Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Internet, because otherwise you run a slight risk that a hacker could
intercept your private data while it's in transit.
Tip:
Regardless of which method you use, I strongly suggest making
a full backup just before you leave for your trip. That will minimize
the amount of data you have to back up during your trip, and give
you a safety net in case your laptop is stolen.
Local Backups
When your concern is to maintain backups of just the files you're
actively working on (as might be the case if you do full backups when
you return home or to the office), you have more flexibility in choosing
storage media, since massive capacity is unnecessary.
USB flash drives are ubiquitous, tiny, and inexpensive at modest
capacities, so they make a good choice for backups on the road. Ditto
for SD cards, if you have a Mac laptop with a built-in SD card reader.
Because flash storage of either sort can get pricey at high capacities,
it's less well suited for backing up an entire disk—see
Hardware You
(Probably) Shouldn't Consider and Why
—but if you have only a few
gigabytes to back up, flash drives and SD cards are quite handy.
Flash Drives for Laptop Backups
Although you could use any flash drive to back up a few files, some
drives are designed expressly for this purpose.
Lexar Echo MX
drives
look like ordinary flash drives but include Mac backup software and
come in capacities up to 128 GB. The ultra-tiny
Lexar Echo ZX
drives
have the same software, but go up to only 32 GB.
Alternatively, if your Mac notebook has a built-in SuperDrive (or if
you've brought along an external SuperDrive for it), that makes optical
media a convenient option while on the road—even though, as I've said
repeatedly, I don't recommend it for day-to-day backups. You can store
a number of blank discs comfortably in the computer's carrying case
and can perform backups without needing any external hardware.
