Mac Backup Guru’s prime function is to create bootable clones of your Mac’s startup disk. However, it can also synchronize backed-up versions of your disk, or even of just a folder, with the current version. And it can create snapshots, just like Time Machine does. So, for example, if you set it to take a snapshot on a regular schedule, you can then revert to whichever snapshot you choose.
You can also choose which folders to back up and to where, rather than having to backup a whole disk to your Time Machines disk and then designate folders to exclude. There’s more control over scheduling that Time Machine offers, and, of course, Apple’s utility doesn’t offer the ability to synchronize folders or create bootable clones.
While the snapshots feature is similar to Time Machine, Mac Backup Guru offers more control. You can, for example, browse snapshots in the Finder, rather than having to use the Time Machine utility to restore files.
Mac Backup Guru’s interface is simple, and will be familiar if you’ve used some of the other tools listed here. However, some of the menu buttons, notably those for choosing source and destination, seemed small and cramped to us. We’d have liked those menus and the options contained within them too have been a little bigger to make them easier to select from.
Once you’ve chosen a source, which can be a whole volume or a specific folder, and a destination, you can elect to exclude folders within that from being backed up. You can also schedule automatic backups. The scheduling is fairly basic, but that means it’s also easy to configure. Just click the days on which you want the backup to run and the time you want it to run. It’s worth noting that while you can run the backup on which ever day you choose, you have to run it at the same time each day. You can also run ad-hoc backups by pressing the ‘Backup’ button on the main window.
The final option is to choose how many snapshots to keep. Once you reach the specified number, Mac Backup Guru will start deleting the oldest snapshot every time a new one is created.
Mac Backup Guru is an easy to use backup tool that keeps options and settings to a minimum while offering several useful features. It’s also good value – at the time of writing it was on offer for less than $9/£7.16, a significant discount on its usual $29/£23.05 price.
