As I write this post, I’m still unsure of the best way forward for backing up my MacBook Pro (MBP), now that I have a couple of external hard drives.

Essentially, there are two mainstream methods – use Time Machine (TM), and / or clone your hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) or SuperDuper (SD).

Earthlingsoft.net has one of the best articles on how Time Machine actually works.

Erica Sadun of ARSTechnica.com chronicles the experience of having a hard drive fail just before MacWorld 2009 and the role Time Machine played in assisting the setup of a new unit.

CCC is donationware, while SD requires a fee if you want to perform incremental backups.

I’m trying out a couple of the suggestions that I’ve found in online discussions and relevant blogs and websites, but in the meantime, I’ll link up to the ones I’ve found to be useful.

Why backups under Mac OS X is not as easy as I thought it was

The CCC homepage pointed to this article, which is a fantastic resource on how the file metadata system introduced with the Mac OS X operating system introduces a ton of complications for those who think all that is needed to back up a Mac’s file system is to do a drag files and directories to another volume.

One of the most interesting points in that article is that Finder (now called Spotlight) comments that you can enter for an individual file is not stored with the file itself, but rather, in the .DS_Store file (invisible on Macs by default, but visible if you copy a directory to a Windows / Linux / UNIX machine) in the parent directory of the file in question.

There is also a good explanation of what ACLs (Access Control Lists) are. I first saw this term in one of the backup options in SuperDuper, but had no idea at the time what they were.

The article is pretty old, so do read the update, which points to a newer set of tests conducted at nik.me.

Backing up – Time Machine, CarbonClone or SuperDuper?

This thread proved to be one of the most useful discussions I’ve read. Specifically, most of the users seem to favor the use of cloning via CCC / SD over Time Machine.

One drawback to the Time Machine approach is that it doesn’t allow full flexibility to dictate which disk gets backed up to which other disks. If you have multiple disks and volume, cloning might be the only way to go. In my case, I have the internal disk in my MBP, and three external hard disks (let’s call them A, B and C). I had wanted to use Time Machine to back up the internal hard disk to external hard disk A, and back up B to C. There’s no way to do this with Time Machine alone.

Tentatively, I’m going with using TM to back up the internal disk to A, and one of the cloning software to back B up to C.

One photographer’s backup strategy

This post by JasonReplica makes for interesting reading, especially for those who take photos on a daily basis.

Other archiving and backup recommendations from photographers:

1. Scott Kelby’s photo and computer back-up strategy.
2. Paul Barnard prefers hard drives to optical discs for backups.

Kappy suggests abandoning the Time Machine approach

Instead of using Time Machine, it seems that a better approach would be to use other synchronization and backup tools such as Synchronize! Pro X, Synk or Carbon Copy Cloner.

LiquidCD

This freeware from Maconnect burns CDs and DVDs. The actual download page is here.

LiquidCD also allows you to create multi-session discs, that is, you can burn some files now and only fill the disc up partially, and then burn more files later. This way, you don’t have to wait until you have all the files on hand before starting the burn. This method of burning is useful for backing up your data such as photos, documents, movies or any other kind of file which gets created incrementally.

iusethis.com has some user opinions on the software, while thetaoofmac.com gives a brief overview of the capabilities on LiquidCD.

Disco – Mac Disc Burning

This software costs $19.95 USD, and also offers seamless multi-session CD support. Disco doesn’t allow you to create multi-session DVD’s, unfortunately, and this is what the application help has to say about this limitation:

Can Disco burn multi session DVDs?
No, as it stands it is technically impossible for any disc burning application to do this. It is simply not a feature of the DVD media.

I have yet to purchase it, however, and intend to try out the LiquidCD freeware for a while first.

I have to say though, the software promises to look very aesthetically stylish, as can be seen from the installation window below.

Disco has some interesting smoke effects that you’ll see while the disc burning session is in progress.

When you first launch the program, the application informs you that the software is running in a fully-functional shareware trial mode, and you get 7 burns free of charge.

I used Bluetooth to copy a huge number of files from my Sony Ericsson P1i smart phone to my MacBook Pro, and realized I needed to quickly delete all files with the THM extension.

In the Finder, I see these files:

Next, I narrow down the list of files in this folder to those of THM extension by entering .THM in the search bar of the Finder window.

You also need to ensure that the current folder is selected (rather than This Mac).

Now that you have the desired files filtered and listed, simply perform a Select All using CMD + A. You can also select Select All from the Edit menu.

The final step involves moving your files to the Trash.