Should i make a backup disk?

[bp1000]

1 year ago i bought my MBA which came with lion and a recovery partition.

I've read some guides on making a back up disk now i've upgraded to ML. Should i bother?

I've noticed i have a 10.8 recovery partition too, is this sufficient? If so, why do people bother making a bootable USB stick or DVD with the OS on?


The only thing i can think of is i remember reading you needed an internet connection to re-install from the recovery partition.

 

[madsci954]

The only thing i can think of is i remember reading you needed an internet connection to re-install from the recovery partition.

That's pretty much the only reason to make a bootable disk.

 

[bp1000]

Thank you

 

[Weaselboy]

Here is a little twist in it though.

With your machine as it is now, you can boot from the recovery partition on the drive and reinstall Mountain Lion... and that's fine. But if you lose the drive altogether and put a new drive in, you would have to boot from your computers firmware (EFI) Internet Recovery system. That system is going to give you Lion since that is what your serial number is linked to with Apple. So you would have to download and install Lion, then start the App Store app in Lion and download and install Mountain Lion. So to get back where you are now would require the complete download of both Lion and then Mountain Lion. You could avoid that by having a USB Mountain Lion recovery key or just an entire Mountain Lion USB key installer.

 

[bp1000]

Great point, thanks

Just found an old USB key, time to format it i think

 

[Fishrrman]

"Should i make a backup disk?"

EVERY Mac user should ALWAYS have at hand a FULLY BOOTABLE "backup disk" created with CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (shouting intentional).

It can serve as a day-to-day backup, but more importantly, in a "moment of extreme need", it can become invaluable.

Time and time and time and time and time (enough?) again, I see posts here on MacRumors from users having all sorts of problems that prevent them from booting -- problems which in most cases could be resolved immediately by having a bootable backup drive within reach.

Even simple maintenance tasks (like checking and repairing the main hard drive) are made easier when one boots "externally".