Sorry 'bout your problems. I've never encountered problems like these. I have eight back-up plans that run every week (some used to run every day, but that was overkill) and a few of these are over 1.5G in size. The initial backup may take a while, but after that, they're a breeze.

I also use Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner for cloning, but for general backup to Mobile Me and to a 140G flash drive, Backup works very well.

Don't know about Apple Support on this, since I've not run into the issues you have.

ANON BUD, I'm not having problems with Backup, since I don't use it. Are you saying you've been getting MobileMe backup plans larger than 90M using Backup 3.1.2? Just to be clear, the 90M chunk limit for MobileMe backups is documented.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2096
Which implicitly states: "Note: You should not create or employ Backup Plans containing more than 90 MB of data with iDisk."

Just FYI, version 3.1.2 was released October 26, 2007. Ouch.

Yes…as far as applications go, I would agree that this program has become less and less relevant everyday considering the available default storage space on MobileMe. Apple could do better and provide more competitive storage capacity for its MobileMe subscribers.

However, as an FYI:
- The application is published automatically to the iDisk for MobileMe subscribers.
- Many people, in many countries, around the world use MobileMe (aka .Mac or dotMac) for backup of critical information and sharing that data across computers and platforms.
- Many important things are backed up for these subscribers and includes things like bookmarks, calendars, contacts, mail, system preferences , notes, etc.
- BackUp 3 extends the built-in backup features I highlight in the previous point by allowing more control of other discrete data. It also allows for the backup of rich content and other data above and beyond what the built-in MobileMe preferencePane allows for. Finally it allows for scheduled backups, selection of storage medium like optical disks, and other customization.

As far as FREE backup software goes this is a fairly good product for what it can do. I would suggest that people try it first to see if it provides the intuitive level of functionality that they need for their given backup needs and then post their hints and tips for others.

You can backup whatever you want. It's almost trivial. That you haven't figured out how to do it has nothing to do with the usefulness of this program.

You can easily create your own custom backup plan which can include whatever you wish to backup, including the contents of your entire hard disk, if you like. You don't have to just go with the defaults. They are simply there to make it easy to get started.