[Ham-Mac] Back Up Lesson Learned on Christmas Eve

[David Ferrington, M0XDF]

Slightly related story.
On the 21-Dec, my 18 month old Time Capsule failed, no light, no  
movement, nothing. At 11:53 it backed up, about 30 mins later, I lost  
my Ethernet connection (I use 1GB Ethernet to connect the iMac to the  
TC and then the TC connects to my 100base-T router). I checked the  
power lead, that was ok. Put in a call to Apple support and all they  
could do was advise going to an Apple centre (there aren’t many of  
those around here) or service centre. It was out of warranty and I  
hadn't added it to my AppleCare Agreement (see below).

A helpful service centre 11 miles away which I thought I'd have  
trouble getting too, because we had snow (yeah go figure, it's  
England) said it was only £30 cheaper to repair - Apples TC repair is  
to replace the unit, but you don't get the disk back. So thinking it's  
probably the PSU that's failed (read something about bad caps. and can  
fix them) and not wanting to be without a backup for long, I ordered a  
new TC from Apple and upgraded to a 2TB version. It should have  
shipped and arrived by 24th.

In fact it shipped that evening, but TNT (the carrier) couldn't make  
it because of the snow., it would be here by 24th. On 24th, my XYL  
signed for a small package, thinking this is what I'd been waiting for  
- it was minuscule and the packing note was addressed to someone else  
in London (30 miles away), the TNT address label was to me! So call up  
Apple and they will get it sorted out (my package was for an iPhone  
dock adapter), Apple rep was very sorry (and in Austin, TX!) and  
assured me it would be sorted out quickly, but of course, not over the  
holiday. So I don't have a backup at present. I do have the original  
TC drive, which I hope is ok, so if I loose my HD, I should be able to  
go back to the drive (in a new case).

So, I understand you can add your TC to your iMac AppleCare agreement,  
because it doesn't have one of it's own.

A few of questions please:
1) do you know if just one AppleCare agreement can be used for  
multiple macs?

2) Some pointers to partitioning the TC and doing a SuperDuper  
bootable backup please - when my new TC arrives, I'll do that
    a) what size partition does one need for OSX - does it need be the  
as large as my HD content?e
    b) what's the basic process of partitioning the drive?

3) What do people use as an external drive for the bootable backup -  
how large etc.

Must admit I've been complacent for the last 18 months - relying upon  
Time Machine and Time Capsule, restoring the odd file here and there,  
been very good, but concerned now about a possible total HD failure.

73 de M0XDF
-- 
Life is an eternal challenge, a variant on Maeterlinck's theme that  
the Bluebird of happiness is by the side of each and everyone of us,  
always within reach, yet, if pursued to catch and possess is beyond  
our grasp. - Donald Campbell, CBE. (1921-1967)

On 27 Dec 2009, at 05:41, John Bastin wrote:

>
> On Dec 26, 2009, at 20:55:25, Dick Kriss wrote:
>
>> Needless to say SuperDuper saved me and I have little on no faith
>> in the Time Machine for a total restore to new hard drive installed  
>> by
>> Apple.
>>
>> My advice is do not relay totally on the Time Machine. Have another
>> back up plan and I recommend SuperDuper. It saved my six on
>> Christmas Eve.
>
> I agree that it's not a good idea to rely on Time Machine as your  
> only backup. I have TM connected and backing up my laptop hourly,  
> *AND* I do a weekly full bootable backup to a different external  
> drive using SuperDuper! That drive goes off-site; I use two  
> different external drives for this and alternate them every week.
>
> But I do want to say that your experience with a TM restore isn't  
> typical. I bought this new laptop on Labor Day, brought it home,  
> started it up and selected the option to copy files from my TM  
> backup. It went flawlessly and I had everything on the new computer  
> in a couple of hours. It all worked just fine. (Caveat: I don't  
> backup my Parallels disk images with TM. I re-installed Parallels  
> and my Windows volumes on the new computer.)
>
> Whether you're doing a full backup with SuperDuper! or backing up  
> with Time Machine, you should periodically check your backup to make  
> sure it's really a good backup. I boot my laptop from the  
> SuperDuper! backup drive to check it, and periodically do a System  
> install and a Time Machine restore on another blank drive and use it  
> to boot my computer, just to make sure everything's OK. Better safe  
> than sorry.