Existing users, 
Silverkeeper is free, and seems to have all the basic features I really need.
It has worked for me, but I have also had intermittent problems.
I am running a daily (3 session) backup to a network drive running on a PC.
Ok - so this isn't a "simple" setup, but I've had some problems.
The main problem is hard to fathom. I arrive in the morning to find a report dialog telling me that only a small fracton of the backup has been processed, and an error -50 has occured. The backup progress window remains present but inactive showing about 1/20th complete, and is pretty unresponsive - although for the first time today I got it to close without reboot by clicking the stop button. Any ideas? Suggesting I throw away the PC and buy a pristine new Mac based system for a network drive is not helpful unless supported by funds...
Another problem - it doesn't backup files with PC incompatible filenames. Reasons are obvious, and so I can't really complain....
Final problem, being freeware, there doesn't seem to be any active support - no forums, no web FAQ, they give an email address, but warn that they may well ignore any emails received. Fair enough really being freeware and all, but what can you do when you do get problems? Web search for the first error gave no results either.
LaCie SilverKeeper
Automate the backup functions of your storage devices.
Version: 1.1.4
Error -50 on backup to network drive
Feedback Type: Troubleshooting Report
Contributed by: mlarnes Saturday, January 14 2006 @ 02:30 AM PST
Product Platform: MacOS,MacOSX
Used Product For: 1-6 months
System Info:Mac mini, 1.25GHZ 1GB 40GB
Comments
Error -50 on backup to network drive - Special K
I have the same problem. Review the Silverkeeper log and find the last file and put it on the exclusion list. That's how I get past it. It's a bit of a pain to have deal with it that way but it works and is FREE.Tuesday, January 17 2006 @ 03:22 AM PST
Error -50 on backup to network drive - Mike - LaCie
Mike from SilverKeeper here...the error -50 results at the end of the backup when the network drive fails to respond within a reasonable time.
Why at the end? This is when SilverKeeper moves the temporary backup files copied and merges them into the previous backup. All this file renaming and moving can be slow on some network shares. Error -50 can also occur in the middle of the backup, if there are thousands of files within a folder that need updating.
Further, we try to set the creation/modification dates to match the originals, and have to do that on a file by file basis after the copying is done.
The challenge for us - how to determine a reasonable time to wait.
A workaround is to treat every backup as a fresh new backup, rather than trying to update an existing backup.
Mike
Tuesday, January 17 2006 @ 07:10 PM PST
Error -50 on backup to network drive - mlarnes
Thanks Mike, and thanks for your prompt and precise assitance!One solution that has solved pretty much all the problems is to back up to an image file.
So - I created a 40GB image file which is sat on my PC based network drive.
After mounting the image, I set this as the destination.
Advantages - This is now a Mac drive despite it's PC based location. All permission information is retained in the backup! (Permission information is turned off by default for images, by SilverKeeper prompts and turns it on for you). Also, no more Error -50's.
Disadvantages - I have to make sure the image is mounted every time the backup is scheduled. I figure it will not be bootable in any way either, but that was never an objective for me anyway.
Notes - When first trying to create the image, Disk Utility told me the max size for an image on the drive (NTFS network drive) was only a few hundred MB. When I next tried, I set the size before setting the location, and it let me then create the full size image. It seems to be working fine so far, so I hope this isn't going to catch up with me in some way!
I am more than glad to recommend SilverKeeper and Lacie for this most generous and unusually well supported Freeware offering.
Wednesday, January 18 2006 @ 03:42 PM PST
Error -50 on backup to network drive - Mike - LaCie
Here is a tip on creating the disc image:- create a sparse disc image on your local drive, not on the server
- set the size to be at least as large as the drive you wish to backup; add extra space for workspace for SilverKeeper. Extra size should be equal to largest folder
- then copy the disc image file over to the server
Make sure server is NTFS or EXT3; if only FAT32, then max file size is 4GB, and you will have issues growing the sparse disc image file!
The sparse disc image file starts small, and grows up to the max size you specify. Unfortunately, it does not shrink.
Mike
Thursday, January 19 2006 @ 10:01 AM PST
Error -50 on backup to network drive - mlarnes
WOW! Support replied within a matter of hours.No definite answer, but they tell me that -50 is a timeout error waiting on the network drive.
I find it a bit hard to believe when I can edit iMovie digital video using the same drive, but I shall see if it is trying to access the network at the same time as autoupdate or similar tasks, maybe try it in the middle of the day while supervised too.
Will post back results. At the end of the day, maybe it is expecting a bit much to be running backups to a PC drive across a network using a freeware utility, but bonus if it does work!
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Saturday, January 14 2006 @ 09:54 AM PST