BackityMac Now Offers CD/DVD Burning Support

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a new backup solution called BackityMac. I was quite pleased to learn that the author has now offered CD/DVD burning support in the latest version of the software.

Whimsplucky has been receptive to the relative success of his product, posting an update to the program nearly every week. Each version includes tweaks and bugfixes, as well as listening to the community for suggestions for further improvement in his product.

I consider this to be a great, no-frills, simple backup solution for those who don't know the Library folder very well, or know how to manually locate our email files, Address Book resource files, or iCal calendars (I luckily do).

At this point, BackityMac is becoming a very solid competitor in the Backup utility market, but there is room for improvement.

I am still a fan of incremental backups. It speeds up the backup process significantly (that is, after the initial backup). I however, am unsure if a disk image file will support incremental backups, as it is a "read only" file once it is compiled. To offer such support might require the program to migrate to another form of archiving, such as .tar or .gzip, and that may be undesirable from the programmers' perspective. This may also impact the users ability to encrypt their archive, a feature I find most desirable.

One small change in the program that shouldn't require too much work would be the inclusion of one more checkbox, that would allow the user to select if they wanted their Desktop folder backed up. I consider this important, as I often keep a number of "active files" on my desktop. These files are either archived or deleted once I am finished with them, but I consider them to be essential files which I would dearly miss if they went missing.

Here is another concern: The user can choose to back up their iTunes Library. Does this mean only the iTunes folder is backed up, or is the entire Music folder backed up as well? I ask this because I use Garageband frequently, and I have Gigabytes worth of digital audio that I would hate to see go missing in the event of a crash. I plan on purchasing Logic, and wonder if this backup solution would support these files as well. Speaking of the iTunes Library, I should search the release notes, as I am curious if BackityMac also backs up the iTunes Library .xml files, so that the users' playcounts and ratings are preserved.

I assume that a "Full Home Folder" backup would accomplish these tasks, and I might be able to use that feature once I have an external SATA - Firewire drive enclosure in my possession. My home folder is insanely huge, and it would likely take me an entire day to back up my Home folder and burn it to DVD-RW. I likely don't have enough burnable media to facilitate such a backup, but that's another matter altogether.

Overall, BackityMac is still one of the best solutions out there for Mac users. Since its' initial release it has been a Universal binary, thus it has been optimized for both PowerPC and Intel platforms, which makes it an ideal choice for those who have brand-new Macs. As this application is donationware, the price can't be beat -- you choose the amount you wish to donate. I gave Whimsplucky a healthy donation.

I look forward to seeing what new features will be included in upcoming versions of this program.

UPDATE: BackityMac seems to hang when I create an encrypted archive. I am not sure if this is a BackityMac issue, or if there is a problem with Disk Utility, which creates encrypted disk images. I might have to repair permissions before conducting another backup.