I think the Mac world could do with an alternative to the moribund Retrospect. There's a million of solutions to backup stuff to a local HD, but very few solutions to replicate what can be done with Retrospect backup server: network backup every N hours (or ASAP) of potentially mobile mac (and windows) clients.

IMHO QRecall is very close to that goal (except for Windows). What's missing is probably better collaboration between instances and "home/server" detection (if the backup volume is on an airport extreme, it works).

Fred

Frederic Thomas wrote:I think the Mac world could do with an alternative to the moribund Retrospect. There's a million of solutions to backup stuff to a local HD, but very few solutions to replicate what can be done with Retrospect backup server: network backup every N hours (or ASAP) of potentially mobile mac (and windows) clients.

Have no fear; I have Retrospect squarely in my sights.

IMHO QRecall is very close to that goal (except for Windows). What's missing is probably better collaboration between instances and "home/server" detection (if the backup volume is on an airport extreme, it works).

QRecall will eventually grow to include direct network support, so that captures and recalls can be performed remotely -- even over the Internet. (Please be patient; there's a lot of work to do between now and then.)

QRecall's duplicate data detection is (roughly) based on the principles of rsync -- although on a much grander scale. I'm sure you can see the potential for extremely efficient network-based captures. Far faster and more efficient than Retrospect or similar utilities.

James Bucanek wrote:Have no fear; I have Retrospect squarely in my sights.

To be clear, I am specifically interested in the backup server mode of Retrospect. Please don't take hints from their user interface

What's missing is probably better collaboration between instances

QRecall will eventually grow to include direct network support, so that captures and recalls can be performed remotely -- even over the Internet. (Please be patient; there's a lot of work to do between now and then.)

Great.

Fred

Frederic Thomas wrote:To be clear, I am specifically interested in the backup server mode of Retrospect. Please don't take hints from their user interface

The inspiration for QRecall was Retrospect's UI

Seriously, I once overwrote a file and decided that would be easier to retype it than try to restore it using Retrospect. That was the day I decided that there had to be a better way.