You Can't Afford Not to Do Backups

December 09 2009

By Chadwick Meyer

We work on Macs here at Gutensite (although we also have some PCs for cross platform testing). On monday, one of our iMacs did a standard software update for the wireless airport card. The update froze in the middle and in the process trashed the kernel irreparably. We tried disk utilities, purchased DiskWarrior for $100, ran these utilities multiple times, but to no avail. So we zeroed out the disk, and tried to reinstall, but it fails install every time. Evidently the Kernel (which is separate from the regular hard drive) has some major problems. The Apple forums are full of frustrated people who had the same experience with the last update. It's terrible.

There are Three Lessons Here

Institute a Backup Policy Today. A 1TB external hard drive costs $150. That's so cheap, and well worth the peace of mind knowing that your data is secure. Apple's built in Time Machine works quietly in the background and you never have to do a thing (although I recommend unplugging it from the computer and the wall when you aren't backing up, and just backup once a day, so that if there is a power surge, it's not connected to anything and it's safe).
Wait 1 week before doing Software Updates. Let the bugs be worked out first by other poor unfortunate souls. There are sometimes serious bugs in the updates that will need to be fixed, and you don't want to be the guinea pig.
Your Time is Priceless. In the end, this programmer will have lost at least 3 days of productivity because of a computer problem. And on a schedule that's full with deadlines that's unacceptable. In the end, we bought a new computer to get him back working, and we'll hopefully repair the old one. But it would have been much better to have an extra computer that he could have used right away.

Tags : backups, updates, time, tip

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