Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Automate Backup and Syncing
Anyone who has followed my writing for Macworld, TidBITS, or Take Control over the last
decadeisundoubtedlyawareofmypassionate insistence ongoodbackups.I'vewritten several
topics and lots of articles on the topic (including
Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac
), and
I preach about the importance of backups at every opportunity.
In this topic, I'm not going to try to convince you to back up your Mac; I'll take for granted that
you already know that's a good idea. Instead, I want to focus on
automating
backups. Believe
it or not, there are still people who back up important files by dragging them to another disk
once a day. Still others use backup software to do the job, but they back up only when they
remember to run that software.
My feeling is that if you don't have hands-off backups, you're doing it wrong. Backups should
happen all by themselves—whether once a week or multiple times an hour—without any
intervention. Not only does it require extra effort to launch a backup app and click a button,
it's an interruption—one you might put off if you're too busy, or forget about at a crucial
moment right before losing data!
In this chapter, I talk about three backup scenarios—using Time Machine, using a third-party
tool that creates versioned backups, and creating bootable duplicates. You may not use all of
these methods, but whichever one(s) you use, they should be automated.
I also talk briefly about automating syncing files between Macs. Although that doesn't count
as backup in my topic, many of the same assumptions apply—and you may even be able to use
the same software for both backups and syncing.
Run Backups Automatically with Time Machine
Time Machine is the backup capability that Apple built into OS X. It's not necessarily the best
backup tool, but it's reasonably good. Most importantly, it's extremely easy to set up, making
it the path of least resistance for many users.
Time Machine ordinarily runs once an hour, backing up whatever has changed or been added
since the previous hourly run. This happens in the background, with barely any visible clue.
So, if you've set up Time Machine already, and you've kept the default options, there's nothing
more to see here—move along to the next topic.
If you haven't already set up Time Machine and would like to—or if you configured it but
turned off automatic backups—keep reading.
