News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

May 7, 2007

tips

Keep your backups healthy

Posted May. 7, ’07, 7:46 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Tips

DiskWarrior Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that you have been listening to our advice to backup your data. You bought a copy of the excellent SuperDuper and regularly clone your system. If you’re really doing that, I applaud you. If you’re lying to me with your mind as you read this, I can’t hear you. And you still need to back up your system.

Here’s another question you may not want to answer. Are you regularly checking the health of your backups? In theory, there should be no directory damage on them. However, the same could be said for the system you’re using right now. Things go wrong at the worst times and that’s why you need these backups in the first place.

As part of your backup regiment, build in using a disk utility on those backups. If you’re doing this on the cheap, Apple’s Disk Utility is sufficient. However, if you really care about your data, you probably already have a copy of my personal favorite disk maintenance utility, DiskWarrior. Not only is great for maintaining the health of your current disk (and recovering from disasters on it), but it’ll treat a backup as well. Any other disk maintenance utility should do the trick as well.

Yes, it’s another step and it’s a pain, just like regularly backing up, but the one time it saves your bacon will make it all worth it.


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