Run Dead Easy Offsite Backups To iDisk [How To]

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Apple recently updated its Backup software to v3.2, improving its reliability and efficiency.

So now is a great time to show how to use it to make offsite backups of your most important files.

One of the best things about owning a Mac and using OS X is the amazing bundled backup software – Time Machine. Both my MacBook Pro and iMac happily backup every hour without my intervention. The only time I realize they are doing it is when my external hard drive spins up.

Time Machine is a fantastic way to protect your data from hard drive failure, but what if there is a fire or a break-in? All those hours of meticulous backups are gone along with your computers, photos, music and documents, and you are left with nothing.

There are many off site backup solutions available, such as Carbonite and Mozy, but they all require laying down your cash before being protected.

Apple’s own Backup app (now called MobileMe Backup), is available for free to all MobileMe subscribers. It can be downloaded here. Though you are limited by the 20GB of space that comes free with MobileMe, if you only use about 10% of the space (like me), then it’s a no-brainer to backup your machine to the remaining space. Plus, you can always buy extra iDisk storage.

Backup allows you to backup many different items, from all the music, photos and documents in your Home Folder, to all your personal data and settings.

For me, backing up my music and photos to iDisk isn’t going to happen. With a collection well over 100GB it just won’t fit; but for backing up settings and important document folders, this is exactly what’s needed.

First we will backup all your personal data (contacts, calendars, Safari settings and Keychains, etc.).

Start by putting a check in the box next to Personal Data & Settings.

Click Choose Plan.

As you can see your backup has now been created — and is scheduled for 24 hours from the original setup date.

If you want to backup now, just highlight the backup and press Back Up.

Now you can just stop there and you have a very good, easily executed backup that will incrementally update daily at the time specified.

However, Backup doesn’t stop there. Lets have a look at some more settings.

Click the gears icon and select Edit

You are then presented with various different options. These are broken down into two sections. ‘Backup Items’ and ‘Destination and Schedule’

Backup Items

This pane is the area where you can specify the elements that you would like to back up.  You can select everything from iCal settings to iDVD projects. To add new options click the plus icon and selects from the list.

You can also select items from the Finder or by using Spotlight search, but we will look at them in the Custom backups section.

Destination and Schedule

In this section you can update where you would like the backup to be stored, iDisk, local folder or DVD. You can also specify the times for your automatic backup schedule.

Within the main pane you can also view backup history and restore files. More on restoring files later.

Custom Backups

I keep a lot of my important current documents on my Desktop folder inside my Home Folder. To back these files up as well, click the Gears button and select Edit

To add a new custom backup click the plus button in the main window

Highlight the Custom panel and click Choose Plan

You are then presented with a familiar panel, but with the standard selections omitted. From this panel you can create a name for the backup, select the areas you would like to backup and where you would like the backup stored. To add these options simply click the plus button.

For my example, we will backup everything on the Desktop. First open the backup items with the plus icon. Then go to files and folders from the navigation bar at the top. This will open a finder window, which looks like this:

Make sure that the “Include this folder” radio button is highlighted. You will know it is by the green ticks next to the items you have specified to backup.

Next set the time and location you would like the backup to happen. I’ve selected an iDisk backup to occur everyday at 16:30.

As you can see, my backup pane has now been updated to include the new custom backup.

Restoring

Restoring your data is even simpler than backing up.

All you need to do is select the backup you would like to restore and press “Next.”

On the next screen you then select the item that you need to restore and press “Restore Selection,” and that’s it!

As you can see, Backup 3 offers a comprehensive backup suite, and if you are already a MobileMe user, it comes as a free perk.

There are many other options for backing up your documents online such as Google Docs or Dropbox. These come at little or no cost, but in my opinion, for simple one click backup of important files, Backup 3 does it best.

You can find an accompanying screencast here

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