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How do you (if ever) secure your (external) drives?

redAPPLE

redAPPLE

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 7, 2002
2,686
7
2 Much Infinite Loops
hi there everybody!

i am sure, you guys have at least read or heard about somebody losing their files because of one reason or another, because they did not backup their data.

i own a mac (duh!) and i just seem to feel, that nothing can hurt my mac. i have a 120 gb firewire drive (external) with important files (pix, sound, pdfs, whatever).

i would like to know, how would one backup a large drive? the option of buying a second drive is out of the question (at the moment).

is there a applescript that lets me read and modify files (playing sound files or transferring one file from one folder to another) but not delete them unless i type in the admin password?

thanks!!
 
You can change the file permissions so that only the root user can write to the files on the external drive. The problem isn't so much accidental deletion as it is drive failure. A tape backup can do it, but those can be very expensive. The cheapest thing to get would be another hard disk. If you only need to back up a small amount of data, then use CD-RWs or DVD-RWs, assuming you have the disc writer. When it comes to protection for really-important data, going cheap is not a good idea. A good backup solution may consist of multiple hard disks in a RAID configuration to prevent corruption of data due to errors in writing files, and multiple tape backups used for on-site and off-site backups. I don't know how important your data is, but critical data should be able to survive a disaster.
 
The option of buying a second drive might be out of the question, but that's the crunch - how much is your data worth? Obviously you don't need to backup the system, but can your personal data be replaced? Personally I have everything backed up somewhere, but that's only because I've suffered losses before and I don't want that to happen again.

You could do as arogge suggests, but like he pointed out, drive failure is not a pleasant thing.
 
the hard drive has my music (i spent hours and hours to tag them etc.), music from old cassettes which are gone now, pictures which i have enhanced so they look like new, etc., scanned documents.

my worst fear, is doing all of these stuff all over again.

if another drive is the only way, is there an easy software, that syncs the data?
 
redAPPLE said:
the hard drive has my music (i spent hours and hours to tag them etc.), music from old cassettes which are gone now, pictures which i have enhanced so they look like new, etc., scanned documents.

my worst fear, is doing all of these stuff all over again.

if another drive is the only way, is there an easy software, that syncs the data?
Click to expand...

If these photographs and scanned documents are family heirlooms or otherwise important documents, it may be worthwhile to invest in a DVD-RW (or DVD+RW) drive. Make two sets of back-ups, storing one set of disks in another location; for example, one set at home, another at work or in a safe deposit box. Backing up to a second hard drive will protect you in case of a hard drive crash, but will be useless if your computer system is stolen or destroyed by fire.

As far as software is concerned, iTunes can create back-up disks of your music. Data can be backed-up using Apples backup program available to dot-mac users. I usually back-up my data manually (adding individual files to a DVD-R or CD-R using Apple's Disk Burner, as this gives me the oppurtunity to organize my data as I backup, as well as the option of removing files that no longer need to be maintained online.
 
walliver said:
If these photographs and scanned documents are family heirlooms or otherwise important documents, it may be worthwhile to invest in a DVD-RW (or DVD+RW) drive. Make two sets of back-ups, storing one set of disks in another location; for example, one set at home, another at work or in a safe deposit box. Backing up to a second hard drive will protect you in case of a hard drive crash, but will be useless if your computer system is stolen or destroyed by fire.

As far as software is concerned, iTunes can create back-up disks of your music. Data can be backed-up using Apples backup program available to dot-mac users. I usually back-up my data manually (adding individual files to a DVD-R or CD-R using Apple's Disk Burner, as this gives me the oppurtunity to organize my data as I backup, as well as the option of removing files that no longer need to be maintained online.
Click to expand...

Just remember, recordable media may not last very long based on recent studies.

Get a hard drive, put the stuff in there, shove it in a fire safe box. :)
 
walliver said:
SNIP
As far as software is concerned, iTunes can create back-up disks of your music. Data can be backed-up using Apples backup program available to dot-mac users. I usually back-up my data manually (adding individual files to a DVD-R or CD-R using Apple's Disk Burner, as this gives me the oppurtunity to organize my data as I backup, as well as the option of removing files that no longer need to be maintained online.
Click to expand...
I would recommend using Apple's Backup as well (only for .Mac users, sadly). I use it myself to back up to an external FireWire drive - it works great! However, there is one thing you must be aware of when using Backup - it doesn't backup executables (both Mac OS X native and Classic mode). It will back up executables if they're hidden from Backup by archiving them first (the format doesn't matter; you can use a disk image, a ZIP file, Stuffit, TAR, whatever).
 
redAPPLE said:
the hard drive has my music (i spent hours and hours to tag them etc.), music from old cassettes which are gone now, pictures which i have enhanced so they look like new, etc., scanned documents.

my worst fear, is doing all of these stuff all over again.

if another drive is the only way, is there an easy software, that syncs the data?
Click to expand...

Well you have to have another something, which means either another drive or backing up to some other media. If you're using the drive principally as an archive, seems like burning a bunch of data DVDs is the way to go. Organize your data as much as possible into DVD sized folders (4GB or whatever) and burn those, then store the DVDs elsewhere.
 
redAPPLE said:
has apple already resolved the file vault problem which occurred weeks after panther's release?
Click to expand...
Apple fixed a serious bug in FileVault found in the initial Panther release in the 10.3.1 update. I don't know of any other FileVault-related fixes, though.
 
Le Big Mac said:
Well you have to have another something, which means either another drive or backing up to some other media. If you're using the drive principally as an archive, seems like burning a bunch of data DVDs is the way to go. Organize your data as much as possible into DVD sized folders (4GB or whatever) and burn those, then store the DVDs elsewhere.
Click to expand...

yeah well, if the hard drive is 60 gigs, then that would be a lot of dvds :rolleyes:

i actually only wanted to restrict other users (like my brother) or myself, to accidentally delete any files.

i was thinking of everytime i want to delete a file, the computer would ask for the admin password.

it might be annoying, but at least i am sure that files get deleted, when they are intended to be. (is there an applescript for this? or at least a tutorial?)

in the long run, i guess, a second hard drive would be the final answer.
 
If you use the 18 GB DVDs, you should only need four of them :p to store 60 GB of data, and seven if you use the double-sided 9.4 GB discs. The Apple "Admin" password isn't the same as the root user. You may be able to set the permissions on the files so that only the root user can write to them. This will prevent other users from deleting the data through OS X, but it won't stop them from dropping the disk drive on the floor or spilling a soda on it. :rolleyes: Until you get a tape backup or other proper backup solution, I recommend keeping the drive somewhere else when you don't need to use it.
 
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