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TMC Blog - How & Why to Back Up Your System The MUG Center Way, Part 2
Writings, ramblings, proclamations and prognostications from the front lines of the Apple community.
In the first installment of Why & How to Back Up Your System The MUG Center Way, I told you about some of my recent unpleasant experiences with hard drive failure and explained how my backup strategy saved me from any lost data. I also covered some critical success factors to consider when devising your own strategy, as well as gave you a way to quantify the potential costs of not backing up.
In this entry, we'll discuss my goals for my backups, the equipment (hardware and software) I use and why you may want to consider my choices or something similar.
Backup Goals
My goals are fairly simple:
- I can't afford to lose anything, so I want to be fully backed up and as secure as possible. That means multiple copies.
- I can't afford large amounts of down-time, and I don't have a second PowerBook, so I want to be able to switch to a backup and/or a different Mac and keep on going in the event of a problem.
- Having my PowerBook unavailable for use because of the backup process is not acceptable.
- Even though it doesn't happen often, being able to go back to earlier versions of some projects is useful.
- The Mac OS is more stable than ever before, but there is always some small risk when installing upgrades. Being able to return to an earlier version of my system is also an option that hasn't been exercised very often, but has proved invaluable when it was.
- Since I'm going to be disciplining myself to do the backups, it makes sense to include some disk maintenance if at all possible, to help cut down on the possibility that the backups will ever be needed.
- Backing up should require no more than five minutes or so of my time to initiate, if that.
Is all that too much to ask?
The Equipment - Hardware
As with any project, you have to have the right equipment to be successful in reaching your goals. My personal plan includes four (yes, four) external FireWire hard drives. Think that's excessive? Perhaps, but with two dead drives in the last seven months and no lost data, I don't. My PowerBook is in use all day, every day, at the office, at home and on the road. I depend on it, and the data stored in it.
External FireWire drives are essential. They can be taken offline when not in use, protecting your backup from involvement in any system-related problems or power spikes. It also means that, if done right, your backup drives can be used as boot drives by most Macs if necessary. It also makes them portable.
 "But four," I hear you ask? You'll understand as we go along.
Consider the fact that hard drive space is cheap and getting cheaper. As this is written, the TMC Bargain Hunter lists several different discounts on external storage. You can probably get away with a smaller drive to save some money, but remember that drives keep getting larger, so your backup drive will need to match or exceed the drive you are backing up.
Also important are blank CD-R's or DVD-R's for long-term archives. While I don't have a favorite, my experience has been to stick with the name brands and stay away from generics, at least for critical data.
The Software
There are five programs I prefer for my backup strategy include:
Bombich Software's Carbon Copy Cloner is the easiest, most reliable way to make complete, bootable copies of your hard drive. It is marketed as, "donation-ware (uncrippled shareware)," so the price is right to give it a try. If you find that it works for you, be sure to send them an appropriate donation.
 Retrospect from EMC Dantz is the industry standard in backup software, and for good reason. With various editions and feature sets to satisfy the home user or the network manager, this is the software you want to trust your data to.
Next comes Cocktail from Kristofer Szymanski. Part of my personal strategy is to be sure my backups are as problem-free as possible, in the event they need to be pressed into service, so system maintenance is critical. Incorporating maintenance into the strategy also reduces the chances that the backups I so lovingly create will ever have to be used.
Also on the list for maintenance is Disk Warrior from Alsoft. Another way to keep your drive, and by extension, your backups, healthy, investing in Disk Warrior will serve you well whether you back up your system or not.
 Finally we have Toast Titanium by Roxio. While Mac OS X' built-in CD and DVD burning capabilities are adequate, Toast provides more control over what you're burning and speeds up the process since it doesn't require files to be copied to a special buffer area. Because not occupying my PowerBook's time is one of my goals, and copying gigs of data can take time, that feature alone is worth the money.
There are many worthy alternatives to each of these selections and I'd encourage you to look into them. Just be sure that you don't sacrifice function and reliability while trying to save a few dollars. This is not the place to skimp.
The Price of Security
No, this isn't a cheap proposition. If you are still not sure about the expenses outlined above, go back and look at the value of your data backup that we calculated in Part 1. And if helps justify the expense, consider the fact that Cocktail, Disk Warrior and even Toast Titanium should already be part of your software collection for reasons other than a successful backup plan.
No matter how you account for it, your investment in hardware will save you time, money and pain in the long run.
Coming Up: The Master Plan
All the raw materials are in place: goals, hardware and software. If you're following along, take some time to evaluate your situation, determine your personal objectives for a backup plan and be ready to go when the master plan is revealed.
Feedback on Backing Up
The first installment of Why & How to Back Up Your System The MUG Center Way really struck a nerve with our readers. Requests for the rest of the series "immediately," questions on software options and a variety of disaster stories came flooding in. The latter involved everything from an iBook taken for a one-way ride on the roof of a car to a tower that fell victim to "child's play," to one particularly disturbing story involving the confluence of a cat, a squirrel, destroyed CDs and a power surge. Most of them would almost be funny if it weren't for the tear stains on the emails.
Don't let your data become the stuff of such stories. Join us when we put it all together into something that will secure your data and let you sleep a little better at night knowing that a catastrophic data loss scenario isn't in your future.
Do you agree? Disagree? Have something to say? Let me know at [email protected].
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