Chapter 18. Rescue Operations

IN THIS CHAPTER:

143 Back Up Your Information

144 Move Your Data to a New Mac

145 Verify and Repair a Disk

146 Restore or Duplicate a Disk

147 Archive and Install a New Mac OS X Version

Not even a Mac is perfect. The truly die-hard Apple fans might not like to admit it, but even the best-designed computer in the world is a machineand as such, it's subject to the unpleasant realities that all machines face: mechanical failures, misconfigurations, and obsolescence. That shiny new Mac you brought home and took lovingly out of its elegantly packaged carton is virtually guaranteed to be too old for you to use within a few years . Parts break and have to be replaced . New applications demand more memory, faster video cards, and bigger hard disks. And by the time you've installed a couple of dozen applications on your Mac and built up music and photo libraries to enjoy in your leisure time, the newest software on the market will seem as though it's designed to require a computer just a little bit faster than the one you've grown so comfortable with.

Living with your Mac, by necessity, means not just having the skills to operate your software and the operating system to get the most out of them. It also means being able to repair your system when something goes wrong, to upgrade it when you need to extend its lifespan, andwhen you finally upgrade to a new Macto move your life over to it from your old computer so that you don't have to start over from scratch.