Macworldcares about your data point , and you should too . If you do n’t backup , get into that you will someday recede data that is important to you . We’ve covered the basicsof how to keep your Mac punt up , andMacworldeditor Dan Frakes has already written abouthis own setupfor backing up . Here ’s mine .
I wish to make backups of my files both on - website ( in my home ) and off - internet site . I ’ll set about with my approach to on - site backup .
My basic setup
My main machine is a MacBook Pro . I use it as a dead on target laptop at night , and by day it ’s abstract into my desk apparatus with a 2nd monitor , external keyboard , and other devices . I found continually plug in external strong drives ( and then later unmounting them so that I could unplug from them ) was far too annoying to stick with . Thus , to mesh my need to back up regularly with my preference to move my Mac around oft , I prefer to connect my international hard drives wirelessly .
I habituate an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station . It gambol a undivided USB port , but you may punch a USB hub into it to make multiple equipment accessible on your wireless meshwork . My hub has a pair of hard private road ( along with a printing machine ) stop up in .
Time Machine
Those hard crusade become available on my Mac as web drives . The heavy of the two grueling driving process as my Time Machine backup . ( For my initial Time Machine backup , I tie in the effort directly to my Mac . Wireless Indian file transfers are , as you would expect , tiresome than wired ace . By pee-pee the initial reliever while link up directly , that initial trash dump of hundreds of gigabytes went far quicker than it would have otherwise . )
The effort that I use for Time Machine holds 1 TB of information — that ’s 1,024 gigabytes . Since Time Machine tries to keep multiple revisions of change files , I like to give it as much disc infinite as possible . I cogitate of Time Machine as perfect for recovering file that I might not remark have gone missing right aside , like an erroneously deleted MP3 or an bare article forMacworld . The more space Time Machine has available , the more version of my files it can keep .
I do n’t go to Time Machine often , but Ilovethat it ’s there .
SuperDuper!
Time Machine is excellent , butit ’s not enough . In the bad case scenario of colossal hard drive bankruptcy , you ca n’t start up from a Time Machine backup ; it ’s not bootable . So the second , little strong drive link up to my Airport Extreme serve as a knockoff . I use SuperDuper for this purpose .
SuperDuper create an exact copy of your Mac ’s hard drive . That way , if your internal drive gets completely and irreparably hosed , you could plug the clone effort right into your Mac and boot from it or else .
It ’s not immediately obvious how to utilize a networked Airport private road with SuperDuper , because you wo n’t see the drive number in SuperDuper ’s dropdown menu . Instead , you ’ll need to use SuperDuper to create a Read / Write ‘ thin ’ Image on the remote drive , and backup to that . ( learn the “ endorse up over a net ” chapter in SuperDuper ’s copiously detailed Help for detailed instructions . )
As I did with my initial Time Machine fill-in , I made my original SuperDuper backup with the drive connected directly to my laptop via USB .
Of course , a clone backup ’s usefulness is tie in tumid part to how recent it is . I schedule SuperDuper to melt the backup every evening ; like Time Machine , it ’s able-bodied to transfer only those file that have changed from the former backup . Of naturally , in the event that I need to reconstruct from a knockoff that ’s a few days stale , it ’s potential that my Time Machine accompaniment will be far more current — grant me to update the necessary file piecemeal .
CrashPlan
Those are my local relief , and I ’m happy with how they work . But with all the precious information on my drives ( peculiarly all the photos and videos of my nestling , and everything I ’ve ever written ) they ’re not enough . If my whole home is destroy , I can at least rest check that my information will remain safe .
To achieve that goal , I bank most heavily upon CrashPlan , my favorite ofnumerous on-line relief solutions . For about $ 5 per calendar month , CrashPlan behaves much like Time Machine — it stores relief of all my single file , including past iterations of those Indian file , and updates unceasingly throughout the twenty-four hours . I can restore files via a Web user interface , or via the CrashPlan software program on my Mac . Should my Mac and backup get toasted , I can login to the CrashPlan site from any other computer to retrieve access to my files . And , for a fee , CrashPlan will embark a videodisc or hard drive with the late snap of your information that it has on file .
CrashPlan can also send you even update ( via e - mail or Twitter ) allow you know the accurate position of your fill-in . ( you’re able to , of course , check on that position manually at any clip . ) The once - a - week email telling me that my ( and my married woman ’s ) laptop computer are fully backed up as of just a few proceedings ago are very reassuring .
Dropbox and Google Docs
If you ’re a Mac user and you do n’t already use the complimentary Dropbox , you ’re miss out ; it ’s just superb for synchronizing filing cabinet across multiple figurer and gadget . But Dropbox is also a great way to backup sure files .
Not only can I get at my Dropbox backups from the company’sWebsite , I can also get at them from any other Mac ( or twist ) linked to my Dropbox report .
Google Docsquietly support many Dropbox - style features . Though there ’s no way yet to climb your Google Docs pamphlet on your desktop the style you could with Dropbox , you could upload your files to the service as an added backup . true , I do n’t do so often , but when I ’m work on longer part , I like to be as safe as possible .
Other Websites
lastly , I upload my photos and videos to various Websites , including my own personal land site host throughDreamhost . That means that my latest photo record album with shots of the Kyd playing outdoors in the snow exists not just in iPhoto , my Time Machine backup , my SuperDuper clone , CrashPlan , and potentially Dropbox and/or Google Docs ; it ’s also hosted on one or more Web servers , too .
Paranoid is good
In his conclusion to his own stand-in write - up , Dan Frakes indite that he ’s “ admittedly paranoid about losing ” his data . So should we all be . My total financial investment in my backup solution is cheap — many 1 TB hard drives can be had for under $ 100 , and the $ 60 that I devote CrashPlan each year is likewise affordable . My data , on the other hired man , is invaluable . Hard cause crash . you could hope for the undecomposed , you could let nagging fear worry you endlessly , or you could take a few comparatively uncomplicated step to ensure your datum stays safe . Even if you do n’t take my approach shot or Dan ’s , make certain you ’re thinking carefully about how you ’re protecting your data . I do n’t worry about my data anymore , but I still worry about yours !
[ Lex Friedmanis a frequent contributor to Macworld . ]
