{"id":26580,"date":"2017-05-20T20:11:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T00:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/?p=26580"},"modified":"2017-05-17T09:16:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T13:16:41","slug":"the-three-secrets-of-backup-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/the-three-secrets-of-backup-masters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Secrets of Backup Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTo go forward, you must back up.\u201d Sure, it was an advertising tagline for backup software from the 1990s, but it\u2019s still true. When it comes to losing data, the question is not \u201cif,\u201d but \u201cwhen.\u201d If you store valuable information\u2014whether personal or professional\u2014on your Mac, or if you rely on your Mac to earn a living, you must back up regularly or risk irretrievable data loss. But backups aren\u2019t as simple as you might think.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, Apple has provided the Time Machine backup software with the Mac since 2007. Give it an external drive and it will do a good job of creating \u201cversioned\u201d backups, which contain multiple copies of each file as it changes over time. With versioned backups, you can restore a lost or damaged file to its most recent state, or to any previous state. That\u2019s essential if corruption crept in unnoticed such that you had been backing up a corrupt file for some time. Time Machine also enables you to restore an entire drive as of the latest backup, which you might need to do if you have to reformat or replace your drive.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Time-Machine.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Time-Machine.png 249w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Time-Machine-233x300.png 233w\" alt=\"&quot;\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Time Machine backups, useful as they are, can\u2019t help you in two situations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If your Mac\u2019s main drive does go south, it will likely take several hours to reformat and restore, and quite a bit longer if you have to get a new drive installed first. To keep working with minimal interruption, you need a bootable duplicate, which is an exact clone of your drive.<\/li>\n<li>Should you be so unlucky as to experience a burglary, fire, or flood that affects your Mac, it\u2019s likely that your Time Machine drive\u2014and your bootable duplicate\u2014will suffer the same fate and thus be useless as a backup. To protect against that unhappy possibility, you need an offsite backup.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To make a bootable duplicate, you need an external drive that\u2019s as large as your Mac\u2019s internal drive, or at least a good bit bigger than the amount of data on your drive. If you have a really large drive, you could partition it in Disk Utility and use one partition for Time Machine and the other for a bootable duplicate.<\/p>\n<p>You also need backup software that can create a bootable duplicate, and the leading contenders are <a href=\"https:\/\/bombich.com\/\">Carbon Copy Cloner<\/a> ($39.99) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shirt-pocket.com\/SuperDuper\/SuperDuperDescription.html\">SuperDuper<\/a>! ($27.95). Both are easy to set up and can update your bootable duplicate reliably on a regular schedule\u2014nightly is best.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-CCC-SuperDuper.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-CCC-SuperDuper.png 630w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-CCC-SuperDuper-300x156.png 300w\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"225\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 433px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 433\/225;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to offsite backups, you have two basic choices:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set up two or three backup drives with Time Machine, or with Time Machine and a bootable duplicate on separate partitions, and store one of them in another location, such as your office, a relative\u2019s house, or a safe deposit box. (If you\u2019re storing it where someone else could access it, make sure to encrypt the Time Machine backup and use FileVault to protect the bootable duplicate\u2019s contents.) Then, on a regular basis, swap the drives such that you\u2019re backing up to one, and keeping another off-site.<\/li>\n<li>Use a cloud backup service, which you can back up to and restore from over the Internet. The two leading services with good Mac apps are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/\">Backblaze<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crashplan.com\/\">CrashPlan<\/a>. Plans for both start at about $5 per month or $50 per year for one computer. These apps back up constantly in the background, so you\u2019re always protected. Their main downside is that they\u2019re slow in both directions, but in the event of a complete disaster, getting your data back slowly is better than not getting it back at all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Backblaze-Crashplan.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Backblaze-Crashplan.png 560w, https:\/\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/3-backup-secrets-Backblaze-Crashplan-300x174.png 300w\" alt=\"\" width=\"389\" height=\"225\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 389px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 389\/225;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So there you have it. Use Time Machine for continual protection of your data, a bootable duplicate so you can get back to work quickly if your drive dies, and an offsite backup to protect against catastrophe. You can read a lot more about the topic in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.takecontrolbooks.com\/jot-backing-up\">Backing Up Your Mac: A Joe On Tech Guide<\/a><\/em><em>,<\/em> or just contact us for help setting up a rock-solid backup system.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Twitter:<\/b> Don\u2019t lose data or work time because your backup strategy didn\u2019t protect you from all eventualities! Here\u2019s the deal:<\/p>\n<p><b>Facebook:<\/b> No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Or file corruption, drive death, fire, flood, or theft. Here\u2019s how to protect yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTo go forward, you must back up.\u201d Sure, it was an advertising tagline for backup software from the 1990s, but it\u2019s still true. When it comes to losing data, the question is not \u201cif,\u201d but \u201cwhen.\u201d If you store valuable information\u2014whether personal or professional\u2014on your Mac, or if you rely on your Mac to earn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,161,39,201,71,5,105,202,196,203],"tags":[212,31,41,33,213],"class_list":["post-26580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-backup","category-blog","category-bootable-duplicate","category-explainer","category-mac","category-maintenance","category-off-site-backup","category-restricted-content","category-versioned-backup","tag-backup","tag-imac","tag-mac-mini","tag-macbook-pro","tag-timemachine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/3-backup-secrets-Time-Machine.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YLEm-6UI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30895,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/how-to-back-up-an-iphone-or-ipad-with-your-mac-running-catalina\/","url_meta":{"origin":26580,"position":0},"title":"How to Back Up an iPhone or iPad with Your Mac Running Catalina","author":"computeradv","date":"June 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"If you prefer to back up your iOS devices to your Mac, rather than take advantage of daily automatic iCloud backups, note that in macOS 10.15 Catalina, you now do that in the Finder, not in iTunes. 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Backups are always important, since you can never predict when your Mac or iPhone will be lost or stolen, melt in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple Pros&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple Pros","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/apple-pros\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Time-Machine-prefs-1024x675.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Time-Machine-prefs-1024x675.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Time-Machine-prefs-1024x675.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Time-Machine-prefs-1024x675.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34937,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/protecting-your-data-backup-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":26580,"position":2},"title":"Protecting Your Digital Assets: The Importance of Backing Up Your Data","author":"computeradv","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Learn how to protect your digital assets by backing up your data with Time Machine, Backblaze, and iCloud. 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Unlike flossing, once you set up backups, they don\u2019t require daily attention. And turning on Apple\u2019s Time Machine backup feature is easy\u2014simply open System\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple Pros&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple Pros","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/apple-pros\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/backup-drive-Time-Machine.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/backup-drive-Time-Machine.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/backup-drive-Time-Machine.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34587,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/follow-these-steps-before-bringing-your-mac-in-for-repair\/","url_meta":{"origin":26580,"position":4},"title":"Follow These Steps before Bringing Your Mac in for Repair","author":"computeradv","date":"October 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It has finally happened. 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