Reminder: BACKUP first

[steve-p]

Most people here I'm sure are aware that you need regular and comprehensive backups on any computer that contains anything you care about keeping. Apple makes this real easy by providing Time Machine, which can be used with any external disk. There are some people recently who only seem to realise this would have been a good idea after their disk has failed, or system got screwed up in some major way. Now is a good time to ensure you are backing up regularly. While the ML update will almost certainly be flawless for most people, it's not something you should be staking the contents of your computer on, if you need that stuff on there. Any update is potentially disruptive after all.

So just a gentle reminder to those who haven't got round to it yet. Get your backup strategy sorted *before* a major update like an operating system change, and persist with it regularly afterwards

 

[steve-p]

Hmmm, OK. That's a bit like saying you never wear a seat belt when driving because you haven't been killed or seriously injured yet so it's not necessary I've had two hard disks fail in MBPs in the past.

 

[mactumors]

Man up. Live on the edge.

Real men never back up.

 

[cambookpro]

I honestly never bother with backups. I've NEVER had a Mac fail on me, ever. They just work flawlessly all of the time, always and forever. Software upgrades have always gone perfectly too. The Apple experience is pretty much perfect.

But I wouldn't recommend anyone else follow the way I do things.

Apple don't make the hard drives that often fail.

 

[maflynn]

I see enough posts here and on other forums where members suddenly had a problem and lost their data because they did not have a backup.

Why take a chance on losing your data, even if in the past you never incurred a hardware failure.

I have pictures of my kids, and other documents and files are invaluable to me, just because I didn't have a hard drive fail in the past means I'm willing to risk the loss of those things.

To each his own, but the cost of external drives and the ease of backups make it a no brainer to ensure your data is safe imo.

 

[DaLurker]

Thanks OP for the reminder.

Time Machine, and SuperDuper backups are done daily

 

[mexico]

less of a risk for SSD users? I'm without a backup HD at the moment and I think I will risk it. Everything important to me is on Dropbox anyway.

 

[steve-p]

less of a risk for SSD users? I'm without a backup HD at the moment and I think I will risk it. Everything important to me is on Dropbox anyway.

Dropbox is a good off site solution in that you are covered no matter what happens. I use Time Machine primarily but with Dropbox for all the important stuff as well. The only difference is how fast it would be to get back up and running. Obviously with Time Machine it's fast and easy.

 

[asorta]

Real men always buy insurance for their family

I had hard drive fail once, started using TM after that. That's what real men do, fools don't.

 

[iMacFarlane]

How could anyone be justified in arguing against backing up data? Losing your hard drive to hardware failure or system to virus/corruption happens. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it can't.

Protect your data. You'll be able to instantly recover your stuff. YOUR stuff.

Irreplaceable, sentimental data : Photos, home videos
Collections : Music, TV Shows, games
Business : Receipts, payroll data
Important : Banking info, college papers, that novel you're working on
Time invested : Game saves / data, preferences/hacks/tweaks

What does it really cost?

Not only that, but Time Machine can be useful during the move to a new Mac, using migration assistant. Win/win.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

I honestly never bother with backups. I've NEVER had a Mac fail on me, ever. They just work flawlessly all of the time, always and forever. Software upgrades have always gone perfectly too. The Apple experience is pretty much perfect.

But I wouldn't recommend anyone else follow the way I do things.

It isn't the mac that fails, but the hard drive. We definitely do not have faith in Apple like you do..

 

[PaulKemp]

Nothing to over dramatize. Just always have another computer that has your media and documents and you are good!