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We helped a first-time customer who lives right here in Severna Park yesterday. The customer broke the display on his MacBook Air. It was not backed up. He was anxious to get back to work, so we helped him purchase a new MacBook Pro M1 16”(same price as the Apple Store of course!) and he headed back to work. While he worked, we backed up his old Mac via Time Machine. Within a few hours, he was able to pick up the backup drive and migrate his data over to his new Mac later in the day.
New Macs are amazing, and for 2018 13” MacBook Pro and MacBook Air units, the hard drive is now part of the main logic board. On 15” MacBook Pro units, the hard drive has been part of the logic board since 2017. While highly reliable, accidents and sudden failures can and still do occur! This means that it’s not like the days of old where if there was a liquid spill, our techs could “remove” your hard drive and insert it into another Mac and rescue or recover your data. iCloud is one way to protect some of your data, but it’s not a total and complete backup of your Mac. We like Backblaze for that! Also, a Time Machine backup drive is a cheap and solid way to protect your data. And it’s a brilliant idea to have more than one and “encrypt” them with a password and store them in different places!
Use the Golden Triangle of Data Protection to your advantage:
- Automatic backups – Time Machine gives you that!
- Redundant data – Again, Time Machine has you covered!
- Off-Site backups – I Like Backblaze for this, which I use!
In the computer business, we like to say, “you can never have too many backups.” Mix in some extra Time Machine drives (leave one at your Mom’s house, your beach house, or your office to add more security (plus, these count as an off-site backup, and don’t forget to encrypt it!). Also, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of my hard drive too!
If you have an iPhone or iPad:
I LOVE the iCloud backup for iOS devices, as it’s a REAL backup! If you’re not already using that service, it’s only $1 a month for 50GB (one of the best deals from Apple!). It will automatically back up your iPhone or iPad when it’s connected to power, the screen is locked, and it’s on WiFI. Don’t forget that when traveling, join the hotel WiFI and force a backup to ensure your vacation pictures are backed up. If traveling with a strong cell signal, you can now force that backup via your cellular data!
If you have anxiety about setting up Time Machine, just stop by one of our stores for free help! We can set Time Machine up for free with your drive or purchase a drive from us!
If you want to grab Backblaze for your true off-site backup, it is unlimited (including external drives) and only $7 a month.
https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af9wuu
