Time Machine help and more: Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard

Take Control of Easy Backups in Leopard

Your guide to making easy and reliable backups in Leopard!

Because of the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, this ebook has been revised and re-issued in a new edition called Take Control of Easy Mac Backups.

Take Control of Easy Mac Backups covers Mac backups from a 2010 perspective. It gives you the skinny on backups in both 10.5 and 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Read Me First
Introduction
Quick Start to Easy Backups in Leopard
Understand Joe's Basic Backup Strategy
Decide if Time Machine Is Right for You
Pick a Hard Drive
Prepare Your Hard Drive
Set Up and Use Time Machine
Set Up and Use Other Archiving Software
Create a Bootable Duplicate
Store an Extra Backup Offsite
What to Do When Disaster Strikes

Read Me First

Good backups protect the important information on your computer from many dangers. This book describes an easy yet reliable strategy for backing up your Mac, of which Leopard's Time Machine feature may be one component. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Jeff Carlson, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Introduction

This afternoon—a couple of hours before I sat down to type this introduction—I had a surprising experience. I had just downloaded a file from a Web site, and when I double-clicked it, the wrong application opened. When I tried to open it with the right application, I found that the application itself was missing. In fact, a whole folder full of applications was missing that had definitely been inside my main Applications folder a day or two ago.

I have no idea where the folder went. Obviously I must have done something to delete it inadvertently, but since I didn't notice myself doing it at the time, I don't know what that was or when it happened. But—and here's the happy ending—I was able to restore the missing folder, using Time Machine, in exactly four clicks. I've been testing Time Machine for a long time, but it just so happened that on the day I was to begin writing a book that covers it in detail, I had my first experience of using it to recover something I'd lost in real life.

My point in telling you this story is not to say, "Oh look, Time Machine actually works!" (though that's true as far as it goes). The point is, the experience of randomly and surprisingly losing some important file can happen to anyone, even to a computer geek like me. That file might be an irreplaceable photo of your child, the song you've been composing for the last month, or an email message from a celebrity. It was that last one that jarred me out of my own complacency about backups years ago: a disk crash wiped out all my saved email, including a coveted piece of correspondence that I can now never, ever get back or even prove existed.

By including Time Machine as part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple has highlighted the importance of good backups for every Mac user, and has also made it easier to back up and restore files than any previous backup software had done. I couldn't be more pleased to see this crucial issue addressed as part of Mac OS X, and if Time Machine gets millions of people to back up their computers who had never done it before, the world will truly be a better and happier place.

But...

Well, there are a few "buts" here. In the first place, Time Machine, nifty as it is, is not for everyone. Many a Leopard user will discover that, for any of several reasons, they need something different to meet their backup needs.

Second, Time Machine has a few—how can I put this delicately?—curiosities. Some important features are missing, some are hidden, and some don't work the way one might expect. Even the features that do work properly aren't explained well in Apple's documentation.

And finally, although Time Machine elegantly solves certain backup problems, it doesn't solve every backup problem. It is not a complete or foolproof system, and therefore I don't recommend it as the sole means of backup for anyone.

All of which brings us to the reason for this book. Time Machine needs some further explication, without a doubt, and I provide that here. But this isn't just a Time Machine book. It's a simplified look at all the important aspects of backing up your Mac.

Among the many other things I've written about backups is Take Control of Mac OS X Backups, which aims to be a comprehensive guide to the many choices for a Mac backup strategy. That book is much longer than this one, and although I think it's quite good (if I do say so myself), sometimes comprehensive isn't what you want. Perhaps you're a busy person, and understanding the intricacies of backup technology isn't your idea of a good time. You want someone to say, "Look, just do this." Well, in the book you're now reading, I cut to the chase and show you exactly how to make sure you have excellent backups. Not every way to do it, just one very good way.

This book shows you how to get easy and reliable backups, with a minimum of fuss. Time Machine may be an important part of your backup plan, and because I think it's so cool and useful, I've included quite a bit of information about it. Whether or not you use Time Machine, though, your backup strategy needs other components, and I walk you through all of those here—with just enough background information and theory to get the job done.

This book is for people running Leopard. Although parts of it also apply to other operating systems, including earlier versions of Mac OS X, I focus on software and strategies appropriate for Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.

Quick Start to

This book is best read in order, as I begin by explaining the strategy I recommend and progressively work through each part of a complete backup system. Even if you choose to skip around, be sure to read Understand Joe's Basic Backup Strategy first.

Get your bearings:

Learn the three essential parts of a complete backup plan, and find out what decisions you must make in order to carry it out. See Understand Joe's Basic Backup Strategy.
Time Machine is a fantastic backup tool, but it's not ideal for every situation. Read Decide if Time Machine Is Right for You to determine whether it will be part of the plan you follow.

Set up your hardware:

One way or another, you'll be storing your backups on a hard drive (or maybe more than one). Learn what to look for when buying a drive for backups in Pick a Hard Drive.
You may need to partition or format your backup drive in a certain way to be suitable for backups. Find out how to do so in Prepare Your Hard Drive.

Configure your backups:

If you're using Time Machine, learn all you need to know about configuring and using it in Set Up and Use Time Machine.
If you decided to use a different program to create archives, get setup advice in Set Up and Use Other Archiving Software.
Bootable duplicates are an essential part of a complete backup plan. Read Create a Bootable Duplicate for instructions.
Backups are useless if they're destroyed or stolen. Find out how to keep them safe in Store an Extra Backup Offsite.

Recover lost data:

The whole point of backups is being able to get your data back when you need it. Learn the steps you'll follow in What to Do When Disaster Strikes.

Update Plans

January 2010 -- Although we do not intend to update this particular ebook again for Leopard users, we have created a brand new ebook—effectively the second edition of this ebook— called Take Control of Easy Mac Backups. The new ebook covers Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. Along with Snow Leopard details, the new edition has been overhauled with Joe's latest thinking and recommendations. It has new information about third-party backup applications (including ChronoSync, Retrospect, Backblaze, CrashPlan, Jungle Disk, and MozyHome), refreshed coverage of Apple's Time Machine and Time Capsule, and an expanded and revised look at how to pick a third-party hard drive.

—Tonya Engst

Time Capsule Failure Prevention and Resolution

March 19, 2010 --

A recent TidBITS article, Time Capsule Failures: When They Happen and What to Do, discusses a spate of Time Capsule failures, possibly due to overheating. The article makes suggestions for avoiding this problem, and it describes how to best address the problem if it happens. Unfortunately, if your Time Capsule does go belly up, you'll ideally have another backup of your Time Capsule drive, so if you haven't looked into setting one up, this article should give you additional incentive.

—Tonya Engst

Time Capsule Failure Prevention and Resolution

March 19, 2010 --

—Tonya Engst

Get Inspired to Make Better Backups in 2010

January 12, 2010 --

In MacVoices Podcast #1003, Take Control author Joe Kissell chats with host Chuck Joiner about many aspects of making successful Macintosh backups. Joe talks at length about deleting un-needed files and about how you determine if a file is no longer needed. He also talks about the many reasons to make backups and provides insight on the latest trends and techniques for backups, including his thoughts on USB 3, hardware encryption, and online backup services.

This podcast comes in conjunction with the release of Take Control of Easy Mac Backups.

—Tonya Engst

Author Joe Kissell Talks about Backups

September 22, 2009 --

For years, not much changed in the world of backups, but that's no longer the case. You can listen to Joe talk about what's new with backups in MacVoices #9100 with host Chuck Joiner. In the interview, Joe talks about his new fourth edition of Take Control of Mac OS X Backups and discusses Snow Leopard, Time Machine, and Time Capsule; which option he trusts for making encrypted backups, why deduplicating is interesting, Retrospect 8, and more.

—Tonya Engst

Free Web Content: Joe Kissell Compares Over 100 Backup Programs

April 20, 2009 --

I've thoroughly updated the online appendix that goes with Take Control of Mac OS X Backups. The Web-based appendix includes feature comparisons of well over 100 Mac backup programs. Most recently, I added 10 new programs and updated the listings of 24 other programs for which newer versions are now available.

—Joe Kissell

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Gain New Features

March 3, 2009 --

Apple today released significantly revised models of the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule. These new models have three important new features: dual-band networking, guest network access, and remote file sharing via MobileMe.

—Tonya Engst

Book Info

About the Author

Book Reviews

Author Interviews

Table of Contents

Read Me First

Introduction

Quick Start to

Get your bearings:

Set up your hardware:

Configure your backups:

Recover lost data:

Can I read this ebook on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch?

Ask a Question

Patricia Curtis writes:

David Watts writes:

Send Us Your Comments!

Update Plans

Time Capsule Failure Prevention and Resolution

Time Capsule Failure Prevention and Resolution

Get Inspired to Make Better Backups in 2010

Author Joe Kissell Talks about Backups

Free Web Content: Joe Kissell Compares Over 100 Backup Programs

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule Gain New Features