All good things come to an end. Sooner or later, you will return the Mac you have been renting from CRE. We hope you’re upgrading to a rental Quad G5 or a MacBook.

But to the point of this article…There are two reasons for backing up: data integrity and archiving. In other words, you want to protect your current project from that crazy Murphy guy, or your project is finished but you want to keep the data handy. If either of those describes your situation, then you should continue reading. If you think you don’t need to back-up, may we suggest you peruse one of our favorite sites and then, come back to finish reading this article.

An important note -- CRE is very concerned with customer privacy. Before a computer is sent out on a new rental, we ensure that the computer hard drive is wiped clean and the operating system is freshly installed from a protected master disc. This is a time intensive process but it is one of the most important steps we take to make sure that our customers are protected from data theft. Consequently, if you need to keep a copy of your data then you should back it up prior to returning the computer. For our Windows-oriented customers, please refer to this article or this one from Microsoft.

The most important decision you have to make before backing up is what media do you want to use? You can back-up to just about anything including CD, DVD, Tape or Hard Drive. You can even back-up to a remote location over the internet.

This decision is not to be taken lightly. Optical formats like CD and DVD are compact, reliable and inexpensive but they don’t have a substantial life expectancy. Medium-priced magnetic media, like Tape and Hard Drives, have a longer shelf life but are susceptible to electro magnetic pulses and mechanical failure. Remote back-up is very reliable but also very expensive with an ongoing service fee.

This may seem like a no brainer but make sure that whatever method you use that you have enough capacity to back-up your files. There’s nothing more annoying starting a back-up, stepping away for lunch, and returning to find out that you didn’t have enough room for all of your files.

For most purposes and applications an external, portable hard drive is the best bet. You can temporarily attach the drive to the computer you want to back-up and then remove it when the back-up is complete. By taking the portable drive to a different location (i.e. you back-up your office computer and take the portable drive to your home), you will go a long way to ensuring at least one copy of your data remains safe. More importantly, you have much bigger problems to worry about if both your office and home burn down in the middle of the night.

Once you decide on a medium, you will need software to gather your files and keep track of what’s been copied. Not all methodologies are the same. Some software will only back-up your files and ignore your applications or system folders. Others will just back-up your System and applications and ignore your files. Some software will only work with certain kinds of media. Be sure to read the instructions carefully to make sure you are getting what you want. VersionTracker.com is a great resource for up-to-date user reviews of all kinds of software (see our link below for a shortcut to the Back-up software). Read the comments from other users. They will often point out the strengths and shortcomings of the software without any marketing speak.

Of course, all of this is for naught if you don’t actually back-up regularly. Learn how to use your back-up software. Learn how to restore your data from the back-up. Learn all you can, because data loss isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ Further, automation is a great solution but make sure that you occasionally check the progress. The occasional burp in the process can halt your schedules without warning.

While a back-up doesn’t guarantee your won’t lose data, it can go a long way to prevent normal mishaps. Just a little bit of forethought can save you some serious headaches. And do you really want to give DriveSavers a testimonial?

Back-up Software

EMC Retrospect – The industry standard for back-up

Carbon Copy Cloner – Tried and tested freeware

SuperDuper – Tried and tested ShareWare

Apple Back-up – The consumer solution from the mother ship

VersionTracker – Here’s a handy link to recently updated Mac OS Back-up software

Hard Drive Manufacturers

Maxtor OneTouch – An elegant solution designed for easy back-up. OneTouch does it all.

MacMall Portable Drives – A wide array of choices, but you may have to purchase software separately

Remote Back-up Solutions

DotMac – Back-up is just one of the many services Apple provides to DotMac customers

BackJack –Immediate offsite protection of your valuable Mac files, since 1998.

This article is provided courtesy of ComputerRentals.com. Founded in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, CRE-Computer & AV Solutions is a nationwide leader of computer and laptop rentals, audiovisual rentals, plasma rentals and more for corporate and special events with services throughout the U.S. and Canada.

All Rights Reserved. If you want to reprint this article, please contact CRE at 1-877-266-7725 or e-mail us.