Help backing up MBP

homestar06homestar06
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hey everyone,

I'm planning on sending my MBP in for a logic board replacement but I'm not sure how to backup my files yet before I send it in. I was told I NEED to back them up before sending it to Apple so I'll do that but I need some help with details. All I have are DVDs to backup with. Will that work? What app can I use to backup to DVDs? What do I need to backup? How easy is it to restore the files if needed? Any help will be greatly appreciated. I know an external drive would be the best option but I'm not sure I want to put down that money.

If my friend has an external drive, can I use that to backup my files and restore them later?

Like I said, anything will help. Thank you all very much. I've looked through many forums on many sites looking for answers and I decided asking the specific questions I needed would be the best way. Tha AI forums are always dependable as well. Thanks again!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    jpenningtonjpennington Posts: 476member
    Good Morning --



    If you have toast you can span your files across multiple DVD's. An external hard drive would be faster and easier though.



    You could just copy your home folder, that would be the quickest way. Otherwise copy ~/Music, ~/Pictures, and ~/Document. If you use limewire the default directory is ~/Shared. Then when you get the MBP pack (if it has been erased) you just copy those directories back to their respective locations overwriting the directories already there.



    You might have some file like installers and such in other directories, just make sure to get them all.



    You can burn a data DVD/CD with OSX without any other software but I don't think it will span the data accross multiple DVD's. If none of your data is above 4.5GB's you can just burn as many to only as you can, burn it, then keep going with the rest of the data. Just right click somewhere and select NEW BURN FOLDER. Move the directories above to the folder, one by one watching your space, then click burn when ready.



    Thanks, Justin.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    If you have dot-mac, you can use Apple Backup to backup to DVDs. Or to an iPod.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    How much used space do you have? Just insert a blank DVD in your computer and drag things onto the icon on the desktop until it fills up. Then burn it by dragging it onto the trash. Insert the next one and drag other stuff onto it. Etc.



    also,...





    I'm not sure and I can't check right now, but I believe that DiskUtility now has some kind of backup deal in Tiger (OS 10.4). If you open DiskUtility then there's tabs for erase, Raid, Repair, and I think Restore or something like that. I believe Restore is what you're looking for. Maybe.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    drazztikkadrazztikka Posts: 240member
    Restore in 'Disk Utility' is only helpfull if U have an image of your drive...



    I would do it like this:



    -Get a external USB2 or firewire harddrive, dvd backups suck...

    -Repair permissions. (in disk utility)

    -Use 'carbon copy cloner' (from versiontracker.com) to clone your internal drive so that it is an exact copy on the external drive.



    -So when u get your computer back and it's wiped, attach the external disk, startup and hold the 'alt'-button so you can choose to start up from the external disk.

    -Then use 'disk utility' to erase/partition your internal drive.

    -Use 'carbon copy cloner' to clone it back to the internal disk.

    -Repair permissions.

    -Restart using the 'alt' knob again and choose internal disk.



    When u have cloned your drive, be sure to test that u can boot from it to check if it works. There are some options in 'carbon copy cloner' like 'make bootable' and 'copy invisible files' that should be selected.



    I don't think I've missed anything, someone correct me if i have...
  • Reply 5 of 6
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    One app that I like is SuperDuper. It is an easy to use program will copy one drive (or partition) to another and make it bootable. If the external drive is Firewire, that's good becayse the easy to boot from. Supposedly the Intel Macs can boot from a USB2 drive but I've never tried.



    If you pay the registration fee for Super Duper, it's also good for keeping your backup drive up-to-date by updating only the files that changed.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    halsehalse Posts: 53member
    SuperDuper is the way to go, it does make a USB bootable clone for a MBP (if GUID format is used), so borrow your friend's drive (if you can) for the time the MBP is off being repaired and format it in GUID with disk utility, backing up to DVDs is a real nuisance
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