Back Up advice...

Hi All,
I've never really got into 'backing up' my computer before... dangerous I know, but I've always taken my chances.
However, more and more my computer is becoming 'Mission Critical'... it's no longer a risk I can bear.
Maybe someone could point me in the right direction re: the best back-up solution for my system.
I have a Mac Pro which I use a 'dual boot' system. One for OS X and the other for Vista (via Boot Camp). Both systems need to be backed up...
I have two internal drives... a 150GB Raptor boot drive... a 750GB drive for storage.
Questions,
1. Could I/Should I use the 750GB internal storage drive as a backup drive...??
2. Can I use one drive to back up both OSX and Vista...? If so, I guess I'd have to partition the drive and format each partition seperately...?
3. Could I/Should I consider using 'Time Capsule' for this purpose or should I consider another option.
Help appreciate.
Yours Confused.

All I can express an opinion on is question 1 and 3:
1. Could I/Should I use the 750GB internal storage drive as a backup drive...??
Though it would work, I wouldn't suggest if as your sole backup. Should something happen to the system as a whole - failure of the logic board, or instance, or theft, fire or other damage - you'd lose all access to your data. You should have some sort of removable medium - external hard drive, DVDs, tape, etc. - that you take off site after you make a backup. Otherwise you're at serious risk. I would recommend doing multiple backups, actually; one perhaps to an internal drive (which would allow you quick access should you lose a document or have a drive fail) and one to a removable that you take off site, and do both backups regularly. And the off-site backups should preferable be rotated so that you are backing up to two or three different devices/media sets, switching daily (or at whatever frequency makes sense for the amount of new and changed data you create) so that you always have a reasonably current set off site every day.
3. Could I/Should I consider using 'Time Capsule' for this purpose or should I consider another option.
Other people who've actually used TC may chime in, but I would not consider any wireless storage to be suitable as the sole backup for mission critical data. I've seen too many issues with wireless being erratic to consider it reliable. A TC would be acceptable, perhaps, for "near line" storage if you need to share a backup device among more than one computer, but you should still back up to a medium that you can take off site.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Similar Messages

  • In iphoto 6.06 I make the red  eye changes, it appears to have worked, but when I open the pic again the red eye is back. Advice?

    In iphoto 6.06 I make the red  eye changes, it appears to have worked, but when I open the pic again the red eye is back.Advice?

    As a Test:
    Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
    Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?

  • Need Back-Up Advice

    I am concerned about protecting all of my work, especially my muic recordings  done primarily through GarageBand.
    I have a Time Capsule, which is both a back-up and airport router.
    But if something would happen to my computer (iMac, specs below) and/or Time Capsule (both 3 years old), I could be out of luck. Tons of work could be lost.
    Friend told me I should get an external hard drive. Just as another ensurance device.
    Visited the Apple Store. Browsed around and am focusing on the following:
    LaCie 2TB USB 3.0 Porsche Design P'9233 Desktop Hard Drive
    Sophisticated desktop storage built for speed.
    The LaCie Porsche Design P'9233 is more than just a place to store data – it’s a collaboration between some of the most renowned designers in the world and digital storage experts LaCie. Speed, design and technology are combined to create a external desktop hard drive that’s built for performance.
    Designed for your Mac
    Sophisticated Porsche Design aesthetic
    USB 3.0 speed (USB 2.0 backwards compatible)
    2 TB
    Price: $139.95
    Compatibility
    Mac
    OS X 10.5 or later
    USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port
    (By the way, don't know what the USBs 3.0 or 2.0 means. Is one a Firewire?)
    My intent would be to use this as a back-up for just music and photo files. Don't want it backing up everything on my computer. Time Capsule does that.
    Reiews are very good and the price is right.
    Is this what I need?
    Thoughts, suggestions, advice very much appreciated.
    (Also posting this in GarageBand)

    Yes, this drive will be fine for backup purposes.
    USB 3 is faster than USB 2 ... but unless your Mac has USB 3 you won't see any benefit from having a USB 3 hard drive.   (btw, USB is not FireWire)
    I would recommend these drives.  (Apple stores normally carry them.  You will need to check Apple for prices.  They are also available many other places including B&H PhotoVideo and Newegg - both are reputable online dealers).
    Lacie d2 Quadra
    G-Technology G-Drive or G-Drive Mini
    One other note, please do not post the same question in multiple forums.

  • Backing up - advice greatly received.

    Advice needed on adequate but not overkill in terms of backing up my data.
    Machine came with Leopard, I upgraded to SL and have both sets of original discs. I maintain Time Machine backups, however the external drive for TM is getting full so I'm losing the oldest backups, but I don't believe that's a problem,
    Any recommendations would be welcome in terms of taking precautions against losing data and ease of starting from scratch if forced to? Assuming worst case scenario and a new machine is required, it would come with latest OSX Lion, would this present any issues in terms of retreivung data from my SL TM backups?
    Thanks.

    My advise is to maintain two separate backups: 1. Time Machine, as you're now doing, and 2. Clone your drive, on a regular basis, to a separate bootable external drive. You can use Carbon Copy Cloner(free) or SuperDuper for this. That way, you can be back up & running very quickly if something were to happen to your internal drive.
    If you get a new machine, with Lion, you won't have any issues transfering your data from your Time Machine backups.

  • Back-up advice/assistance needed

    hi, i have a titanium G4 with all indications of hard drive going bad and want to replace the HD. Meantime, tho i've read about Carbon Copy Cloner i'm still not clear just what the step-by-step should be as far as backing up everything before swapping out old HD for a new one.
    As it stands, the Ti-Book is so slow that i hesitate trying to boot from it as the 'master' machine. What's the best way to replace the drive and restore the contents from the HD going bad....I believe what i need to create is a bootable Clone of its HD onto a firewire drive. Meantime, the only way to conveniently access the TI-Book is via Target Mode from a
    healthy system. The Ti-Book is just running WAY too slow to boot into it - and the drive is making noise.
    Anybody have a suggestion on the best approach to take with this. I'm thinking that if i could do the backup and restore using Target Disk mode from a desktop as the "master" machine that would be the easiest for me to understand but
    need instruction on what the procedure would be for if i can do it that way...
    Thanks much for any thoughts on this one.
    Mike

    And once you get the two Macs connected in TDM, I strongly suggest that you forget about cloning the old hard drive. For one reason, if it's already malfunctioning, you may not have enough time to clone it completely before it fails altogether. For another, its directory may have been corrupted already, and if that's the case, a clone of it may be nonfunctional even if it is completed successfully (or appears to be).
    Instead of cloning, focus on drag-copying the most important data files from the problem hard drive (the Target) to the desktop Mac's (the Host's) hard drive. Never mind the OS, any applications that can easily be reinstalled from their original source CDs, and data that is already backed up. Concentrate on backing up your highest-priority data files first. Most of those will be in your Home folder inside the Users folder, by default.

  • External hd/back up advice needed

    I'd like to know how everyone is organizing and backing up their files.
    I have an early 2009 iMac with a partioned external for Time Machine plus a couple of almost full external drives. Except for Time Machine, nothing is redundant. It's basically a disorganized mess!

    Julie Slade wrote:
    Thanks for the reply. I can use the ibook to view the backup of the imac G5. I realise there is probably a long way of using the ibook to drag the info across to the new imac however I fear that may take some time (however considering how much time I have spent pondering this situation it would probably have been faster)!
    You'd have to check the memeo documentation or website, or contact the maker, to find the best way to restore memeo backups -- there aren't likely many folks in the Apple Time Machine forum who'll be familiar with that product.

  • Storage and back up advice please

    I have an early 20011 MBP, ML 10.8 latest, Aperture recently purchased, Adobe CS5 which I have always used to edit and iPhotos.  I shot RAW and keep .jpeg and.tiff for all photos.  I have bout 30,000 images currently in my iPhotos library.  I think I have merged Aperture with iPhtos library but it is still called iPhotos.
    When I put the compact flash in the card reader they are put automatically into the iPhotos library.  The ones I will use professionally I keep in folders once I have edited in CS5.
    What I want is to keep ALL images on two external HDDs (double back up) as well as those I will work on on my MBP.
    My question is what is the best and most secure way wo get all photos from card to two HDDs.  If I back the whole iPhotos library it takes all night!  Secondly how should I down load from the card, is there a better set of settings than I am using if they are default to the iPhoto library.  These photos are very important, I am content with CS5 to work on them but it is the most secure and reliable storage I need with the best way to back up.  Additionally, of course, I use Time Machine.
    Many thanks
    Jules

    Jules-
    It is easy once we avoid two bad practices: managed originals and importing directly into Aperture.
    I recommend
    • First copy card images to a folder on a hard drive.
    • Next eject the card, but do not reformat it yet. This is an important step because while the card is in play errors can cause loss of the originals.
    • Now separate the images in the folder into sub-folders, each of which will be a Project. Often all the images are just one Project anyway.
    • Next back up the folders of images that will be projects. After two copies exist on different drives (neither of which is the Library drive) the previously ejected card may be reformatted (in-camera, not by computer).
    • Only after the above are complete then import each folder as a new Project into Aperture by reference (set the import window to Store Files: in their current location) to one set of the backed up original images that are living in a folder on an external drive.
    • Remember to also back up off site to protect against fire and theft.
    One should never trust not-yet-backed-up original images to humans' error-prone usage of Aperture or any other images management application (unless of course one has a dual-card camera; or if images are low value and/or easily reproducible).
    Good luck!
    -Allen

  • I downloaded IOS8 and when I went to play my music all cover photos have been deleted and have not come back any advice? Thanks.

    Lost images in my music, help please!

    If those photos were part of the camera roll, they were part of the backup as well and you can restore from the latest backup you made on the old computer. After that transfer the photos to the new PC, follow this article: iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer
    Then sync again to the new one, which will erase the phone again.
    You can also try to copy the backup folder from the old computer to the new one and see if the old backups get recognized, check this article to find the location on your PC:
    Create and delete iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups in iTunes
    If the photos were not taken with the phone, your data is gone, photos you sync from iTunes to the phone are not included in the backup.

  • Putting new memory in the Mac Mini - tips and (especially) pitfalls

    I had some problems in expanding my Mac Mini's memory. If you're about to do the same thing, you might find my experiences useful. So here they are.
    *Opening the case*
    I followed advice to use a plastic putty-knife and bought a one specially, but ran into a couple of problems. First, the plastic knives aren't as sharp as the metal ones, so they don't push into the available gap. I had to sharpen the edge before it would go in. The second problem was that, once in, it wasn't rigid enough to open the case; it just bent.
    At this point I should have left it and gone back to the drawing board, but I was frustrated and flustered and casting about for anything that would do the job, I ended up using the metal blade of a set-square. This worked, but either because it wasn't flexible enough or because I was a bit coarse in my technique, I did some damage to the clips.
    When I had to open the case a second time, I used a small, very thin and flexible cheese-grater and the case popped open like a dream.
    *The four corner screws*
    A magnetic screwdriver would have been a godsend for this, but since I didn't have one, I just had to tip the Mini up when the screw was loose and hope it didn't disappear into the workings. Fortunately none of them did. So not everything went wrong. Three of the screws were easy to put back - they could either be pushed or dropped into the holes, but the fourth couldn't be got in either way. Thinking about it afterwards, I realised I could have turned the mini upside down and put the screw on top of the screwdriver and got it in that way. But what I actually did was bite the end off a toothpick, jam it into the screw head and then push it in the hole. Worked a treat.
    Note. My instructions said not to worry about the spring on the Airport antenna -"It's not going to fly off." Maybe not, but it can come loose and is then a pain to put back. Suddenly the wire holding the antenna doesn't seem long enough. Before you know it the antenna cable has come off completely, leaving you with the choice to undo all the screws again or forget about using Airport.
    *Lifting the chassis*
    Some advice tells you to undo all cables and take the chassis off completely, but the advice I followed suggested just undoing the fan control wire and propping the the chassis on a book with the others still attached. This worked fine. I was nervous about pulling on the wire to release the fan control, so I used a fingernail to get under the rim of the plug itself and popped it off that way.
    *Fitting the RAM*
    This was the easy part, though it didn't snap in as positively as some I've done.
    *Putting back the fan control wire*
    I put the wire back, as I thought, and powered up the Mini with the lid still off. I checked that the memory was properly installed and was delighted that it was. I vaguely noticed that the Mini was making a lot of noise, but thought that might be because the case was off. In my defence, none of the instructions identified the wire I was disconnecting as the fan control wire; they just called it "the little wire in front". Anyway, I put the lid back on, then realised I had a problem and took it off again. I learned (from Boece) that "the little wire in front" was indeed the fan control wire and saw that it was loose. It took me several tries to get it in. It's in an awkward place, is very small and sometimes appears to go in when it really hasn't. But whereas a few times I thought it had gone in, when it did go in I knew it was in. One of those things you only ever do once, but could do so much more easily the second time.
    *Putting the lid back*
    Some advice suggests just pushing the lid back, but you can cause damage that way. The clips can get bent out of shape. The best way is to use your cheese-grater or whatever, to gently ease the lid back on.
    Conclusion
    This was a bad experience; I had visions of ending up with an unusable machine and a void warranty. But in fact it I now have a quiet, working 2GB Mac Mini - and the nightmares have almost stopped. If you're about to try it, take comfort from the fact that you couldn't have as bad an experience as I had. Probably.
    Michael

    Pretty much describes my experience. I used a relatively thin metal putty knife to take the case off. Not to difficult doing one side at a time. I totally agree, a magnetic screw driver would have been very helpful when replacing the bracket. By far the biggest problem I had was the fan control wire. Very short cord in an awkward location. End of story - all back together with 2gb or ram. Probably toook 35-40 minutes (Including 10-15 fooling around with that lousy fan control wire.)

  • Problems with iTunes and Podcasts after upgrade to iOS 8.1.3.

    I upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.1.3, then I purchased some music on iTunes.
    While hearing the music, incomming call shut the Music player down. From that time on, cannot open neither Music, nor iTunes Store, Podcasts, Settings/General/About, (Nike) Running, ...
    Does not solve the issue: Restart iphone, restore from the back-up 
    Advice appreciated

    Hello, ik31.  
    Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.  
    Here is an article that I would recommend going through when experiencing this issue.  
    If your iOS device restarts, displays the Apple logo, or powers off while you're using it
    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203899
    Cheers, 
    Jason H.  

  • Hp laptop is not starting up

    Earlier today i was playing a game on my laptop (DCUO), and i got the 14% battery life warning. I plugged in my laptop and continued playing, then i got a 10% battery life warning. I was confused so i unplugged and replugged the charger, but it wasnt charging my laptop. Im currently charging my laptop and when i try to turn it on the AC power led lights blink white three times. Its probably an issue with my charger but im not sure. Ive taken out the battery held the power button then put it back in, and that didnt work as well.

    @vicksonleji ,
    Hello and thank you for posting on the HP support forums.  Please check out the following links for when you post back.
    Advice for asking the "Very Best Question"
    HP Notebook PCs - How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number?
    Here is a link that may be of help as well.
    HP Notebook PCs - Testing and Calibrating the Battery (Windows 8)
    If you can not get the battery to respond to calibration.  Please contact HP phone support for repair options.
    Please call our technical support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region.
    http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-phone-assist.html
    Let me know how things go and have a great day.
    Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
    Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
    D5GR
    I work on behalf of HP

  • Why HP remove support for msata drives in the ENVY 15t - q100 ?

    The previous models had msata support, but the ENVY 15t - q100 (the one with no dvd drive) has the space for a msata drive, even with the screw hole but they remove the slot from the board. This is a $900 laptop, why they did that?

    @Emanu526 ,
    Hello and thank you for posting on the HP support forums.  So that we can best support your issue please post back with the full model and product number.
    HP Notebook PCs - How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number?
    As well please check out the following link before posting back.
    Advice for asking the "Very Best Question"
    As for changes in BIOS or configuration I am unable to comment on that.  Each model is created based on a constantly changing market requirement and the engineers and design people would be the only ones that can answer that question.
    Thank you again for posting and have a great day.
    Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
    Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
    D5GR
    I work on behalf of HP

  • Poor Quality Stills

    Forgive this old favourite. I've gone through lots of past threads and still would like some help please.
    I am making a 04'00" film in FCP from jpeg stills alone. Some are in boxes, other have motion effects, all have lots of layers of text / text boxes on them. In short it's a real fiddle and render nightmare compared to good old DV!
    Anyway, a couple of questions. My final delivery format is DVD to play on a flatscreen LCD or Plasma screen, so should I be proofing the quality of the image on my cathoid ray tube monitor or on the LCD monitor of my iMac? Does the final TV platform make a difference to workflow?
    So far, following back thread advice, I have changed the Field Dominance button to None and dropped the Whites level to 90% which made the image on the LCD timeline fantastic (it had been aliasing massively before) but it still aliases on my CRT.
    Also, when I export the rendered film as a Current Settings QT and then encode via Compressor and put it into DVD Studio Pro, the picture quality again looks fantastic on DVD Studio Pro Simulate but once encoded onto the final DVD, the shots with movement added are very poor, with lots of aliasing.
    Forgive the long intro, but has anyone got a workflow I could try to reliably turn moving jpegs (big ones c12Megapixels) of houses (ie lots of straight lines which tend to flicker when moving) into a DVD to be played on LCD or Plasma in which the straight lines look straight and there is no aliasing or flicker on the pan /scans?
    Thank you in advance.
    Hamish
    iMac 2Ghz intelduo FCP 5.5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    Over sizing your images beyond what you will use does nothing good and creates issues with how FCP dithers/downscales them.
    As a format - get rid of JPEGs. It is a lossy format created to transmit crappy images over the internet on web pages. Use TIFF or PSD which are lossless formats.
    The flickering is an artifact of the interlaced nature of video. It is a result of very thin (often horizontal) elements that exist on one scanline as is common in text or titling. This can also be the case in scanned images with a great deal of detail in high contrast. (Note: It does no good to import images hugely larger than the pixel dimensions of the video sequence. All it does is force FCP to work harder at interpolation.)
    As the alternate fields play, the flashing element is essentially being turned on/off. The basic strategy is to get the element to exist over two scanlines so it is refreshed every time the field plays or to reduce the amount of contrast so the difference between ON and OFF is not noticeable.
    Things to try (In increasing order of image degradation)
    - (in FCP) field order>none
    - (in FCP or Photoshop) reduce whites by 10% - reduces overly bright areas
    - (in FCP) flicker filter - minimum
    - (in Photoshop) motion blur>vertical> .2 - .5 pixels - blurs vertically only
    - (In FCP or Photoshop) Gaussian blur> .2 - .5 pixels -blurs both horizontally as well as vertically
    - (in FCP or Photoshop) deinterlace - throws away half the image and is generally not appropriate on scanned images
    Remember: Unless you are viewing your work in the appropriate external NTSC/PAL monitor, you are playing blind. The computer monitor only shows you a proxy image.
    good luck.
    x

  • Poor Quality Stills on DVD

    Forgive this old favourite. I've gone through lots of past threads and still would like some help please. I've also posted the same question on the FCP forum as I am not sure in which application the solution lies.
    I am making a 04'00" film in FCP from jpeg stills alone. Some are in boxes, other have motion effects, all have lots of layers of text / text boxes on them. In short it's a real fiddle and render nightmare compared to good old DV!
    Anyway, a couple of questions. My final delivery format is DVD to play on a flatscreen LCD or Plasma screen, so should I be proofing the quality of the image on my cathoid ray tube monitor or on the LCD monitor of my iMac? Does the final TV platform make a difference to workflow?
    So far, following back thread advice, I have changed the Field Dominance button to None and dropped the Whites level to 90% which made the image on the LCD timeline fantastic (it had been aliasing massively before) but it still aliases on my CRT.
    Also, when I export the rendered film as a Current Settings QT and then encode via Compressor and put it into DVD Studio Pro, the picture quality again looks fantastic on DVD Studio Pro Simulate but once encoded onto the final DVD, the shots with movement added are very poor, with lots of aliasing.
    Forgive the long intro, but has anyone got a workflow I could try to reliably turn moving jpegs (big ones c12Megapixels) of houses (ie lots of straight lines which tend to flicker when moving) into a DVD to be played on LCD or Plasma in which the straight lines look straight and there is no aliasing or flicker on the pan /scans?
    Thank you in advance.
    Hamish
    iMac 2Ghz intelduo FCP 5.5    

    Well, its obviously best to test your output on a source closet to your final display medium. You won't see the flickering of the thin lines on your monitor for several technical reasons, notwithstanding the fact hat simulator is not overly accurate (they even say that in the manual). Your monitor is not a substitute for how an image will look on an NTSC monitor, regardless of if its plasma, lcd, etc. Thin lines are usually killers, and taking time to thicken them in photoshop may not be your cup of tea. Jpegs are lesser quality picture format to begin with, but if thats the only way you have them, so be it. You usually run into a similar flicker problem when screen capturing websites to put on DVD. Webdesigners like to use thin, straight lines which flicker like crazy. Darkening and thickening can help, but again I don't know how much of a rush you are in.

  • Problems shutting down...

    50% of the times i try to shut down, my computer quits all the open applications and then just gives me the spinning rainbow and does nothing. i eventually just manually turn it off with the button in the back. any advice on fixing this problem?
    also when the computer starts up, the first image on the screen is of a folder with a question mark in it. is this a related problem? or a different fix?
    thanks
    brett

    729/3175
    "invalid leaf record count"
    You are using the Tiger DVD, are you?
    (- http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301266 )
    Always use the Tiger disc to repair a Tiger volume, and the Panther disc to repair a Panther volume.
    If you did so, then I don't know what kind of problem this is, and I'd run a more powerful tool like DiskWarrior, since anything like that should not be left unrepaired IMO.
    How do your shutdown times go now?
    If not better, try removing all Login Items, see if it is related.
    Personally my iMac takes a much longer time to shutdown, since it has Tiger installed, so I wouldn't be surprised, unless of course the machine just NEVER shuts down, even after six or seven minutes...
    At the contrary the boot time is much shorter than in Panther.

Maybe you are looking for

  • CRM sales Order Replication to R/3

    Hi , Can anyone tell me what are the configuration that we need to do CRM to R/3 replication for sales orders apart from site and subscription creation(SMOEAC) and CRMCONSUM maintenance. I am mainly looking on what are middleware parameter that we ne

  • Profile value per_person_id is not listed for $PROFILE$ block

    Hi All, I have reqirement to retrive the person_id to default Employee number in Personal analysis descriptive flex filed segment. When i tried using $PROFILES$.PER_PERSON_ID or fnd_profile.value('PER_PERSON_ID') is not working for me. Then i have ch

  • Button Function Failure on Adobe Content Viewer

    Why do the button functions work well the first time I view them on my iPad's Adobe Content Viewer but do not function properly in subsequent viewings? For example, the next page buttons work flawlessly during the first viewing on the iPad. But from

  • Using Property Nodes

    HELP! I am new to LV programming and have a problem. First of all I only have the evaluation version of LV 6i. I have looked through the online doumentation and the PDF manuals. What I am trying to do is have the fill color of a thermometer change wh

  • Apple TV and Port 3689

    I am running iTunes 8.0 and OSX 10.5. I have a Windows wireless network. Unexpectedly I cannot sync my Apple TV with my computer. It tells me I have a firewall blocking Port 3689, and I don't as far as I can tell. And I haven't changed any firewall p