I've been researching new backup solutions for both online and offline backups of my development computers. I don't just want to backup a few files, I need disaster recovery (if my machine completely fails, I want to be able to replace the HDD (or computer) and be able to restore it back to the way it was in a few clicks).

For years I've been backing up my PCs using Acronis True Image Home to my local NAS drives. This works great for local backups, but I moved to a Mac last year and haven't found a backup software I really like yet that does compression as well as Acronis (currently PC-only) and offers something close to a GFS backup solution.

But this blog post is to discuss online backup solutions. While I continue to try different offline backup solutions to backup my data to my NAS drives, I really need an offline backup solution for redundancy.

Here are a list of some solutions I've been researching. I'd be grateful to hear people's thoughts on the products or to hear what other people are using that they might suggest to consider. I need something that can backup my Macs (most important), but if there is a product that can backup my PCs as well, it would be preferred:

• Jungle Disk: Offline storage powered by Amazon S3. Very affordable at only 15 cents per gigabyte per month (and you only pay for what you use).
• CrashPlan: A really cool product that allows you to use either their online storage facilities, or backup to your own servers (online and offline). You can even do redundant backups (backup to multiple devices, both your own devices and their online backup facilities). I really like this option, except it doesn't (yet) have an option to just backup to offline HDDs (like my NAS) without involving another OS (I say "yet" because their site lists that they are working on that option and may be offering it soon). Check out their video for a pretty cool demonstration.
• Mozy: An online-only backup solution. This one has been around for a while. It still doesn't appear to officially support Mac OS 10.5 yet (like CrashPlan), but I've had friends say they're using it without a problem. I believe it deletes your data after 30 days.
• Carbonite: An offline backup solution. This is a very enticing solution... only $49.95 per year with no file storage capacity storage limitation. What's that you say? You heard me correct. The downside is that its Windows-only (and I need a solution for the Mac). Still, it was worthy to list here. I believe it deletes your data after 30 days.
• iDrive: Looks like a pretty cool online backup solution, but their pricing os too high for the amount of data I need to backup and it's Windows-only.
• Drobo and DroboShare: Okay, I know... this product doesn't belong on this list of online backup solutions, but it was too cool not to talk about anyway :). The two devices together act like a NAS (using new technology that may replace standard RAID as we know it (my personal opinion)), but limitations like USB2 between the devices, no redundant gigabit connections, etc. are holding me back. Its been out for a while, so hopefully they will have a new version out soon with many of the missing features people have been asking for.

If you Google "online backup solutions" you'll get a long list of products out there (only a few of which I've looked into). So, what do you use or suggest?

I'm currently using Mac OS x 10.5 and originally had these scripts while using 10.4 (thus I haven't tested them on any earlier versions).

Normally when you want to map (mount) to a Windows shared network drive you have to click on the word "Go" in the finder menu, choose "Connect to Server..." (propeller-K), and use SMB to mount to a Windows shared server.

Example:

However, I have several shares I use on my network (a NAS that uses SMB) and I prefer to have my shares connect automatically on startup. So I use the following script to map to my drives (using Apple's Script Editor).

From there I can either add all the drive mappings I want to that one script, or save them as individual scripts (the way I usually do it). Then I save the script as an application (make sure to uncheck "Startup Screen", unless you want that extra step).

Finally I add the applications to my startup (System Preferences --> Accounts --> Highlight the account --> Login Items (tab) --> Then I add the applications to the list.

On some occasions (for some reason), when my machine starts up not all of the mappings will connect (giving an error that the destination was unreachable). I haven't figured out why yet, but it only happens occasionally, so I've been living with it (to fix it I just manually click the application again and I'm in).

There are plenty of other methods to get this to work, but I haven't had much luck with others yet (I'm still a bit new to Mac and *nix). If someone else out there has a great idea (or a better one), feel free to let me know.

Yesterday I received my copy of Microsoft Office 2008 (Home Edition) from Amazon. So far I'm really liking it (the video tutorials on Lynda were very helpful to me in getting up to speed).

The printer I use (Canon MP830) is not networkable, thus I needed to purchase a network print server that supported a Mac (I'm currently using the D-Link DPR-1260. Although it supports multi-function printers (including my printer) it only supports "printing" from Macs (unfortunately I didn't find that out until after installing the device... the box just said Mac OS X supported)). When I upgraded to OS X 10.5, Apple pre-installed the Gutenprint printer drivers, which allowed me to finally print to my printer without a problem. Although it doesn't support all of the features of the printer (actually, hardly any features... not even draft printing) it at least had a few important features like duplexing (or what Apple calls "Two-Sided" printing). So far, every program I've tested on my Mac has had great success... until I installed MS Office 2008. From Office I can only print (with little-to-no feature options).

The solution? It was easier than I thought. When you're ready to print, choose "print" from the "file" menu. Then hit the "Preview" button (which loads up Preview). Now you'll be able to have all of your print features again.

As an aside: During my trials, I tried upgrading the Gutenprint printer drivers to the latest version (which claim they fix some bugs and add more printer support... at this time I upgraded from 5.1.3 (Leopard default) to 5.1.6). Although it didn't address my issues I thought people might like to know I am not having problems using the new versions. The only thing I should point out is that when the new version installed, it deleted my current printer from the "Print & Fax" settings in System Preferences. Although it only took me a moment to setup I was glad that I wrote down the settings before I started the upgrade :). Still, had I known that it wouldn't have addressed my issue, I wouldn't have bothered (if it's not broke, don't fix it).

Okay, this really isn't as difficult as many are making it out to be. It took me 5 minutes (once I knew what to do). Essentially all you need to do is replace one file (mod_jrun22.so).

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