Should I backup my hard drive before I do a disk repair in disk utility?

I want to do a disk repair but I don't have an external hard drive to backup information on, so I'm wondering if I can just not back it up and do the disk repair? Does it kill information? How does disk repair even work? Is it a defragger?

You should always have a reasonably current backup and especially before any major software change such as an OS upgrade and, in this case, a disk repair. Running without a backup is like walking a tightrope without a net. External disks are inexpensive. Your data is not. Choose an external USB 3.0 disk that is double or more the size of your system disk and dedicate it as your Time Machine backup.
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
A disk repair is actually a filesystem repair. It updates links that are in the filesystem directory. Usually this runs quickly and repairs any faulty links with no issues. It is a fairly safe action. Sometimes the directory cannot be repaired and the cure is to erase the disk, reinstall the OS and reload the data from a backup. Of course one does not erase the disk until they have completed the backup.
When you are ready to repair the disk:
Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836

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I need to backup my hard drive before sending it for repair, How?

My macbook will not turn on but my hard drive is still in good condition.
When I went to the genius bar the employee said something about a hard drive kit I could use to backup my files and such before sending it in.
I own an external hard drive, how can I transfer my files from my macbook's hard drive into my external hard drive before sending the computer in for repair?

Hi...use Carbon Copy Cloner....
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
...it will make an exact clone of your MacBook's current drive on the external and allow you to reload it on your new internal after it is installed....it is very easy to use...

Can I remove hard drive before sending T60 for screen repair?

My screen started developing a thin blue line down the center. At first it only showed up occasionally, and then one day it never went away. It only shows up when the screen background is dark, not white like working with Microsoft Word, etc.
A friend who knows a lot about computers hooked it up to an external monitor and said since the line didn't show up on the monitor, it's probably a screen issue not a graphics card issue. I called Lenovo and an super great CSR said since the laptop is still under warranty, I can send it in to Lenovo for repairs.
I'm happy to do this because even though the line doesn't really interfere with the computer's performance, it is annoying to look at. However, I'm just a bit worried about sending my laptop via snail mail to a repair center (I've never had to do that with any electronic before thank God, least of all my Thinkpad that's generally permanently attached to me).
I asked the CSR if he'd recommend backing up my data - mine's mostly backed up onto an external, but I don't have it backed up anywhere else but the external and there are probably some files that I missed. Also I have sensitive information, passwords etc saved and I was just a little nervous about sending it in the mail because of that. The CSR said not to worry, since he thinks it's a hardware issue and he recommended that I just remove my hard drive before I mail it in. Before I ask my computer tech friend to help me out with that, I just wanted to double check that removing the hard drive before sending the laptop into Lenovo for repairs won't cause any problems.
Thanks so much - I've always been happy with my laptop.

Don't worry -- they are used to people shipping laptops without the hard drive. They just stick their own hard disk in to test that everything is working.
T500: Vista 32, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 15.4" 1680x1050, 500GB 7200rpm, ATI Radeon HD3650 + Intel 4500MHD. T42: XP, 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM, 14.1" 1024x768, 250GB PATA, ATI Radeon 7500.

Should I erase my hard drive before updating to Yosemite?

I am planning on updating to OS X 10.10 Yosemite on my late 2009 3GHz 4GB RAM iMac soon from 10.9.5 Mavericks, and I've always heard it is best to erase the hard drive and wipe it clean when installing a new version of the OS. Is this still true?
And since the OS no longer comes on an install CD disc, is it still recommended to erase the HD before installing fresh? If so, how is this best accomplished without such an install CD? Copy the downloaded installer to a flash drive or CD/DVD or external hard disk?
Or has the Mac OS progressed enough that simply using Software Update is now the best and recommended way to upgrade OS X?
Any best practice recommendations would be most appreciated. And as always, I backup all of my important stuff before I perform such an install (though I do not use Time Machine as yet).

You don't say how you are backing up, other than that you don't use Time Machine (which is not a bad thing, given the reports of problems with the reliability of Time Machine backups). I'd suggest that you buy Carbon Copy Cloner and use it to make a complete, bootable backup of your system on a second hard drive.
4GB of RAM is borderline skimpy. You may need to at least double what you have installed now: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/DDR3_21.5_27
Download DiskmakerX: http://diskmakerx.com/, and get an 8GB flash drive. You can use DiskmakerX to put the Yosemite installer on the flash drive.I'd also suggest that you try to re-download the Mavericks installer before you do any other steps, and store it in a safe location outside of your Applications folder. You may want to revert or re-install at some point. You can also make a flash drive for Mavericks, if you have succeeded in downloading it.
"Install OS X Yosemite.app" (or or any installer later than Snow Leopard) is downloaded to your Applications folder. When the download is complete, the installer application launches. It is at this point that you quit the installer and copy (not move) it to a safe location outside of your Applications folder, perhaps in the folder of backups you (should) maintain for stuff like system updates and installers. You need to do this is because "Install OS X Whatever.app" very unhelpfully deletes itself after the installation is complete.
Make your flash drive installer at this point. When you are done, locate the copy of the Yosemite installer that is still in your Applications folder, launch it, and upgrade the system on your internal drive. With a cloned, bootable backup, you can easily revert to Mavericks if Yosemite doesn't run well.

Should I disconnect external hard drive before updating to yosemite

I have an external hard drive (time machine) connected. Should I disconnect before upgrading to Yosemite?

It shouldn't matter since the install only affects the internal drive.

Backup hard drive before or after upgrading?

I'm working on a Mac OSX 10.5.8 Leopard in Adobe CS4 Design Standard and I'm about to upgrade to Mountain Lion 10.8 and Adobe Creative Cloud. The question is when do I backup my hard drive - before, somewhere in the middle or end of upgrading all of the programs?

I would wait until after updgrading the OS to install the desktop applications that come with the Creative Cloud.
Not sure how many backups you want to make but you could back up at each stage.

Hello, I replaced a hard drive before deactivating my software. What I should now do?

Hello, I replaced a hard drive before deactivating my software. What I should now do?

Remove license on a computer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1442423?tstart=0 may help
-http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/error-maxium-acitvation-exceeded.html

Time Capsule can't backup external hard drives connected to it. Got that.

Hello Apple Support Communities! This is my first post. Hope this finds you all well My first year as an Apple user. I bought a 2-Tb TC and am running my first backup to my MacBook as I write this.
Problem statement: TC can't backup external hard drives connected directly to it, but the ones connected to the Macs that are connected wirelessly to it. Duly noted. However, the Spotlight will reindex the hard drives connected to the Mac and that will take hours; the whole backup will take days. Thus, excluding the hard drives at "System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab" will probably help reduce the time of backup, or just ejecting them will do too. That itself has not proven effective coz it's still taking forever (50Gb in 2 days, still going).
Questions:
1) Do I wait until my first backup to my MacBook's internal hard drive is done before I connect my hard drives to my MacBook and attempt another backup? If yes, how do I go about the excessive time Spotlight reindexing takes if I intend to backup my hard drives connected to my MacBook?
2) Is there any other way of speeding up the first-time backup?
*Note: All versions of OS and firmwares are up-to-date. TC is connected to an external wireless router. TC is intended to be used as backup device and / or file server only.
P/S: Apologee if this has already been discussed before, thus, a link to previous discussion thread would highly be appreciated)
- Shook Hashem, Malaysia.

How do I backup the externel hard drives connected to my MB. I was under the impression that that has already been done, because I've read it somewhere in a discussion that said it's done automatically unless I exclude it from a backup, which I didn't. So it's supposed to backup the external hard drivestoo because I had them connected to my MB the entire time during the backups.
By default an external drive is excluded.. the list is odd.. if I plug a drive into the mac.. it immediately is listed as excluded.
This is not the list of included.. this is the list of excluded.. remove it from the excluded list to include it.
It is kind of reverse polish notation in backups.
If I want to enter the Time Machine, should I enter it with the TM turned on or off?
Not sure what the question means. If you use the star wars display and want to recover files then use TM off.. but read up pondini.. how to do restore etc.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
15A in particular on the how to use TM.
When do I uplug the ethernet and use the wireless connection instead?
Once you have finished the main backup you can go back to wireless. The incremental backups are mostly very small.

Backup External Hard Drive with Time Machine

I have several external hard drives and am wondering if I can use Time Machine to backup External Hard Drive #1 on Hard Drive #2? Or is it only possible to backup your Main Machine on an External Hard Drive?
Thanks

These issues with non-apple format drives that you mention, would they concern the dedicated Time Machine external hard drive, the external hard drive one is looking to backup, or both?
What are the issues raised? My current 500GB external hard drive is FAT-32 and I want to use an additional 500GB external hard drive [fresh out the box so I can determine whatever format it is fairly easily] as the dedicated Time Machine backup. Would you suggest reformatting my 500GB FAT-32 drive before initiating the new drive as the dedicated Time Machine backup? It's possible to do so, but would take quite some time. Also, this may move into a different subject, but I enjoy being able to share files with a PC with Windows XP using my external hard drive; would any of the formats you mentioned as being Time Machine-safe allow me to continue to do so?

I have seen so much response about the Mountain Lion update slowing down computers. I am updating from Mac OS x 10.6.8. What can I do to ensure the upgrade will go fine? Do I unplug my external hard drive before installing, or keep it plugged in?

I have seen so much response about the Mountain Lion update slowing down computers. I am updating from Mac OS x 10.6.8. What can I do to ensure the upgrade will go fine? Do I unplug my external hard drive before installing, or keep it plugged in?
Also, I have the 08 version of iWork. Will this cause problems for the update? Can I update this AFTER I update the processor?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
There's no reason to think that Mountain Lion will slow down your Mac. Just make a backup of your data before upgrading with Time Machine > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Also, check that your apps are compatible > http://www.roaringapps.com Upgrade them to a compatible version or delete them before upgrading.
The external drive won't make the OS X Mountain Lion installer fail, but it's better to unplug it during the upgrade.
iWork '08 is compatible with Mountain Lion. iWork '09 includes OS X Mountain Lion features and can be purchased at the Mac App Store.
To upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion, I recommend at least 4 GB of RAM. You can check how much memory you have in Apple menu > About this Mac

How do I export video files from iPhoto to a backup external hard drive for safekeeping?

How do I export video files from iPhoto to a backup external hard drive for safekeeping? Each time I try, the video will not play from the external hard drive.

Use the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option with Kind = Original. That should get the original video file exported. Try to export one to the Desktop first and open it with Quicktime Player. If all goes well export the rest to a folder on the EHD. How is the EHD formatted? It should be OS X Extended (journaled).

About how many CDs can I put on my hard drive before it effects the performance of me iMac/

About how many CDs can I put on my hard drive before they effect the performance of my imac?

Well, it depends on how much content is on the CD. You should have, at a minimum 10 - 15 GB of empty hard drive space at all times - more is much better. I do a fair amount of video/graphics editing and in order to render and burn properly, I need at least as much empty hard drive space as I have files in my current project, which usually means at least 150 GB or more. So, to be safe, my goal is to have a minimum of 250 GB empty space at all times - the OS will thank you if it has more room to work with.
So, add up what you want to put there and keep watching your hard drive space diiminish - it's best to have space hogging files on an external hard drive to keep your internal working well.

Smart Storage requires hard drives before configuration

(From Davin Oishi)
Issue/Question: Unit powers up, but can't login to web administration GUI
Resolution: The Cisco Smart Storage products require at least one hard drive to be installed in the system before configuration is allowed
Issue/Question: Why does the Smart Storage require a hard drive to be installed when my previous NSS3000 did not require a hard drive before configuration could be made
Resolution: The architecture for both product families is different. While configuring a device without drives does provide the ability to configure basic settings before deployment. The actual usefulness is still limited to when the device has drives. Smart Storage takes advantage of the drives by placing configuration and applications on the hard drives. If additional drives are installed after initial setup, configuration information is striped across the additional drives as you add them. This allows for better utilization of Smart Storage memory, improves system performance, and allows for higher scalability.

With eSata not going to be an option for all 3 drives. I'll use eSATA for the 2 TB and daisy-chain the other 2 with FW800
I'll use the 500GB for Time Machine, but which would be the better plan?
A) Put stills on the 1TB and use the 2TB for FCE scratch drive and back up the compressed camera data on DVD's
B) Use the 1 TB for camera data and then either folders or partition the 2TB for camera imports and FCE scratch drives,
In either plan the AVCHD files get converted at log and transfer and the h264 data gets converted via 3rd party conversion software. In both cases the converted files end up on the scratch drive.
I should also mention that I plan to use QT not self contained exports and keep them on the internal drive. I am currently keeping disk images of finished projects on an external hard drive, unsure what to do with them. maybe I need an other drive or not bother with saving disk images ?

Hello, I just bought a Snow Leopard and I have tried ti install this on my macbook pro 2008 (10.5.8) and I can not do it. I have to erase the hard drive before in order to succeed. Please tell me step by step what to do. I appreciate very much your help.

Hello, I just bought a Snow Leopard and I have tried to install this on my macbook pro 2008 (10.5.8) and I can not do it. I have to erase the hard drive before in order to succeed. Please tell me step by step what to do. I appreciate very much your help.
Thanks

Here are the directions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910?viewlocale=en_US
Ciao.

HT201250 My backup external hard drive hasn't work since I insalled Snow Leopard. Bad:( I am still learning about my MAC and would just like to re-format the hard dive and set everything up again. I want to upgrade to Lion but can't untill I backup what

My backup external hard drive hasn't work since I insalled Snow Leopard. Bad:( I am still learning about my MAC and would just like to re-format the hard dive and set everything up again. I want to upgrade to Lion but can't untill I backup what I.

Read through the links here, calm down and take your time.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Should I backup my hard drive before I do a disk repair in disk utility?

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