Level 1

15 points

Backup Solutions

Curious how everyone does this.

I considering either getting a 500GB HDD or 1TB HDD for my Mac Mini today as I've only had it a couple weeks and my 80 GB is almost gone with the video etc I have on it.

How do you back it up? Do you have 2 drives of the same size and just occasionally move them over?

My pictures I already have in 2 places so really all I'm worried about is ITunes and video stuff.

Mac Mini 1.66 1 GB RAM 80GB HDD, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 13, 2007 9:17 AM

51 replies

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Apr 16, 2007 5:09 AM in response to rlu929s

In my experience it would be urged to ensure the drive used is FW, not USB. Both will work of course, and USB appears in theory to be faster than FW 400, but in reality continuous data throughput in USB is worse, depending on what other activities the system is performing.

For backup purposes the fact that USB can manage a higher burst speed for data is less important than firewire's stable data throughput rate.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 16, 2007 11:10 AM in response to AndyO

Picked up the 2 of the 320GB MyBook WD Drives at Best Buy. Made sure they were the FW version.

My plan is the daisy chain them and then use the 1 extra FW port on the last drive to get video from the camcorder to my mini. If this becomes an issue I'll look into a hub.

When I get home what's the best method to format them. The Mac File system?

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Apr 16, 2007 11:56 AM in response to rlu929s

If you want to use one or other (or both) to boot the Mac from, or have that capability, you'll have to partition them under the GUID scheme first. You do this by selecting the drive in Disk Utility and then clicking the partition tab, then the options button and then the GUID partition table option at the top of the list. After setting the volume scheme (all the drive I would assume, but you can partition into smaller logical drives if you have reason to want to) you then format the drive as MacOS Extended (Journaled).

If you don't want to boot to either (or both) then you can partition them as Apple partition map instead, (and format as MacOS Extended (Journaled) too of course) but if you later change your mind and need to boot from one, you'd have to repartition - loosing your data in the process.

Of course, backups are not really intended for 'live' use as a boot volume, it's just an added option I have found useful on occasion.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 16, 2007 1:04 PM in response to AndyO

I plan to just use one to store my pictures/video/music etc and will use SuperDuper to keep them in sync on a regular interval to have some fault tolerance.

So Mac OS X Extended should do the trick then?

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Apr 16, 2007 1:07 PM in response to rlu929s

So Mac OS X Extended should do the trick then?

Yes indeed!

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 17, 2007 4:41 AM in response to AndyO

Ok, I've hooked both drives up now. I hooked one the the Mac and then the other to the 2nd FW port on the 1st Drive.

Power is on and the blue lights are on. However I don't see any of the drives from the mini?

Everything I read says it supposed to automatically mount. I've tried rebooting the Mac with no luck as well and restarting the drives.

As I'm still getting familiar with Mac where does one manually mount a drive if that's even possible?

Any suggestions?

AndyO

Level 6

17,064 points

Apr 17, 2007 5:08 AM in response to rlu929s

The drives would normally be expected to mount once connected and then powered up, though if not already partitioned and formatted there may be an error message instead of a drive icon.

I would connect just one drive at the outset, and then run Disk Utility to see if it is recognized. If you see it there, you can then partition and format it if that is needed (some drives come ready set up). If the drive appears in Disk Utility and has already been prepared for use, you should see two entries for it - the first will be the size and type of drive, the second the volume name. Click on the volume name and underneath the two DU windows, you should then see an entry called 'Mount Point' with a blue link next to it on the right. Click on the blue link - this should then mount the drive.

If the drive doesn't show in Disk Utility, perform an SMC reset and try again. Once again however, ensure that only one drive at a time is connected at first.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 17, 2007 6:26 AM in response to AndyO

Thanks Andy I'll give that a try tonight. It was my understanding that they came FAT32 but you never know.

I'll try just the one drive and will go from there.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 17, 2007 4:13 PM in response to rlu929s

Ok I tried the above steps and none worked. So I then tried hooking it up via USB and right aways it saw it and added it. I formated the drive as Mac OS Extended and disconnected the USB and connected the FW cable and it doesn't see it again.

Any ideas what could be wrong with the firewire?

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Apr 17, 2007 7:00 PM in response to rlu929s

Does your camcorder get recognized if plugged in directly to the Mini's firewire port?

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 17, 2007 7:38 PM in response to Boece

If by recognized you mean that I plug the 4pin to 6pin in and open IMovie and can control the camcorder and import video then yes it sure does. I just tried it and it worked right away.

Also I hooked these up to my main PC with Vista on it and had the same result...USB worked but FireWire didn't.

I've spent enough time so I'm packing this up and taking them back to best buy and will try another brand. WD has scared me off these drives. If it is faulty FW ports that doesn't sound good that 2 would be bad.

I've tried powering everything off and waiting 30 min, repairing permissions on the main HDD and all cominations of the various drives and FW cables included.

I may try and pick up a Lacie somewhere....or if you have any more suggestions that could be bought at Best Buy or Circuit City.

Apr 17, 2007 8:00 PM in response to rlu929s

Did you try the WD firmware update:
http://support.wdc.com/download/downloadxml.asp#54
It's dated December 2006, so if your drives were made before then (or perhaps shortly thereafter), maybe it would help.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 17, 2007 8:11 PM in response to gruisinger

I looked and that is for the Premium II Drives not the Premium drives.

I used that area to look up the Premium and there was nothing to do with drivers except a couple windows drivers.

Still looks like they are going back.

Thanks for finding that though.

rlu929s Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 18, 2007 9:42 AM in response to rlu929s

Trying to figure out what options I have now. I'll look today when I return the drives but I don't see much at Best Buy that is Firewire and is even remotely close in price to the MyBooks.

I don't understand why 2 would be bad. I've heard of others using them just fine...really weird.

It looks like more and more that I'm heading towards getting something online.

I might try the enclosure route and use the enclosure that Andyo linked to above with some Seagate 500GB EIDE drives they have on sale.

Any thoughts?

And using this link does anyone see anything else decent at BB?
link

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Apr 18, 2007 6:57 AM in response to rlu929s

I've been using a Maxtor OneTouchIII. Firewire and USB both work great with it. I reformatted the drive and don't use any of the "one-touch" backup features.

Might check the pricing a newegg dot com. They had some 1 Terrabyte and 1.5 Terrabyte models recently.

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Backup Solutions