macs are great in that you can very easily boot almost any mac using a hard disk from almost any other mac (you usually cant boot a brand new released piece of hardware from a disk with an older os until there has been at least 1 service pack, and obviously intel-powerpc isn't going to happen) but from laptops to mac-mini to an x-serve, its all fair game!
The main thing I have changed in my working practice is to keep whatever I'm currently working on in dropbox. It so yes theres a lot of up and down on the internet, but its actually not that bad when its little and often. must get round to 1password next. On 16 February 2011 00:33, Mark Schofield <[email protected]>wrote: > > I had a when not if situation when my hard drive made a couple of > clicking noises then died. All gone. > > My backup was three-four weeks old so all was not lost bit some things > were and trying to understand what was and wasn't took a lot of time. > > My response: > > Hourly TimeMachine backups to a network > A daily back-up clone to a USB drive > Dropbox > Evernote > IMAP emails > 1Password > > I hope this is good enough. I recommend at least the same. > > Yours > Mark > > Mark Schofield, Hove. > > > > > On Feb 15, 8:23 pm, Ranulph Glanville <[email protected]> wrote: > > I find that it's essential to keep a second, cloned backup on a portable > disc, as well as a time machine backup. When, as happens all too frequently, > my MBP goes to MacHospital, I use an old machine with the backup disc as > startup disc. Then, when I get my MBP back (usual turn round 2 weeks, I'm > afraid) I restore from the back up disc I was using as a startup disc, and > then rebackup on time machine. > > > > This way I have 2 backups and I have a recent machine from which I can > work on another mac. > > > > I use data backup, from ProSoft, who are very good for recovery and other > emergency stuff. > > > > Ranulph > > > > On 15 Feb 2011, at 10:36, Toby Leighton wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hello all, > > > > > I am going to send this to the SMUG group, who helped me out a lot > yesterday morning when I was in a slightly frantic panic, and to BNM because > there are a lot of mac users, and freelancers who may benefit from the > advice here. I wouldn't usually cross post like this, or write such a long > essay of an email so I hope this is allowed in this case. > > > > > After yesterday mornings "dead computer" situation I am pleased to > report that I am already back up and running, repaired and everything. > Apple store turned the repair around for me much faster than I was > anticipating, not because I got any special favours, but because they were > quiet at the moment, they already had the necessary part in stock etc. I > was lucky in this case, I know this. > > > > > So I was prepared to be without my main computer for approx 1 week, and > I would like to announce the programs, and lessons learned so that everyone > here can see how a very real potential disaster was made rather painless > indeed. I rely on my computer for my work, as I'm sure many of you do too, > so I strongly encourage everyone here to look at their own situations and > how much you rely on your own tech and what you would do if the worst were > to happen... > > > > > 1) have a spare computer. Mine is an old but working G4 tower, It was > free from this very group (cogapp was clearing out), and its now running OSX > 10.5 server. It was too slow for me to carry on the photoshop work I was > doing. Opening a 600dpi tif file even in preview took rather a while so I > wasn't going to entertain the notion of doing any touch-up work. > > > Lesson learned. If you have a spare computer, It can be quite old, but > make sure that it is at least capable of running the applications you need, > even if you don't keep them installed. If I needed any intel only apps I > would have been stuck, so a backup computer capable of running the same OS > would have been ideal, but this did the job. I was able to finish the > scanning I was doing, the touch-ups can wait until the main computer is > back. > > > > > 2) backups! Time machine is good, but you can only access your backed > up files from another mac using the time machine interface. I have moved > away from time machine and now use crashplan which works in exactly the same > style as time machine, but you can restore your files (including different > versions of them) from a PC, linux, mac os, or even web page interface. You > can use it to backup any computer to any other computer for free! regardless > of the OS! I pay them $5 a month for unlimited online storage (for one > computer) and right now it feels like the best $5 I have ever spent in my > life. > > > Lesson learned - I had removed my scanning folder from the backup set, > as it would have been sending hundreds of 50-60Mb files up and down the > internet which weren't going to be staying as TIF for very long as they get > worked on and resized down. This was foolish, because when the computer > failed, these were exactly the files that I needed to get to the most, and > I'm paying for unlimited online storage, so I may as well not be scared to > make use of it. Luckily I was able to move them using target mode into.... > > > > > 3) Dropbox. The documents I need to keep handy, such as my invoices > and receipts are in Dropbox. Theres also some company sensitive stuff in > there too, so luckily I was able to use my mac in target mode to remove the > Dropbox folder before sending it in for service. Dropbox doesn't have a > remote-wipe functionality, which would in hindsight be a nice feature, but > it allowed me to access my important documents from my iphone, and from > public computers using the web interface. All this for free! its beyond > belief. I feel like I should give them some money because its so good, but > their free product meets my needs perfectly well. > > > > > 4) passwords. I live by keychain in macosx. I randomly generate > password for everything and keep them all in keychains. You can access your > keychain as a file, the default one is ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain > When you go to another computer, just copy that file with you. optionally > rename it to "my passwords" if you wish, and double click it. When you are > on the other machine you will still be able to access your webspace / ebay / > bank / wifi networks by entering your old account password. > > > Lesson learned! keychain is great, like time machine, but its mac > only. I have been meaning for ages to move away from keychain and start > using the program called 1passwd. like crashplan, it does the same thing as > keychain, only you can use it on windows as well, and even your iphone. > > > > > So with the combination of those programs I was able to send my > computer straight into the apple store for repair, rather than having to > spend half a day faffing around getting my important stuff off it first and > hoping I had remembered everything I needed... the sooner it goes in for > repair, the sooner it is back working. > > > > > For the benefit of the BNM readers, I am obviously using a mac here as > my main computer, but the programs mentioned are all available for windows > and sometimes linux too. This means that I could at a moments notice > effectively carry on with my work on any computer I had to hand. If sony > hadn't removed linux support from the PS3 I could have even used that as a > reasonably powerful machine instead of the G4 tower. This week I have 3 > pieces of work on, plus an interview on wednesday, so its not exactly an > ideal time to be without my computer, but then again, is it ever an ideal > time for these things to happen? > > > > > Please all learn from my positive experience and prepare yourselves for > the disaster before it actually happens. Most of the programs I have > mentioned are either free or very very cheap. > > > > > Toby > > > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > > > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > > For more options, visit this group athttp:// > groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Sussex Mac User Group" group. > To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
