it's not as useful for ongoing backups.

 

>2) Can I tell Retrospect to compare what it just wrote for each DVD, instead of having me re-insert each one?

 

No.

 

>Now, I burned 7 DVDs, and have to re-insert each one in order for Retrospect to check them.

 

The main reason for this is that Retrospect will use all the sectors on a disk member, and if it's in the middle of writing an individual file when the disk fills up it will then ask for a new one. There would be no way for the program to compare a partially completed file, so it waits until it's done with all its writing before asking for the disks back in order.

[Turner111]

Thanks Dave -

 

One question - does this mean Retrospect cannot write a finder-readable DVD?

 

I noticed compression was -not- on when I backed up my files, but I guess it may be more than compression that makes the DVDs proprietary to Retrospect?

 

thx

andrew

[Lennart_T]

Quote:

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One question - does this mean Retrospect cannot write a finder-readable DVD?

 

 

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Exactly. You need Retrospect to restore the files.

[kerryd]

Retrospect backs up its files to a catalogue. It is using the Mac OS and everything but to retrieve a file you have to use Retrospect to restore the file to say your desktop. From there you'd move it to the appropriate location. Some backup systems store their files so that you can retrieve them directly from the finder. I've not found another program that does differential backups like Retrospect - that is you could go back a day or so in your backup set and retrieve a file. As an example say you backup today includes a corrupted file but you know yesterday's file was fine. You could go to that days backup and retrieve the non-corrupted file - a big benefit.