jeff@drexel.UUCP (Jeff White) (11/30/88)
I'm looking for a backup program for a Mac II which has 40 Mbyte hard disk. The main features I would like are: 1. Easy to use - the person who will be using the Mac is a beginner (the first time he is using a Mac), so the program shouldn't be too difficult to use (I doubt that any program really could be). 2. Selectable backup (files/folders) - I looked briefly at the backup program that Apple delivers, and one thing I didn't like is that it assumes you want to backup your entire disk. The ability to specify only certain folders is required (I don't want 80% of a full backup to be for the System and application files). The ability to have different save sets which are selectable (ie. one might be all files, another just data files, etc.) would be nice. 3. File compression - The backups will be done onto floppies, so some type of file compression (on the fly) which can pack more than 800k worth of files onto the disk would be good. I should mention that I use FastBack Plus for the PC and am very satisfied with it. It has all the features I have described above, and on the assumption that the Mac version was similar, I was going to go out and buy it. However, I thought that it might be best to check to see if it is a good program (or if anything else might be better) before I order it. Jeff White Drexel University - ECE Dept. rutgers!bpa!drexel!jeff
Fabian@cup.portal.com (Fabian Fabe Ramirez) (12/02/88)
Jeff, Biasly speaking, with the exception of the compression format, you should consider SuperMac Software's DiskFit. DiskFit saves in a Finder compatible format that allows you to recover individual file(s) and/or folder(s) without having to use any application to access this information. Also, there's no Directory Disk. Something that Fast Back and Redux (in it's proprietary format) uses. We don't. Though DiskFit doesn't have a high degree of file selectivity, DiskFit does allow you to create different types of backups: Duplicate (backup to a volume of equal size or greater), Applications & System files, Documents only, or a single, large file. DiskFit also has a folder exclusion option, that allows you to exclude specific folders from being backed up. One of the major reason for not having a high degree of selectivity is that we want to make sure that in the event of a crash and no possibility of data recovery, you'll have the security of knowing that you're last backup was a full and complete backup (provided that one hasn't changed the default settings). It's a difference in philosophies, but Dantz is considering file filtering. Otherwise, of the competition...take a look at Redux, Fast Back (make sure you enable the Verify Writes option), and PCPC's recently updated HFS Backup 3.0. Fabian Ramirez SuperMac Technology fabian@cup.portal.com sun!cup.portal.com!fabian