About Backing Up

In this section, I talk about all sorts of mostly potential threats to a Mac mini. But I just mentioned the most important threatand did so almost in passing. So here goes:

More data is lost to operator error and hard drive failure than all other causes combined.

You should protect yourself by making at least occasional backups of all your computersespecially important for users who have invested many hours and a lot of money building music and family photography collections they'd hate to see disappear.

The way to protect your files is to copy the data to another hard drive or onto DVDs. A .Mac membership buys you a program called Backup as well as remote storage on .Mac's iDisk. You should use both.

The Backup software makes it easy to safeguard your important data, though not your applications. The iDisk gives you a place to store your most important files on the Internet, where they are safe from such dangers as the loss of your computer or your house burning down. Figures 7.6, 7.7, and 7.8 illustrate the .Mac backup features.

Figure 7.6. The Backup utility provided with a .Mac membership allows you to save copies of your data to a variety of targets, including external hard drives, other Macs, your .Mac iDisk, and a CD or DVD disc, as shown here.

Figure 7.7. When you use Backup with your iDisk, you'll want to make the items list shorter to better match the limited capacity of the iDisk, shown at the top right. An iDisk backup is perfect for frequently changed items, such as documents, and can be set to run automatically, as shown at the bottom left.

Figure 7.8. .Mac Sync is a feature added with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger that allows multiple Macs to remain synchronized via the .Mac service. Because this allows your data to be stored on .Mac, it's an effective backup approach, even if you don't have other Macs to share data with.

Here's what I do:

I run regular backups of my files, using Backup to store them on an external FireWire hard drive. Such drives are fairly inexpensive and can be used for many storage tasks.

When I download software, I store a copy on the external drive.

My most important documents end up in three places: on iDisk (using Backup), on the external drive (Backup again), and on my iPod shuffle or another USB drive. Sometimes I do this manually, and sometimes I use a synchronization program.

The only way to truly protect your important files is to make a backup and take the backup someplace else. Having files on an external hard drive is great protection against primary drive failure but won't help if your house burns and both drives go with it.

tip

If you are buying an external hard drive, make sure you get one that will connect to both your Mac mini and your Windows computers. Since the Mac mini has both USB 2.0 and FireWire ports, and many PCs have only USB, a USB drive is the safest choice. However, older PCs will have USB 1.1 ports that are too slow to use with an external drive.

Rarely, I will make a DVD backup (again using Backup) that goes into a fire-resistant safe. I could also ask a neighbor to keep these or put them in a safe-deposit box at the bank.

There are programs that allow you to copy music from your iPod back onto a Macintosh, but Ithankfullyhave never needed one, so I can't make a recommendation as to which is best.

Backup is a good reason to get a .Mac subscription. However, if you have a more complex situationfor instance, if you want to back up both Macs and PCsor if you simply don't like Backup, then consider a program called Retrospect, discussed in Chapter 10. It is powerful, yet easy to use. Single-user copies are often provided free with new hard drives. Visit www.retrospect.com for more information.