Interrupt19

Photo courtesy of arRsync

Backing up your data is one of those things.. Like ironing, changing the oil, mowing the lawn, cleaning the cat box.. There’s always something better to do. Now that Apple created Time Machine, this is easy to set and forget. But what if you don’t have Time Machine? What if you want to back up just as easily as Time Machine, without using Time Machine? Fortunately, there’s a simple way to do this, without any terminal hassle.

Backup Storage Space:

First, you will need a storage area for your backups. For around $100, pick up a portable hard drive from a recommended brand name such as Seagate, Western Digital or Lacie. If you have access to a fileserver, even better.

Once you have your storage area, format it for your system. Create a folder for your backup. If you are using a fileserver, just create the folder for your backup.

Your First Backup:

Step 1. Download, install and run the incredible arRsync.

Step 2. Create a new backup by selecting the plus sign at the bottom.

Step 3. Select the folder you would like to backup. We will use our Home Folder to back up our profile for this tutorial.

Step 4. Select the backup folder you created on your External Hard Drive as the backup destination.

Note: In this tutorial, I will be using my Sansa e280 as a backup drive. Depending on the size of your profile or the folders you are backing up, you can use a USB Flash Drive, MP3 Player, Camera memory card, External Hard Drive or Fileserver. Basically anything that you can write to, as long as it’s big enough can be used.

Step 5. Click Run when you are ready to backup.

Note: This step may take a few minutes up to an hour depending on how large your backup is.

Future Backups:

Now that you created your first backup, what happens a week or month later when you have new files? What about changes to older files? Oh, and deleted files? This is no sweat for arRsync. Just run arRsync just as you did for the first time and it will compare the old backup to the new. New files will be added, old files will be deleted, and changed files will be updated. Best of all, any file that has not changed will be left alone, reducing the time it takes for the backup to run!