Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
you can divide a single disk into two or more
partitions,
volumes that
look and act like separate disks. Of course, you could put a backup on
a second internal drive or on an extra partition of your main drive. But
you shouldn't do that because if you do, anything bad that happens to
your computer could knock out your backup, too. External drives give
you some degree of protection against common hazards, at least if you
care for them properly (see
Store an Extra Backup Offsite
)
.
So you'll be using an external hard drive for backups, but you still have
(up to) four decisions to make:
•
Which drive should I buy?
I discuss a variety of options
(capacity, interface, case design, and so on) in
Choose Backup
Hardware
.
•
How many drives should I buy?
Having two or more sets of
backup media is much safer than having just one. Read
Decide How
Many Drives to Buy
to decide which number is best for you.
•
Should I use the drive locally or over a network?
If you have
multiple Macs, they can all back up to the same drive over a wired
or wireless network. Network backups solve some problems and
cause others; see
Choose Local or Network Backups
for details.
•
Should I buy a Time Capsule?
A special instance of networked
backups, Apple's Time Capsule appliance includes a hard drive that
works with Time Machine and most other backup programs—and
you can add external USB hard drives to it if you like. That's all
nifty, but there are some downsides, including the fact that you
can't use your Time Capsule to make a bootable duplicate. Read
Decide Whether to Buy a Time Capsule
for more information.
