 #1: Do you care?
If you
threw your computer out of a high rise window, would you miss it?
eMails? Photos? Your music library? Bank records, vacation videos,
letters, bookmarks, the only portrait of some lost love....? If you
answered 'no' good for you! There _is_ more to life after all. But, if
you count on your computer, you should know that all your data is
stored on a fragile device called a hard disk drive, a device that is certain to fail
eventually. Having a backup is only prudent. Backup means duplicating one volume (internal hard drive) to a secondary volume (external hard drive), using any of a variety of backup utilities or online backup options, including Apple's Time Machine or iCloud. (More about various options below.) For those who remember the good old days when drag-and-drop was a viable backup option under System 7 thru OS9: Sorry, that's just not good enough anymore. It can take days to install/update Operating System and application programs, install drivers as necessary, setup networks, email, address books, etc. Then _maybe_ the drag/drop files you saved can be restored. Better to clone the whole enchilada and be able to startup and run from a backup volume when disaster strikes. #2: How much data are we talking about?
Gigabytes,
terabytes or exebytes? Got a humongous music library? Loads of video? Maybe it's time to look
into a RAID array (multiple drives working as one). Broadcast-quality video
consumes roughly one gigabyte per minute and thus requires enormous
storage capacity, so this may be thought of as the upper extreme of
storage requirements. Text - emails, documents, that novel you've been
writing - consumes the lowest amount of space, thus the lower end of
storage requirements. Most people are somewhere in-between with some
photos, a video or two and a music library onboard. In most
cases, 500 gigabytes is more than adequate (with room to grow). 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte (1KB) 1024 kilobytes = 1 megabyte (1MB) 1024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte (1GB) 1024 gigabytes = 1 terabyte (1TB) 1024 terabytes = 1 exebyte (1EB)  For most folks - those of us using
Macbooks and iMacs - a secondary FireWire-connected drive equal to or larger than capacity of
the Mac's primary (internal) hard drive is quite sufficient. Why
FireWire? Because it's fast (second only to SCSI), and because it will
give you the option of startup from a secondary volume on all
FireWire-equipped Macs. (Newer Macs also boot from USB-2, but FireWire
is still the better option.)
The
drive enclosure pictured here
is for a standard 3.5" (full-size) hard drive. It has both
FireWire and USB ports, it requires a power brick, and it cools by
convection thru its case. Some enclosures have fans, some are
stackable, some are made from plastic and others, like this example,
are made of aluminum. All have a bridgeboard which connects ATA or SATA
drives thru FireWire, eSATA and/or USB.
Add an appropriate
type/capacity hard drive to an enclosure like this one, and you've
completed the hardware portion of an external backup drive.
(Recommended backup software is covered below.)
Smaller size/capacity
2.5" notebook hard drives also have external FireWire enclosures
available for use as portable backup. Their advantage is compact size
and the ability to draw power directly from your Mac's FireWire port,
eliminating the need for a power brick. (USB-2 equipped notebooks can
startup from either FireWire or USB. G4s cannot boot from USB.)
Ready-made external backup drives are available from most major drive manufacturers, too, and may be found at Staples, Fry's, Best Buy, and most other office supply stores. Just do yourself a favor and get one with FireWire ports for speed, if you can. (USB-2 will do in a pinch.) #3: Is Security a concern? If you
haven't thought about it, you really should - and not just because
someone might get into your personal information. Your files and your
Operating System can be damaged (accidentally or intentionally) by
allowing unauthorized access to your computer. You should at least have
a login account with a proper password, and a protected backup, too.
  It has to be dependable (first) and convenient. If you use a Mac tower, you have extra hard drive bays wired
and ready for internal backup drives. This will protect against the
primary concern of a drive failure, but it won't protect you from a
fire, flood or other disaster that might destroy the entire machine -
only offsite backup can do that. On the up side, this backup plan
couldn't be any easier or cost effective.
iMacs, Minis and notebooks, of course, have
no room for additional internal drives, so an external backup is your
only option. If you travel with a notebook, a 2.5" FireWire-equipped
backup drive is your best bet. Small, portable and self-contained,
they're easy to pack and use. Otherwise, a desktop unit like the one
pictured above (also FireWire) will happily stay behind on your desk as
a backup volume for your desktop or laptop machine.
iCloud: There is also the option of backing up to a server over
the internet using any of a number of services. Best choice for online
backup is Apple's iCloud service. An iCloud account (formerly known as
dot-Mac/MobileMe) provides cost effective online backup (up to 5GB is
free) and also allows you to synchronize your address books, emails and
other files across multiple devices, including iPhones, iPads and
iPods. Personally, I'm not a big fan of online backup, but the sync
function can be pretty attractive for managing multiple machines and
devices. Downsides include the necessity of broadband access (always
iffy here in Nevada County); update requirements; sending personal data
thru the air with little more than blind faith to insure storage,
privacy and access; no guarantee that anything useful will be available
when/if needed; and monthly fees (in most cases) that will quickly
exceed cost of a physical backup. If online backup works for you, and
you're using up-to-date equipment and software, check out iCloud.
First half is hardware, second half is software.
TimeMachine:
Starting with OSX Leopard 10.5,
Apple has addressed the need for backup by including their built-in
TimeMachine backup utility program, providing automation with plenty of
options - once setup has been completed. Time Machine is slick, flashy
and free, but has something of a learning curve if it is to be used
effectively and properly; please
read Apple's instructions for using TimeMachine and pay close attention
to details. We've seen TimeMachine backups that proved to be worthless
due to improper setup and use. Restoring your data from TimeMachine can
be troublesome, too, so get acquainted with the restore process while
you're at it. For these reasons, we prefer to use other methods for
backup, but again: Any backup scheme is better than none.
Retrospect: One of the very best backup applications available anywhere
is this excellent, venerable, long-time Macintosh standard. Recently
reborn and revamped, Retrospect is a full-featured utility which
doesn't come cheap, but does an
outstanding job of copying data even when files may have become
corrupt or damaged. Retrospect's all new 64-bit version supports encryption, work flow options, backup to a
wide variety of media (incl. tape), and is best choice for multiple
servers and high-end applications where speed, security and
dependability are mission critical.
Carbon Copy Cloner: On the other end of the expense scale is a popular backup utility called Carbon Copy Cloner which is free to download and use, asking only for a donation when you've come to trust your data to its list of features and functions. Easy to use, CCC has everything you need to create and maintain a bootable backup with a minimum of hassle and maximum convenience. If you do decide to use CCC for your backup needs, please _do_ support their product by making a reasonable donation. SuperDuper!:
This is the program we use and
highly recommend here at the MacShack. From our friends at Shirt
Pocket, SuperDuper has a clear and simple interface, it's quick, easy
and seemingly bulletproof, and has an outstanding feature set at a very
reasonable price. (SuperDuper is still available for some of the older
Operating Systems on PPC machines, too.) Free to download, it can be
used immediately to make a full backup, but purchase and registration
is required to unlock its full capability, including incremental backup
and scheduled (automatic) backup. Comes with a full PDF manual and
installation is a simple drag-and-drop to your computer's Applications
folder.
Test your backup _before_ it's needed: To restore
data from a Time Machine backup, you may first need to startup your Mac
from the OS DVD used to install your MacOS version (or - in the case of
Lion 10.7 - the disc or flash drive you created). When you arrive at
the installer window, ignore installer and look in the menu bar for
menu item "Restore from Time Machine." Select the latest backup unless
you want to go back in time and restore from a prior date. Testing this
type of backup is problematic, unless you have an available (empty)
volume to use to avoid disturbing your primary hard drive. The restore
process cannot be interrupted and results won't be known until
completed.
The other utilities recommended above all create a bootable backup that requires nothing more than to plug it in. Once the drive mounts, you can compare both volumes, which should be nearly identical if backup was made recently. Comparing volumes shows backup is complete; startup from the backup volume will prove it can be used as a boot volume, too. The rest is up to you. If you are
capable of sorting thru all the details and setting up a proper backup,
the info above should at least give you a starting point and help you
on your way. By all means, _do_ create and use a backup plan if you
don't have one already. But, if you find it all too complicated to deal
with, know that you're not alone and we're here to help.
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