Re: Retrospect express

matt neuburg wrote:
Arild P. <no-spam2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

To put it another way: if you use
Retrospect for backup in this manner, then you must use Retrospect to
retrieve the data if that becomes necessary.

No problem. Whenever I download any Mac freeware/shareware I organize
it, "print" a PDF file off its web-page (so I can just double-click on
it and right away find out what that program is for), create a folder
for that program and categorize it. I find this very useful and keep
this on DVDs which I often use.
Things are organized specifically for placing on a DVD, so this is no
problem. I wouldn't be using Retrospect for this, but make another DVD
copy as a safeguard.


I'm also trying to find a solution for my iMovie movies which are
larger than 4.7 Gbytes, but I suppose Retrospect doesn't *split up
actual files*, but splits up *the contents of a folder* to fit on DVDs.

See the above paragraph. Retrospect just backs up one big stream of
data. It doesn't matter whether it comes from one file consisting of 10
GB or a hundred files consisting of .1 GB each.

That's awesome! So Retrospect Desktop/Express wll actually satisfy two
of my needs: the ability to back up my hard-drive and archive my video
projects! :-)
I really need to get this program, hoping I'll come across someone who
already has Retrospect, but got a bundled Retrospect Express which they
don't need and willing to sell it.

Does Retrospect/Retrospect Express compress this backup file-stream, so
that say 10 Gbytes worth of files on my hard-drive would take up less
than 10 Gbytes of storage space on my backup media?

And in case my drive crashes and I need to restore my backup, does my
hard-drive need a lot of additional space in order to place the backed
up data there? (sort of like a huge Zip file; you need free space for
the Zip file itself, and of course additional free space for the data
that comes out of the Zip file once decompressed).

Finally, keeping in mind that Retrospect creates a single *stream* of
data, does that mean that in case you span it over several DVDs -if one
of the DVDs go bad, get damaged or whatever, I won't be able to salvage
any of the data on all the other DVDs either?


A dedicated backup hard drive would be practical, but more expensive
(and I would eventually run out of space), and I've also heard that
hard drives aren't the most reliable media you could use for backing
up.

Boy does that ever seem backwards to me. So many times I've had CDs just
"go bad", as if they had soured on the shelf. But I've never ever had
that happen with a hard drive. And have you priced hard drive storage
lately? And what about the speed? And the reusability? I think hard
drives are a great backup solution. m.

Hmmmm... well, this is what I read in an article about backing up your
data (sorry, can't remember where I read it), but I'm always open for
suggestions.
Yes, hard drives have become a lot cheaper lately, but surely, buying 5
or 6 DVD-RW discs would definitely be a cheaper solution, and that
would allow for two backup sets as well (for my internal hard-drive).
I would also have to buy an external drive enclosure (I'm using a
Powerbook) for the backup drive which would add to its cost, and I hear
that you really need to replace a hard-drive every three years or so if
you want to have a reliable storage source. So the final cost might not
be as low as first thought...

What other media is there which is suitable for backups and doesn't
cost a fortune?

.

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