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

[Dick Kriss]

On 12/27/09 4:15 AM, "David Ferrington, M0XDF" <M0XDF at Alphadene.co.uk>
wrote:

> A few of questions please:
> 1) do you know if just one AppleCare agreement can be used for
> multiple macs?
 
David,  the AppleCare agreement is per device.


> 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?
>     b) what's the basic process of partitioning the drive?

Sorry, I do not have a Time Capsule so cannot comment.

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

I have several external hard drive cases with different media.  If you
are buying new one, I would recommend a case with a Firewire 800
interface and make sure it has an ON/OFF switch.

Some people have had trouble with external hard drives that come with
power management controls that are hard to wake.

I have a generic case with new 500 GB Western Digital SATA drive. I used
the OS X Disk Utility to format the drive into two partitions. One is called
SuperDuper and the other is labeled Time Machine.  The ration between
the two partition is up to the user.  My primary Macintosh HD never gets
over about 100 GB so I set the SuperDuper partition to 175 GB and gave
the rest to the Time Machine.

Cases are cheap and I have several smaller drives are used for multiple
backups.  

> 
> 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

I had the total HD failure you mentioned on 23-Dec and was saved by
having a recent SuperDuper backup.  I suspect the TM would have
worked if  I had erased the Apple installed generic OS and had the
Time Machine do a total Restore.  My mistake was following the Apple
tech's suggestion to use the restore option in the Welcome to Mac screen.

Dick AA5VU