Question–backup systems/programs/whatevers

[ksmith]

Are all auto-backup systems–Carbonite, Dropbox, etc–resource hogs? Currently using Time Machine to wirelessly back up to external HD, and at times the MacBook comes to a complete stop while the backup proceeds. I can’t open Chrome. I can’t open Mail. A few times, things stalled to the point that the MacBook stopped responding and I needed to shut down/restart. I was trying to open Chrome at these times.

Granted, the issue is dependent upon the size of the back-up required–MacBook is currently backing up 225MB–and the initial indexing seems to be what takes up the most resources. Some small intermediate backups take place w/o my even realizing. But every couple of days I get a stall, and I just wondered whether all back-up systems behave the same way.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I use dropbox to manually backup, so that if the hard-drive melts on the desktop (or, this month, on Ox the laptop) I don't have to fall on my sword. Every so often, I'll back up all the important stuff to it. When it's not in use, it just sits there in the task bar, looking slightly sleepy.

When I do a massive backup, it looks little bit more like a cobra digesting an elephant, but I don't notice a slowdown at all, and I don't think even Ox (who is finicky) has choked on a backup yet. *knocks wood*

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I tried using Dropbox once, and think I messed up. I somehow moved the file I was saving into Dropbox so that it was housed there instead of on my hard drive. I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to work. At least, that's not how I want it to work. I just want it to act like an external HD backup, where's it takes what's on my hard drive and backs it up.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

When I use dropbox, I copy and paste stuff into dropbox so that I keep a copy on my hardrive. I haven't tried it for a full on back up.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

That's what I want to do for now.

I will say again how much I miss the old Backup system that iCloud replaced. I picked the files I wanted to back up, and the times for backup to occur. So simple, and never clogged things up.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I did that once -- moved the whole file right off of the desktop and into Dropbox, by accident. After the requisite thirty seconds of OhmyghodIdeletedtheentiredamnbookmylifeisruined! I figured out what had happened.

What I do is save whatever I'm working on at the end of the session and then do a "save as" to Dropbox. What also works is to copy the file/folder/whatever and paste it into Dropbox.

Ox, being finicky, screwed me up earlier in the working vacation by "helpfully" opening up the last file I'd saved to and letting me write in that. I thought I was working with the local file and when I copied the local file to Dropbox, I lost eight hundred words or so that I had typed into the "backup" file.

Ahem.

After a stern talking-to, I am relatively certain that Ox will not be helpful in that manner again.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

So, I use Dropbox a little differently in that I edit documents in the "live" Dropbox folder on my harddrive. When I save a document there, it automatically syncs to the server and to the two other computers that I'm running Dropbox on, assuming they're on and online at the time. The files remain resident on my hard drive, and if I'm offline, nothing that happens to the files on Dropbox can affect the ones on my harddrive.

Anyway, it works really well for me and my workflow, and it runs very very low profile.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I don't have that trouble with backing up on time machine. I have drop box, but I don't use it for backups of my system. I don't trust it that far. I am running a program called Clean My Mac, which has really helped with clearing out some stuff and running a little bit quicker.

I don't run Chrome. I run Firefox.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It could be that I try to open Chrome at just the wrong time--say, when Time Machine is indexing--and overload my system. But I have noticed that the hard drive races more and more as of late, especially if I run You Tube clips or other video. It could simply be that the system is too old for current webpage bells and whistles.

I skip from browser to browser. Chrome ran well for a while. FF and Safari are just too slow. No, wait--FF is slow. Safari is freaking impossible.

I use MacKeeper to clean up my system, and empty caches every few days. Like I said earlier, it could be that my system is just too old.