SmartBackup is a small application developed by Freeridecoding. It is small in memory footprint, and in visual appearance, but rather big in what it does: backing up and synchronising, and even creating bootable backups. 

Bootable backups are created by launching SmartBackup as root, selecting an empty disk and adding a Mac OS X partition to the backup list. Simple as that. If you need to exclude or include specific files, there is a small button next to each item that allows you to set up those files as excluded or included.

An Options button gives access to archival options. You can change SmartBackup’s behaviour so it won’t remove files that were deleted from the original backup source --something that you would allow when simply backing up.

Archival Options

SmartBackup relies on some of Mac OS X’s capabilities to easily backup files that reside in multiple folders. It uses Smart Folders as a backup source as soon as you drag them into its window. You can schedule backups and use SmartBackup from within the Terminal using commands. Finally, SmartBackup supports Automator with a couple of simple actions of its own.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. In this case, in restoring. This was the one and only area I found SmartBackup slightly disappointing. The program takes an all or nothing approach from within the application itself. If you want to restore select files, you’ll have to copy them back manually, in the Finder.

However, all in all, SmartBackup is a really simple, but complete backup program that works well, without frills and without the functionality that makes Retrospect so difficult to use. For most users, SmartBackup is all they’ll ever need.