jwz: Classic backup advice
Submitted by Merlin on January 21, 2008 - 8:18am.
This forum question about a comment I made on the most recent MacBreak Weekly reminds me that I mention jwz’s advice on backup often enough that it’s worth reposting the URL (as well as making sure credit goes where it’s due). On the one hand, his advice could hardly be simpler (that’s one reason I like it), but how many of us have taken the time to put a mature backup regime in place?
If you value your data, can’t tolerate downtime, and are casting about for a thorough solution, consider giving this a try.
“OMG, three drives is so expensive! That sounds like a hassle!” Shut up. I know things. You will listen to me. Do it anyway.
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Time Machine
I took this advice back before Leopard came out, and if I had to do it now, I’d do things a little differently.
First, I’d probably just buy an off-the-shelf external drive rather than trying to match the one in my machine and putting it in an enclosure. (By the way, a lot of cheap external enclosures don’t sleep when idle. I found a MacAlly one that does). Either that, or one of the new Time Capsule doohickeys.
Secondly, I’d probably use Amazon S3 to do my off-site backup, and probably do it a little more often than once a month.
Sure, in the event of a catastrophic failure, it’s a bit more work to recover, but the data’s there and hard drives don’t go bad often enough (assuming you’re not one of those idiots that stops them from spinning down) to make that a big deal.