StuffIt Deluxe Back-Up
Worry-free backups with StuffIt Deluxe!
StuffIt Deluxe is your personal backup assistant. Use StuffIt to sift through your files and back up only items that have recently changed. You can even schedule StuffIt backups to occur automatically at the same time every day. StuffIt can back up your important data to an external hard drive, to a remote server via FTP, or even to your MobileMe iDisk. StuffIt can even write your backup archive across multiple CD or DVD disks.
Create archives and regain storage space on your Mac
The more prolific you are, the more space you lose on your Mac and the more files you have, the slower it can become. Often with just a little attention to the contents of your hard drive and a great archiving tool, you can get organized and capture back some of that precious space. Regain that space with StuffIt, by simply archiving old files and either moving, copying and deleting them, or backing them up to an external drive.
StuffIt Scheduler makes backups a snap - set it and forget it
StuffIt Scheduler is designed to provide a simple, easy to use, personal backup solution. You can use StuffIt Scheduler to schedule automatic file backups, and you can save the backup archives you create to CDs, DVDs, external drives, FTP servers, and even your MobileMe iDisk.
Wizard style interface walks you through
When you click the "New Task" button on the tool bar, the StuffIt Scheduler New Task assistant will open. This wizard style interface will walk you step by step through the process of selecting what to backup, where to create the backup archive, and when the backup task should be run.
What to Backup?
StuffIt Scheduler is designed to be easy to use. When picking files to backup, the default option will simply backup all the files in your "Documents" folder. StuffIt Scheduler allows you to add any folder on any accessible network or local drive to the list of items that will be archived. You can add items to the backup list simply by dragging and dropping them from the Finder to the StuffIt Scheduler window. You can also use the "+" button to browse for items to add to the list, or use the "-" button to remove optional items from the list.
Setting Custom Criteria
By default, StuffIt Scheduler will add all the files and folders, in the folders you have selected, to a new StuffIt X archive. For most users, this is the best option. In some cases, you may only want to include certain files from the selected folder in the backup archive. The "Custom Criteria" dialog provides a way to tell StuffIt Scheduler exactly what files should be included or excluded from the backup archive.
The criteria dialog works in the same way as the Finder's "Find..." function. By adding search criteria in this dialog, you can tell StuffIt Scheduler to search the folder you have selected to find matching items to backup.
This feature is especially useful for backup tasks that are designed to run on a regular basis, for example once a week. You can use the "Date Modified" command in the "Custom Criteria" dialog to tell StuffIt Scheduler to only add files that have changed in the last week to your latest backup archive. Using this approach, you will create smaller backup archives that contain only those files that have changed, rather than creating much larger archives that contain the same unchanged files week after week.
Choosing a destination
You can choose to backup to your current hard drive, a recordable CD or DVD's, an FTP server, your MobileMe iDisk, or an external hard drive or server. As the primary reason for creating backups is to make sure that you have copies of your important documents if something (such as a hard drive crash) happens to your computer, we strongly recommend that you choose to store your backup archives somewhere other than on the hard drive you are backing up.
- Using CDs and DVDs
- Using External Hard Drives
- Using FTP
- Using a Date and Time Stamp
Schedule your Backup
You can choose to have StuffIt Scheduler automatically run your backup task on at a specific time every day, or you can choose the days of the week on which the backup task will run. Make sure that the destination you specified will be available at that time, and ensure that it has enough free space in which to save your archive. Using an external hard drive or a remote server as a backup destination is the best way to do this.
Using Index Archives
Index Archives can be turned on and off in DropStuff, Magic Menu and Archive Manager but is always enabled in Archive Manager's Scheduler feature. Index Archives are fully searchable, and can be opened and browsed using the Archive Manager application. At a fraction of the size of a regular StuffIt X archive, Index Archives can be stored on your computer while the full version of the archive is moved to a CD or DVD to save you space.
Restoring from a Backup Archive
When you create a backup archive with StuffIt Scheduler, you are creating an archive using the new StuffIt X file format. Because the archives you create are StuffIt archives, you will have a great deal of flexibility in choosing how to access the files that have been backed up.
