How often do you backup your machine?

[clint1986]

I don't have a backup solution yet, but I could do with working one out. I can't afford to buy software for the job so I'm looking at some open source projects, namely PysncX and RsyncX, to see if they will be any good.

 

[appleisgreat]

I rarely back-up my information although I really should start soon...

 

[dalison]

I'm most worried about offsite storage now...is anyone doing that? What do you use?
I'm thinking . . . Time Capsule in a fire-proof wall safe?

That's actually a really good opportunity for Apple - or some other creative third party provider. Create a fireproof Time Capsule. If Apple charged $100 more for a fireproof version I'd probably get it.

If you're serious about off site storage you should consider one of the online services that handle that. Here are a few:

http://carbonite.com/
http://www.datadepositbox.com/
http://www.idrive.com/

If your data connection is quick enough these are pretty good solutions, though really just for critical files.

 

[the8thark]

I picked the never potion cause it's the closest to my situation. None of the potions really fit exactly though. I have never backed up the data on my hard drive but I do want to though. I am just deciding is a time capsule or external hard drive a better option. I'd definantly go the time machine route though. For the option of looking back in my drives history. And if part of the data was corrupted I'd just erase the drive and reload the Time machine backup. I wouldn't bother with finding the trouble sector or anything. Just nuke the lot and start again.

 

[Dimitri]

I've been using Time Machine since getting Leopard and it's rescued me on a couple of occasions.

 

[RNDdave]

I run Time Machine (or connect my external drive for Time Machine to do its' stuff) about every 1 days I think - or just after that message pops up to say it has not backed anything up for x days. Time Machine does the entire system.

I also try to do a Carbon Copy Cloner backup on my user directory maybe once a month - it's held on a different partition of the same drive as my Time Machine backup which is a bit dumb; drive failure takes 'em both out.

I like time machine and have used it to restore my entire system - worked perfectly - BUT I also like the ability to do a fresh install and just take the user folder over to that install so that's why I go for both backups.

 

[Tanner31593]

No backups for Tanner.
Never have. I could start, I probably should, but I don't really feel like spending money on that stuff. I guess if I had to, I would just back up my iTunes and iPhoto libraries, nothing else on my Mac is that important.
If I ever get an external drive, i'll start. If not, no big deal. (At least until something happens)
I have a firewire enclosure but it's crappy off of eBay, and all my spare drives are very small, doubt it would hold everything.

 

[harryb2448]

Every Monday using SuperDuper's Smart Backup to an external Firewire drive. Been there before having drives crash back in the DeathStar days with no back up and it ain't pleasant guys.