Time Machine Alternative

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Im looking for an alternative to Time Machine to back up my data.

What I want to do is to select a few folders on my computer and set a destination hard drive to have it back up to. then when it backs up I just want it to backup or replace the files that have previously been backed up on the hard drive.

There is a windows program to do this that is fantastic (cant remember the name offhand) but you select the files, how often you want it to backup and job done.

I'v also thought about the idea of just creating an image with a program like superdur but im not sure how practical this is and if it will work well. all im interested in is the files and folders, not restoring a whole image of my hard drive.

The things I dont like about time machine is that I can set how often i want it to backup, it does multiple backups of my system when I only really want one that keeps getting replaced. I also seem to have multiple backup folders for the same day. I also never use the time machine restore interface I would just brows the folders and restore my files like that.

Any suggestions?
 
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Sounds like a scheduled job with ChronoSync might be what you are looking for. I use it to keep my music in sync for my Sonos on another machine. Works great.
 
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I like superduper or carbon copy cloner.
 
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Sounds like a scheduled job with ChronoSync might be what you are looking for. I use it to keep my music in sync for my Sonos on another machine. Works great.

Thanks v much for this recommendation - I downloaded ChronoSync trial version, I trialled it and it worked just fine. I then purchased it.

My set-up is: Mac Pro running Windows XP on Parallels with an external 1TB hard drive attached. My Windows files reside on a networked Microsoft Exchange Server.

My concern was: if Microsoft Exchange Server went down, even though it has a back-up, what if that back-up failed? This would mean I would lose my 14,000 or so Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

My solution: I installed ChronoSync on my Mac Pro and I set it up to synchronise between "MyDocuments" on Microsoft Exchange Server and a new folder ("ChronoSync MyDocuments") on my external 1TB hard drive.

Result: I'm now secure in the knowledge:
- I have multiple up-to-date back-ups;
- If I am away and wish to access MyDocuments remotely but Microsoft Exchange Server goes down, I can still access these files (on the external 1TB hard drive) using Mac Screen Sharing
- If I access a file (on the external 1TB hard drive), change it and save it ChronoSync will modify the file back on Microsoft Exchange Server

ALL GOOD
 

cwa107


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Thanks v much for this recommendation - I downloaded ChronoSync trial version, I trialled it and it worked just fine. I then purchased it.

My set-up is: Mac Pro running Windows XP on Parallels with an external 1TB hard drive attached. My Windows files reside on a networked Microsoft Exchange Server.

My concern was: if Microsoft Exchange Server went down, even though it has a back-up, what if that back-up failed? This would mean I would lose my 14,000 or so Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

My solution: I installed ChronoSync on my Mac Pro and I set it up to synchronise between "MyDocuments" on Microsoft Exchange Server and a new folder ("ChronoSync MyDocuments") on my external 1TB hard drive.

Everything is perfect and I'm secure in the knowledge I have multiple up-to-date back-ups.

Microsoft Exchange is a mail server. You can of course store data on Exchange, but it's actually stored in Exchange, not locally. Typically most corporations use Exchange as a back-end for Outlook, although there are other clients that can connect to it.

My guess is you're using an ordinary Windows Server and have your 'My Documents' folder redirected to it. And in that case, if you'd like to keep your files offline, it's just a matter of enabling folder synchronization in Windows. You can do this by opening 'My Documents', clicking the Tools menu and clicking the Synchronize option. This will allow 'My Documents' items to be available offline, while still keeping them safely stored on the server.
 

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