Backups 101

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I'm 87 and not all that nimblec anymore, I get windied just reading my name. When I saw the staggering amount of literature on Google on backing up your computer, I promptly got a migraine headache. Why destroy what's left of my brain — when, if I'm polite, there are scores of you out theres who would love to help me.

I own an Apple g3 iBooK and run OS X 10.3.9 on it mostly for research and email communication. While my hard drive is not exactly overflowing with brilliant material, I am fond of the stuff I do have there. I need to know how (free is best)I can store a clone of my HD for safety somewhere until I get a more modern machine (not new, just newer) to house it. What I would love, were it possible, would be to have it painlessly downloaded online to whomever does this dreary stuff for a living, and shelve it for me until I need it. Now that's not going to br free — but I can be sporty on occasion. C'mon, give me a hand.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
15"MBP 2.66, 750GB 7200RPM HD, 8GB RAM; iPhone4S 64GB; 32GB iPad, White, AT&T.
Protem,

There are a couple of "free" options available.

1. CarbonCopyCloner

or

2. SuperDuper

Both of these are "free" solutions and are extremely effective. Good luck!
 
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Thank you for your suggestion, but I'm not all that keen about buying more hardware just to create a place to park my C CC or Super-Duper clone. I'm even less enthused about parking backup on my own drive. If I had any sense, I'd figure out a way to park my puny collection of MBs amongst Google's staggering skillions of GBs. It would be be like a grain of sand in the whole of the Sahara Desert.

I'm going to hang in there and do nothing rash. I'm convinced a pair 14 year old kids with pimples are already divining a way to make a profit helping hapless guys like me to download their Macs and PCs online for a modest fee, then store all that drivel for another modest fee, and then charge yet another modest fee for relinquishing stewardship of the drivel. This stuff is what we once characterized as irreplaceable and priceless — but sadly, it was in fact, only crap.

Were I a kid of 77 instead of a beat-up old 87, I'd already be making quarterly payments on the stunning profits i'd be making taking care of nitwits like me.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
There are online backup solutions, but I don't know how comfortable I would be about sharing my HD over the internet.
Ok, I do know.... I would be very uncomfortable with online backups, and would never do that!

You can get an external HD from around $40 upwards.... and at around $5 a month for online backups, it is a cheaper and and more secure option.
If the backups are really important (sentimental items, business specific, etc) it is best to have 2 backup drives. One that you keep at your residence, and another in a safe secure location where your computer is not stored.
Here is a link to online backups:
The Best Online Backup Services Roundup | PCMag.com
 
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Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
I would take a look at this post:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/196606-backups-backups-backups.html

That has a lot of information about backing up all in a nice easy to read format.

And if you have any questions I'm sure we can answer them in a way you can understand. I have taught a few 70 and 80+ people how to use computers before and lets jsut say a lot of patience is required n my part. But it's a nice feeling to know they can use their Macs on their own.
 

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