Is your data safe? What if your hard disk fails? Or a burglar ransacks your office? You need a rock-solid backup strategy that ensures you can restore quickly and completely, no matter what catastrophe arises.
In the best-selling Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, backup expert Joe Kissell gives you the comprehensive, detailed advice you need to go beyond the false security of copying a few files to CD. You'll find an at-a-glance comparison of different backup strategies (low-cost, easy, safest), including digital photos and video projects. You'll learn the pros and cons of each type of backup media, including hard disk, recordable disc, tape, and more; discover how to pick the best backup software for your needs; and find time-tested recommendations for setting up, testing, and maintaining backups, complete with instructions on how to restore after a crash. Includes over 20 pages of step-by-step directions for Retrospect!
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Owners of this ebook get a free copy of the 83-page ebook Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard, also by Joe Kissell, available via the Check for Updates button on page 1 of this ebook (it's also in the bundle to the left). We do plan to update Take Control of Mac OS X Backups to cover Leopard (it was last updated shortly before Leopard's release), but we haven't yet determined when that update will come out or what the cost for it will be.
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"This was just about the best money I ever spent... Joe's ebook gave me just what I needed." —Robert Bowman
Find answers to questions such as these:
I'm running Windows on my Mac - what do I need to know about backing up my Windows installation?
How can I back up easily and safely while traveling?
Should I use an online backup service to back up to a different location?
What's the best way to set up a foolproof backup system for a friend or relative?
What do I need to know if I'm considering creating my own command-line-based backups
How do I use Amazon S3 for inexpensive Internet backups?
Book Info
182 pages
Version 2.1
Updated 27-Sep-07
1.7 MB download
Free 23-page PDF sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
About the Author
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.
Appendix C: Set Up Backups on Your Uncle's Mac in Seven Simple Steps
Appendix D: Unix-Based Backups
Appendix E: Backups with Amazon S3
Glossary
About This Book
Read Me First
The data on every Mac should be backed up to protect you against theft, hardware failure, user error, and other catastrophes. This book helps you design a sensible backup strategy, make sense of the wide variety of backup hardware and software, and understand how to make your backups as painless as possible. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Jeff Carlson, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Introduction
Nearly everyone understands why backups are important: hard drives
fail, computers are stolen or damaged, and files are accidentally
deleted. Backups are insurance against all these problems and more.
If you've ever lost data—and I certainly have, on more than one
occasion—then you know what I'm talking about. (And if you haven't
lost data, you're computing on borrowed time.)
Apple feels so strongly about the need for good backups that they're
building a backup feature called Time Machine into Mac OS X 10.5
Leopard, due to ship in October 2007. I talk more about Time Machine
later (see the sidebar Time Machine and Archives), but for now, I want
to make two important points. First, there's still plenty of time for
disaster to strike before you upgrade to Leopard. And second, as
wonderful as Time Machine may be when it arrives, it won't address
every backup need you may have. Don't wait for Apple to solve your
backup problems for you. Take control of your backups right now!
So, you know that backups are important, but when it comes to how to back up a computer, the options are so numerous that even the geekiest of us can find it difficult to wade through them and make intelligent choices. Which files should you back up? How often? Onto what media? Do you need to make bootable backups? How many sets of backup media do you need? Which backup software should you use? And what exactly do you do in case of a disaster, when you need to restore files from those backups?
There is no single correct answer to any of these questions. However, you can follow some straightforward steps to come up with your own answers. Regardless of the details of which hardware or software you use, your biggest concern should be whether your data is safe.
What some people call a "backup" is simply copying files from your hard disk onto another volume—either manually or using a utility of some kind. I'm a firm believer in the principle "something is better than nothing," so I don't want to make it sound as though this type of backup is useless. However, let me be candid: it's not enough. Too many different kinds of things can still imperil your data under such a scheme. A well-thought-out backup strategy will ensure the safety of your data—and helping you to develop such a strategy is one aim of this book.
Before we get started, however, I need to mention a few important caveats:
I do not cover in any detail command-line software such as cp or rsync, except for one appendix (Appendix D: Unix-Based Backup Systems). Although such tools can certainly be used to perform backups, my goal is to make the process as simple as possible—ideally, without requiring you to open Terminal or know anything about Unix. So this book concerns itself mainly with software that uses a graphical user interface (GUI).
I've written this book primarily for people who need to back up either a single computer or a small network—not for system administrators who need to back up dozens or hundreds of machines. As a result, I say little about the expensive, high-end equipment typically used for backing up large networks—focusing instead on simpler devices you can purchase at your local computer store and plug directly into a stock Mac.
Every backup system is different, so I can't give you explicit, foolproof, step-by-step instructions for setting up whichever hardware and software you purchase to perform your backups. But by the time you've finished reading this book, you should have enough background information to determine, with the help of your software's documentation, the preferences and settings you need in order to achieve your desired outcome.
I've been writing about Macs for over a decade and using them much longer than that. During that time, I've experimented with a variety of backup systems for my own Macs, and as a consultant, I've installed backup systems for individuals and businesses. I've also spent hours researching backup software and hardware and discussing backup strategies with my colleagues, including several other Take Control authors. These experiences have led me to form strong opinions as to what constitutes a good backup system. I don't pretend that the method I use for my own Macs is the only one that will work, or that it's ideal for everyone. Rather than explore every alternative exhaustively, though, in the pages that follow I'm going to guide you gently but firmly into a fairly narrow set of options that should yield excellent results for the vast majority of Mac users.
While preparing this book, I tested many backup applications under Mac OS X Tiger 10.4, but almost everything you read here should apply to older versions of Mac OS X too, from 10.1 onward (versions before 10.1 had serious limitations with respect to restoring backups). Although most of this material applies generally to machines running Mac OS 9 and Windows, I do not cover these other operating systems in any detail, but do see Windows Files and Volumes, which discusses backing up Windows when it's running on an Intel-based Mac.
Quick Start to Mac OS X Backups
You can read this book in any order, but I recommend starting with Decide on a Basic Backup Strategy in order to understand the rationale behind the hardware, software, and setup advice I give later. Here are the components of a solid Mac OS X backup plan:
Decide on a backup strategy:
Understand the crucial differences between a duplicate (a complete and usually bootable copy of your hard disk) and an archive (containing multiple copies of files as they existed at various points in time)—and why a good backup strategy includes both. See The Duplicate and The Archive.
Learn the value of using a single system to back up all the Macs in your home or office. See Backing Up a Small Network.
Find out how to deal with backup needs that don't fit neatly into the duplicate or archive categories in Consider Special Backup Needs. As appropriate, read about Digital Photos, Video and Audio, Version Control, Applications, Backing Up While Traveling, and Windows Files and Volumes.
Choose your hardware:
Learn the pros and cons of each media type (from CD-R to camcorders) and how to estimate the amount of storage space you'll need. See Choose Your Hardware.
If Internet-based backups appeal to you but the cost is prohibitive, consider wrangling the new Amazon S3 service into a backup solution. Read Appendix E: Backups with Amazon S3.
Choose your software:
Find out what to look for when comparing backup applications. See Choose Your Software for a feature overview, and then consult Appendix A: Backup Software for details and sources. If you're tempted to eschew commercial backup tools and create your own command-line backup script, read Appendix D: Unix-Based Backup Systems for a reality check.
Set up your backup system:
Make a bootable copy of your hard disk and test it to make sure it works. See Set Up Duplicates and Test Your Duplicate.
Configure an archive for your most frequently used data files, and verify that you can retrieve stored files. See Set Up Archives and Test Your Archive.
Put backing up on autopilot so your files are protected even when you aren't paying attention. See Automate Your Backups.
Learn how and where to store backup media, and discover what to do with the media when it gets full. See Mind Your Media.
If disaster strikes and you need to recover files, be sure you're familiar with the steps in Restore Data from a Backup.
Are you using Retrospect as your backup software? If so, be sure to read the detailed instructions for major Retrospect tasks in Appendix B: A Retrospect Primer.
If you're called upon to set up a (mostly) idiot-proof backup system for a relative or friend, read Appendix C: Set Up a Backup System for Your Uncle in Seven Simple Steps.
Does the book cover backups strategies for large businesses?
No, the book focuses on backup strategies for single computers and small networks but does not cover the specific needs of large, institutional networks.
Does the book cover Leopard or Time Machine?
This book comes with a free copy of the 83-page Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard, also by Joe Kissell, which takes a focussed look at Leopard-based backups, covering Time Machine in detail, but also looking at the big picture of what to do if you need a backup feature not offered by Time Machine. This book was last updated in September 2007, shortly before Leopard's release, and it was fully up to date at that time. Our future plans include an update to this book so that it more fully covers Leopard and Time Machine. That update should be available sometime in 2008.
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Tad Taylor writes:
An excellent resource for figuring out the best backup strategy for myself and my family. I really appreciate Joe's opinions on tradeoffs and choices. It makes the whole thing much more useful.
Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS, contributes frequently to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.