How should I ideally be backing up my Powerbook?

[mondo joe]

I have an external harddrive and Silverkeeper.

But I don't know if I should be backing up select files or trying to back up the whole darn thing.

I don't really know what's meant by backing up a "bootable drive".

Any advice?

[reprobate]

1. Not an expert, but here's some things you might consider.

If your external drive is a firewire, you are golden. In that case you can do a full backup of your system drive and it will be bootable, so that if you ever lose your hard drive you can boot from the external drive.

I'm not familiar with Silverkeeper as I use SuperDuper, but I'd guess they do the same thing. SuperDuper does a full backup of your system drive the first time you use it, and then does an incremental backup each time afte that. Incremental in that it copies any new files to the b/u drive and removes any files from the b/u drive that are no longer on the system drive. This way your b/u is always a copy of your system drive. I'd assume that Silverkeeper does the same thing, but read the 'read me files firs to make sure.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask about anything you have trouble with. I'm a recent switcher from windows myself, so I know the value of this forum.

[mondo joe]

3. Thanks. Is a full backup also called a "clone"?

Conversion to Mac has left me feelin' dumb. :-(

And yes I DO have a firewire, so that's good. :-)

[reprobate]

4. Yep, it 'clones' your drive.

And don't feel alone. The best advice I heard when switching was "Forget everything you knew about windows." OS X is different, but you'll find that you pick it up quickly. It's not that far different, but the nomenclature requires a new mindset.

Welcome to the side of light. Don't go back to the darkside. I think you'll find you won't want to after a short while.

[mondo joe]

5. Repro, one more question please. If I use this to more or less synch up

my whole drive I understand next time I synch up it will load only those things I've added to the back up, but...

will it delete from the backup those things I delete from the powerbook?

[emulatorloo]

2. "bootable drive" means you could start up your computer from it

Personally here is what I do.

I cloned my whole drive to my external firewire drive using superduper.

Then I do incremental backups when I think about it --

Read this review of SuperDuper it will give you an idea of what the different options for backing up might be -- I assume Silverkeeper is a similar type application. But read this review because it is pretty clear and concise, and explains a lot:

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2005/06/superduper/index.php