MacDaddy’s Mac Backup Guru for Mac OS X (10.7 and higher) has been revved to version 2.0. It’s an update of the useful utility designed to back up files and disks. It adds a Snapshot mode that users system hard links to save space.
With a single Start button, the user can sync the contents of any Source with its backup destination with Mac Backup Guru. Disk backups of startup drives are bootable with the app. If there’s any inconsistency in the size or modification date between any files, the Source file replaces the outdated destination file. Following the initial cloning, syncs take minutes instead of hours.
Disk backup via cloning requires that the entire contents of the source overwrite the entire contents of the destination drive. Disk backup via sync requires that only the changes since that last backup overwrite the appropriate part of the destination drive. Backup via sync requires that the initial backup be cloned, but all subsequent backups can be synced.
Syncing ignores the vast majority of files that are identical on the source and destination, and it concentrates on only those files that have been updated or added since the last sync. This backup method is comparable to MPEG video compression, where only the difference between successive frames is recorded (until a new I-frame), according to the folks at MacDaddy.
Mac Backup Guru costs US$29 and is available directly from the publisher’s website (http://macdaddy.io).