Using the Backup Application

Backup is the .Mac service’s backup application, and provides a convenient way to back up important information on your computer to your iDisk or to recordable CD or DVD discs.

To use Backup, you must be a .Mac member.

Backing up

A backup is just a copy of a file or files, but the copy is made to safeguard the data. If something bad happens to the original, the backup copy should still be fine, especially if it is on a different disk.

The hard drive mechanism in your computer will fail at some point; drives are typically rated for 5 years of constant use but can fail at any time. And the magnetic medium which holds your precious data becomes demagnetized spontaneously as time progresses; at this very moment, your data is deteriorating!

Any time your computer crashes, data corruption may occur. Files can be unintentionally erased. A computer virus may damage your data. Your computer could be lost or stolen or simply die.

The Backup application is the very model of a modern personal backup application. It is easy to understand , easy to use, and free with your $99 .Mac subscription.

You need to manually or automatically make back up copies of your important files to a folder on your hard drive, an external FireWire hard disk, your iPod and iDisk, and a recordable CD or DVD.

With Backup, you can:

• Use the QuickPicks feature to automatically suggest groups of important files to back up

• Easily add files to be backed up by dragging them to the Backup window

• Quickly buy more storage space for your iDisk

• Schedule automatic backups

• Restore files from a backup

Setting up Backup

If you did not by the .Mac shrink-wrapped box, which contains a CD with the Backup application, you must download it from the .Mac website, and install it on your hard disk.

Put an alias of Backup in your Dock; its purple umbrella will remind you to use it often.

When you first launch Backup, be sure to be connected to the Internet. If you are not connected, Backup will not even open. Instead, you will see the dialog shown in Figure 18-41.

Figure 18-41: This window appears when Backup is first launched and is unable to connect to the .Mac servers via the Internet.

The Backup interface

When you first open backup, you see something like Figure 18-42. The Info drawer on the right will be hidden; to see it, click on an item in the backup list and then click the Info button in the lower left of the window.

Figure 18-42: The Backup interface.

The items you see in the main window known as the backup list. You can add whichever files you like here, but you will see some have been added by default. These files, marked with package icons, are known as QuickPicks. QuickPicks are groups of important related files that Apple has decided would be most helpful to back up. Take a quick look down the list and you will quickly understand the concept. The QuickPicks include files in Mac OS X that most users would not think of or know to back up.

To see the individual files in a QuickPicks package, click on one to highlight it, and look in the main window of the Info drawer. Click on each of these individual files to view vital information about it in the area below. The Show pop-up menu allows you to choose between General Information (the kind you would find in a Get Info window in the Finder) or Backup Information (when the last backup of this file occurred, the path where it will be backed up to, and its Status — whether it will be backed up or not).

Choosing a destination disk

A destination disk for your backup to be copied to can be chosen from the pop-up menu in the top-left corner of the Backup window. Here are the merits of your three choices:

• Back up to iDisk: This is a good option if you are connected to the Internet, have enough space on your iDisk, and would like to have access to your backed up files from any Internet-connected Macintosh. However, you must buy more space than the 100 megabytes that comes with your .Mac membership. See the iDisk section of this Chapter for more details.

• Back up to CD/DVD: A good choice if you would like to back up a lot of information. A recordable CD holds 650 megabytes; a recordable DVD holds 4.7 gigabytes. If you have more information than will fit on a single CD or DVD disc, you can use more than one to hold your backup. Backup will inform you of how many discs your backup will use. You can use a combination of CD or DVD disks, if you wish. The last disk in a set is called the master disk, because it contains the information needed to restore files Backup has split between discs.

• Back up to a Drive: A hard drive can hold the most data and give the fastest access of these storage options. The hard drive you use can be an internal hard drive, or an external FireWire drive; this includes the iPod, which must be mounted on the desktop before it can be used. You can back up files to a folder or partition of your main hard disk, although this largely defeats the purpose of a backup and is not really recommended; but Backup will do it. You can also selected a folder on a mounted network server as the destination.

Backing up your files

To prepare your files and perform a backup:

1. Select a destination disk from the pop-up menu in the top-left corner of the window. You can choose your iDisk, a CD/DVD disc, or a connected hard drive, either internal or external. If you choose Back up to Drive, you must click the Set button and pick a location to copy your backup files to. In order to click the Save button, you must type a name for the backup at the top of the window.

2. Look down the list of QuickPicks and put a check mark next to each one you would like to back up. When in doubt about whether to include a QuickPick in the backup, choose it; it’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. Add any other files and folders you want to back up to the backup list by simply dragging them to the backup window. They are automatically marked with a checkmark for backup. If you would like to search for the files from within Backup, click the plus sign button in the lower left of the window; a navigation sheet will drop down enabling you to find what you are looking for. You can also access all the vast power of the Finder’s Find feature by choosing File Find. You can drag the files you want straight from the Find Results window to the backup list.

4. To remove items from your backup list, select the items and choose Edit Remove from List or press the Delete key.

   Fine-tune your selections by checking the details of files and folders you have added by selecting them in the backup list, and then examining them with the Info drawer. You can deselect files you don’t want to include in the backup by removing the checkmark next to them in the Info drawer window. Verify the files you want will be backed up. Folders with partial contents checked in the Info drawer for backup are marked in the main Backup window with a dash instead of a checkmark.

   Tip

   As you add files, keep an eye on the storage capacity of your destination disk. The meter in the top right of the main window shows how much space is left in your iDisk if it is selected as the destination disk. Dark green means how much is already on the iDisk now, before the back up. Light green means how much space the current backup will use.

   If you choose Backup to CD/DVD in the pop-up menu, you will see the number of discs needed to record your backup in the lower-left corner of the window.

5. When everything looks good, click the Backup Now button to start the backup process.

Backups to your iDisk or a hard drive will begin immediately. The iDisk window will shrink to the one seen in Figure 18-43. The file name copying at the moment is shown above the status bar.

Figure 18-43: During a backup to your iDisk, the Backup window shrinks to look like this.

Scheduled backups

You can schedule a backup to all destinations except a CD or DVD disk. The backup can be unattended (you don’t have to be there) and the Backup application does not need to be open.

At the time you schedule the backup for, ensure that your computer is turned on, not set to go to sleep, the Backup application is not open, and the destination you have set is connected or available.

To schedule a backup:

1. From the destination pop-up menu, choose Back up to iDisk or Back up to Drive.

2. Click the Schedule button in the lower right of the window. It’s the one with the calendar icon. The schedule sheet drops down (see Figure 18-44).

   
   Figure 18-44: The Backup Schedule sheet.

3. Select the backup frequency from the radio buttons: Daily or Weekly. Never leaves the scheduling function off.

4. Choose the time of day the backup will occur from the pop-up menus. If you chose a weekly backup, choose the day of the week it will occur on.

5. Click OK.

To verify a scheduled backup took place, check the Backup log by choosing File Show Log.

Restoring backed-up files

To restore backed up files to your hard disk:

1. From the destination pop-up menu, choose the location to restore from: Restore from iDisk, Restore from CD/DVD, or Restore from Drive. As you make your selection, the contents of the backup window will change to include only items that have been backed up to that location. The Backup column is now called Restore.

2. Click a checkbox in the Restore column to mark the items to be restored.

3. Click the Restore Now button.

   Backup asks you if you want to replace any files on your hard drive that duplicate the ones it is restoring

4. You can click Yes to all, and Backup will replace all them all.

To stop an install in progress, click Cancel. Only the files that were restored up to that moment will appear on your hard disk.

Backup Tips

Backing up is vital. Follow these tips when backing up your files.

• Do not try to use Backup to copy files from one computer to another. Apple says Backup is meant for personal backups from a single computer only. If you try to use Backup to copy files to a location (like your iDisk) that already contains files put there by Backup running from another computer, the older files will be completely erased.

• If you spot an alert icon (a triangle containing an exclamation point) next to an item in the backup list, it means that Backup can’t locate the item; it may have been moved, renamed, or deleted. To back up the item, delete it from the backup list, and add it again.

• If you deleted one or several QuickPicks, and you change your mind and want them back, choose Edit Restore All QuickPicks.

• File that you copied to a location using Backup can only be deleted using Backup! If you want to remove them to save space, choose the restore location (iDisk or Drive), select the items to be removed, and choose Edit Remove from List, or click the minus sign button in the lower left of the window.

• If the item is in a folder, select the folder, and delete the item from the Info drawer window.

• If you want to remove all the files from the Backup folder on your iDisk, Backup must be used to clear the folder’s contents. From the destination pop-up menu, choose Back up to iDisk or Restore from iDisk. Choose Edit Clear iDisk Backup Folder. Click OK.

• Backup cannot be used to back up applications.

• You must be a paid .Mac member to back up your files to a CD or DVD disk.

• You need to have at least the same amount of space free on your hard drive as the size of the recordable media you will use for your backup. For example, if you are backing up to a DVD-R disc, you would need at least 4.7 gigabytes free on you hard drive to perform the backup. Backup uses this space to temporarily assemble the backup before it copies it to the disc.

• For a restore, Backup cannot recognize files on a CD or DVD put there by another application, or dragged there manually. Backup can only see files it has backed up.

• Restores will not work to files that are write protected. To change a file’s privileges, to Read & Write, select the file in the Finder, choose File Get Info, click the disclosure triangle for Ownership and permissions, and select Read and Write from the Owner and Others pop-up menu.