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THIS THREAD IS OLD. NEW THREAD HERE:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...official-backup-faq-start-backing-up-now.html
-------------------------------
“Once damage is done to the files on your computer, no matter what the cause, it's often too late.
A comprehensive backup strategy is a vital component in your IT arsenal.“
The objective of this post is to increase the awareness of - and provide guidance to - having reliable backups of your files.
It should not be viewed as a product manual.
Think first !
Before diving into the detail of backup tools, take a step back and think about what it is that you are trying to achieve.
Ask yourself the following questions:
1) How long can you survive without your files?
How important is your data?
Is your computer part of a revenue generating process or not…. in other words, is your computer a tool or a toy?
2) How much data can you afford to loose?
How frequently does your data change and do you need to keep a history of all these changes?
3) How much effort and money are you willing to invest to re-create lost or corrupt data?
Recovering from a loss of data is going to take time and depending on your approach towards backup, it will also cost money.
Based on the answers, you can now define a backup strategy and start considering the process and the tools.
The process.
Let me start by saying that the process is more important than tools… “A fool with a tool is still a fool.“
Having a backup strategy will only help if: a) you execute the strategy and b) the restore process works.
Checking your backup logs and testing the reliability of your backups is equally important as making the backups.
Review your backup strategy from time to time... There is nothing worse than to start storing files in a folder you have excluded from your backup only to find out you need those files after you deleted them.
Don’t forget that the ‘trash‘ is part of your recovery process.
Virtual Machines ( VM ) require some extra thinking. They usually are 1 single large file, several gigabytes, and that file changes as soon as you launch your virtual machine, thus making it a candidate for your next backup run. You can exclude the folder where the VM resides from your backup, but then you are excluding all documents inside the VM as well.
Files stored on the BootCamp partition will require a Windows based application to back up files inside that Windows environment and you will need a backup disk (or a partition on a disk) that is suitable for Windows.
You need tools !
Depending on the backup strategy and the process you have defined, making a backup can be as simple as drag & drop using finder, or it can be performed using slightly more sophisticated tools.
On the forum, you will come across the 3 most popular tools for the backup of your data:
Time Machine ( TM ),
SuperDuper! ( SD! ) and
Carbon Copy Cloner ( CCC )
All 3 of them basically perform the same task and they each have their own features to make life easier... or not.
As I said in the beginning, this post is not a product manual so I will only highlight a few features.
TM is an Apple product that comes with Leopard and SnowLeopard, allowing you to make hourly backups of your internal disk onto an external disk. Essentially it will make snapshots of your files, creating a history of a specific file / folder. One thing to remember is that you can not boot from a TM backup disk, so you need to restore your OS first and then recover files from your TM backup.
A great feature of TM is the combination with Time Capsule, providing wireless backup, no hassle with cables.
SD! and CCC provide you with the possibility to create a ‘bootable‘ image of your disk at a specific point in time. The big advantage here is that you can use this external image as a startup disk, allowing you to be back up and running in a matter of minutes, at that point in time when your last image was taken.
SD! and CCC also have the capability to perform scheduled backups as well, similar to TM, a bit more hassle, but equally good.
One tool fits all ?
Maybe.
SD! and CCC get you back in business within minutes with a known amount of data loss... that is those files that were changed since your last backup.
TM will ensure that you don’t loose more than 1 hour worth of data, but you’ll loose time installing your OS first.
You'll find many on the forum that use a combination of TM and SD! or CCC.
Where do I store my backups ?
To make a long story short, you do not store your backups in the same room as your computer, preferably not in the same house.
I am not suggesting you go off and sign a contract with a professional company to store your backups in a secure environment.
It all depends on the value of your data.
RAID levels.
RAID levels are not a substitute for having backups on external devices, it was never designed to do that anyway. RAID provides your system with extra resilience against hardware failures, increasing the availability time of your data …. within limits.
Always remember that no matter what RAID solution you have in place, RAID will happily synchronise any change of data across it’s disks …. within seconds.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a RAID environment, it just isn’t a backup solution …. and don’t let RAID 0 ( Zero ) fool you either in terms of resilience.
Needless to say that prior to making major changes to your system, you should make a backup.
Plan for problems before they happen, test your ability to restore data before you actually are forced to and ….. keep a copy of your backup program somewhere safe, including any license key’s.
One thing is certain …. Failing backups = Double Trouble
Cheers … McBie
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...official-backup-faq-start-backing-up-now.html
-------------------------------
“Once damage is done to the files on your computer, no matter what the cause, it's often too late.
A comprehensive backup strategy is a vital component in your IT arsenal.“
The objective of this post is to increase the awareness of - and provide guidance to - having reliable backups of your files.
It should not be viewed as a product manual.
Think first !
Before diving into the detail of backup tools, take a step back and think about what it is that you are trying to achieve.
Ask yourself the following questions:
1) How long can you survive without your files?
How important is your data?
Is your computer part of a revenue generating process or not…. in other words, is your computer a tool or a toy?
2) How much data can you afford to loose?
How frequently does your data change and do you need to keep a history of all these changes?
3) How much effort and money are you willing to invest to re-create lost or corrupt data?
Recovering from a loss of data is going to take time and depending on your approach towards backup, it will also cost money.
Based on the answers, you can now define a backup strategy and start considering the process and the tools.
The process.
Let me start by saying that the process is more important than tools… “A fool with a tool is still a fool.“
Having a backup strategy will only help if: a) you execute the strategy and b) the restore process works.
Checking your backup logs and testing the reliability of your backups is equally important as making the backups.
Review your backup strategy from time to time... There is nothing worse than to start storing files in a folder you have excluded from your backup only to find out you need those files after you deleted them.
Don’t forget that the ‘trash‘ is part of your recovery process.
Virtual Machines ( VM ) require some extra thinking. They usually are 1 single large file, several gigabytes, and that file changes as soon as you launch your virtual machine, thus making it a candidate for your next backup run. You can exclude the folder where the VM resides from your backup, but then you are excluding all documents inside the VM as well.
Files stored on the BootCamp partition will require a Windows based application to back up files inside that Windows environment and you will need a backup disk (or a partition on a disk) that is suitable for Windows.
You need tools !
Depending on the backup strategy and the process you have defined, making a backup can be as simple as drag & drop using finder, or it can be performed using slightly more sophisticated tools.
On the forum, you will come across the 3 most popular tools for the backup of your data:
Time Machine ( TM ),
SuperDuper! ( SD! ) and
Carbon Copy Cloner ( CCC )
All 3 of them basically perform the same task and they each have their own features to make life easier... or not.
As I said in the beginning, this post is not a product manual so I will only highlight a few features.
TM is an Apple product that comes with Leopard and SnowLeopard, allowing you to make hourly backups of your internal disk onto an external disk. Essentially it will make snapshots of your files, creating a history of a specific file / folder. One thing to remember is that you can not boot from a TM backup disk, so you need to restore your OS first and then recover files from your TM backup.
A great feature of TM is the combination with Time Capsule, providing wireless backup, no hassle with cables.
SD! and CCC provide you with the possibility to create a ‘bootable‘ image of your disk at a specific point in time. The big advantage here is that you can use this external image as a startup disk, allowing you to be back up and running in a matter of minutes, at that point in time when your last image was taken.
SD! and CCC also have the capability to perform scheduled backups as well, similar to TM, a bit more hassle, but equally good.
One tool fits all ?
Maybe.
SD! and CCC get you back in business within minutes with a known amount of data loss... that is those files that were changed since your last backup.
TM will ensure that you don’t loose more than 1 hour worth of data, but you’ll loose time installing your OS first.
You'll find many on the forum that use a combination of TM and SD! or CCC.
Where do I store my backups ?
To make a long story short, you do not store your backups in the same room as your computer, preferably not in the same house.
I am not suggesting you go off and sign a contract with a professional company to store your backups in a secure environment.
It all depends on the value of your data.
RAID levels.
RAID levels are not a substitute for having backups on external devices, it was never designed to do that anyway. RAID provides your system with extra resilience against hardware failures, increasing the availability time of your data …. within limits.
Always remember that no matter what RAID solution you have in place, RAID will happily synchronise any change of data across it’s disks …. within seconds.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a RAID environment, it just isn’t a backup solution …. and don’t let RAID 0 ( Zero ) fool you either in terms of resilience.
Needless to say that prior to making major changes to your system, you should make a backup.
Plan for problems before they happen, test your ability to restore data before you actually are forced to and ….. keep a copy of your backup program somewhere safe, including any license key’s.
One thing is certain …. Failing backups = Double Trouble
Cheers … McBie
