Colin Woods Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 If there is anybody there who doesn't back up their computer - read on. I always had my computer backing up using Time Machine (Apple's backup and restore system), but I got to the point where my backup drive was too small for the job. Going out to buy a new external HD was always something that was for tomorrow. After all, a mac never goes wrong does it. A couple of months back I got up in the morning to find that my son had somehow managed to get my computer into the Guest User account. Not noticing this, I went to look for a file to find that I had no files at all. No documents, no photos, no music. I was in a cold sweat for the few minutes it took me to realise that I was not in my own account, but soon found that everything was there when I switched back to it. It did make me realise how exposed I was with no backup for 6 months, so the next day I went and got a 4TB drive and re backed everything. Fast forward to last week (you don´t have to be Nostradamus to see where this is going) and my computer suddenly slowed to a crawl, failing to open programs, etc. I took it to the Apple shop today for diagnostics and guess what. Hard disk failed. Old one out new one in, all data on old disk gone forever. How happy am I that I spent $200 on that 4TB drive. The service tech said that students in tears is a weekly event, when they understand that all their work has gone. Do your backups boys and girls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 After reading that, I'm going to buy an external today! You were so lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Estall Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 buy 2 and rotate them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 And needless to say you all have at least one offsite data backup (hard drives and/or cloud) as well in case of fire or theft. Equipment and professional indemnity insurance don't bring back data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Woods Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 Just got my computer back today. Time Machine was superb, everything is restored exactly as it was. It even remembered which web pages were open in chrome. And thanks Robert and MDM, I had neglected offsite backup. Tomorrow I will go and get another 4TB drive which I will put somewhere at my mother-in-law's once I have Time Machined it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSnapper Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 My regime is based on having three copies of all data, on different brands of media , in two seperate locations.... km (if you must use the same brand/type at least buy them from different places so that they don't come from the same batch) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Woods Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 I'll be there by tomorrow. I have my Time Machine backup (which just saved my entire computer setup), a separate photos hard drive and, as of tomorrow, there will be a second Time Machine backup at the mum-in-law's. She doesn't know it yet though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlmphotog Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 An old adage, Two is one, one is none Also make sure to keep a backup off site. I keep a set of backups at my wife's office and rotate. I use a metal ammo can lined with closed-cell foam padding to store my my hard drives... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeRay Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 8 hours ago, Colin Woods said: my mother-in-law Time Machined That's a brilliant idea to "Time Machine" the mother-in-law. Why didn't I think of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 2 hours ago, dlmphotog said: An old adage, Two is one, one is none Also make sure to keep a backup off site. I keep a set of backups at my wife's office and rotate. I use a metal ammo can lined with closed-cell foam padding to store my my hard drives... Now why isn't that image up for license here?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 12 hours ago, Colin Woods said: Just got my computer back today. Time Machine was superb, everything is restored exactly as it was. It even remembered which web pages were open in chrome. And thanks Robert and MDM, I had neglected offsite backup. Tomorrow I will go and get another 4TB drive which I will put somewhere at my mother-in-law's once I have Time Machined it. 12 hours ago, RedSnapper said: My regime is based on having three copies of all data, on different brands of media , in two seperate locations.... km (if you must use the same brand/type at least buy them from different places so that they don't come from the same batch) Interesting approach but this assumes that all media brands are more or less the same and equally reliable which is not the case in my experience. The idea of buying the same brand from different places to ensure different batches is something I have never thought of before. G-Technology drives are the best external desktop drives in my experience. They come in metal casings and are very robust. They are a bit more expensive than some other brands but not massively so (maybe 30% or so) and I think it is worth paying the extra for them. So far I have found them 100% reliable. I have had other brand desktop drives fail occasionally. G-Technology also do Thunderbolt drives for Mac which is what I use as my main working drives for image processing, backing up onto G-Technology USB 3 drives. They are almost as fast as internal SSD drives which are way more expensive. G-Technology portable drives are very expensive and I have been using Western Digital portables which have been totally reliable to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 I use a Synology NAS as archive storage. 2 hard drives so one mirroring the other. Before I move files to those I also place a copy on an unlimited dropbox account. Then for the live stuff on my PC, that is automatically backed up to a cloud provider ( multiple versioning ), which being an IT reseller we get for free :-) Then every so often I even do a USB disk backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Limb Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 14 hours ago, RedSnapper said: My regime is based on having three copies of all data, on different brands of media , in two seperate locations.... km (if you must use the same brand/type at least buy them from different places so that they don't come from the same batch) The Gold Rule of Back-Ups .......... so I was told, but works for me 3 - 2 - 1 3 - Copies of everything 2 - Diffent media they are stored on 1 - Copy stored in a different location Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlmphotog Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 11 hours ago, losdemas said: Now why isn't that image up for license here?! LOL, but you are right I should have it up for license. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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