Time Machine is an excellent way to back up your files! It's only cool and powerful if you actually turn it on and USE it!

Friday the 13th can be an un-lucky day, but you CAN take control of your back up and ensure your data is always protected by following a few simple steps.

The important thing is to PLAN AHEAD. Your back up is not complete if it’s not:

1. Automatic (Use Time Machine and this point is covered)

2. Redundant (Double your back up with a clone of your data or use an off-site back up and this point is covered)

3. Off-Site (Take your double back up off-site or get Mozy or CrashPlan Pro and this point is covered)

If you’d like to sign up for Mozy or CrashPlan Pro, we have links to those services, including the hard to find free 2GB Mozy account. We also strongly recommend LoJack for Laptops.

http://www.macmedics.com/mozy (Use code “MOZY4ALL″ for 10% off paid service until 5/1/12)
http://www.macmedics.com/crashplan
http://www.macmedics.com/lojack

We’ve been over this before, but here on the front lines of data loss we see this just about everyday. It’s senseless the number of pictures, school papers, financial and business documents, and music get lost when a back up system can be had for as little as $129!

You need to make your back up system automatic, or use a program like Time Machine. That’s the first step. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY can keep up with a “manual” drag-n-drop back up! To boot, quite a bit of the data loss we see here at MacMedics happens when someone copies over important data during a drag-n-drop Finder copy. Sometime, folks think they have the data copied, but something goes wrong and they just end up with an alias, then they go and delete the original data, because they think they just copied it.

The second step is to regularly test that back up to ensure your files are there and you’re able to grab them anytime you need them. There’s no such thing as a “Set-It-And-Forget-It” back up system.

If you need help getting your back up set up, our advice is free, and we have external portable and desktop hard drives in stock!

If you have data you care about it needs to be backed up! Just because your computer is new or you just replaced the hard drive offers you very little protection. Hard drives can die at any time, and in fact there’s an increased risk of that occurring in the first 30 to 60 days of a hard drives’ life.

See our website http://www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info on “retiring” older drives and ensuring you have a safe back up.

The pictures we take are the most cherished and valuable items on most computers. Make sure the pictures you take this year make it onto your back up system as soon as you import them onto your computer. Also, as an added tip: Don’t have iPhoto delete your pictures off you camera. Leave them in two places, in iPhoto AND on your camera until you have them BACKED UP. You ALWAYS want to have your valuable data in TWO PLACES at all times.

Be sure to read the Blog clipping we link to titles “The 9 things we wish we did before our house burned down” You can fin that here.

This Blog post is from Kory Barrett from MacMedics Washington:

Even the employees here at MacMedics are not immune to Macintosh troubles. No matter how closely we follow our own advice, computers being the mortal devices that they are, we too experience problems.

So it wasn’t a real shock when my MacBook Pro recently failed. But in the process I became a huge fan of a new backup solution.

It all started at home, when I opened up my unit to check email before turning in for the night. However, I immediately sensed a problem. Though the power light on my latch release button was a solid white as normal, my screen stayed completely dark. No matter what I attempted I couldn’t generate video. Thinking it was stuck in a “sleep” state I tried several methods to wake it up. When that didn’t work I shut down the unit and restarted it. I tried several different startup tricks (zapping the PRAM, Option-boot, etc.), all to no avail.

Realizing that I had a real problem, I decided to hold off until the following morning when I’d be returning to our lab. The question of the integrity of my data didn’t really enter my mind at this point, as the symptoms did not suggest a hard drive failure. There were no unusual sounds that I could detect (grinding, screeching that we often hear when drives fail), and besides, I back my data up on a nightly basis using Time Machine to an Apple Time Capsule that I have at home.

Upon arriving in the office the next day, we methodically diagnosed the problem. When we concluded there was an internal hardware failure and began to disassemble the unit, I did finally start to get anxious about my data. What if my backup wasn’t reliable? I do perform sample tests from time to time, but I’d never done a full restore from it, and actually we’ve seen at least a small number of failures when trying to restore from a Time Machine backup. And even if it were successful, A) I’d still have lost all the work I’d completed since my last backup ran (a full day’s worth), and B) my backup was at home, meaning I’d have to leave work and spend a good part of the day going through the restore process, meaning more lost time.

So, it got to a point where I couldn’t wait to get the drive out of my MacBook Pro and attach it to our lab equipment to verify that my data was OK. Thankfully, it was, and the cause of my problem was a bad logic board. We replaced the board and I was back up and running. My worst fears were never realized.

But while the outcome was positive, it did get me thinking. If my drive had failed, how reliable was my backup? How much important data would I have lost in the day of work since my backup last executed? And had I really considered the time it would have taken me to head home and go through a full restore? Looking at it this way I was not satisfied with my backup plan, which obviously needed improvement.

It’s now about a week later, and I feel really good about what I’m doing. A colleague recommended a product to me that I am now using. It runs separately from my nightly Time Machine backup at home, meaning my data is in three places. But, while my nightly backup has its benefits, my additional new backup has others. What I did was install a 2nd, internal hard drive in my MacBook Pro. Using Intego’s Personal Backup software, I “clone” my hard drive to this 2nd internal backup drive several times a day. It runs quickly and does not slow down my machine in the process. Now, if my primary drive ever fails, I can easily reboot my machine to my cloned backup and get back up and running right away.

So now I’m really covered. If my drive fails, I have an updated internal backup. If my laptop gets stolen, I have a separate backup at home. I feel very comfortable that my data is well protected, and shouldn’t we all be?

But there’s the obvious question – “How did I fit a 2nd hard drive inside my MacBook Pro”? To do so, I sacrificed my internal SuperDrive. In its place I purchased a “sled” that holds the 2nd hard drive, designed to fit right where the SuperDrive was. I had asked myself “How often do I really need my SuperDrive anyway?”, and realized it wasn’t too often. For those rare occasions I also purchased an external SuperDrive. It’s small and very portable, and fits nicely in my laptop bag. So whenever I do need to install from a disk or burn a CD or DVD, I can still do so.

Cost-wise, including the internal drive sled, the hard drive itself, backup software, and the external SuperDrive, this solution was only about $100 more than a typical external hard drive backup. For me, it was well worth it.

If you are interested in learning more, please let us know, as we’d be happy to set this up for you. You really can’t be too careful with your data, and remember, it’s not a matter of if a drive will fail, it’s a matter of when.

More reading on hard drive failure and backups can be found at http://www.HardDrivesDie.com. Also be sure to read our post about Time Machine here.

Current and new subscribers to the MacMedics newsletter can request our free Time Machine white paper.

I’m using Leopard with Time Machine to do my data back up on my MacBook Pro. I’ve been pleased with how it works, and I even used Time Machine once to recover some e-mails that got accidently deleted. It was amazingly simply to find them, and pull them forward to my current e-mail. After using Time Machine since Leopard came out, I have noticed a few things that might weaken it’s appeal some.

1. Time Machine runs all of the time. So if you’re busy like me, Time Machine can slow your machine down enough for you to notice as you rush to get other tasks complete. I’ve considered moving my back up to my home office, and letting it run there while I sleep at night. But, as you recall Time Machine already saved some e-mails for me once at work, so if my back up drive had been home, I would not have been able to make a recovery so quickly. So for that fact, I think Time Machine needs to reside at your office to be completely effective.

You can change the frequency of Time Machine’s back up process by installing a little program called TimeMachineScheduler. With it, you can change how often it runs from anywhere from 1 to 12 hours. Take care, because changing TIme Machine’s settings could change the way your back up runs, or cause it not to run at all. Because of this, it’s extremely important that you test your back up after you modify it ANY way. This brings me to my next point.

2. A back up is only as good as it is. In order to KNOW this and completely OWN your back up, you MUST test your back up often, and in different ways. I learned this the hard way with a recent hard drive upgrade on my MacBook Pro. I wanted to move to a larger size hard drive, as I suspected that my old drive was starting to show signs of failure, and I had been using it for about 2 years. Since I’m a heavy user, I work on-site at client locations frequently, and I travel with my MacBook Pro wherever I go, there’s a time limit to how long a user like me can count on their installed hard drive. See my website http://www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info on “retiring” hard drives.

So I went to install a new 500 GB hard drive, installed a fresh copy of 10.5, and prepared to migrate my data from my old 250 GB hard drive. It said it was going to take a few hours, so I set up and got to work doing some Mac repairs in the lab. Now I suspected that the old drive might be dying, so I was not too surprised that it was taking so long, but I let it go. I ended up letting it run after I left the office for the day. I came back the next morning to see it had locked up. No biggie, I’ll just re-format, and start over, and use my Time Machine back up instead. Sadly, this too did not work, and I ended up manually copying my data by hand. Not the end of the world, but certainly alot longer and alot more tedious then just letting the OS handle it automatically. I was not too worried about my data, as I have several back ups, and all of my data was still present and accounted for on both my old hard drive, and my Time Machine back up.

3. So after my computer was back in business, I went back to my Time Machine back up to see if I could figure out what had happened and why I could not restore from that volume. I first tried a simple disk repair in Disk Utility, and that worked for a while and it came up an error that it reported is could not fix. I tried to repair the directory using a third party program, as Time Machine volumes are notoriously prone to directory damage. I had not done this in awhile. I set it up on one of my data recovery machines and went back to work in the lab on a client machine. I came back several hours later to check on it, and the repair software reported that the drive was running slower then expected due to a “hardware malfunction”. So it appears that even though I’m extremely careful, and I do monitor my primary and back up hard drives very carefully, I still ran into some issues. Now I was lucky because I did not have any data loss, and all I lost was time, and that brings me to my conclusion.

Time Machine is a fine program. It’s incredibly protective, easy to set up, and it’s free if you own Leopard. All things that we love here at MacMedics. Why do we love it so? Because, when our clients’ data is backed up it makes our jobs easier, and we hate to see data loss. With so many clients running new machines with Leopard pre-installed, more and more people are running Time Machine. Fantastic! Right? Well, it is great, but Time Machine is not a bootable back up. That means that if your computer were to have a problem, and that does happen, then you’d have to find a Mac to use, possibly install a fresh OS, then wait for your data to migrate over to the new computer. This is 1000 times better then not having a back up at all, but if you’re a power user, then you might not A. want to wait that long, or B. want to take your chances with only one back up.

Ideally, in a perfect world you want to have TWO back ups. 1. Your trusty Time Machine back up for grabbing a file you need from two days ago that you over designed and want to go back to the original and 2. a bootable back up, so if something bad happens to your computer you can boot from your back up and be right back in business right away (from another computer or at another location). Bottom line? Two back ups are better then one. Both types of back ups have their strengths and weaknesses, so the best thing to do is have both. I’m now recommending that prior to any major changes in hard drives, or major system updates that it is wise to have a “clone” of your hard drive on stand by in case you run into issues. That “clone” should be tested by “booting” off of it to ensure that it’s fully functional and ready to go should you run into any trouble.

4. When I get my Time Machine hard drive back on line, I am also going to use the same drive to be a bootable “clone” back up of my entire system, so I will have two fully functioning back ups of two totally different types. I’m simply going to partition the drive in such a way that Time Machine will have the space it needs, and my other back up program will have a cool 501 GBs to copy my bootable clone to.

If you want my help in setting up a MacMedics “Double back up”. then give me or any of the other MacMedics a call. We’ll be delighted to help you get it set up. Also, ask us about our “Advanced Back up” options where we can also use a RAID to give your back up a back up. You can never have too many back ups! In fact I now have a third back up! I’m storing my old hard drive at an undisclosed location as a “Snapshot in time” back up just in case something terrible happens, and I lose my computer, and my other two back ups. It never hurts to store a few DVDs or in my case, and old hard drive at your parent’s house, or with a neighbor or friend.

A close family friend here in Severna Park had his house burn down to the ground. Computers, back ups, photos, documents, everything was lost. How cool would it have been for him to go next door and get his old hard drive, and still have data from a few months ago? Here’s hoping that your data is backed up!

If you’re a MacMedics client, and you’d like a free copy of our 5-page Time Machine white paper, please get in touch with us to request your copy.

If you’re not working with MacMedics currently, but would like to sign up for our free e-mail newsletter, we’d be delighted to share our report on Time Machine with you. Sign up for our newsletter here, and we’ll send you a copy.