[OS X TeX] OT: Backup software

[Herbert Schulz]

On Oct 9, 2006, at 6:56 PM, Alain Schremmer wrote:

> This is OT.
>
> I dutifully backup with Retrospect, say every hour, but just now I  
> needed one of yesterdays versions of one of the over 10000 files  
> that make up the Magnum Opus. And I couldn't get Retrospect to  
> cough-up the file even when given the path name. Of course, I know  
> a Retrospect "expert" who will get me the file but I am fed up.
>
> I just spent over an hour googling for backup software (over  
> FireWire or Ethernet) to an external hard drive and, most  
> important, one that is idiot-proof.
>
> SuperDuper ($27.95) ,  Data Backup ($49),  Intego ($70) all appear  
> reasonable but of course they each claim to be the best. The only  
> Open Source I found was on the terminal so that ruled it out.
>
> I would very much appreciate any suggestion.
>
> Regards
> --schremmer

Howdy,

I used to use retrospect and got fed up with its terrible interface.  
I now use SuperDuper but I'm not at all sure it will do what you  
want. It will maintain a bootable image of your hard drive but there  
is no way to retrieve old versions of files.

It really sounds like you need some sort of version control system.  
CVS is the traditional one and SVN a more modern system. Both are a  
bit of a pain to set up and will need Terminal work before you can  
use a GUI front end. For CVS I've been using CVL and for SVN I've  
been using svnX as the front ends.

Once SVN and/or CVS is set up, using SuperDuper to make the bootable  
backup is very nice.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest.com)


------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/