Basic Time Machine Troubleshooting
If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac to an external hard drive, here are some basics that you can check if backups are no longer occurring.
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All about keeping your data safe and in more than one place.
How To Backup Your iPhone or iPad
Backing up your iPhone or iPad is important because it permits you to recover all of your applications, personal data including photos stored on the device. It also allows you to recover text messages and call history on the iPhone. Apple provides two ways to backup your iPhone or iPad and I typically recommend using both methods.
Read moreExtra iPhone and iPad Backups Waste Hard Drive Space
Your Mac may be storing extra iPhone and iPad backups. If so, they are wasting hard drive storage space. Here are instructions on how you can easily view a list of all iPad and iPhone backups and remove the extras.
Read moreBackups Don’t Exist Unless You Test Them
This week’s Tech Tip is a cautionary tale. Backups Don’t Exist Unless You Test Them. This adage may not make immediate sense to you, but let me explain. It is extremely important to test your backups by actually restoring one or more files. If you don’t know that you can successfully restore a file from … Read more
Manually Delete Time Machine Backups from a Hard Drive
Is your external backup hard drive full of Time Machine backup data? In last week’s Tech Tip, we talked about how Time Machine automatically deletes your oldest backups to make room for new backups. Time Machine typically does this, but I’ve seen it misbehave also. Alternatively, you might want to manually delete some of your old … Read more
What To Do If Your Time Machine Hard Drive Is Full
Has your Time Machine backup hard drive filled up? Are you seeing the “Time Machine deleted one or more backups to make room for new backups” notification? If so, don’t worry. This is perfectly normally and is probably just fine. Let me elaborate and explain.
Read moreCheck The Health of Your Mac’s Internal Hard Drive
Hard drives are the component of a computer that fail most often. Every hard drive will eventually fail. This is why it’s so important to backup your Mac’s hard drive. It’s also prudent to periodically check the health of your Mac’s internal hard drive. I recommend two applications for this purpose: Onyx (free) and SMARTUtility (free … Read more
Data Recovery Using Stellar Phoenix Macintosh
A few months ago a representative of Stellar Data Recovery contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing their product Stellar Phoenix Macintosh, a data recovery application. I was happy to oblige. At long last, here’s my assessment.
Read moreHow To Restore a File from Your CrashPlan Backup
Here are instructions on how to restore one or more files from your CrashPlan online backup archive. The instructions work for both CrashPlan and CrashPlan Pro. In my opinion, an untested backup system is next to useless. Only by testing it do you know for sure that your backup system is working properly. By testing it, … Read more
Data Recovery Options for Mac Users
Do you need to recover files that were deleted from a Mac’s hard drive? Here’s a quick overview of three options.
Read morePreventive Maintenance for your Mac
Do you want to know how to perform some routine preventive maintenance on your Mac? Here’s my recommendation of helpful preventive maintenance tasks as well as instructions on how to perform these tasks. You do not need to have advanced knowledge to perform these tasks.
Read moreHow Can I Easily Share Files with Colleagues?
Are you looking for an easy way to share files with your colleagues who use a mix of Macs and PCs? There are many online file sharing and storage systems, but I use and recommend Dropbox. I’ve tried a handful of systems including SugarSync, Windows LiveMesh, Box and GoogleDocs. While I use several of these … Read more
How To Set Up and Monitor Time Machine
This Tech Tip covers provides you with instructions on how to set up and monitor Time Machine. It also explains some basic concepts behind Time Machine’s operation. Monitoring your backup system is incredibly important to do. A backup system that isn’t working is useless. Do not simply trust or believe that your backup system is … Read more
How to Reclaim Storage Space on a Time Capsule
Is your Time Capsule full? Would you like to free up some room for either newer backups of your data or to add another computer in your home? If so, here are some instructions on this process.
Read moreHow to Protect Your Digital Images
Here are some safety tips on protecting digital images. The tips come from one of DriveSavers’s recent newsletters. DriveSavers is a top tier data recovery company.
Read moreRecovering digital photos from corrupt or erased compact flash or SD cards
If you need to recover digital photos from your camera’s compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD) card you should know about Glazer’s Camera’s data recovery services.
Read moreHow to Restore a File from Your Time Machine Backup
Testing your backup system is a critical, but often over-looked task. You need to monitor and test your backup system not only so you know that it’s properly copying your files, but more importantly so you learn how to use your backup system to retrieve a file. By practicing, you’ll be confident and ready when … Read more
Testing Your Carbon Copy Cloner Full Backup
Monitoring and testing a backup system are two critically important steps which many people skip. If you don’t consistently monitor and periodically test your backup system, you could be in for a big surprise when disaster strikes and you try to retrieve files from your backup system. Monitoring and testing gives you confidence that your … Read more
Setting Up Time Machine To Use Multiple Hard Drives
Here are instructions on how to have Time Machine switch between two backup hard drives. My recommendations for setting up a comprehensive backup system for your Mac include swapping between two external hard drives. While one hard drive is being used to backup your Mac the other drive is kept off-site in a secure location. Using … Read more
What are the Pros and Cons of Online Backup Systems?
Are you considering an online backup system? Here’s an overview of the pros and cons of such systems.
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