Is there a program that I can use to mirror all my files in OSX?

Question

I would like to have an exact copy of my files on an external drive so that I can access them with another computer.

Answer 1

You can use disk utility to do this!

NOTE: If you are having problems with this method of backing up using Disk Utility, there is an alternative that seems to be more consistent: Instead of opening Disk Utility from your Applications folder, you can boot your computer using the OSX Installation CD or DVD 1, then (after your computer is started up), click on the 'Installer' menu and select 'Disk Utility...' from there, then go through steps 3-7, restart, and do the rest of the steps outlined here. (Thanks, Niel!)

1. Once every month or every other month do a full backup to an external drive. Turn on and plug in the external drive.
2. Open Disk Utility (in Applications>Utilities)
3. Click on your computer's main hard drive (the one with Mac OSX installed on it) in the left-hand column in Disk Utility. (Click on the same name as the drive name on your desktop).
4. Click the 'Restore' tab (Mac OSX 10.3 Panther required).
5. Drag your main hard drive into the 'Source' white field.
6. Drag your external FireWire drive into the 'Destination' white field. (make sure any other data on your FireWire drive is not the same name as anything on your main OSX drive, and that you have deleted any previous full backup by dragging everything to the trash and emptying it.
7. Click 'Restore' and it will copy all data across to your FireWire drive.
8. When it is finished, Go to System Preferences and click on Startup Disk, and select the External FireWire drive, then restart and make sure the computer is able to boot from the external drive. If it can, then everything went well, and you can unplug the FireWire drive.
9. To restore (if you ever need to do so), do all these steps, except hold down the 'Option' key at startup and choose to boot off the external FireWire drive, and put the FireWire drive into the 'Source' field, and your main drive into the 'Destination' field.

Answer 2

That will be very difficult with an external hard drive. There are no programs that I know of that will do that, but you can burn the files (macs are kinda picky, so if you are transferring data from iMovie or another related program, burn the media folder and every picture in your movie, too.) Then insert the disc into the other computer (PCs don't work with mac software very well, unless your mac has windows installed on it) It will run some programs, but very few. If you want to use your files with more than just 2 computers, you may want to consider setting up a small home or large business wireless network.

Answer 3

This sounds interesting. I'm not sure if this is even close, but it's the best I could do:
http://www.frozennorth.org/C201148141421/E20060221212020/