Filed under: Software, How-tos
Backup files automatically with Transmit
Backups are very important. This is something that you learn once, and never forget again (usually as you try to explain why your wedding pictures no longer exist). The fine folks over at StrongSpace, a service that offers online storage, have posted a nice tutorial that goes through the process of using iCal, Transmit, and Automator to automate backups of files to an FTP server.Don't be fooled, this will work with any online storage that Transmit can connect to, though it is best suited for backup of smaller files (such as AddressBook entries). I wouldn't recommend this as your only backup strategy, but it is good for certain files.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
eric f said 3:02PM on 5-10-2006
Transmit rocks. I may try this.
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John Henry Brown said 3:23PM on 5-10-2006
Very good tip. You could use this to back up more and bigger files to a local server as well. Kind of a budget version of Retrospect.
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Brian Ashe said 4:15PM on 5-10-2006
Every time I read something like this, I think "neat, but that could be done better with shell and cron" and this is no exception. Besides being less convoluted, cron-triggered shell scripts don't require you to be logged in. Also, they don't have this little problem: "The only thing that feels a little strange is that when iCal triggers the event, the current application I was working in loses focus, switching to AddressBookBackup.app. Frustrating, but a small price to pay." Oops. Score one for the CLI. :-)
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Aaron Vogel said 4:20PM on 5-10-2006
By enabling FTP service on your own machine you can use Transmit to connect to localhost and then an external backup drive. Using the Synchronize feature set to Update (or Mirror if you're really sure about deleting those files this morning...) you have about the easiest way to make backups. I never can understand backup programs, I just don't trust them either, I've had to many user-error instances where things didn't happen the way I thought they were going to.
I'd never thought to use iCal and Automator to do this automatically. Definitely gonna try it out.
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Yield said 8:36PM on 5-10-2006
Yeah. The hard way...
If anyone spots a 15" PowerBook floating around Doha International Airport in Qatar, drop me a line? :(
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