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    MacBook Pro Backup help please....

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by jrsryder, Apr 4, 2009.

  1. jrsryder

    jrsryder Notebook Consultant

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    Okay, in layman's terms (keep it simple), I want to back-up my ENTIRE MacBook Pro to an external hard-drive... (all files, pictures, songs, etc....) What's the simplest way? I'm going to install Windows XP using Boot Camp, and I have been strongly urged to backup my computer. I don't want to spend a fortune on a Mac external drive. I can buy a decent SeaGate model for cheap in my local town. Is there a SIMPLE sequence of things I can do to make this happen? I'm not really that good on computer' and stuff.... any help would be greatly appreciated... Thanks, J.R.
     
    jrsryder, Apr 4, 2009
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  2. Chris27

    Chris27 Notebook Deity

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    Time machine can be set up with just a few clicks of the mouse although this won't cover your boot camp partition.
     
    Chris27, Apr 4, 2009
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  3. waralex11

    waralex11 Notebook Geek

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    if you dont have any partition you can go to C: and press Ctrl+A to select all..
    then right click on the mouse while everything is highlighted and click on copy..
    this will take minutes or hours depends on the amount of files you have..
    but the bad part here is that everything i mean everything will be copied..

    if you are patient just make a folder and move the files you want to back-up on that folder and copy and paste it on one go..
     
    waralex11, Apr 4, 2009
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  4. jrsryder

    jrsryder Notebook Consultant

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    Well thanks, but what is "C:"? I don't have a partition yet. I haven't even got my copy of XP yet. I'm gonna try to do the back-up tomorrow. I have about 60gigs of stuff to back up. I'm in no rush, so if it takes a while, no biggie.... So how do I start from the main screen (Finder)? Thanks, JR
     
    jrsryder, Apr 4, 2009
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  5. Colton

    Colton Also Proudly American

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    You can use Carbon Copy Cloner, which will copy your ENTIRE HDD to the external one, OS and all. ;)
     
    Colton, Apr 4, 2009
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  6. snookie

    snookie Notebook Guru

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    External hard drives are quite cheap these days. I second Carbon Copy Cloner which is very good for a free product. But I use SuperDuper to clone and do incremental backups nightly. Keep in mind that you can also boot from an external Firewire drive so that and the speed of firewire make it my preference.
     
    snookie, Apr 4, 2009
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  7. Seshan

    Seshan Rawrrr!

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    I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up nightly. Never tried superDuper, Is there a big difference?
     
    Seshan, Apr 4, 2009
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  8. jrsryder

    jrsryder Notebook Consultant

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    Soooooooooooo, where do I start? Like the basics? haha, I really appreciate all the advice, but I have NO IDEA what you're talking about..... JR
     
    jrsryder, Apr 5, 2009
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  9. Colton

    Colton Also Proudly American

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    Colton, Apr 5, 2009
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  10. doh123

    doh123 Without ME its just AWESO

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    why not just do a Time Machine backup? you should buy a hard drive to do that anyways, never know when stuff will fail. external HDDs are cheap as all heck, and will be good for the life of your machine for backups... if for some strange reason (very unlikely) your drive is messed up when resizing for a Windows partition, you can restore it right back off the Time Machine backup, just by booting off the OS disc and selecting the right options.... leave the external hard drive in and on all the time when your macbook is in its normal spot (I use a USB hub for all my USB stuff, though I want a docking station), and let it constantly keep backups for you and not have to worry about doing it manually every night or whatever.
     
    doh123, Apr 5, 2009
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  11. sarahfox

    sarahfox Notebook Consultant

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    Carbon Copy is pretty great, but Time Machine can also do it.

    Best case scenario is to get 2 external drives and carbon copy backup to one and time machine to the other. If one of those drives was offsite )in some remote secure location) you have the perfect backup solution!
     
    sarahfox, Apr 5, 2009
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  12. i3urtongirl

    i3urtongirl Notebook Consultant

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    I personnaly use Time Machine, it sets itself up when you plug in the external drive the first time.

    I recently had to re-install my OS and had no problem re-installing with my backup.
     
    i3urtongirl, Apr 6, 2009
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