Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Released Backup 3.1 Update for .Mac Members

Backup is Apple's simple application for automatically (or manually) backing up one's data, an essential thing to do. Backup 3.1 Update (Build 356) is available via Software Update if Backup is installed on one's Mac. It is also available as a stand-alone file by logging in to one's .Mac account. According to the Read Me file:

Backup 3.1 delivers added support for some backup destinations and addresses file restoration and other issues. Backup 3.1 is recommended for all users of Backup 3.0. Significant areas addressed are:

• Improved support for iDisk, local hard drives, and some network destinations (Mac OS X Tiger only)
  
• New iWeb QuickPick and updated iLife plan
  
• Addresses issues with restoring files
  

For more information about Backup 3, visit the .Mac website at: http://www.mac.com

For Backup 3 support information, visit http://www.apple.com/support/dotmac/backup/

Requirements
Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G3, G4, G5 or Intel Core processor.
Mac OS X v10.3.9 or Mac OS X v10.4.2 or later.

Note that Backup 3.1 is for MacIntels as well as PowerPC-based Macs. "Get Info" reports that the application has universal binaries.

We downloaded Backup 3.1 via Software Update and updated our copies of 3.0 on several Macs without any difficulties. We successfully manually ran backups of our data with the new version.

Backup is a nice feature for .Mac members. It is simple to set up and run and it executes reasonably quickly, taking only a few minutes to incrementally back up over 100,000 files. The only issue is that one should remember to regularly do a full back up and discard the incremental back up files to keep from using extra disk space. Apple should include a "reminder" that pops up when the files hit some user-determined amount of disk space and provides a button to make the process simple. [Bill Fox]