1. Set up Time Machine

If you aren’t using Time Machine, it’s time to start. This is your first, best line of defense on a desktop or laptop. Backups made using the built-in OS X feature are non-intrusive, and recovery of files is nearly instant. Although external hard drive prices are high right now, most everyone will benefit with Time Machine. Hook up an external hard drive and OS X will ask you to use it for Time Machine. I generally recommend getting a hard drive 1.5 times the size of your internal drive.

2. Set up online backup the proper way

I suggest online backup services as your second line of defense. It’s important to keep backups offsite in case of a disaster or theft at your location. If you do your initial backup all at once it can take months and you’ll find you are missing a key file just when you need it — I wrote about how to optimize your strategy here – and be sure to leave your computer on and awake if you want your backup strategy to work. Also, please remember that sync software like Dropbox isn’t a true online backup system, since it has the ability to remove files.

3. Back up your online email system

If you use online email systems such as Gmail, you need to back that up as well. Don’t rely 100% on your provider. Your account could get hacked, or you could accidentally delete your email. Follow this guide on backing up your Gmail using POP access. A similar strategy would be applicable to Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo (though Yahoo may require a paid upgrade to do it).

4. Test your backups

I’ve written about this before, but if you aren’t testing your backups, how do you know if they’re working? Do you know how to restore in case of disaster? Trust but verify as they say. Simply try restoring files from your backups to make sure they work as expected.

5. Back up your iOS devices

With iCloud, backing up to your computer isn’t technically necessary because you can restore from the cloud. On a practical level though, that takes time, and there’s also no guarantee your backup will always be there when you need it. At least every month, it’s important to hook up your iOS device to your computer for a quick and immediate backup of your data. To do a manual backup via iTunes, follow these instructions.

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Get settled in for the long haul

One of the key downsides of online backup is the time it takes to actually get your initial backup into the cloud. Some companies such as CrashPlan and DollyDrive allow you to ship a physical hard drive to “seed” your backup, greatly reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred online initially.

If you aren’t with these companies or want an alternative, you can create a tiered backup strategy. If you do it all at once, it can take months and you’ll find you’re missing key files when you need them. Here’s what I typically recommend in terms of a staged approach for the average user:

1. Work first. Realize that while most people say pictures are the most important items to back up, those typically take the longest to upload. I prefer to start with the Documents folder. These typically are probably the hardest to recreate, as well as being time sensitive. This is the folder you’re also working in most often, so you may be more likely to accidentally overwrite things. If you use Outlook or Entourage, exclude the Microsoft User Data as the database for those email programs tends to be huge.

Keep an eye on the backup program, and make sure it not only successfully backed up that initial folder, but is also correctly backing up changes daily. Typically this takes just a few days. Once you have that folder backing up, the next folder I suggest is the Desktop folder. For convenience (and a bit of poor training), many users keep documents on the desktop rather than the Documents folder.

2. App and system settings. Next is the Application Support and Preferences folder in your user library folder. These contain the settings for your various programs as well as some supporting data files.

After you’ve got those critical files happily updating it’s time for the bigger folders such as email and the rest of your library folder. Email, of course is very important and annoying if lost, but often it’s already stored elsewhere, like on your email provider’s servers.

3. Photos and home video. Once you’ve got the documents and various support files and folders, it’s time to tackle the photos. More and more users keep copies (albeit at a lower quality) on services such as Facebook and Flickr, as well as sync photos to their iPhone, so it probably isn’t so urgent for most. What I do recommend is to spend some time and back up your photos manually by periodically burning them to disc from iPhoto. Be sure to keep these disks offsite in case of disaster, maybe with friends or family.

4. Music last — or not at all. Finally, after these elements are successfully updating each day, it’s time to back up the rest of your hard drive and can go with the software’s suggested recommendations. You might think about excluding your iTunes folder, however. With iCloud and iTunes Match, you might consider waiting on these folders or not backing it up at all. A large media library can choke a backup system for months without a large return on investment. While Carbonite or Mozy is trying to back up a movie you ripped off of DVD to entertain the kids on your last road trip, it’s missing the actual pictures from the trip. Which are more important?

General tips

A general recommendation I have for the initial load is to upgrade your broadband speed, at least for a month or so. Most companies will give you a free trial period of around 30 days at a higher speed in hopes you keep the service. Take advantage of that and upload like crazy, although be careful if you use a metered service not to exceed your monthly bandwidth limit.

Make sure your Mac doesn’t go to sleep during the initial backup period. I’ve seen clients subscribe to an online service and never get an initial backup because the computer is shut down when not in use. Unfortunately, they often learn this when they try to restore after a disaster. Ouch.

Each hard drive is unique, so your data may not conform to these guidelines, but consider a game plan for your initial backup and make sure that you stagger that backup so at least something new is being backed up every month. Nothing hurts more than to have a data disaster and find you’ve been paying for a service and it hasn’t been backing up the stuff you want.

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1. The “best fit” solution

Most won’t have a cloned backup of their drive on hand, I’m guessing. The good news is that performing a clean wipe and install is a good idea for general maintenance of your Mac. The bad news is that in this case, you really have no choice. Here’s how to save what you can and get back to Snow Leopard, provided you have a Snow Leopard install disc (including the one that came with your computer, if it’s a recent purchase). This method also erases the emergency recovery partition Lion automatically installs.

1. Backup your User folders to an external drive. This should preserve your documents, photos, music, etc. If you store those things in locations not in the User folder, make sure to copy those over too.
2. Insert the Snow Leopard disc. Restart your Mac and hold down C to boot to your DVD drive.
3. Go to Utilities in the menu bar once the installer pops up and select “Disk Utility.”
4. Find the drive in the sidebar where Lion is installed, select it and navigate to the Partition tab.
5. Click on the drop down menu under Partition Layout and select “1 Partition.” Hit Apply.
6. Now navigate to the Erase tab and make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected, then hit Erase to delete all data on the drive.
7. Quit Disk Utility to get back to the Snow Leopard installer and proceed with the install.
8. Restore your User folder and documents from your backup.
9. Run Software Update to get everything current, install your apps from your original install media and update those as well.

2. The “best case” solution

If you managed to clone your drive (Dave describes how in this recent piece) before you installed Lion, which you should do if you haven’t yet taken the plunge, then you can get everything back the way it was.

A popular option for cloning your drive is Carbon Copy Cloner, which is a handy utility to have for any Mac owner. Assuming you’ve done that, follow the directions above to get your drive primed and ready, but stop at step 6 and follow these instructions instead.

Now you’re ready to install Snow Leopard from your Carbon Copy Cloner backup. Here’s how to do it:

1. Attach the drive containing your CCC clone to your Mac.
2. Open System Preferences, then go to the Startup Disk preference pane.
3. Chose your CCC external drive as the startup disk.
4. Restart and launch CCC, then choose your backup from the “source” menu.
5. Select your Mac’s internal drive as the destination.
6. Chose “Restore items from a backup” from the settings pop-up menu and hit the “Clone” button.

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Step 1: Get up-to-date

Make sure everything on your Mac is up-to-date before upgrading to Lion. First of all, make sure you’re running the latest version of OS X, which is Snow Leopard 10.6.8, using Software Update. Software Update will not only check for updates to OS X, but also firmware updates or new versions of Apple applications such as iTunes or iLife. You can find Software Update under the Apple logo in the menu bar. You should also check that your applications are all up to date, but for that you’ll need to check in the apps themselves, since Software Update only works for Apple products.

Also note that you can only install Lion if you have Snow Leopard installed; you can’t go straight from Leopard to Lion.

Step 2: Backup

You’re about to replace the entire operating system on your computer with a new one, so it’s a good idea to make a backup, just in case something goes wrong. The best thing to do is to create an exact copy of your Mac’s hard drive using a tool such as SuperDuper!. SuperDuper! can either perform a regular backup, or create a bootable clone of your hard drive, meaning that if something does go screwy, you can boot from the external drive you made the backup on. From there, you’d be able to try to sort out the problems with the Lion install.

If you don’t want to, or can’t, make a full copy of the entire hard drive, then backup your most important files and folders. Your Home folder is a good place to start, since it probably contains a lot of files that are irreplaceable, like photos and home movies. The Home folder is the folder named with your username, and is found in /Users on your hard drive, or under Desktop in the Places menu in your Finder sidebar.

You can either use Time Machine or SuperDuper! to do this backup, or simply just drag and drop a copy of the folder onto another hard drive. You might want to look around in the Finder to check for other important folders which aren’t in the Home folder, as well.

Step 3: Remove incompatible apps

Lion is going to be the first version of OS X which doesn’t support PowerPC applications. That means any application without an Intel-specific version won’t work on Lion, and is best uninstalled.

In order to find which of your applications are PowerPC only, you can use System Profiler. Hold down the Option key, then click the Apple menu. The top item in the list should be System Profiler. Click that, and System Profiler will open. In the sidebar, find Applications under the Software heading. After a few seconds, a list of every application installed on your Mac will appear on the right. Now go through the list and for each application, look at the Kind in the bottom pane. Applications which say either Intel or Universal are fine; they’ll work on Lion. You’re looking for anything which says PowerPC.

If you find any PowerPC applications, you’ll want to uninstall them before you install Lion. You can also check your other apps as well to make sure they will work with Lion; some applications are bound to have issues, even if they aren’t PowerPC applications. A great way to check is using RoaringApps, a website which is gathering data about which apps are compatible with OS X 10.7.

Step 4: Make space on your hard drive

A typical install of OS X usually takes somewhere between 6 GB and 10 GB of hard drive space. You’ll need to make sure you have at least that amount, and preferably more, free on your hard drive in order to install Lion. To quickly check how much space is available on your drive, open a Finder window to any folder on the drive. The amount of free space available will be shown a the bottom of the window.

If you find that you don’t have enough space left, you can use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to find the biggest files and folders on your hard drive. Once it’s been through your hard drive, you’ll see a list of everything, sorted by size. Anything that has a large file size and you no longer need, delete in order to make room for Lion. Remember, the more space you have available when it comes to upgrading, the better.

Step 5: Install Lion

Once you’re sure that everything is as ready as it possibly could be, your Mac is now prepared for the upgrade to Lion, which should arrive sometime within the next couple of weeks. Are there any vital extra steps I missed? Shout out in the comments.

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I suggested some reasons why to encrypt your iOS backups before, the main one being that your data is then protected. But this new software, called Phone Password Breaker Tool, is available to anyone wishing to pay a small fee for it. It’s being marketed as a tool to ‘recover’ password-protected devices, but it could also be used as a way for hackers to get access to your phone backups.

Able to get past the encryption on backups of both Apple’s iOS devices and BlackBerry devices, Phone Password Breaker will not only reveal the password set on the backup, but also extract passwords for mail accounts, websites and third-party applications — data that could be of great interest to malicious characters.

Luckily, the software requires the device to be physically connected to the computer in order to crack the encryption. That’s good news, since a hacker will need access to both the device and your computer — and if you’re sensible with your hardware, that isn’t likely to happen.

However, as Cult of Mac notes, it’s perfectly possible that a partner or other family member could grab your phone and take a sneaky look through your recent call history. If you have anything to hide (that call to the jewellers to arrange to pick up the engagement ring you bought, of course), make sure you keep an eye on where your phone is. To be really safe, remember not to store anything on the device that you wouldn’t potentially want a stranger reading.

Like I said, as long as you have your phone with you, there’s no need to worry, since physical access is required to use the tool.

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Online Backup

Online backup refers to copies of files that are directly accessible. Some examples of online backup would be copying files to USB thumbsticks or an external hard drive, and cloning a drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Online backup is convenient because you don’t need any additional software to get access to the backup files and you save the time that would be spent on restoring files from some other type of backup archive. Cloning is particularly good for system drives because you can boot up your computer and get to work right away instead of waiting to reinstall everything or restore files from a backup archive like you would with Time Machine.

Examples:

• USB thumbdrive
• External hard drive
• SuperDuper! clone

Nearline Backup

Nearline backups are usually saved in an archive format that is saved to storage that is directly attached to the computer, or available on the same local area network. Nearline backups use additional software to manage the copies and provide some additional benefits like compression, incremental updates, versioning of files, and maybe even centralized administration and security. The disadvantage of nearline backups is that you can’t boot from them if your startup disk is down and you can’t directly access the files if you take the backup drive to another machine. Time Machine is the most familiar example for Mac users, but other software like Retrospect can be used this way too.

Examples:

• Time Machine
• Retrospect
• Tape drives

Offsite Backup

Offsite backups are simply copies that are stored in another physical location from the computer. The purpose of offsite backup is to protect you in the case of fire, theft, or some other disastrous event like a lightning strike or flood that would destroy both the computer and the backup storage next to it. Offsite backups, by nature of being physically removed, take time to recover and restore and are really only there for catastrophes. You can rotate physical drives offsite, use cloud backup service like CrashPlan or a filesync service like Dropbox.

Examples:

• Second Time Machine drive
• Cloned drive
• CrashPlan
• Dropbox

These different layers can be combined to provide you with the right amount of protection for your needs. Here are three ways that a casual, moderate and hardcore user might implement online, nearline and offsite backup for their important files.

Casual

Online

• Copy your most critical files to a USB thumb drive. Repeat this process every quarter.

Nearline

• Buy an external hard drive and turn on Time Machine.

Offsite

• Take a second USB thumb drive with critical files to work.
• Get a free Gmail  account and email an encrypted disk image (use Disk Utility) of your files to yourself (don’t forget the password!).
• Get a free Dropbox account and copy up to 2 GB of files.

Moderate

Online

• Clone your system drive to an external hard drive with SuperDuper! Update your clone at the beginning of every month.

Nearline

• Use Time Capsule for automatic network backup. If you have a laptop, don’t underestimate the convenience of having Time Machine just run while your computer is on without having to remember to plug anything in.

Offsite

• Buy more storage from Dropbox or…
• Sign up for CrashPlan, possibly the best cloud backup service for Mac users

Hardcore

Online

• Clone your system drive to two different external hard drives with SuperDuper! Take one clone off site and rotate them every week.

Nearline

• Time Machine with Time Capsule.

Offsite

• CrashPlan
• Dropbox in addition to Crashplan
• Second cloned drive
• If you’re really, really hardcore, set up a second Time Machine drive and rotate that offsite as well. You will have to manually switch drives in Time Machine preferences each time you rotate the drives.

Whatever your level of preparedness (or paranoia), there’s a backup strategy for you. Take a little time this Worldwide Backup Day to choose one and implement it before you have a reason to regret putting it off any longer.

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Step 1: Sync and Back Up the Old Device

First off, you need to create a backup of the old device using iTunes. This should happen automatically when you plug the device in, but if not, or if you just want to make sure, right-click the device’s name in the sidebar and choose “Back Up.” Note the name of the device, because that’s what the backup will be named in step 2.

Step 2A: Sync the New Device (Brand-New Devices)

If you’re transferring to a brand-new device that’s never been synced before, plug it in with the USB cable to begin the activation process in iTunes. Since you backed up your old device, you’ll be presented with a choice: set up as a new device or restore from a backup. Check “Restore from the backup of” and select the correct device from the dropdown list. Then hit the “Continue” button and your device will be set up exactly the same as the old one.

Step 2B: Sync the New Device (Previously-Synced Devices)

If, instead of a new device straight from the box, you’re setting up a device that has been synced with another iTunes library before, this step is slightly different. If you bought the device second-hand, hopefully the previous owner restored it, but if not, follow the instructions below.

Again, connect the device to iTunes. If it hasn’t been restored since its last sync, iTunes will warn you of this and ask if you want to erase it and sync. Click “Erase and Sync,” and wait for the process to finish. Then, right-click the device name in iTunes and select “Restore From Backup.” A popup window will appear asking which device backup to use. Select the correct one and click “Restore.” Your device will be restored to factory settings, then synced with all the content and information from your backup.

Once the restore has been completed, your new device is ready to use, and should be set up just how the old device was. All of your email accounts should be synced, your apps should be how you left them and the settings should be the same as before. Did I miss anything? Add your own tips or advice in the comments.

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You’d be mistaken for assuming that copying a music CD couldn’t be more complicated than copying a data disc. Well, it is, especially on a Mac. While Windows solutions like Exact Audio Copy (EAC) have long been cited as the gold standard for audio backups, a Mac version doesn’t exist. But I’ve come to find the abilities of the awesome, free X Lossless Decoder (XLD) on the Mac to be on par with those of EAC on the PC. XLD is the star of the first two methods below, while iTunes rounds out the list.

XLD: Best for Audiophile Digital Packrats

The big difference between using XLD and just using iTunes to rip a CD lies in the implementation of what is called Secure Ripping. Put simply, all optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays) can become damaged.  Inherent in the design of a disc is the ability to rebuild lost data segments due to physical damage.  This built-in error correction capability can be exploited to make extremely accurate reproductions of the original audio stored on the disc.  The technique employed to securely rip a CD typically involves reading each segment of the disk multiple times, comparing the results of each read over and over until the ripping software is satisfied that it has an accurate representation of the original audio data.  When there’s an error, the ripping software attempts to rebuild the missing data segment. These results can be further analyzed against a database of other ripped tracks such as AccurateRip. Both EAC and XLD employ these secure ripping techniques and verify their results via AccurateRip for the best possible audio fidelity.

To decode a disk using XLD on the Mac you need to:

1. Download, install and launch XLD.
2. Open XLD Preferences (From the menu bar, XLD > Preferences).
3. On the General tab, select the output format you want the disc ripped to. Choose a format like Apple Lossless to retain the full quality of the original music.
4. On the CD Rip tab, select the ripping options you want to rip the disk with. Here you have the choice between CD Paranoia III 10.2 and XLD’s own Secure Ripper implementation. Either should be fine. Be sure to check the “Use C2 error pointers” option if your drive supports it.
5. Insert your album and select Open Audio CD from the File menu, you should see the name of the CD in a sub menu. Select it.
6. From the CDDB menu, click on Get CD Track Names to retrieve the album information from freedb.org.
7. Select “Include pre-gap for all tracks” and click on Decode. You’ll be prompted for a location to save your ripped music to.

Note that in order to add album art, you’ll need to download the image file separately and add it manually. Ripping in this secure manner will take a little longer than other ripping methods.  This is, again, due to how the information is being read, verified and corrected before decoding.

Now you have backups of your music on your hard drive, ready to add to your iTunes collection. But Unlike EAC, XLD can’t take your backed-up music files and perfectly recreate a disc-based copy complete with the same file structure and sound quality. But just because XLD can’t do it doesn’t make it impossible.

XLD + Toast: Best for Audiophiles Who Want It All

Enter Roxio Toast, a program that allows you to make copies of audio CDs or back them up as image files. You have several copy options available to you with Toast.  You can copy the CD directly, save the album as a Sound Designer II image file, or save the CD as a binary copy with a cue sheet (BIN/CUE).  If you choose to create a BIN/CUE copy of the music CD on your hard drive, you can then use XLD later to decode the image and create individual music files for each track, or use your BIN/CUE version to create an exact replica using a CD-R. That way, you’ll have a burnable perfect copy of your disc, and files for your iTunes library. To do this, you need to:

1. Download, install and launch Toast.
2. Select the Copy tab in Toast and choose Disc Copy.
3. In Toast’s Options box in the bottom left hand corner of the window, check “Use Disc Recovery”.
4. From Toast’s File Menu, choose Save as Bin/Cue…
5. Choose the save location for the resulting image files.
6. Once this process is complete, launch XLD and open Preferences from the XLD menu.
7. On XLD’s General tab, select the output format you want the disc ripped as.
8. From XLD’s File menu, choose Open Raw PCM (bin+cue)…
9. Navigate to the image file you saved from Toast in step 5 above.
10. From the CDDB menu, click on Get CD Track Names to retrieve the album information from freedb.org.
11. Select “Exclude pre-gap (incompatible with AccurateRip)” and click on Decode, you will be prompted for a location to save your ripped music to.

Again, in order to add album art, you will need to download the image file separately and add it manually.

iTunes: Best for the Casual Music Fan

The final, and simplest option, is to use iTunes and simply encode a music CD using Apple’s Lossless encoder directly from within iTunes itself.  iTunes can be configured to export many of the same audio formats as XLD.  iTunes also has the option to use error correction when reading Audio CDs. This is all relatively easy to configure via the Import Settings of the General tab within iTunes Preferences.  You can even burn a high-quality Music CD from within iTunes.

While it may all sound very good, this method likely won’t result in an exact copy of the original music CD.  Any time you decode an album and then take the decoded files in some other audio format and burn it back onto a CD-R, you jeopardize the integrity of the disc’s structure as well as the audio quality itself. Which method you end up choosing really boils down to how exact you want your copies to be.

Every time you enter a disc into your SuperDrive, it gets mounted to the big directory structure that makes up your computer. We use the term mount because we used to physically mount spools of magnetic tape onto devices that were accessed by computers.  Once mounted, the user can then delve into that particular disc’s file structure and access its content via the Finder.  The same concept holds true for .dmg (or Disk Image) files.

Apple’s Disk Utility has the ability to mount and unmount these devices as well as format, erase and copy file structures.  It’s therefore possible to create a an image or copy of any CD or DVD.  This resulting image file works just like the .dmg files you often download from the Internet and use to install third-party applications, like Firefox and Skype.  In fact, if you open a .dmg file and then type the command ‘mount’ in the terminal, you will see that the operating system is looking at the .dmg file in exactly the same way it looks at discs you load using the SuperDrive.

To preserve the type of file system the optical disc is using, you can Disk Utility’s ability to create images. Here’s how:

1. Insert a data CD or DVD into your computer’s SuperDrive and launch Disk Utility (located in your [User] > Applications > Utilities folder)
2. From the source menu on the left, select your disc drive. It should have a CD icon next to the manufacturer’s name and a model number
3. Click on the New Image icon in the Toolbar at the top of the Disk Utility window
4. Select a save location as well as a name for the image file you are about to create
5. Be sure to select “DVD/CD master” as the Image Format and leave Encryption set to none
6. Click Save

At this point, Disk Utility will create a copy of the CD or DVD that you had in the SuperDrive. To mount this file as a drive, simply double-click on the file in the Finder.  Your file will be mounted just as if the original disc was inserted into your SuperDrive. This only works for data discs, not movies or music.  You can even reverse this process and burn a physical disc from an image that was created by Disk Utility.  To burn a disc from a .cdr image, you need to:

1. Open the image file in Disk Utility (File > Open Disk Image… in the menu bar)
2. Find and select the image file
3. Click on the Burn icon on the Toolbar
4. Insert a blank disc of appropriate size into the SuperDrive
5. Click Burn

Disk Utility will burn the disk image from the hard drive to the optical disc.  Again, this only works for data discs, not music CDs or movie DVDs, but it should help you get started on de-cluttering your physical media collection.

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Since Gmail supports POP, all you need is a POP email program to download your emails from the cloud while still keeping a copy out there on the server. Built into OS X is Apple Mail, but you can easily do this with Entourage/Outlook. Stick with a program that supports OS X’s built-in Spotlight search and indexing system, though, for reasons that I’ll describe below.

1. You’ll need to login to your Gmail as always and then go to “Settings” and then to “Forwarding and POP/IMAP.”
   
2. In the middle section will be “POP Download.” Click on the radio button next to “Enable POP for all mail.“

This will allow your mail program to download old and new mail as well as your sent items. In that same section are “Configuration Instructions” for supported programs, including Apple Mail and Outlook. If your program isn’t listed, like Entourage, check “other” for general configuration instructions that seem to work pretty well in general.

Each time your open up your desktop email program, all your emails since your last connection will be downloaded, while also leaving them intact on Google’s system. On average, I open that program once a month or so as part of regular maintenance . No need to keep the program running or actually use it for sending email — just leave it open long enough for it to download your recent messages.

Now that the emails are physically on your computer, you can then incorporate them into your backup routine with online backup services, Time Machine, or whatever other local backup option you choose. If you use a Spotlight-enabled email program, you can then search your Gmail and your desktop computer all with one search. I find this handy when I can’t remember when a date for an event is. A Spotlight search will look in my iCal and my previously-downloaded Gmails in one query.

Another added bonus of regularly downloaded Gmails is that should your Gmail get hacked and you are locked out, Google will sometimes ask you questions about recent emails or contacts. Having that information downloaded in your desktop program means you can easily answer their questions. When my account was hacked, the hacker deleted all sent emails to cover her/his tracks so my backup was incredibly helpful in this case.

Living in the cloud is great, but occasionally it’s a good idea to ground yourself and back up your important data. Luckily, with Gmail and your Mac, that’s incredibly easy to do.

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Backblaze

Instead of configuring what BackBlaze backs up, you tell it what NOT to back up. It automatically excludes certain system files and won’t back up individual files larger than 4GB, but otherwise it’ll grab everything else on all your connected drives by default. Too often in my line of work, I see online backup systems miss files because they were put in the wrong folder. Backblaze’s exclusionary configuration greatly reduces the chances of that happening.

Another unique feature of Backblaze is its ability to overnight you a hard drive (currently $189) in case of failure. Carbonite doesn’t currently offer this option, and Mozy will ship your data via DVD for $29.95 plus 50 cents per GB. Anyone who’s suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure knows waiting days and weeks for an online service restoration only adds insult to injury.

Tech support with Backblaze was also much better than my experience with other providers. While they missed their 24 hour response window, the advice they gave was helpful and accurate and I didn’t suffer the off-shore language barrier I experienced with Carbonite and Mozy. After my trial was over, I signed up my main Mac with Backblaze, knowing that I had quality support when I had questions.

I also liked the fact I could create a supplemental security password and encryption key that can’t be reset. I tried many times to convince them to reset the password and they simply wouldn’t, which is good practice from a security standpoint, just make sure that you won’t forget that password or you’ll be up the creek without a paddle.

From a technical perspective, Backblaze’s software is simply outstanding. They were one of the first on the scene with a 64-bit version for Snow Leopard, beating out both Carbonite and Mozy. The software runs as a System Preference pane, but doesn’t require admin access to configure or disable. Unlike Mozy or Carbonite, Backblaze allows a full throttle upload capability using all available upload bandwidth. When it’s set to high it really flies!

My only major complaint with Backblaze is the fact that while backups can be scheduled to start, they can’t be set to stop at a certain time. This is part of their philosophy that backups should be constant. With set time windows, backups could be missed and data lost. Still, I’d personally like the option to set an end time.

Pricing is $5.00 a month, or $50 a year, for unlimited backup. For most users, when compared to Mozy or Carbonite, Backblaze is simply a superior choice. That is, until you check out CrashPlan.

CrashPlan

I first used CrashPlan many years ago, way before Mozy and Carbonite were household names. At the time, their focus was on local and peer-to-peer backups. CrashPlan has grown up considerably since then. The basic software is free for home users. Consumers can download the software and backup to a local hard drive or to another person running the software who gives them permission. For $59.99, CrashPlan+ adds features such as hourly backups, customer support and no ads.

CrashPlan Central is an option within the general CrashPlan software (regular or plus). Central provides online backups with unlimited storage, with tiered pricing for single and multiple-computer licenses. Similar to Backblaze, you can allow your backup to use the maximum upload bandwidth to allow for quick initial backups.

The software is an application that runs in the background, but not as a System Preference or with a menu bar icon. CrashPlan uses inclusionary, rather than exclusionary, backups. Changing the configuration does not require the Administrator password, but CrashPlan can optionally request one of its own. I really liked this option because I feel a regular user should not be able to change or configure the backup.

However, this isn’t just an application that runs on your Mac. Because CrashPlan talks to Central to do backups, the developers realized the conversation could be two-way. With the CrashPlan account password, you can go to their website and directly modify the preferences for your own Mac anywhere in the world. For example, I was able to turn down the throttle on the initial backup when my ISP requested I do so.

Other unique settings CrashPlan offers is the ability to tweet or email you when backups are completed. Plus, you can specify how many versions of files CrashPlan should keep, and it can modify its actions based on user activity and percent of CPU being used. If you can imagine it, you can configure it with CrashPlan.

In my opinion, the killer feature of CrashPlan is the ability to “seed” your backup. The initial backup with online services can take many weeks for large hard drives. Crashplan allows you to create a local encrypted backup to your hard drive that you can ship to them and they’ll add that data to your CrashPlan account.

That initial upload can then take a few days instead of a few weeks with no impact to your system or bandwidth. This service runs the opposite way as well: They can ship you a hard drive with all your data to do a full restore. The service isn’t cheap at $150, but it’s well worth it for those who need it.

CrashPlan Central’s pricing is extremely competitive. For one user, Central is $54 a year, and goes down if you agree to a multi-year deal. They also have an extremely generous family plan. For $100 a year, you can back up as many computers as you own. That could include the machines of anyone in your family, no matter their location. The only catch is the account owner can see all the files (either a blessing or curse depending on your perspective).

One more thing: CrashPlan’s tech support was one of the best I’ve seen for any software vendor. My emails were answered quickly and professionally, but I asked for a number to call with questions. I called the number and a gentleman from Minnesota answered within two minutes. I gave him my “test scenario” that I gave to all the online backup vendors. He wasn’t really sure the answer and said he’d have to research it. Within an hour, he called, having tested the solution on his own computer and provided an extremely detailed guide to the solution worthy of inclusion in Apple’s own tech manuals.

Verdict

So after researching four backup services, which do I use? Personally I’ve been extremely happy with Backblaze. The high-speed uploading combined with the peace of mind that I can quickly get a drive of my data convinced me this was the backup service of choice for my main computer. I’m committed to them after spending all that time uploading the data and while CrashPlan is attractive, I’m happy with my service from Backblaze.

However, should Backblaze ever stop being awesome (and recent blog posts about buyouts and extended downtown indicate cause for concern), I’ll happily send my data over to CrashPlan and have started recommending it more and more to my clients. I also use CrashPlan for some of my other, secondary systems.

So who wins? It’s CrashPlan on all accounts. The ability to seed the backup, combined with amazing tech support and family-friendly pricing makes it an irresistible choice for most users. However, Backblaze is a very strong second and beats Carbonite or Mozy hands down.

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A good backup strategy is generally something simple and automated. You “set it and forget it,” but you really shouldn’t. In my day job, I see too many teary eyes from people who thought data was backed up but it wasn’t. Just this week I had my own little panic attack when I realized Time Machine hadn’t run in a week. Somehow I accidentally unplugged the FireWire cable moving things around and my Mac really didn’t warn me Time Machine wasn’t running. Ouch.

Too often I see backup systems “glitch.” Maybe the hard drive was corrupt or a folder was moved. Unless you check backup logs way closer than everyone, you don’t find out the backup failed until you try to do a restore — and the time to do that restore isn’t when you are missing data. Even reviewing logs is no substitute for testing.

Ultimately, backing up your data isn’t important, but restoring it is! If you don’t know how, now is the time to open up the manual or call tech support and find out. Time Machine, of course is built into Mac OS, so no additional software is necessary, and Apple’s tech support can help you with it. If it’s an online backup service, do you remember your password? For local backups, do you have the software to do the restoration? Does someone else in your family or organization know how to do the restore in your absence?

Once you know how to do a restore, the key is to actually try it, and do it regularly. This is no matter how bulletproof you think your strategy is. No software or process is foolproof and do you really want to pay for forensic-style data recovery like Drivesavers? I recommend creating a short list of files to restore. Mine usually includes the following:

1. Absolutely mission critical files. The files you are least willing to lose. For me that’s my financial data, my customer list and my calendar. Each time I test a restore I choose one of these. Most people also choose their pictures, but I leave pictures to the spouse.
2. Critical folders. These can be broad. I use my main business folder as the test restore. When doing a restore, I always restore this folder.
3. Important stuff. These are files that would be nice to have, but you could live without. For many, this may include their iTunes data. You could repurchase or re-import these items but it would be a pain. For the important stuff, just pick a few files at random.

When you do a test restore, you’ll want to make sure to restore the files to an alternate location — don’t accidentally overwrite your current version.

How often to test? That’s a difficult question and ultimately is answered by “how much data are you willing to lose?” Testing too often becomes tedious and is quickly abandoned, but waiting too long to test could lead to data loss. For no particular reason, I’ve determined once a month is a good strategy for me. Because my most critical data is financial, I run a test backup each time I do a reconcile. The process usually takes less than five minutes and I keep a quick spreadsheet of which files to test.

What have you got to lose by spending five minutes a month testing your backups by doing a restore? Just your data…that’s all.

First on my list was the obvious change of reference from .Mac to MobileMe. Also on my list were modifications to the backup Quickpicks. Apple removed the out-of-date reference to Internet Explorer, but still fails to include backup of non-Apple products such as Quickbooks or Firefox. The Internet Explorer reference was the only noticeable change to the Quickpicks.

Missing from the update were my feature requests for encrypted backup and backup of iPhone data. Maybe that will be in 3.5. This was, after all, only a minor point release.

Still, some new features were added and the update isn’t merely a modernization of antiquated references to outdated products. Part of this modernization is a requirement for Leopard or higher to run.

Backup’s file structure for iDisk has changed and your first new backup will be a “Full backup,” which means it can take some time. You’ll still be able to restore from old backups, but you won’t be able to append to them. Fortunately, Backup duplicates your old backup scripts. Be prepared for the additional time of a full backup. Backups to hard disks or DVDs appear to remain unchanged.

Another feature of iDisk backups is automatic recycling of old backups. Previously with Backup, if you set a scheduled backup to the iDisk, you’d eventually fill it up and have to delete your oldest backups and sometimes completely start from scratch. Backup 3.2 now will automatically delete your oldest backup. For daily backups, that’s after 30 days and for weekly that’s 12 weeks. This schedule is not changeable. The only way to prevent recycled backups to an iDisk is to set it up for a manual schedule. For many people that’s just fine and is consistent with other online services such as Carbonite and Mozy.

Backing up to local media or a network share remains mostly unchanged. The language of the backup schedule slightly changed and Backup no longer allows a backup schedule of every six months. The most you can schedule on an interval is a quarter (in 3.1.2 referred to as 3 months). Recycled backups to non-iDisk destinations allows recycling to be optional.

In quick testing I noticed an obvious change in speed of both the backups and the restores. My first full backup via 3.2 took less time than my incremental backups in 3.1.2! Similarly, old restores are typically a pain and take an inordinate amount of time for even small files. I used my address book files as a test file. In total, that folder is about 16MB. Restoring from the iDisk took about 10 minutes with 3.1.2. After doing my full backup with 3.2, restore took less than a minute. Awesome! My network backups also completed restores in record time. Clearly the file structure is improved.

If it’s been a while since you used Backup, now might be the time to give it another try. Apple states it has improved the “overall reliability” and from what I’ve seen so far it’s true. If you’ve got that extra space on iDisk, might as well use it as another backup destination. Realize the backup is not encrypted, though. Hopefully that’s in the 3.5 or 4.0 version.

For those interested in cloud computing or data centers, check out our Structure conference in June.

The problem, though, is that syncing is not backing up.

Syncing’s main focus is making sure your data is accessible and identical at multiple locations. If you have a disaster at one of these locations, a syncing service will make sure you still have access to your stuff. That’s handy and is seen by people as a way of backing up. Lose your iPhone and your contacts are accessible via the web. Sync to Dropbox and if your MacBook hard drive dies, you can access your synced files via the web or another computer.

Unfortunately, syncing operates under the age-old computer principle of Garbage In Garbage Out. When syncing is working properly, a change made on one device is propagated to the web and to all other devices. If that change was unintended, the service might have a previous revision, but don’t count on it. A problem with data on one device is copied to all other devices in your sync scheme.

When it’s not working properly, stand back because things get ugly. I was a recent victim of this. I’ll be polite and won’t mention the name of the service, but it wasn’t a “sweet” experience. Somehow this company’s database was corrupt for my account and instead of syncing changes I made on my Mac to my PC, the server decided I had deleted a critical folder. I literally watched as the software started deleting folders from my Mac without warning or confirmation. I immediately unplugged my Internet connection to minimize the damage. While only the fates of the cloud know what really happened, the post-mortem analysis I had with their engineers indicated my PC’s sync database somehow “thought” I no longer had a folder on my hard drive and then told the cloud to delete it from other computers. Blame it on a PC to mess up a Mac. Of course, their server didn’t have a backup. A two-fisted punch right to the gut.

These same concerns also hold true for your calendars and contacts from MobileMe. Even though you sync them to the cloud, you should still perform a local backup of your Address Book and iCal. Don’t be lulled by the siren of the cloud assuring you that your data is safe. The cloud is a jealous mistress who can swipe data right from your hard drive. Being old school, I don’t fully trust syncing or the cloud and so I fully backup my hard drive via Time Machine and dedicated online backup services. While my sour experience was annoying, I was able to quickly recover.

Others have not been so lucky. Account and database corruption are a fact of computing and because syncing doesn’t only copy data, but remove it, it’s not a backup solution. A true backup solution cannot remove data from your drive, only copy it. Whenever I read backup software reviews, commenters ask why synchronization services aren’t mentioned. Now you know why.

Don’t rely on services like MobileMe and Dropbox as a backup. Your data will thank you.

I love Time Machine for its simplicity and the fact that it’s free. Apple did the right thing in creating a backup utility that was integrated into the OS and was actually useful. Anyone who has fought with Windows Backup can tell you, this has been needed for a long time. Apple created a beautiful backup  utility and then made money on hardware that seamlessly works with it. For the home user, nothing could be more simple.

In the office environment however, users tend to backup to server shares and not local external drives. So, let’s take a look at how to use Time Machine over a network.

Setting it Up

It’s easy to do this in Leopard Xserve by sharing a backup folder. Under Server Admin, you can check the box “Enable as Time Machine backup destination.”

This worked great in Leopard but in Snow Leopard, Time Machine no longer saw this as an available destination. Luckily, changing a property for System Preferences solves this.

Enter this command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

This tells Time Machine to treat network shares as possible backup locations. Now, when I go to select a disk in the Time Machine preferences, I see my mounted AFP share listed.

Restoring

So that’s how you get the Time Machine backup working, but what about restoring. Most people don’t test the restore functionality but it’s the most important thing you can do. To restore a Time Machine backup over an AFP connection,  first boot off the Snow Leopard install DVD. Then, Launch Terminal by clicking on the Utilities menu. In the terminal window, type the following commands.

mkdir /Volumes/TimeMachine
mount -t afp afp://user:password@afpserver.local/ShareName /Volumes/TimeMachine

This will mount your AFP share and make it available to restore from. Quit Terminal and then run “Restore from Backup” from the Utilities menu. You will see your backup listed and you should now be able to restore from it.

Time Machine is a very nice utility and if you aren’t using it, you should be. I even have other Xserves backing themselves up to this share using Time Machine. Sure, there are third-party applications out there can do so much more, but I’m for just getting the job done. Integration with the OS is also important to me. It’s the main reasons I use Safari as my main browser. As with all backup solutions though, you need to test the restore functionality once in a while. If anything, you might sleep better at night knowing your data is not only safe but recoverable.

So Aperture 3 is finally out. The trial has been an absolute dream to play with. It doesn’t upgrade your existing Aperture 2 library, so you need to test it on newly imported images. However, for those who immediately bit the bullet and upgraded with a full license, it hasn’t been all roses. If you’re new to Aperture in version 3, you may carry on with your day — but if you’re moving from version 2 to the 3, you should probably read on.

Hopefully, you’re reading this before you’ve run into any problems. Here at TheAppleBlog, we aim to lessen your pain. It should go without saying, but please, please, make sure you’ve got at least one backup of your Aperture library. You should have this on any given day of course, but it counts double when you’re planning on upgrading and performing any changes to software in general. With that public service announcement out of the way, we can talk tragedies (hopefully averted).

I haven’t had issues first hand (thankfully), because I’m still just using the trial version on a newly created version 3 library. But as my father-in-law dove right in, he’s had nothing but pain and frustration as Aperture 3 has attempted to update his existing library to the newer database structure. Looking at the Apple Support forums for Aperture shows that he’s not alone.

The culprit seems to be at the point in time when the library file is being converted/upgraded. The beach ball of death comes on full force, and in turn makes the Mac unusable. This can go on for hours! At best you can restart and avoid the upgrade until there’s a fix to the issue — at worst, you may lose library data.

Apple Support has recommended trying the Aperture Library First Aid. You have the option to Repair Permissions, Repair Database, or Rebuild Database with this tool. To access, you’ll need to open an Aperture Library file directly, and hold Option+Command while doing so. These processes have not proven to fix the issue, but are at least worth attempting.

116 responses (at the time of this write-up) may not be a lot, relatively speaking, but clearly represents an issue to be aware of. If you’re considering buying the upgrade to Aperture 3, you may want to keep an eye on this forum until there’s an identified issue or fix. Happy upgrading!

Thanks to Tom for the tip on this, and good luck!