What is the best way to make backups on my MacBook Pro?

Question

What is the best way to make automatic backups on my MacBook Pro? It's more preferable that synchronization will perform via Wi-Fi.

I heard that Apple's Time Capsule has short-living time, so I thought that there exists alternate way.

I would be glad to see any recommendations and success stories.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I have an external hard disk connected to an AirPort Extreme. Time Machine wirelessly backs up my MacBook Pro to it. In this regard, it works the same as TimeCapsule but as the hard disk is external (and you get to choose it), it doesn't suffer from the same reliability problems.

I've found the AirPort Extreme to be a very good Wireless Access Point, too (and not just for Apple devices).

Answer 2

Get an external hard drive at least the size of your internal hard drive and just use Time Machine. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Answer 3

While it's not automatic my solution has worked well for me.

I purchased an external USB drive larger than my MBP hard drive.

On a weekly basis I hook up the USB drive and kick off a SuperDuper! smart update from my MBP's internal disk to the external USB drive. When the backup is complete SuperDuper puts the computer to sleep. The next morning I take both off to work and leave the USB drive there until the end of the week when I bring it home to do over again.

That gives me a complete, boot-able backup off site.

This does not give me 'versioned' backup like Time Machine but it does give me the ability to restore my entire system to a point in time.

According to the documentation you can use SuperDuper to backup to a network drive in conjunction with a spares disk image (The documentation walks you through all of the setup)