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Data Backup

Follow the directions below to back up the data on your computer. If you need help, Tekserve offers data backup services starting at $59 (if your computer is functioning normally).

What do you need to know?


Favorite Backup Tools from Tekserve

Start backing up today by calling (212) 929-3645 x4 to have anything delivered or stop by our shop on 23rd St to pick them up (Tekserve's hours & location). Either way we can help assess your computer backup needs and find the best products for you. Check out all your data backup options in Tekserve's product catalog section for storage & backup.

The Basics of Backing Up

What is a backup?

A backup is a copy of your files on another storage device (another hard drive, CD or DVD, or even an online account.)

Why should I backup?

Even the most reliable computer can fail or experience data corruption. Computers can be left in taxis, dropped, or damaged in fires. You could accidentally delete your wedding or baby pictures. A warranty may cover failure of computer hardware but there is no warranty protection for the operating system, applications, data loss or corruption. While the causes of software and hardware problems are many, the solution is simple. Back it up!

We recommend making two, or even three, backups of precious files. We also suggest keeping at least one copy at a different location in case of fire or theft. Sooner or later you are guaranteed to lose data some how. Fortunately there are many ways to backup your Macintosh.

What makes hard drives prone to failure?

Hard drives are incredible feats of engineering. When they were first invented fifty years ago, they were the size of a refrigerator. Now they can be the size of your thumb, and hold more data than that fridge-sized drive did. Twenty years ago you only had a few term papers on your hard drive, but now you have your email, your photos, your music and much more. It's one very concentrated point of potential failure.

Inside every hard drive are one or more platters (usually glass) coated with magnetic material. The platter is spinning at 4,200 to 10,000 RPM. There are tiny read/write "heads" floating over the platter on delicate arms. The distance from head to platter is less than the breadth of a human hair. If the head accidentally touches the platter, it acts like a snowplow, scraping the magnetic material and your data off the platter. Forever. That's just one way they can fail.

The most common causes of data loss are:

  1. Mechanical failure of the drive caused by being dropped, bumped while in use, or manufacturer defect.
  2. Data corruption or directory damage caused by forgetting to eject disks before removing them (unplugging or powering them down), computer crashes, viruses, power loss, or plain bad luck.
  3. Accidental deletion of files by emptying the trash, reformatting the hard drive, or reinstalling the operating system.
  4. Environmental disasters like fires, floods, power surges, or extreme heat & humidity.

Drive technology is improving all the time--they have "loading ramps" and "Sudden Motion Sensors" and "Perpendicular Recording" and other acronymizable features. Every day they figure out how to cram more data into less space, so while they are making the drives smarter and safer, they are making the data denser and more fragile. Backups are the safety net that can turn a disaster into no big deal.

What should I backup my data onto?

Start with an external hard drive that is as least as big as your internal hard drive for simple backups or bootable clones. We recommend an external hard drive twice the size as your internal drive for incremental backups like Time Machine. (Select your hard drive and go to File>Get Info to see your hard drive's capacity.) Which type of external hard drive you should purchase depends on which ports your computer has. If your computer has FireWire, get an external FireWire hard drive. If your computer only has USB, get a USB external hard drive.

After you've got that setup you have lots of options. CDs and DVDs are great ways to store data cheaply and are easy to transport. USB flash drives are ultra-portable and are a great way to keep your documents with you, no matter where you are. If you have a fast upload speed on your Internet connection (or are very patient) you can use an online storage service like MobileMe, CrashPlan, or Drop Box. A free alternative (if you can remember to do it frequently) is to email yourself files to a service like Gmail. If you travel often or, just don't have a lot of space, take a look at a portable external hard drive. They fit in the palm of your hand and are an easy way to always have data with you (but please leave a second copy at your home or office).

How to Choose the Right Backup Strategy

Here are the three methods of backing up data. Choose a style that suits your needs and an external hard drive to go with it. Time Machine, included with OS X 10.5 Leopard and later, is a great primary backup solution for most, except FileVault users. However, to ensure against all types of failures you should use two of the methods below on two separate storage devices and keep one backup in a separate location.

Simple Copy Backup

Drag your most important files to another disk, USB drive, CD, or network drive. (You can't drag an entire hard drive because it'll create an alias to the drive instead of copying it.) Everything you don't drag is left to chance. Even just burning a disc with your word documents and baby pictures is a step in the right direction. The drawback of this method is that if your entire computer crashes it will take a long time to reload everything. If you have the space, try to backup your entire User folder. (Located in Macintosh HD/Users/yourname) This should give you a copy of all your user data but won't copy your operating system or programs. If you are backing up your files by hand, don't forget the following:

Type Location
Applications, music, or movies that you have downloaded Keep and backup all the original installation files and disk images of files that you download.
Address Book data /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
iCal data /Users/yourname/Library/Calendars
Mail data  /Users/yourname/Library/Mail
Safari bookmarks  /Users/yourname/Library/Safari 
Firefox bookmarks  /Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profile

Some programs have special commands to help you save backup files--Address Book has a Backup Address Book option under the File menu, iTunes has Back Up To Disk, and most web browsers have Export Bookmarks But backing up your entire User Folder is really better than trying to pick and choose!

Complete Bootable Clones

By using software you can make an exact copy of everything on your hard drive (including invisible system files and "permissions"). If your hard drive crashes you will be able to work off your bootable clone on a similar Mac. This is vital if you don't have several hours to restore from an incremental backup when failures occur. With a bootable clone, all you have to do is attach your external hard drive to a working Mac and hold down the Option key when you start the machine. This will allow you to choose your bootable clone backup as the startup disk and continue working just like you were using your regular machine. (Make sure you have a second backup now because your backup drive just became your main hard drive!) Tekserve rents Apple computers at a flat rate to our repair customers, so we've got you covered even if you don't have access to a spare Mac.

Then when your machine is finished being repaired you can clone your backup over to the repaired machine quickly with all the changes or additions you've made since. The drawback of this method is that it only backs up the current versions of your files; if you accidentally delete or change something you won't have a backup of it. We've had good experience with SuperDuper for making bootable clones. Read our step-by-step instructions on how to setup a bootable clone backup.

Incremental Backup (Time Machine)

This method copies all the information from your hard drive once and then creates a file with all the changes and additions you've made each time you backup. This allows you to restore files you've deleted since your last backup or changed accidentally. In rare cases if one backup increment becomes corrupted (incorrect) you may not be able to restore files created after that point. Which is why you should test your incremental backup periodically by trying to restore files. Retrospect is the current gold standard in Macintosh incremental backup for business networks, but it's not always intuitive to use. Time Machine in OS X 10.5 Leopardand later is simpler to use and perfect for most home users.

How often should I backup?

The answer to this question really depends on how often you use your computer. Think about what you did with your Mac in the last 24 hours, the last few days, the last week and the last month. If you would be unhappy losing data created within the last 24 hours, you should backup at least once a day. If you wouldn't start to sweat unless you lost at least two weeks of data, you should backup once a week. Time Machine will create backups for every hour of the last 24 hours, every day of the last month, and every week past that until your backup disk is full. The important thing is to REMEMBER to backup. Either use software that automatically schedules itself to backup frequently or put reminders in your calendar.

Why should I make multiple backups?

Although one backup can protect you from the majority of failures, you should consider making two just in case. We like to keep a bootable clone around so we always have a complete copy of everything that we can work with in case of a failure. In addition, an incremental backup insures that we have every file we've worked with, in case we accidentally delete something. If you keep a second backup in a different location (work, safety deposit box, Mom's house) you'll be sure to have your data even if your office is in a flood or fire or if your backup drive is stolen along with your computer. Please take the time to at least put copies of irreplaceable photos and documents on disks and send them to a friend across the country (have them do the same).

It's important to remember that computers can be lost, stolen or damaged. Separate backups of your data can help you recover quickly.

How To Create a Bootable Clone Backup

We recommend making a bootable clone backup before any repair if you can. You can also use Time Machine or any other backup solution, but a bootable clone will give you a complete copy of everything on your computer. In most cases, you can continue to use your applications and data normally with any similar Mac during the repair. You can even rent a Mac from Tekserve if you don't have a spare.

Warning for Users with Windows installed via BootCamp

If you have Windows installed on a separate partition using BootCamp, these instructions won't backup the Windows partition of your computer. You need to backup any files, programs, or settings from Windows separately.

You'll Need:

  1. 1 to 4 hours (about 30 minutes of set-up and hours of waiting depending on how much data you have on your hard drive). It's usually easiest to set it up to run overnight.
  2. Blank external hard drive at least as large as your computer's internal hard drive. (Select your hard drive and go to File>Get Info to see your hard drive's capacity.) If your computer has a FireWire port, we recommend getting a FireWire external hard drive. If your computer doesn't have FireWire, get a USB 2.0 external hard drive. Call (212) 381-6300 to order one and have it delivered or stop by. 
  3. SuperDuper! (OS X 10.4 or later) or SilverKeeper (OS 9.2.2, 10.2.8-10.4.11). Both of these programs are free to create your first bootable clone.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

A. Prepare the external hard drive by reformatting it.

  1. WARNING: Formatting the drive will erase any data on the drive. Make sure you backup any data you want to keep before proceeding.
  2. Attach the external hard drive to your Mac with the FireWire cable (preferred if your computer has a FireWire port) or the USB cable. Some hard drives need to be plugged into a power outlet or have an "on" switch hidden somewhere.
  3. Open Disk Utility from Applications/Utilities.
  4. You should see the external hard drive listed in the left pane of the Disk Utility. (It will usually be listed twice. Once with the capacity of the drive and its technical name and then below that you'll see the drive's name as it appears on your desktop.) Select the listing for your drive with its capacity and technical name. Then select the Partition pane from the options in the upper center area.Disk Utility Partition Screen Shot
  5. In the drop down box under Volume Scheme, select how many partitions you would like the drive to have. For today's purposes one partition is fine. If your external hard drive is much larger than your internal drive you can divide it into two partitions. One partition will be used for the bootable clone and you can use the other partition for something else. (Keep in mind that separate backups on the same drive doesn't really give you twice the protection. If the external hard drive fails you'll still lose both backups.)
  6. Name each partition and adjust its size. For the bootable clone backup, create a partition the same size or larger than your internal hard drive will work. We recommend a partition that is about 10% larger than your internal hard drive, if you plan to continue to backup your computer this way.
  7. MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Select the Options button below the partition boxes. If you are using the drive with Intel-based Macs select "GUID Partition Table." If you are using the drive with a PowerPC-based Mac, select "Apple Partition Map." Click OK.
  8. From the Format drop-down box, select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."
  9. Click Apply and then after reading the confirmation dialog, click Partition.

B. Download and install SuperDuper! (OS X 10.4 or later) or SilverKeeper (OS 9.2.2 & 10.2.8 to 10.4.11). These programs are free to create your first bootable clone.

C. Each program is a little different but in general this is how you setup your first bootable clone:

  1. Select your computer's internal hard drive (usually Macintosh HD) in the left drop down menu (a.k.a Copy From/Source).
  2. Select your backup hard drive in the right drop down menu (a.k.a Copy To/Destination).
  3. Start the backup by pressing Copy Now/Go.

D. The first backup should take several hours. You can continue to work on your computer during the backup but anything you update may not get backed up.

E. Once the backup is completed. You need to test it.

  1. Connect the external hard drive to the computer with a FireWire cable (if your Mac has FireWire) or a USB cable (if your Mac only has USB). Restart your computer and hold down the option key as the computer restarts.
  2. A gray screen with two (or more) hard drives will appear. Select your backup drive.
  3. The computer will then start up from your backup drive instead of its regular internal hard drive. (It's normal for it to take longer to startup.)
  4. If you're running OS 10.4.6 or later, go to the Apple menu in the upper left corner and select About This Mac. In the resulting window, make sure your backup drive is listed as the "Startup Disk." If you're running OS 10.4.5 or earlier, check that the backup drive is the first drive listed on your desktop. If your backup drive isn't listed in one of these places, then you haven't started up from the external drive, try again.
  5. Once booted from the external hard drive, open a few files and applications to make sure everything is working. If everything looks good, you're done! Shut down your computer, unplug the backup drive, and put the drive in a safe place.

F. Bring your computer into Tekserve anytime for repair (no appointment necessary). Special reward for reading the backup instructions: The best time to come in for service is when it rains or snows, wait time are almost always the shortest.

For Users of Software Requiring Online Activation (iTunes Music Store, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Draft)

You should deactivate any applications that required online activation before any major repair. If you forget, you may have to contact the software developer to reset your activations. Here are the most common programs we see, but there are many more.

  • iTunes Music Store: Log into your account by clicking on your email address in the iTunes store (or click the Sign In button). Under the Store menu select Deauthorize Computer. After the repair, you'll follow the same steps and select Authorize Computer to play your iTunes Music Store purchases again. You can authorize up to five different computers at time. If you forgot to deauthorize your computer before the repair, you can reset your authorizations once a year. See Apple support article HT1420 for details.
  • Adobe Creative Suite 2 or later: Go to the Help menu to deactivate any Adobe software that you installed. Call (800) 833-6687 if you have problems.
  • Final Draft: While connected to the Internet, select "Deactivate" from the Help menu. Call (818) 789-6281 if you have problems.

How to Setup and Use Time Machine

How do I start using Time Machine?

You'll need a Mac running OS X 10.5 Leopard or later and an external hard drive or Time Capsule to use Time Machine. (You can also use an additional internal hard drive on a Mac Pro or a networked drive, but an external hard drive is simple and portable.) The capacity of your external hard drive determines how far back Time Machine will keep data backups for you. We generally recommend an external hard drive twice the size of your computer's hard drive.

First you'll want to prepare the external hard drive by reformatting it. Then with the drive plugged into your computer, go to your System Preferences and select the Time Machine icon. There you can turn Time Machine on and select your external hard drive as the backup disk. The first Time Machine backup will usually take a while, so you may want to set it up to run overnight. Later backups will be much faster. Time Machine will continue making automatic backups for every hour of the last 24 hours, every day of the last month, and every week past that until your backup disk is full.

What should I do when my Time Machine backup drive fills up?

As your backup drive fills up, Time Machine will delete older backups to make room for new ones. Launch Time Machine and check how many weeks you are able to browse through. If you don't mind loosing the older data, then you don't need to do anything.

If you want to save the older files, you'll need to attach a new backup disk. After you attach the new disk, open Time Machine preferences and click Change Disk to choose it as your Time Machine backup disk. You'll be able to access your older backups anytime by attaching your old backup disk (store the old backup disk in another location in case of a disaster).

Time Machine fills up my backup drive too fast. What can I do?

If your hard drive is as least twice as large as the amount of data you are backing up, you should be able to get through at least a month of backups. If you can't, there are a few very specific types of files that may be causing your problems. You can exclude items from future backups to save space. Open Time Machine preferences and click Options. Then click the plus sign (+) to add items that you don't want backed up. Make sure you have separate backups of anything you exclude.

An incremental backup works by storing all the files you've added or deleted since the last backup. This works well with sets of individual files because each file is stored separately. This works very poorly with applications, like Entourage, that use one large database file to store all your information. (This was fixed in Microsoft Office 2011's version of Outlook.) With a program like Entourage, every time you receive an email, it changes the database file. Time Machine treats the changed database as a new file and backs up the entire database file. If you have a large email database, this can fill up your backup drive pretty fast. You can exclude database files but make sure to setup another backup plan for any files you exclude.

If you run Windows with Parallels or VMWare, your computer stores a large disk image of the entire operating system installation. This file changes every time you do anything in Windows and will fill up your Time Machine drive fast. You'll want to exclude the disk image from Time Machine backups and use the Parallels or VMWare's snapshot feature to backup your Windows installations instead. If you use Parallels, exclude the file ending in .hdd from Macintosh HD/users/yourname/Documents/Parallels/virtual machine name. If you use VMWare, exclude the file ending in .vmwarevm from Macintosh HD/users/yourname/Documents/Virtual Machines.

If you edit a lot of large files (1GB+), you can end up filling up a backup drive pretty quickly. This is because every time you edit a large file, Time Machine will save the new version as a separate file. You may want to exclude some files or use a different backup solution.