Backups are something I know I could be a lot better about. I have all sorts of stuff on my computer, as I am sure you do, and that stuff is all stored on the hard drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) depending on which one you have in your machine.
As I know first hand from my time as a Small Dog tech sometimes the HDD/SSD fails, or the computer fails, or files get corrupted. Sometimes the computer gets physically damaged or stolen. And sometimes you just delete files accidentally. A good data backup will make all of those scenarios seem a whole lot less painful because you’ll have all that stuff on your computer somewhere else other than just your computer. What kinds of stuff? All the stuff on that computer you care about, including, but not limited to: programs, files, documents, data, photos, movies, music, pictures, work, saved web pages, bookmarks, applications…all sorts of stuff!
My dad raised me to look out for my little sisters and they are more than capable of taking care of themselves, but they had a blind spot with regards to data backups. A few years ago I bought each of them an external drive for their Macs. This was so they could have a second copy of their data from their computers. This is all done with a built-in program that comes standard on every Mac and goes back a few years: Time Machine. There was one problem with this brilliant plan, though. It required them to plug in the backup drive and let it do it’s work. If it’s been a while, this might take a while. Hours sometimes and maybe even many hours! That kind of thing just further discourages one from updating their backup if it’s been a while
I will admit, I am as bad as anyone else when it comes to just plugging in a drive to do a backup. Currently I have up-to-date backups, but this couldn’t have been truthfully stated a week ago. Evidently that process of plugging in an external drive and letting Time Machine do it’s thing is too much to ask for the sake of data security and the peace of mind that comes with it.
This is no longer a problem for me and my family thanks to Apple’s AirPort Time Capsule. I’ve replaced my Wi-Fi router with this device. It’s got a built-in 2TB HDD (and also comes in a 3TB size) which is more than sufficient space for a backup of my machine and both of my sisters’ machines. The best part is that it will automatically start doing a backup as long as they are connected to the Wi-Fi network. So every time they’re home with their computers, and Wi-Fi is turned on, their computers do a full Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule.
Click here to buy yourself peace of mind with the Apple Time Capsule!