The Importance Of Backing Up Your Information

ByMike Moffit

Whenever we here at Small Dog accept a device in for repair, one of the first questions we ask our customers is how their personal information is backed up. It is critical for us technicians to know this as there is alway the chance your data may be compromised in some way, which is possibly how your computer got to our Service Department in the first place.

Data recovery can be costly, time consuming, and it is not a perfect science. There is always a chance your data can either be unrecoverable or ultimately lost forever. If a photo is worth a thousand words, there aren’t many words that can be said (in mixed company) when your memories are lost. Fortunately, there are a multitude of ways you can save your pictures of first steps, precious wedding songs, or important documents.

External Drives

An external drive gives you multiple ways and multiple options to back up your memories. A “Flash Drive” (sometimes known as a “Zip Drive” or “Thumb Drive”) is a portable and inexpensive way to store duplicates of your important files. Flash Drives come with a standard USB connection so you may transfer your files between multiple computers at multiple locations. A Flash Drive is as portable as you are.

An external drive can be wired or wirelessly connected to your Mac. It can be an optical drive where you can burn data to a CD or DVD, a traditional hard drive with a spinning internal disc, or a newer solid state drive with no moving parts to safely store your data.

Click here for many more alternatives to saving and backing up your important data.

iTunes Match

If music makes the world go around, iTunes will keep your songs spinning like a record baby, right round baby…round round. It is built in to every Mac and is also available as a download for (gasp!) a PC! All your music is in one place, easy to organize and with iTunes Match you can even store songs you’ve imported from your own CDs, thus backing them up.

Click here for more information on iTunes Match

iCloud

You will not need an umbrella for this feature! The iCloud safely and securely saves your most important things like documents, notes, and contacts. It helps you easily share photos, locations, and calendars. It will even help you find your device if you lose it. iCloud Drive lets you store presentations, PDFs, images, and other documents. You can also back up photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically as long as your device is plugged in a connected to Wi-Fi. You can even restore your iOS device from the cloud or set up a new one. Did you lose your iPhone? Find My iPhone can help find a lost iPhone, iPad or Macbook Air. If you cannot get to it in time, Find My Phone can make it impossible for anyone to get ahold of your information.

Click here for more information on iCloud.

Time Machine

No, it doesn’t come in blue nor do you need 1.21 gigawatts of power to use yet another way to back up and store your important documents. Time Machine is a program built in to every Mac backs up ALL your data including system files, apps, photos, and documents. Your data is backed up to an external drive or to a Time Capsule.

Click here for more information on Time Machine.

Time Capsule

This does not come in blue either. The Time Capsule is a Wi-Fi base station and a backup device all in one. The Time Capsule provides not only super fast Wi-Fi when connected to your modem, but it also backs up your Mac exactly like the Time Machine does without the need for another external hard drive. The Time Capsule has up to 3 Terabytes of storage available so you can back up multiple Macs. Shop here

Click here for more information on Time Capsule.

If a “stitch in time saves nine,” a timely back up will save you not only your important data and memories but also time, money, hassles and headaches.

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  • I want to thank all of you for allowing us to serve you for the past couple of decades. We know very clearly that it is you, our loyal customers, that have made this possible. We vow to continue to make customers for life and provide you with the very best in Apple products and accessories. Our old slogan may again seem appropriate: High Technology, for Low Prices! But we do pledge to live up to our current slogan which clearly captures our commitment to you: Always by your Side!

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Rachel, Dean & Mike_

  • Celebrating 20 Years

    We’re celebrating 20 years! Woohoo! We will be offering YOU some pretty big deals, including 20% off all Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and speakers, $20 off Otterbox cases, a Mac mini bundle that is hard to resist, and much more both in-store and online!

    Stop in during the month of April and wish us a very Happy Birthday! Check out all the specials at: “*smalldog.com/20years*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

    “*Mac mini bundle*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001805
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    Been struggling to keep your phone charged? Always running out of cables because your friend “borrowed” it again, and maybe there just aren’t enough charging ports? Well Hammerhead’s Charging Bundle is just what you need. This bundle includes a 2-Port USB Auto Car Charger for the long road trip ahead, a 4-Port USB Wall Charger, when the whole family gets stuck in the same hotel room, as well as a USB-to-Lightning 1 Meter Braided Cable to set your cable apart from the rest so next time your friend “borrows” it you’ll be able to reclaim it again.

    “*Outdoor Tech Wireless Privates*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001802
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    “*View all specials for the month of April here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/20years

  • _Dear Friends,_

    Hey we are 20! This month we kick off the celebration of Small Dog Electronics’ 20 years in business. When I first started the company up at my home on Prickly Mountain I had no idea of the amazing adventure that Small Dog Electronics would become. I went to public auctions and bought Macs by maxing out my credit cards and took them home to sell on online services, such as AOL, and to my friends and neighbors. Some of you probably bought your first Mac up there in Warren. In the early days, every time I came back with a load of Macs I would fax out a list to folks with my current inventory. Soon, however, we decided that email was the better way to go and in October of 1996 we launched Kibbles & Bytes.

    We launched our website (originally www.smalldoggy.com) a few months later and eventually traded a broken PowerBook Duo and some other gear to gain the “*www.smalldog.com*”:http://www.smalldog.com URL. You might say that we were one of the first bloggers because I would come in early every morning and post my thoughts or a special value on the web site. This section eventually evolved and became “*Barkings*”:http://blog.smalldog.com, our blog.

    We got our start selling Apple refurbished and discontinued products, later became authorized to sell new Macs, expanded into offering Mac clones, and then launched our “clicks to bricks” strategy as customer demand led us to open retail stores. We are pleased to be, once again, offering a great selection of Apple Certified Refurbished products that are a direct line to our roots!

    !>http://blog.smalldog.com/images/4358.png!
    Many people have asked me where the name Small Dog Electronics came from. It was well before the company started that a former employee, Wendy Cohen, jokingly suggested that name as we were searching for a name for a different company. I immediately pooh-poohed the idea and forgot about it. That is until one summer day when I was sitting on the hill in my yard and watching my small dogs play and realized that it might not be a bad name. I really didn’t want to name my company Mac-this, Data-that and after all, Apple doesn’t really relate to the products they sell, so it seemed a natural. It was also a reminder to keep that small company feel, no matter how big we got. We knew that we wanted to measure our success by the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit so Small Dog Electronics became our moniker.

    As I shipped out Macs from Prickly Mountain with the help of our UPS drivers who came rain, snow, mud, or shine, I wanted to give a gift with each Mac. I ran across “*Archie McPhee*”:http://mcphee.com/shop/ and bought some small plastic dogs and rubber brains. Each order got a couple plastic dogs and the bigger orders got a rubber brain. That was until I got a call from a customer that had put their rubber brain on their monitor and it melted all over it. So brains were out but to this day we send small dogs with every order!

    This week’s Kibbles & Bytes special is a home-and-away MacBook Air bundle. I use a MacBook Air as my main computer but at my office I have a full size ergonomic keyboard, mouse, and large display to convert it to a desktop Mac. This bundle is sort of in memory of the “*PowerBook Duo*”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo which was Apple’s first stab at the versatile laptop that could be used on your lap or at your desk with the Duodock. This bundle includes the Apple Certified Refurbished MacBook Air 13-inch 1.3GHz i5 processor with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD storage. It comes with a 1-year Apple factory warranty. We are bundling it with and Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard and a 27-inch Samsung display. We are also including AppleCare which will extend your 1-year warranty to 3 years and also extend your 90 days of free technical support to 3 years. With this bundle you have the best of both worlds: a lightweight, yet powerful laptop and a desktop setup for those huge spreadsheets, too. This is normally $1599 but exclusively this week only for Kibbles & Bytes readers you can get this bundle for only $1449!

    “*Check it out here!*”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900001814

  • 1995 Time Capsule

    During one of our meetings last week, Rachel and Dean informed me that the month of April was going to be spent celebrating 20 years of Small Dog Electronics. Rachel suggested I write something about it in Kibbles and Bytes. I asked if I could write about what little ol’ me was doing back in 1995, but she seemed to think it would be more relevant to write about something technology related. Fair enough. I was only 7 in 1995. Generally speaking, 7 year olds don’t do too many interesting things. In 1995, my biggest concerns were probably whether or not I’d be able to use the swings at recess.

    Okay, well if I wasn’t doing anything noteworthy in 1995, was anything else interesting happening? Actually, quite a bit happened that year. I’m really into cars and 1995 holds a special meaning in the car world. If you look back, you might notice that almost all manufacturers refreshed their offerings in 1996 and pushed through lots of model redesigns. This is because 1995 was the last year before the OBD II (On-Board Diagnostic) protocol was mandated in all new cars produced or sold in the U.S. Before OBD II, cars relied on primitive and widely varying computer control and diagnostics. Sometimes this was referred to as OBD I, but it wasn’t really standardized across the board, and many manufacturers had their own methods for reading the computer information. Nowadays with OBD II you can take any car to just about any garage and they can plug in a simple device to read the diagnostic information from the onboard computer system.

    Sammy Hagar was probably pretty happy in 1995. Bill Clinton signed the National Highway Designation Act which officially ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

    One thing I definitely remember from 1995 was the release of Toy Story. At the time, it was the very first fully computer animated film. Aside from just being a really fun movie, I remember it was also so different. I’d never really seen anything animated like that before.

    Another technological achievement from that year was the DVD format was announced. Considering the complete present day collapse of the video store in favor of streaming media, I think this may mean I’ve lived through the birth and death of an entire media format.

    One thing from 1995 that even I didn’t know about was the official end of the NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network). This action basically changed the major backbone of the Internet from a government-funded and overseen education and research network to a completely privatized system.

    A random smattering of other interesting things that happened in 1995 includes things like:

    * Mississippi ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment thereby becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.
    * Windows 95 is released.
    * The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is bombed by Timothy McVeigh.
    * eBay is founded.
    * O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of the double murder of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
    * NASA lost contact with Pioneer 11.

    Oh…and of course, Small Dog Electronics was formed in 1995!