We’ve been over this before, but here on the front lines of data loss, we see this just about every day. It’s senseless the number of pictures, school papers, financial and business documents, and music get lost when a backup system can be had for as little as $119!
You need to make your back up system automatic or use a program like Time Machine. That’s the first step. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, can keep up with a “manual” drag-n-drop back up! To boot, quite a bit of the data loss we see here at MacMedics happens when someone copies over important data during a drag-n-drop Finder copy. Sometimes, folks think they have the data copied, but something goes wrong, and they end up with an alias, then they go and delete the original data because they think they just copied it.
The second step is to regularly test that backup to ensure your files are there and you’re able to grab them anytime you need them. There’s no such thing as a “Set-It-And-Forget-It” back up system. You can check your Time Machine back up by holding “OPTION” when you click on the Time Machine menu icon. This will “VERIFY” your current back up to ensure it does not have a detectable problem by the built-in check.
Don’t forget that Time Machine hard drives AND Time Capsules live a hot and hard life. The Time Machine process is tough on hard drives, so after three or four years of loyal service, you should retire your Time Machine hard drive and turn that drive into a backup of your backup.
If you need help getting your back up set up, our advice is free, and we have external portable and desktop hard drives in stock! If you have data you care about, it needs to be backed up! Just because your computer is new or you just replaced the hard drive offers you very little protection. Hard drives can die at any time, and in fact, there’s an increased risk of that occurring in the first 30 to 60 days of a hard drives’ life.
The pictures we take are the most cherished and valuable items on most computers. Please make sure the pictures you take this year make it onto your back up system as soon as you import them onto your computer.
Also, as an added tip: Don’t have Photos delete your pictures off your camera. Please leave them in two places, in Photos, AND on your camera until you have them BACKED UP. You ALWAYS want to have your valuable data in TWO PLACES at all times. You can always delete the photos off of your camera directly.
