Cool Mac Gear

Reader Guy Richardson writes:

In an answer to a fellow reporting that Dantz has gone to a pay tech support, you said:

There are other backup utilities.

Ok, Here goes:

The candidates are:

Backup Mastery
SwitchBack 3.6
Tri-BACKUP 3.0.5
Personal Backup
Update Addendum

Backup Mastery

A competitor for Retrospect is CharisMac's Backup Mastery for the Macintosh.

Backup Mastery offers scheduled unattended backups and backup scripts, and walks you through the process of backing up your data to a variety of popular media formats including tape, floppy, Optical, Zip, Jaz, SyQuest and CD-R. Backup Mastery will help you restore your data quickly and easily if you do have a data loss problem.

Backup Mastery lets you backup files immediately, or even schedule backups when you aren't there, andgives you the option to only backup files that have been changed since your last backup saving you time and money by eliminating any unnecessary operations.

Backup Mastery Features:
• Works directly with Charismac's Discribe CD mastering software for CD-R backup to virtually any CD-R drive.  Lets you backup in your choice of standard CD formats
• Supports virtually all SCSI tape drives
• Supports backup to floppy, Optical, Zip, Jaz, SyQuest or to any mounted volume
• Selective backup capabilities, only backing up selected files, or Backup an entire volume
• Perform immediate backup of selected volumes, folders, files or any combination
• Can backup up any mounted volume
• Schedule unattended, automatic backups, including start up and shutdown if necessary
• Open a Backup Mastery script and execute at any time
• Set backup criteria on a file by file basis including:  backup always, backup only if changed, or backup if changed after a specified date
• Restore a backup set in its entirety, or restore selected files
• Supports multiple tape backups for large volumes
• Span backups across multiple tape drives for unattended backups of large volumes
• Accelerated for Power Macintosh (Native support)
• Supports Apple's SCSI Manager 4.3 and System 8.x
• Advanced features on all Quadra and Power Macintosh models, System 7.1 or higher
• Site licenses available for large organizations
• Call for competitive upgrade pricing

For more information, visit:
http://www.charismac.com/Products/BackupMastery/index.html

SwitchBack 3.6

Just updated to version 3.6 this week, SwitchBack makes it easy and safe to synchronize two disks, so that both contain your most recently updated documents. Simply choose two folders to compare, and SwitchBack does the rest, quickly and painlessly.

The two folders can reside on the same or different disks, or on two computers connected by a network, or even over the Internet. You can ask SwitchBack to tell you in detail what it is doing, or let it go to work, only advising you when there's a problem.

SwitchBack has been designed principally for those people with two computers (especially desktop and PowerBook) who need to ensure that they have the most recent version of their documents available to them.

SwitchBack requires at least MacOS 9.1, but uses the features provided in the latest operating system. It is recommended that you use SwitchBack with the most recent version of the System software (at the time of writing - MacOS 9.2.2 or MacOS X 10.1.2).

System requirements:
• Mac OS 9.1 or higher
or
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher
 
SwitchBack is $30.00 shareware  

For more information, visit:
http://webnz.com/glendower/switchback.html

Tri-BACKUP 3.0.5

The first backup utility for Mac OS X (works with the legacy OS too) this product is an easy-to-use backup utility, featuring mirror, evolutive or incremental backup, compression, synchronization, and multiple programmed actions. Tri-BACKUP works on Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS 8.6.

You can create as many different actions as needed, for example to backup your entire disk every week, a special folder every day, to synchronize your customer file twice a day, etc.

Tri-BACKUP also provides "immediate actions" to easily and quickly perform a simple backup or a synchronization, to compare the content of two folders or volumes, or to compress (uncompress) a folder.

Main features
• Immediate Modes: backup, restoration, synchronization, and compression.
• Programmed Actions, to automatically run backup, synchronization, and compression.
• Multiple backup modes: mirror (exact copy), evolutive (exact copy that keeps versions N-1, N-2 dof each modified file), and incremental (only backup modified files).
• Only copy needed files: unchanged files already in the backup are not copied.
• Function to compare two folders, displaying all differences.
• File Protection, with encryption and password.

The latest Tri-BACKUP 3.05 features several improvements. The backup are faster. It is easier to make Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server bootable copies. It can work with Disc Burner (to backup your files on CDs) and iDisk (to backup your files on the Internet). It is free for Tri-BACKUP 3 users.

System requirements:
• PPC
• Mac OS 8.6 or higher with CarbonLib
or
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher
 
Tri-BACKUP is $49.00 demoware

For more information, visit:
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Personal Backup

Personal Backup offers hassle free backups, offering incremental backup, synchronize, and record keystrokes. Set up your backup routine once from the compact-sized control panel and you'll never have to worry about loss of data after accidental deletions, hard disk failures or other annoying situations. With Personal Backup you can safely back up or synchronize your data automatically without any interference with your work.

Here's what Personal Backup offers:
• Works in the background
Personal Backup runs your backup scripts completely in the background while you are free to work in any application.
• Unattended backups
You can schedule your backup at shutdown, at a specific time during the day or at regular intervals. You can also run a backup procedure instantly by typing a keyboard shortcut or by selecting a script from a special pull-down menu. Personal Backup recognizes any HFS volume like additional hard disks, magneto-optical disks, SyQuest cartridges or floppy disks. All data is copied in Finder format, making it effortless to recover backup files. There is no need to perform complicated restore procedures!
• Synchronization
Personal Backup includes a fully functional synchronization option that allows you to update the most recent items between two volumes. Ideal for PowerBook users, the feature is also handy for managing multiple projects on removable media.
• Keystroke recorder
For complete data protection, Personal Backup includes a keystroke recorder that will automatically create one file per day in which it stores every keystroke you type. It prevents loss of data even when a System error destroys your active files. Data can be recovered using Copy and Paste commands.

Technical specifications
• Performs complete folder and volume backup or synchronization
• Recognizes any HFS volume such as hard disks, AppleShare servers, Magneto-Optical, Syquest or floppy disk drives
• Runs automatically at shutdown, at regular intervals, at preset time or on user's request
• Works completely in the background
• Backs up in Finder format: In case of data loss, you can immediately recover files from the backup copy
• Performs incremental backups: Backs up new and modified files only
• Backs up and synchronizes desktop items
• Runs multi-generational backups
• Handles multiple backup scripts
• Creates an exceptions list for any script
• Lists all backup activities in a log file
• Automatically connects to shared volumes when the backup starts
• Includes a keystroke recorder that creates a daily file of keystrokes typed to prevent loss of data

System requirements:
• Mac OS 7.0 -> 9.04
• 68020 or PowerPC
• 8 MB memory
• 10 MB free disk space
• Screen resolution 640 x 480 or higher

Note: This version is not Mac OS X compatible. Mac OS X version release date
not yet confirmed.

For more information, visit:
http://www.intego.com/products/

Update Addendum

From: Min Yan

Dear Charles,

I use Synchronize and like it a lot. The function is similar to SwitchBack and Tri-BACKUP. The interface is quite intuitive and clean. My home is connected to my office through Ethernet and the first thing I do after turning on the home machine is to update the files with the office machine.

There is also a Pro version that I have not checked out because my need is quite simple.

Best Regards,

Min Yan

Hi Min Yan;

Yes; some others I missed were:

FoldersSynchronizer
http://www.softobe.com/products/flsy/pp.html

Synk 3.1.2
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~rvoth/synkx.html

Synk 4 preview 5
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~rvoth/synk4.html

Drag'nBack
http://members.aol.com/realip/index.html

BackJack
http://www.backjack.com/

and......

Another Backup Alternative coming...

From Mike Mihalik at La Cie

Charles,

Good article today on Applelinks regarding backup alternatives.

LaCie is close to taking off the wraps of another program to consider:

SilverKeeper (coming soon... http://www.silverkeeper.com)

We previewed it to a select few at Macworld SFO, and hope to have it ready by end of February.

Program will be available free to anyone wishing to download it. We will only ask for name and email info. There will be a nominal charge for those wishing an install CD. And of course, it will be included with LaCie products.

I don't expect you to write anything about it just yet, without providing you with a chance to take a look first.

We have NO plans to include any spyware or other things that might make people wary. Our only restriction will be that others cannot distribute the product without our permission.

Program is OS 9 and OS 10 compatible, and will work with any USB, FireWire, SCSI, IDE/ATA, or network volume.

Mike Mihalik

Thanks Mike;

I will be updating the MacBasics backup piece with a follow up article.

Charles

Thanks. CM