Backup questions

[green6767]

So after my hardrive on my MBP went out and I lost everything, I had never backed anything up before, I decided to check into it. I have this External Hardrive that I just acquired from a friend, its brand new in the box. Its a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 160 GB. It is mac compatible, and I followed the instructions to format it to my MBP. All seems well, I just have a couple questions. Can I backup Applications or am I limited to things like my user file, movies, music, etc? What are partitions? I saw an option for partions when formatting. So to back things up now, I need to plug in the external HD via USB and then drag my files I want backed up onto the external HD? Each time? What is the purpose of an application like Super Duper? Is there another external HD I should be using? TRUST ME. I will do whatever necessary to prevent this from happening again. I lost everything on my computer. It was like I opened it up from the box again. As a full time college student, I lived on my computer, so it was very bad for me. My overall question: WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO BACKUP MY COMPUTER SO THAT IF MY HD GOES OUT AGAIN, I WILL BE SAVED? Thanks a TON people. This forum has been great on answering questions!!!

Dallas

 

[gin8u]

you know its never a bad idea to store most of your files at least in 2 secure places. that's what i do. Whenever i feel the need that a HD crash would total ruin me in my design program (which approx. once a month), i burn a DVD of all my project files. In my case, those files are updated at least once a week.

I also tend to send the same project files onto my PC at home via my wireless connection. (this second step might be changed to send just about anything from your laptop to your external HD, which is a lot easier and effective).
If you download some freeware applications or whatnot, it is not a bad idea to burn a DVD with the software you would use the most.

from what I've said, if a crash were to happen, you would connect your external HD send all the files back on to your laptop, pop-in a few DVDs install your most used programs.. and Voila !

 

[Sachsr1]

I use the free version of super duper to do a full backup of your harddrive. If you have a intel mac you can boot from a USB drive. The difference betwwen the free and paid version of super duper is with the paid version you can do incremental back-ups of on;y the data that has changed. I just do a new full back-up of my iMac every week.

 

[green6767]

Great advice! Thanks. So does it sound like my current Extenal HD will work for me? Any answers to my other questions? Thanks!