So it’s one thing to lose your data and have it be lost forever due to a hard drive failure, but it’s something else entirely when that data could be used for illegal purposes by someone else or a competitor.

ALL computer users Mac or PC, need to have a tested and reliable backup in place! You never know what might happen to a laptop computer. Since you’re out and about, it could get lost, stolen, wet, or damaged (by you or someone else by dropping it). Even if you’re not out on the road, there are still lots of things that can happen. Check out the story we posted a few weeks ago about a client who sadly had her house burn down and lost the data on her MacBook as a result. Or, you can read the posting about the client with an iMac set up on an Ikea glass desk that collapsed unexpectedly, and took out her iMac and backup.

It’s one thing to lose your laptop, but even if you have your data backed up, that does not necessarily stop the thief from using that data to steal your identity or your sensitive information (love letters, banking info, or your photos). With Back to my Mac installed (free from Apple) or Lojack for Laptops, you can secure your data and/or erase it before the thief can get to it.

Here’s a quick overview on Back to my Mac:

OS X and iCloud can help keep your Mac safe even when you misplace it. Sign in to iCloud.com from another computer or use the Find My iPhone app on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to locate your missing Mac on a map. If your Mac is offline when you try to find it, you can ask to receive an email as soon as it makes a Wi-Fi connection. You can also display a message on your Mac screen so whoever has it knows how to get it back to you. And until your Mac is back in safe hands, you can set a passcode lock remotely, or even initiate a remote wipe to delete your personal data and restore your Mac to its factory settings.

Via Absolute Sofware’s Blog regarding Lojack for Laptops.

A Rutgers Chemistry 5th year PhD student, Jingming Zhang, is desperately seeking the data from his laptop, which was stolen from a school building. The student has placed an ad up pleading for the return of the computer, saying:

“I would like to say that you can keep the computer and I would like to pay you money for my data.”

The unfortunate student is willing to pay $1000 for the return of the data and even offers the password for the laptop to help retrieve the file. The laptop went missing from an unlocked room in Wright-Rieman on campus, which houses the laboratories. The laptop was left unattended for a long span of time, so the exact time of the theft is not known.

Lojack for Laptops is a product that MacMedics highly recommends for ALL of our clients! You can purchase it on-line via this link.

We just repaired a newer Apple iMac for a client that had it’s front glass broken. It looked like a pretty simple repair on the surface, as the iMac was still working. We asked the client what happened, and they informed us that their Ikea desk had collapsed and the iMac had fallen to the floor. We replaced the glass panel with no problem, but because the unit had fallen, we wanted check the hard drive too.

No big surprise there. When we checked it, the installed hard drive already had a quite a number of uncorrectable errors and was failing quickly.

We recommended that the hard drive also get replaced while it was here.

A scenario like the one above is never one that you would expect, but they do happen. Even in your own home, something could happen that puts your data in great jeopardy. If you look a few posts under this one, we recently blogged about a MacBook that was destroyed in a house fire in Pasadena, Maryland.

We highly recommend an off-site backup. Make a clone of your data and but it in your desk at work, or subscribe to an on-line back up and backup to the Cloud.

We work with Mozy and CrashPlan Pro, and those links can be found below.

http://www.macmedics.com/mozy

http://www.macmedics.com/crashplan

Check out the new app on iTunes called NestPix from Baltimore Developer Gus Sentementes. With NestPix, casual DIYers and Home Improvement pros have a powerful tool for tracking their work and sharing it.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nestpix/id509152044?mt=8

Gus wrote a story about MacMedics in the Baltimore Sun about MacMedics several years ago.

Have you ever seen a roach infested iMac? We took care of this difficult repair a few months ago. The Apple Store refused to work on it, so they referred it to MacMedics.

As you can see the iMac was totally full of dead roaches.

We had to take the iMac completely apart to clean all of them out. When we were done, the unit was as good as new.

To start, we taped up all of the openings (the vent along the back, the SuperDrive slot, and the vents along hte bottom) and tied a black plastic bag over and let it sit for about 4 or 5 days.

Here are the pictures from when we opened the unit up. Viewer Discretion Advised

Ok, here it is, wait for it: This iMac had alot of “Computer Bugs”. (that was a joke)

If you have not heard, we keep amazing records on the work that we perform for all MacMedics clients.

Here’s a recent anonymous review from Apple.com that one of our clients posted today:

“Besides the high quality of their work, one of the key differentiators from other Mac consultants that I have experienced with MacMedics is their extensive record keeping. Following every visit, I receive a detailed reports of work performed, which helps keep a historical record for future reference.”

How can we bring our award-winning Apple Macintosh Service and Consulting to your organization? Just give us a call, and we would be delighted to talk about how we can help!

Apple has determined that under certain circumstances the rubber surface on some MacBooks may separate from the bottom case of the system. MacBooks shipped between October 2009 and April 2011 may experience this issue.

Apple will replace the bottom case of any affected MacBook, free of charge, that exhibits the issue. You can see details of the program at Apple’s page about the program.

If your White, Plastic Uni-Body Macbook has this issue, you can stop by any MacMedics office and we can replace the bottom case via Apple’s replacement program free of charge. No appointment is necessary, just stop by. The repair takes about 10 minutes.

Is There Hidden Data at Your Office?

We’re usually involved when a large hard drive or RAID gets installed at one of our client’s offices, but not always. An employee might bring in a large hard drive from home, a RAID from a previous video editing project might get re-used elsewhere, or data that has been offline for a few years gets reconnected to the network.

In these instances, it’s best to let MacMedics know that something has been added. Data loss often happens during the re-introduction, handling, or copying phases, and we want to ensure that everything is protected and handled the way that it should be. For as little as $119, MacMedics can help you protect and preserve your data, ensuring that it’s always backed up and in your control.

With a RAID, even though such a device protects against hard drive malfunction, the RAID can still degrade, which means you could lose access to your data. If you are running a RAID of any type, that data also has to be backed up. Just because you copy data to a RAID or other large external hard drive, does not mean it’s backed up. Data ALWAYS needs to be in 2 places.

Also, are you storing data on a RAID without even knowing it??? Lots of people do, and it’s super dangerous. With a “Spanned” or “Striped” RAID, which are designed for performance NOT protection, if one hard drive fails in the RAID, you lose all of the data on BOTH hard drives. Read our previous Blog post about the topic here.

MacMedics has been on Facebook so long that we had a personal page for MacMedics long before company pages were available. As a result we have TWO Facebook pages. Please surf over to the official MacMedic Facebook page and be sure to “Like” us to keep getting our updates here.

https://www.facebook.com/MacMedics

It does not happen often, but it does happen! A new client came to visit today with her MacBook that was burned in her house fire. Her house was a total loss.

We removed the hard drive with the hopes that it was not damaged, but it was still wet from the thousands of gallons of water used to extinguish the fire.

We referred her directly to Drivesavers in California. We’re a Drivesavers partner, so she will save 10% off her recovery, and there is no attempt fee charged by Drivesavers. If you are in a similar situation, call us to get our discount code.

She was not backed up! You, however DO have the chance to backup so please do that right now! If you don’t have a backup system or your backup if more then three years old, please call your local MacMedics office for help.

Isn’t it worth $119 to have w working and tested backup of your Mac (or PC) in place?

Please read our take on the Blog post titled The Nine Things We Wish We Did Before Our House Burned Down (at the link below). It’s full of good advice for you, your computers, your safety, and how to insure your belongings correctly.

We have several posts on the topic:

http://www.macmedics.com/blog/tag/9-things-we-wished-we-did-before-our-house-burned-down/

In case you are wondering, the house fire started in the mulch in the front yard, and the embers were whipped into a full on fire by the extremely high winds we had last week.

MacMedics is the Premier Sponsor for The Baltimore Production Club’s ANNUAL PRODUCTION SHOWCASE (That’s Paper Show for you folks that have been watching the show back in the early days) on March 28th 5:30 to 8:30 at Martin’s West. See the TV Commercial below and buy tickets here! http://ow.ly/iXglc

We’ll have a great selection of MacMedics SWAG that you can’t buy on TV!