Over the many years we found that using a combination of two programs (both free), will allow you to have a great backup system for your local Mac. All that you will need is to have an external hard drive (or preferably two).
The two programs that we use are SuperDuper (which you can download free version from Shirt-pocket.com.
Here is a link: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
This program allows you to create a complete, full, bootable working copy of your hard drive to an external drive. This is an amazing little utility that works well. If you need assistance with setting it up the first time, call us.
The second program, which is built in to the Mac, is Time Machine.
You may ask why would you use two programs for the backup? The reason for that is that each program has its unique advantages, and the combination of both programs will allow you the best of both of worlds.
So this is how it works – as discussed above the SuperDuper program allows you full recovery. If your drive crashed, and you have your SuperDuper image created on an external drive, you can actually boot off the external drive, replace the damaged drive, restore the image back to the new drive, and you are back in business.
So where does time machine goes in? It is all about revisions. The beauty of time machine is that you can go back to a document that was modified multiple times in the last month, and pick the revision that you want to go back to (assuming something happened to the document in between). Where Time Machine allows you to go back in time to a determined point, SuperDuper will give you ONLY the last backup you made. But – SuperDuper drive can boot up and get you back to work in no time, while Time machine is not a bootable drive and you will need to install the OS and go through many steps.
Sounds a little confusing? We are here to help. We can guide you through the process to get this done, and once it is in place you don’t have to spend much time on this.
Yes, we provide Data Recovery services, and every damaged drive is a business opportunity. But, we are also on your side as an IT services company that want you to run your business with minimal down time, and as part of it we are advising you on how to protect your data. We will be there for you when you need the backup systems put in place, and in the event that there is still some data to recover – we will help you recover that data as well.