Time Machine and what else?

[Sierra25]

I have been looking into backup a bit better since my son lost everything recently. I backup with Time Machine and I thought the perfect answer was to do an online backup. Actually I signed up for Mozy and started my backup only to find that I have a data transfer limit of 15gig per month. (I live in a rural area and my internet choices are very limited). So right now I'm canceling Mozy - which makes me a bit sad because I thought that was a great option.

What I'm wondering is what is another good option for backup? I'm not really crazy about DVDs because it seems to take so much time, etc. Does anyone have suggestions?

[DonnaNJ]

Some of the ladies have mentioned that they copy everything to an EHD and keep it in their office or someone elses home. Then once a month bring it back and update it. I wish one of the offsite backup companies would let you send a EHD to them and they would do your initial load but I didn't see anything like that. I also always upload my photos to Shutterfly so there is one copy I can always get back.. but that doesn't help with the other stuff.

[earlofoxford]

I'm using Carbonite, an online backup system similar to Mozy. I also have a backup EHD.

[jazzmatazz]

Do Carbonite and Mozy allow you to chose which files to backup, or does it just back up EVERYTHING on your hard drive?

[twirlerzmom]

Tracy, I don't know about Carbonite but Mozy allows you to choose what you want backed up. I have mine configured to back up only the things I find necessary.

[Sierra25]

I can choose somewhat - for instance I can choose my documents folder but that is the whole folder. I can also choose my photos folder but all of them. Since my documents folder is about 70 gigs it doesn't really help with a 15 gig data transfer limit.

[earlofoxford]

Carbonite allows you to choose. I have my supplies, photos, and pages on an EHD, to I told it to back up the EHD. But it does take quite some time. It's been working on mine for about 6 weeks.

[jk703]

I use an EHD... very handy!

I am new to MAC and love it so far... can you tell me about the Time Machine? I don't know about that... Is it like a local Back up? How can I use it... I checked and it is there in my applications...

Thanks! Sorry -- I don't mean to hijack the thread!

[Sierra25]

Time Machine is great. I hooked up a new external hard drive and my mac asked me if I wanted to use it as a back up for time machine. I followed the directions and it just backed it all up. If I forget to do a backup it reminds me. That's all there is to it.

My son had to restore everything once from time machine and he said once it was done his mac was just as it was before it crashed and all he had to do was plug in his external hard drive. Wonderful!

[anke]

Linda, Carbonite lets you backup EHDs now? Every time I checked I was told they did not, that's why I am using Mozy. Although I think they are both kind of alike. I do that and I also have a larger EHD just for backup (1TB) and 2 EHDs that stay attached, one for photos one for supplies.

[maureenreynolds]

re Time Machine. Apple - Mac OS X - What is Mac OS X - Time Machine

Once you have a dedicated EHD, and I'd go with a 1T, you program it (Time Machine) and your backups are done automatically. eh voila!

[arimacias]

i have a little tiny ehd and i back it up with time machine.
trying to keep it simple

[jk703]

Thanks Maureen!