Quick advice please

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I need to store about 20 GB . It's on an old G4 Mac. What is the best cheapest storage method for this? Will it be easy to move this to a newer machine if the HD goes on the original G4? It's just back up , in case the HD does go.

I'm not too sure about macs, but when I backed up my entire drive, I grabbed an ethernet cord (it's the one plugged between your computer and router/modem) and direct linked it with another computer. I went on the storage computer and copied and pasted all the files I had to keep in a random folder. It worked fine. If you have another computer to do this with, it's the fastest and cheapest method I can think of.

The best I've ever heard it explained: http://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html

I don't know what connectors the G4 has, but you could try a USB/firewire/eSATA external hard drive. 20GB not being much, maybe the ethernet idea is better if you don't want to spend $100, though.

You could maybe write out the data to 2-3 dual-layer DVD+R's, but that could be hard/weird to get right. (I would use a Ghost-like app to do that.)

My vote is for ethernet to another comp. if you have one with enough space.

If it's just data, put it on disks. Best way to go, really. No worries about mechanical failure. But if you're talking about your entire install, OS and all, you might want to try 'ghosting' the disk. It's what we did any time a customer's HD was failing and the data was still recoverable. We used Norton/Symantec ghost, but to each their own.

Given it's only 20G ( or less) is there any storage on internet where you can make like a virtual hard drive, just in case the real one goes.

I'm waiting for an aquaintance / friend to sell me his G5 in the next month or so. He's promised to get a firm to put anew HD in it .

( £200 with new HD + I mend something on his roof for him- is that fair? )

https://www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage

20GB is 5$ per year.

Powermac (tower) G5 or iMac G5?
what are the specs? (RAM, processor).
And what is the use you're going to give it?

Keep in mind the G5 is old, and you're buying used, and it'll be harder to keep it running new software, and of course: no Snow Leopard (10.6). Maybe better pony up for an intel mac

btw that 20gb can easily fit on five DVDs, how much is that, 3 bucks?

What CL said- the G5 is dated. If it's a well-specced tower, though, that's a pretty good price. A new Intel Mac would probably cost about 4 times as much.

Any standard USB drive should do. The Mac should be able to format it to HFS+ and save a complete migration image to upload to the new machine. TimeMachine should back up your entire computer in regular, dated backup sets. I do not know if you can do both on the same drive at the same time, but you can save the migration image and reformat the USB drive into a TimeMachine afterwards.

The USB-powered hard disks are wonderful because there is only one cable, no power supply. You can stick the think anywhere safe (like a firesafe / bank / relative's home) for thorough backup protection.

For 20GB, he can buy a Budweiser USB dongle for all it matters.