A crashed Mac can break your heart The most tragic computer tales out there are generally the ones where someone has lost a few years’ worth of data in a hard drive crash. The cost can be enormous, both financially and psychologically.
But no matter how many tales of woe we hear, most of us still can’t be bothered to back up the data on our own computers. And if you thought you were safe because you’re on a Mac, think again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: back up, back up, back up!
There are a couple of schools of thought on backup:
1) Just back up the files that will be costly (or hard) to replace.
Everyone has a lot of files on their computer that are not easily replaceable if they get munched up in a hard drive crash, like personal documents, digital photos, and music that’s been purchased online. At the very least, these are the files you’ll want to back up. The advantage to this method is that it can be fairly quick and easy. If you have an external hard drive, you need only plug it in, wait for it to mount, and then drag the Documents, Music, Movies and Pictures folders to your external drive.
The downside is that if your hard drive gets corrupted, you’ll have to spend a fair amount of time reinstalling the operating system, then some more time re-installing the applications. This is especially painful with programs like Adobe’s PhotoShop, which requires you to “de-authorize” it before you can install it on another machine. Obviously, in the case of a hard drive crash, you won’t have had the opportunity to de-authorize the software; unfortunately, that means you’ll probably have to spend some time on the phone convincing the software company that you should be allowed to reinstall the software. Usually companies are pretty good about this, but the administrative hassle is definitely an annoyance.
2) Back it up…back it ALL up!
Following a crash, if you want to be able to recover your system and carry on as if nothing happened, you’ll want to back everything up – including your applications and operating system – so that you have an exact snapshot of your hard drive. That way, if you ever run into a problem, it’s theoretically as simple as putting all the backed-up data onto a new hard drive, and then moving on with your life.
The downside, of course, is that it can be a very time-consuming process copying absolutely everything over to external media. And for a full system backup, you’ll want to use a special software package designed to copy over all your system files – as with Windows, there are a good number of protected files that you can’t just drag and drop onto an external drive. While there are free files available for data backup, I typically recommend spending the money on a program called SuperDuper!, which makes the backup process quick, easy and reliable.
Backup programs
There are a number of good programs out there that will help you back up your files, and you should be able to locate them easily with a trip to http://www.versiontracker.com/.
LaCie SilverKeeperFreeware
If you’re on a budget, it’s pretty hard to argue with a free download from one of the big names in external Mac-compatible hard drives. SilverKeeper is one of the products that LaCie bundles with their drives, but you can also use it with drives from other manufacturers. It’s a bit slow, but hey…it’s free.
Carbon Copy ClonerShareware - US$5
Designed to create a clone of a hard drive, CCC also works as a full-disk backup. There are apparently a few issues if you’re running a version of Tiger before v10.4.2, but once you update the OS you should be able to use it. It offers a lot of control over your copy, and gives you the option to create bootable copies – in other words, you should theoretically have the ability to simply swap your backup drive into place as your main drive, and carry on. It also has NetBoot configuration.
SuperDuper!Shareware - US$28
Though it’s a bit more expensive, SuperDuper! is worth the investment if you’re paranoid about keeping your data safe. The program gives you the option to erase the target drive and do a clean backup, or to do a “smart backup,” where new files are added to the backup, and files you’ve since trashed are deleted from the backup. While I typically prefer saving to an external hard drive that’s connected to the machine in question, SuperDuper! also gives the option of saving over the network (to a compressed disk image instead of the typical bootable full-drive backup).
Backup media
One regular question when it comes to backing up your files is whether to use burnable media (CDs or DVDs) or an external hard drive. The answer will largely depend on how much data you want to back up.
If you’re planning to simply back up your important documents and a handful of photos, you may well be able to fit everything into the 650 megabytes found on a typical CD, or the 4.7 gigabytes found on a typical single-layer DVD. Just remember that if you have more data than that, you’ll have to spend time burning multiple disks, and unless you have burning software that allows you to span discs, you may have to separate the files manually into disc-sized batches.
I’m personally a big fan of external hard drives for backing up my main drive. So long as the external drive is at least the same size as your internal drive, the process should be fairly easy if you’re using reliable backup software like SuperDuper!. The only thing is: don’t cheap out on the drive, because you want a reliable drive for your backup drive. (A 200 GB external drive is now about $200 for a decent brand name, but you can often find 300 GB drives for only a few dollars more if you scout around.)
But no matter how many tales of woe we hear, most of us still can’t be bothered to back up the data on our own computers. And if you thought you were safe because you’re on a Mac, think again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: back up, back up, back up!
There are a couple of schools of thought on backup:
1) Just back up the files that will be costly (or hard) to replace.
Everyone has a lot of files on their computer that are not easily replaceable if they get munched up in a hard drive crash, like personal documents, digital photos, and music that’s been purchased online. At the very least, these are the files you’ll want to back up. The advantage to this method is that it can be fairly quick and easy. If you have an external hard drive, you need only plug it in, wait for it to mount, and then drag the Documents, Music, Movies and Pictures folders to your external drive.
The downside is that if your hard drive gets corrupted, you’ll have to spend a fair amount of time reinstalling the operating system, then some more time re-installing the applications. This is especially painful with programs like Adobe’s PhotoShop, which requires you to “de-authorize” it before you can install it on another machine. Obviously, in the case of a hard drive crash, you won’t have had the opportunity to de-authorize the software; unfortunately, that means you’ll probably have to spend some time on the phone convincing the software company that you should be allowed to reinstall the software. Usually companies are pretty good about this, but the administrative hassle is definitely an annoyance.
2) Back it up…back it ALL up!
Following a crash, if you want to be able to recover your system and carry on as if nothing happened, you’ll want to back everything up – including your applications and operating system – so that you have an exact snapshot of your hard drive. That way, if you ever run into a problem, it’s theoretically as simple as putting all the backed-up data onto a new hard drive, and then moving on with your life.
The downside, of course, is that it can be a very time-consuming process copying absolutely everything over to external media. And for a full system backup, you’ll want to use a special software package designed to copy over all your system files – as with Windows, there are a good number of protected files that you can’t just drag and drop onto an external drive. While there are free files available for data backup, I typically recommend spending the money on a program called SuperDuper!, which makes the backup process quick, easy and reliable.
Backup programs
There are a number of good programs out there that will help you back up your files, and you should be able to locate them easily with a trip to http://www.versiontracker.com/.
LaCie SilverKeeperFreeware
If you’re on a budget, it’s pretty hard to argue with a free download from one of the big names in external Mac-compatible hard drives. SilverKeeper is one of the products that LaCie bundles with their drives, but you can also use it with drives from other manufacturers. It’s a bit slow, but hey…it’s free.
Carbon Copy ClonerShareware - US$5
Designed to create a clone of a hard drive, CCC also works as a full-disk backup. There are apparently a few issues if you’re running a version of Tiger before v10.4.2, but once you update the OS you should be able to use it. It offers a lot of control over your copy, and gives you the option to create bootable copies – in other words, you should theoretically have the ability to simply swap your backup drive into place as your main drive, and carry on. It also has NetBoot configuration.
SuperDuper!Shareware - US$28
Though it’s a bit more expensive, SuperDuper! is worth the investment if you’re paranoid about keeping your data safe. The program gives you the option to erase the target drive and do a clean backup, or to do a “smart backup,” where new files are added to the backup, and files you’ve since trashed are deleted from the backup. While I typically prefer saving to an external hard drive that’s connected to the machine in question, SuperDuper! also gives the option of saving over the network (to a compressed disk image instead of the typical bootable full-drive backup).
Backup media
One regular question when it comes to backing up your files is whether to use burnable media (CDs or DVDs) or an external hard drive. The answer will largely depend on how much data you want to back up.
If you’re planning to simply back up your important documents and a handful of photos, you may well be able to fit everything into the 650 megabytes found on a typical CD, or the 4.7 gigabytes found on a typical single-layer DVD. Just remember that if you have more data than that, you’ll have to spend time burning multiple disks, and unless you have burning software that allows you to span discs, you may have to separate the files manually into disc-sized batches.
I’m personally a big fan of external hard drives for backing up my main drive. So long as the external drive is at least the same size as your internal drive, the process should be fairly easy if you’re using reliable backup software like SuperDuper!. The only thing is: don’t cheap out on the drive, because you want a reliable drive for your backup drive. (A 200 GB external drive is now about $200 for a decent brand name, but you can often find 300 GB drives for only a few dollars more if you scout around.)
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