Please talk about back-ups for a newbie

[RadDave]

I don't generally use highly valuable files, I edit video from my Sony camera to create Grandparent flash drives of my son, etc. I always have a back-up of that on the original SDHC cards. Nothing else I do is important to my work that I don't already have a back-up of.
If my hard drive failed now its off to Apple for warranty repair. How often, if ever, has that occurred for you guys ,btw?

Well, concerning your questions above (put in bold) - if the internal HD fails, the device would likely not be 'repaired' but replaced - any data on the 'dead drive' might be retrieved at a cost, especially if using a professional service, SO a reliable backup(s) is still a strong recommendation particularly since these current external drives are so cheap.

As to your second question which I assume is asking if others have had HDs die? Below is a graph that I've posted before about expected life expectancy over time of HDs (from a company that does PLENTY of backup storage for others) - notice that there is a 20% failure rate at 4 yrs, and a 'projected' 50% rate at 6 years - I usually replace my computers at 4-5 years for a variety of reasons, and HD failure is certainly a consideration for me.

NOW, my first computer was an Apple II+ w/o a HD - then my place of employment switched to PCs which I was on for 30+ years, both at work and at home, so I've owned dozens of PCs w/ HDs, both desktop & laptop models - I've had 3 HD failures, 2 were Maxtor (made by Seagate, I believe - which BTW performed the poorest in the Backblaze tests) external HDs and 1 was on a IBM ThinkPad laptop (believe my cleaning service knocked it off the table - I upped the RAM and added a new internal HD, put on Linux which I enjoyed 'playing with' for a couple of years). Wife and I are now using an iMac and MBPro, both now approaching 3 years of age and working fine, and both w/ redundant backups. Dave

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[firensteel]

/// I usually replace my computers at 4-5 years///
Thanks RadDave, most of my past windows based laptops/desktops never lasted that long. I think we replaced 10 in the last 20 years, that was the motivation for the switch. I was hoping for a longer life really. Are you suggesting my MBP has only a 4-5 year lifespan? If that is the case it would be more cost effective to switch back. I was hoping for a long life with Mac. Sorry to get off the original subject, but can you guys comment? I have heard friends say they have unproblematic Macs that are 12 years old with no issues. I appreciate your comments, Steve.
As a PS, how often would you recommend backing up your computer, probably dependent on how many extra files you add?
Thank you.

 

[RadDave]

/// I usually replace my computers at 4-5 years///
Thanks RadDave, most of my past windows based laptops/desktops never lasted that long. I think we replaced 10 in the last 20 years, that was the motivation for the switch. I was hoping for a longer life really. Are you suggesting my MBP has only a 4-5 year lifespan? If that is the case it would be more cost effective to switch back. I was hoping for a long life with Mac. Sorry to get off the original subject, but can you guys comment? I have heard friends say they have unproblematic Macs that are 12 years old with no issues. I appreciate your comments, Steve.
As a PS, how often would you recommend backing up your computer, probably dependent on how many extra files you add?
Thank you.

Well, I never said that you have to replace your computers at 4-5 years, just has been my practice - if your computer is working well and serving your needs w/o an issue of wanting newer hardware or software, then you certainly can go beyond that time period - a personal decision. Hardware/software changes so fast that I just like to keep up to date, and will usually upgrade my networking hardware and printers at the same time.

As to making backups, there are so many variables - if my business depended on having my data safe on an hourly basis then I'd have routine frequent attached drives doing that process, redundancy, and likely online & off site backups - BUT, I'm retired but still somewhat paranoid w/ these machines - on my wife's iMac, I have two Thunderbolt external HDs attached doing TM backups and also Carbonite online doing her personal files - once a week, I do CCC clones of her HD X 2; for my MBPro, once a week I do TM backups to 2 separate external HDs & 2 CCC backups - I also have an external SSD for my personal files - may seem excessive but takes little time to do and if a HD fails, then I'm still in business and can get a new one. Dave

 

[firensteel]

Hi all, today I bought SuperDuper from Dave Nanian at Shirt Pocket. Nice program, does everything its supposed to and worked flawlessly the first time. I now have a bootable back-up on my ext HD. Thanks to all here who provided such good information. I really appreciate that. As a newbie to Mac ( Jan 16) I love this forum site. Thanks everyone.
Steve.