On Sep 20, 2007, at 8:28 PM, Nils Breunese (Lemonbit) wrote: > Hello, > >>>> Yes, I am aware of Time Machine, but I'm more worried about the >>>> laptop drive failing or the entire machine being stolen - in >>>> which case Time Machine is useless. >>> >>> I don't know if that's true. Do you know how Time Machine stores >>> its backups? >> >> I am just guessing that it will either use ZFS for the filesystem >> (or something similar) or it will allocate a certain percentage of >> the physical disk as backup area, which will not be exposed as a >> normal filesystem to the user. Either way, if the laptop is >> stolen, so are all the backups. That's the reason I don't want to >> rely on Time Machine. > > Why are all the backups stolen when your laptop is stolen? Time > Machine can use an external drive for backups AFAIK (even over > wireless for instance).
I was not aware of this - however, the nail in the coffin for me is that Time Machine is not available right now, and I need something right now. > >>> BackupPC has the added advantage of having multiple older >>> versions, but you could do that with rdiff-backup or something as >>> well. >> >> And I guess this is the biggest sticking point with me with >> regards to other backup solutions out there. Compared to >> backuppc, they: >> >> Are VERY slow (Used to use retrospect, tried PSyncX today) > > BackupPC just uses rsync (or smb or tar, depending on how you > configure it). I wouldn't know why a plain rsync run would be > slower. I guess it would even be faster as BackupPC uses a Perl > rsync implementation on the server side. I don't know if rdiff- > backup uses stock rsync or something similar, but that's fast in my > experience as well. > >> Do not offer simple incremental backups (what is this mythical >> rdiff-backup of which you speak? Perhaps it will do what I'm after) > > http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/ (I believe you can install it > on OS X using Fink or Darwin Ports or whatever's available these > days). I will definitely have to look into this. > >> Do not have nearly as elegant restore functionality > > I think Time Machine wins here. :o) And I like rdiff-backup for > being able to easily restore from the command-line, though I > believe BackupPC also lets you do this (more complicated syntax > though). > >> Are not open source > > Does it need to be? All options mentioned are at least available > free of charge. I prefer to use os software where I can. > >> Do not automatically rotate backups, monitor drive usage, email >> me when there are issues to be addressed, etc. > > There is some convenience in running BackupPC, but also a lot of > overhead if you're just backing up the local machine. Don't get me > wrong, I'm not trying to bash BackupPC. I use both BackupPC (for a > lot of servers), Carbon Copy Cloner (for my MacBook) and rdiff- > backup (for two office servers). And I also used scripts using > plain old rsync for a couple of odd machines. > >>> P.S. I don't know if you intentionally mailed me off-list or just >>> forgot to change the To: address to the list's address? >> >> I did intentionally mail you off list, as I figured out my >> original question and did not want to fill the list with noise. > > I actually like discussions like these on the list, because they > can give people new insights into other tools and that can only > benefit people. But off-list is fine too. I agree - this has been productive and offered me some new insights. I'll post this reply back to the list. > > Nils Breunese. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
