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I recently acquired several Maxtor One Touch II external FW 800 drives at an auction. They came with a CD which has Retrospect Express on it. Looks like it's version 6.0, which should work through Tiger (my G5 still runs Tiger) and it looks like there's an update (6.1) which should run under Leopard. According to the User Guide, I can set it up so that pushing the button on it will make a bootable backup, and it seems pretty customizable. It can do a "smart" backup, which will only backup files changed since the last backup (like SuperDuper).
It's been a long time since I used Retrospect... I believe it was under OS 9 when I had a DDS2 tape drive. Wasn't the easiest software to use, but it was pretty customizable, and it saved my bacon at least once.
So, my question is: Is it worth using? I have two other Maxtor One Touch drives, but they came with Maxtor's own backup software, which as I recall sucked. If I could actually use the buttons on my drives, and Retrospect Express worked as advertised, I'd consider using it instead of SuperDuper for my backups. Any feedback is appreciated.
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No. Try Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner instead. CCC is free.
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ok, any reason why? I've used both CCC and SuperDuper.
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It has been a long time since I used Retrospect Express but my memory of it is endless frustration. Plus if I am remembering correctly, and there is no guarantee, it won't backup the system folder correctly. That was in OS9 though.
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A very good reason not to use Retrospect Xpress. It's an old app that hasn't be updated in years. Years! It's incredible unreliable and fragile for a backup program and SuperDuper and CCC are up-to-date and you won't lose any sleep (or data) using them.
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forget that "button". You can set CCC to backup whenever the target volume becomes available, that is whenever you plug in your external drive. Perfect for notebooks!
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They're two very different apps. SuperDuper and CCC make bootable clones of your drive. Retrospect will let you keep multiple historical revisions of your files, copying only what has changed. (somewhat similar to TimeMachine)
Most people use SuperDuper or CCC and don't understand Retrospect
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[quote mattkime]They're two very different apps. SuperDuper and CCC make bootable clones of your drive. Retrospect will let you keep multiple historical revisions of your files, copying only what has changed. (somewhat similar to TimeMachine)
Most people use SuperDuper or CCC and don't understand Retrospect
CCC does exactly that, "keep multiple historical revisions of your files, copying only what has changed." You just have to set it right, and it does it, in addition to exact clones of your HD.
I used Restrospect (I still have 2 licenses) and I paid for CCC (even though it wasn't required). I think SD is just as good, but unlike CCC, you have to pay before you unlock all features. it's the only reason I chose CCC over SD. Once I tested CCC and saw how it worked, and when I looked a SD and saw that some features required payment, I decided to send a check to Mike Bombich.
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Unless Retrospect has changed significantly since 5.1, here are the options.
1) "Finder" style backup. Kind of like dragging things yourself to another HD, but scripted.
2) The compressed database file option. Everything gets put into a proprietary database file(s) with corresponding catalog (i.e. index) files.
Choice 1 isn't any better than the modern alternatives. And yes, the interface is way more fiddly than it needs to be. I "helped" a user with #2 once for its promise of saving space. Damn near lost everything. If the catalog files go bad and can't be rebuilt you're in real trouble, because Retrospect will refuse to open it's own db file without one.
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SuperDuper all the way. The shareware is only $30, but the support and ease of use are well worth it. It will do "Smart" (synced) backups on schedule.
Actually, I use 2 backup programs. SuperDuper once a week for a full bootable clone. After you do the initial backup (could take a couple hours) the Smart backups take me about 15 minutes.
I also use ChronoSync daily just to backup the data files to my SD clone. Once the initial back up is scheduled and run the first time, following synced backups takes only a few _seconds_.
