New mac owner , have few question

[wally007]

I've owned PCs since early 90's and just few days ago i jumped the gun and ordered dual G5's. ( i have never really used mac before )

Reason i'm searching for back up software even before i get my G5 is that i plan on doing following. getting tiger optimized , installing adobe's CS2 then flash mx 2004. Once i'm done installing registering all of the apps i want to make back up of that bootable drive with all OS x and apps in "virgin" state. So in case i install some mad plug in or harddrive goes bad i have something to go back to.

How would i accomplish this with your software ? I dont have external HD. Will i be able to burn image onto DVD ? And then once i need to use it how will i load it onto primary harddrive that is corrupted and make it exactly same as it was when i made back up ?

Thanks in advance for your time and answers.

[dnanian]

Wally007:

We're really designed to make backups onto external hard disks -- for exactly the reasons you specify: it's trivial to restore in the event of a problem, because you just plug in your FireWire drive, and boom -- you can restore from it.

We don't allow you to store an image on the same drive as you're backing up (kind of a "hall of mirrors" thing), so you really would need something to back up to.

You would be able to store an image on a network drive (see the "How do I update an image?" FAQ entry), but that would require some work when restore time came (see section 5 of the user's guide).

So, I guess I'd really suggest investing in an external FireWire drive. You can get a good LaCie, OWC or WiebeTech drive for less than $200, and it's worth every penny.

Hope that helps.

[wally007]

thanks ...

I dont want to sound cheap or anything but G5 has left me broke so $200 for external HD is out of the question. I need ram more than that and i dont even have $ for that at the moment.

I see a lot of hard drive enclosures that have firewire output and since i have few small 20 - 40 gb drives around , i ask , would that work ? I saw in Faq that not all firewire chipsets are able to boot , so i ask which would you recommend. Afterall , all in all arent those external HD's just 3.5" HDs in enclosure with firewire output ?

Thanks again for your valuable time

[dnanian]

Understood. But it's really not possible, at least with SuperDuper!, to back up without a place to store the backup...

A FireWire enclosure will work in general, but some of them won't boot, regardless of the chipset (Oxford is usually the one you want). But there's some firmware difference -- the technical details you'd have to look up -- that allows the actual boot support. I'm sure a search on the 'net will turn up some references.

Hope that helps!

[wally007]

" to back up without a place to store the backup... "

well , is 2nd internal HD option ? I understand G5 case comes with space for additional HD , so is it possible to back up boot disk there and in case of emergency boot from there and restore ?

[dnanian]

Yep, it sure is. Internal's just fine.