[pck]

Hello, I have some questions regarding backups.

I'd like to backup my Tiger-iBook. I own a PC that can store the data on harddisks and DVD-RWs. I'd like to make "full" and "incremental" backups and I'm not interested in "cloning" or "syncing" solutions. For a good solution I'd spend up to 40€ ... which is less than Apple, Dantz or Intego demand. :-/

Does Tiger have a mechanism to backup a file properly even if another program writes to the file while it's read? (like Microsoft's "shadow copies") I think this is essential if you want to backup in the background and keep working, but I didn't see this issue mentioned with Mac software. And at least "tar" seemed to have related problems on Tiger. Should I boot from the Tiger-DVD in order to make backups with tar? Does someone use Linux-LiveCDs to backup HFS+ partitions with more sophisticated software?

As for "tar" I love the ftp piping possibility. But restoring a single file via FTP transfers the complete archive--so I guess it's better to split the 15GB file in smaller parts--and splitting might lead to confusions and lost data. And I wonder what happens if the tar.gz files get corrupted. I suppose all following files are lost? I'm not yet familiar with the "cpio" and "pax" commands, would I get an advantage by using them?

Would "Dantz Retrospect Express" (i.e.: the OEM-version) allow me to store backups directly to my PC via shared folders? Does someone sell the Mac version without hardware in Europe? (I've only seen the Windows-Only-Version offered seperately.) What's the cheapest hardware that is bundled with a good backup program?