It’s all too true, yesterday I set aside some time to backup projects and files as well as reorganize and take out the trash on my Powerbook…a little spring cleaning if you will. After backing up my projects (3 DVD’s worth) and my Dump folder (my desktop catch all folder) it was off to Olive Garden with HJ for Mother’s Day, then off to Mars for church. Upon our return I planned to backup my music, videos, mail messages, etc. I opened iPhoto to show HJ a pic..then it happened…
…slowly before my eyes..images in iPhoto started to disappear…question marks replaced images as I clicked through them..I panicked and closed it down, when iPhoto was relaunched, all my photos were gone…vanished…not in the trash, nowhere..GONE! I restarted the Powerbook, when it finally came to my entire system had been reset, preferences erased, the dock was set at default, and every app I opened had been reset, no tunes in iTunes, no pics in iPhoto, no mail in Mail, all third party software was in trial version mode, Photoshop, all brushes, fonts and preferences shot to hell.
It seems like not long ago this happened. Of course, back then the entire HD burned, and I wasn’t as obsessive on backing up projects, apps, music, and mail as I am now, thus resulting in having to fully reinstall everything and start over. This time around the HD didn’t kill over, I still have all my apps., all my music is still on the HD, all my projects and files are there…. with the exception of losing all my Mail (some of which I have stored in Gmail) and all Photos I had taken in the past month, it wasn’t a total lose. I Iearned a lesson from the last crash and have been backing up files to DVD’s or external HD’s since.
So, today (since 9 am) I have sifted through over 7,000 emails reorganizing mail, emailed third party developers in hopes of getting back all my serials, and am in the process of restoring application and system preferences. NOT how I planned to kick off the week.
How do you handle system backups? What do you use to backup projects?
Anyone use an online service for backing up projects?
Technorati Tags: Apple, Powerbook, system, crash, backup, harddrive
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8 Comments So Far...-
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Joel Heflin
May 14th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
1Clint, check out http://www.mozy.com. Unlimited online backup for only $5 a month!!! I use it on both of my Macs and I LOVE IT! It is by far the cheapest and it has received great reviews. My first backup took FOREVER because I had so much to back up but after that the backups are very fast because it only backs up the files that have been modified or added. I think you would like it. I really hate that you had to deal with something as frustrating as this. Even computers as awesome as Macs have their problems. Maybe this is just a sign you need to get one of the new MacBook Pros that are about to come out.
jMac
May 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
2believe it or not i am still trying to find good software that will do daily backups AND restores with out a problem, and that will do it as a .dmg file not just clone the drive. needless to say, haven’t had any luck. let me know if you come across anything.
right now i just use disk utility to do backups.
Spencer
May 14th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
3To be honest, I don’t backup hardly ever… maybe once every 4 or 5 months. Horrible, I know. But there is an online storage service called Media Max at http://www.mediamax.com that gives you 25Gb free storage, and then you can upgrade to more storage if you need for some money. They even have a nifty drag-n-drop desktop tool to quickly add files you’ve just created and want to save online to MediaMax… kind of like Flickr Uploadr, except for storing lots of stuff.
As far as external hard drives, I use a 250Gb Maxtor, and it seems to do the trick for me.
Thanks for the reminder to backup the stuff…
Spencer
P.S. Love your site by the way. I’ve always wondered who was behind the graphics for xxxchurch.
elclinto
May 14th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
4@joel: Thanks for that…i’ll check it out..yes a new MacBook Pro is much needed…the Powerbook is going on 3 years in August…and it’s been rode hard the entire time.
@jMac: I never think to use Disc Utility until after the crash…
Maybe I should look to it more often.
@Spencer: That sounds amazing…a drag-n-drop desktop tool would be killer.
Reid Bode
May 15th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
5Hey, if you want easy, quick daily backups, get SuperDuper. It has a “Smart Backup” that updates your backup (and doesn’t have to re-copy the whole thing, taking forever). It’s really nice.
Really, you could just run it every night before you went to sleep and have daily backups.
And, you might want to head to an Apple store to see if they can figure out what’s wrong. It sounds kinda serious.
Brett Admire
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
6I’m so thankful this hasn’t happened to me yet… crap I have like 1000s of photos I need to back up…doing it tonight…
Jamie Fehr
June 5th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
7I would like to add another vote for SuperDuper, I clone my system weekly and it has saved my bacon countless times in the past. Bootable backup images are the bomb. It doesn’t do incremental updates, but I have never those before in the past.
elclinto
June 11th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
8Thanks for all the suggestions…i now have a MediaMax account…though i’m bummed that the drag-n-drop app is only for Windows.
I also downloaded SuperDuper and am putting it to good use.
Thanks again.
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