Backing up - Time Machine
Think about the data / photos / music / etc you keep on your MacBook.
How would you feel if it was no longer there, due to some misfortune?
All hard drives will fail
- the only question is when!
So you need to have a sound backup plan.
Secondly, if you loose your MacBook - or, heaven forbid, it is stolen or otherwise destroyed, you will also need a backup.
You have been warned!
You need
While this may sound an unnecessary expense, not to mention time consuming, you need to weigh up what a loss of all your data would mean to you. I have friends whose computer was stolen from their house. They had no backup and their loss included some 10 years of family photos that could not be replaced. A former colleague lost a very substantial pieces of work when a drive failed. It is still with technicians who might, or might not, be able to recover the work and in any event the bill will be over $1,000 irrespective of the result.
Of course most drives work reliably for many years, but the possibility of loss, one way or another, is always there.
So, decide what that would mean to you. Do you need a plan?
- Time Machine - this is the software that creates a carbon copy of your hard drive (ie., the backup) onto a second drive. It will then keep the backup current. You can use this to recreate your drive should the need ever arise
- a connected backup hard drive. This can be connected directly by cable or wirelessly. Apple's Time Capsule is a wireless drive that makes this process very easy but other drives will work just as well. The space available must be greater than the drive you want to back up. An extra 50% would be good
- to be sure, to be sure, another copy kept in a separate location provides further security. This will need to be regularly updated. A 'failsafe' system would have 2 drives, which are rotated.
While this may sound an unnecessary expense, not to mention time consuming, you need to weigh up what a loss of all your data would mean to you. I have friends whose computer was stolen from their house. They had no backup and their loss included some 10 years of family photos that could not be replaced. A former colleague lost a very substantial pieces of work when a drive failed. It is still with technicians who might, or might not, be able to recover the work and in any event the bill will be over $1,000 irrespective of the result.
Of course most drives work reliably for many years, but the possibility of loss, one way or another, is always there.
So, decide what that would mean to you. Do you need a plan?