I have just bought a LaCie 1TB d2 quadra from my local Apple Store, and installed it this morning, but now comes the difficult part

I want to use it to back up my G5 and two Mac Laptops, a new Macbook and an older MacBook Pro, which my son uses.

I can download the LaCie Intego Backup Assistant for free or pay for their pro version, but I remember seeing on here a while ago that everyone raves about Carbon Copy Cloner (have I got that right) and Superduper.

Although I know my way around my Macs, I am not well versed in backing up (bootable drive etc). Can someone give me a brief explanation and advice as to which programme to use please.

Thanks

I use SD! and have been very pleased. You may be able to partition the external into 4 partitions of equal size for the 4 computers, but they would have to be large enough for the biggest HD you want to back up. SD wants to see a FW400 connection. Looking at your signature, I don't think you'll be able to do that, though. You wouldn't want all of your backups on the same external anyway, would you?

I suggest you go to the SuperDuper! site at http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6 and ask the question on the forum. They are friendly and very patient people.

The bootable drive feature is excellent. You should be sure that each of your computers' HD names are different from each other, and then name the backup partitions to match the names. To start from a bootable external drive, just hold down the OPTION key when starting and all available bootable drives will show up on the main computer. Then, of course, you have to pick the right one. To backup though, just run SuperDuper! and select the original and the partition for the backup and off you go.

Both SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are fine programs. I have been using Carbon Copy Cloner the longest but you may find SuperDuper easier to understand. It also has a few features that Carbon Copy Cloner either does not have or hasn't implemented as easily. May I suggest trying both programs to see which you prefer.

I have seen some tips for creating a drive that can boot both Intel Macs and your G5. I'll see if I can find some easily understandable directions. It is necessary to format the drive as Apple Partition Map. I think the G5 has to have that type of partition. I think the secret to what you want to do is the Intel version of Mac OS X won't install on that kind of partition but you can clone it one fo the machines to the new partition.

You're right Slydude

Ive just been through making a triple boot backup drive,with two g4 and one macbook, and A.P.M will boot a clone from an Intel machine (and using Usb to boot)

Also, I think I read that a clone of the Leopard retail disk will boot both PPc and Intel platform.

I used carbon copy cloner, because I find it easier to clone to an encrypted disk image (which i wanted for security reasons), there is plenty of documentation with the program and it seems pretty straight forward.
I used Disk utility to Restore from the backup Image, again straight forward.

matty