Introduction
Get Backup consists of several tools which let you back up your files in different ways. You can create a backup, archived backup, clone a hard disk or sync the content of a pair of folders.
A backup is a way to place copies of files in another location preserving the original formats of these files. This is useful if you need to quickly access individual files in the backup. What is more, you can do this in Finder without using Get Backup. Encrypted backups are possible if you choose a disk image as the backup destination.
An archived backup stores files inside an archive. You can choose to compress the archive, thus potentially saving disk space. Such archives let you use some additional features such as encryption or making incremental backups.
Disk cloning is a special type of backup. It creates copies of your files in the original format. The main purpose of disk cloning is to duplicate your entire volume including the system files. As a result, you can boot your computer from the duplicate drive if it was your working drive. Cloning takes much longer than backing up only the user files. For this reason, cloning is usually combined with more frequent backups of files you modify regularly.
Synchronization is used to ensure that the contents of two folders are identical. Synchronization can also be used to create copies of your files in a second location and keep them up-to-date. As synchronization updates only files that have been changed, it is faster than copying all files every time.
There is a significant difference between the two types of backup on the one hand, and synchronization and disk cloning on the other. The first two tools can save versions of your files. This means that if you have set up daily backups, today's backup can be stored along with yesterday's and earlier ones. Thus, you can retrieve not only the most recent but also earlier copies of your document. Cloning and synchronization are designed to keep only the most recent versions of files.