Mesch, I use Firewire since it is native to Mac, places lower load on main processor and has nice daisy chaining, but for compatibility reason USB might be better. I have three identical drives (two backups). One backup in storage at home and one at work. After adding/ripping 5 or more CDs I backup to one drive only (alternating them). Carbon copy can make exact copy of the drive if they are of the same type but sometimes it just transfers files - I don't know why. It doesn't make any difference to me and is even faster. I've heard good things about SuperDuper. |
I want to thank all responders. To clarify, I do not share data between computers, and I have a time machine backup disk for each. The Mac Mini is dedicated to my primary system and is used only for music playback. The MacBook Pro serves as my general computer and as a server for my secondary systems. As most of my music library is duplicated across both computers, I feel the need to backup only the files on the Mac Mini. I will look into the SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner backup programs. I am not familiar with benefits they provide. Any additional information would be appreciated. I seems to me that one issue is whether I am interested in backup only, or if I want to use a backup disk as a library source for playback in regards to the use of USB vs. firewire based drives. Given the cost of drives, I believe I will backup on both types. USB would serve better for transfer to other types of servers should I get away from the computer. Firewire would serve better as a playback device when using computer. Am I missing something here? Again, thanks for the input, and in advance for any additional info. |
I've been happy over the years with OWC Mercury Elite Pro from Other World Computing (Macsales.com). I've owned several over nearly a 10 year period and have yet to have any of them die on me. Since you're using Mac's, I'd recommend Time Machine (assuming you have one external drive per computer). If you're just using this as a method of sharing the data between computers, just leave it on the Mini 24/7 and have another external drive that functions as the Mini's Time Machine, and set it to also back up the music external drive. Then set up sharing in your Mac Mini to share the music files so that the laptop can access them. But even this isn't enough for good protection. You'll also need an offsite backup. I use Crashplan for this purpose (Crashplan will do both local and offsite backups) but there are a number of companies that offer online backup services. Having the offsite backups protects you against theft and fire, and the combination of local and offsite backups gives you the best protection that is reasonable for consumer-grade equipment. Hope that helps. Michael |
