Did You Backup Today?

So this morning I had a grand plans to get lots of writing done, drink tea, and recover from my cold. I sat down at the iMac and worked for about 30 minutes when, while I was away from my desk, everything froze. The iMac was locked up and not going anywhere so I rebooted and was greeted by this friendly icon.

Suddenly my Mac wasn’t sure what happened to the start-up volume. That’s bad. After trying a few times, and getting nowhere, I plugged in yesterday’s automated SuperDuper backup and rebooted from it (holding down the ‘C’ key). Everything booted fine from the clone. I then opened disk utility and discovered my internal disc was gone. Just like that. Working one moment, dead the next. Because I am nutty about backing up, this drive failure was a non-event for me. I took the iMac into the Apple Store and it will have a new drive in a few days. There are no lost pictures or destroyed family video. In fact, there aren’t even any lost pointless, yammering, text files. My latest backup was just an hour before the drive cooked itself.

So my question to you is: If your drive failed right now, how would you feel about it?

Blown up hard drive picture courtesy of PC Tech Notes.

20 Comments Did You Backup Today?

  1. fellowweb+macsparky@gmail.com

    Hi David,
    Can one then allow oneself to congratulate you on the broken HDD? 😉
    I couldn't find an article on your blog whether you use SMARTReporter (or another S.M.A.R.T. related tool) to get a notification upon deteriorating HDD reliability. Do you?

    Reply
  2. fellowweb+macsparky@gmail.com

    Hi David,
    Can one then allow oneself to congratulate you on the broken HDD? 😉
    I couldn't find an article on your blog whether you use SMARTReporter (or another S.M.A.R.T. related tool) to get a notification upon deteriorating HDD reliability. Do you?

    Reply
  3. fellowweb+macsparky@gmail.com

    Hi David,
    Can one then allow oneself to congratulate you on the broken HDD? 😉
    I couldn't find an article on your blog whether you use SMARTReporter (or another S.M.A.R.T. related tool) to get a notification upon deteriorating HDD reliability. Do you?

    Reply
  4. fellowweb+macsparky@gmail.com

    Hi David,
    Can one then allow oneself to congratulate you on the broken HDD? 😉
    I couldn't find an article on your blog whether you use SMARTReporter (or another S.M.A.R.T. related tool) to get a notification upon deteriorating HDD reliability. Do you?

    Reply
  5. fellowweb+macsparky@gmail.com

    Hi David,
    Can one then allow oneself to congratulate you on the broken HDD? 😉
    I couldn't find an article on your blog whether you use SMARTReporter (or another S.M.A.R.T. related tool) to get a notification upon deteriorating HDD reliability. Do you?

    Reply
  6. thomas@macsimply.de

    I love Time Machine! Although I'm in the library now. Which means, that my last backup is a few hours ago. But that seems very less in comparison of what I always hear from the Windows guys! Drive failure can happen any time, even with SSDs. I live very relaxed since I have a Mac and my TM Backup.

    Reply
  7. thomas@macsimply.de

    I love Time Machine! Although I'm in the library now. Which means, that my last backup is a few hours ago. But that seems very less in comparison of what I always hear from the Windows guys! Drive failure can happen any time, even with SSDs. I live very relaxed since I have a Mac and my TM Backup.

    Reply
  8. thomas@macsimply.de

    I love Time Machine! Although I'm in the library now. Which means, that my last backup is a few hours ago. But that seems very less in comparison of what I always hear from the Windows guys! Drive failure can happen any time, even with SSDs. I live very relaxed since I have a Mac and my TM Backup.

    Reply
  9. thomas@macsimply.de

    I love Time Machine! Although I'm in the library now. Which means, that my last backup is a few hours ago. But that seems very less in comparison of what I always hear from the Windows guys! Drive failure can happen any time, even with SSDs. I live very relaxed since I have a Mac and my TM Backup.

    Reply
  10. thomas@macsimply.de

    I love Time Machine! Although I'm in the library now. Which means, that my last backup is a few hours ago. But that seems very less in comparison of what I always hear from the Windows guys! Drive failure can happen any time, even with SSDs. I live very relaxed since I have a Mac and my TM Backup.

    Reply
  11. pdkaizer@gmail.com

    Well to answer the question. I wouldn't be happy but like you I am a backup nut and just about anything of importace for me is in Dropbox. I also have a daily clone via Super Duper and regular offsite backups to Carbonite. I'm not a fan of Time Machine, too much drag on the system.

    Reply
  12. pdkaizer@gmail.com

    Well to answer the question. I wouldn't be happy but like you I am a backup nut and just about anything of importace for me is in Dropbox. I also have a daily clone via Super Duper and regular offsite backups to Carbonite. I'm not a fan of Time Machine, too much drag on the system.

    Reply
  13. pdkaizer@gmail.com

    Well to answer the question. I wouldn't be happy but like you I am a backup nut and just about anything of importace for me is in Dropbox. I also have a daily clone via Super Duper and regular offsite backups to Carbonite. I'm not a fan of Time Machine, too much drag on the system.

    Reply
  14. pdkaizer@gmail.com

    Well to answer the question. I wouldn't be happy but like you I am a backup nut and just about anything of importace for me is in Dropbox. I also have a daily clone via Super Duper and regular offsite backups to Carbonite. I'm not a fan of Time Machine, too much drag on the system.

    Reply
  15. pdkaizer@gmail.com

    Well to answer the question. I wouldn't be happy but like you I am a backup nut and just about anything of importace for me is in Dropbox. I also have a daily clone via Super Duper and regular offsite backups to Carbonite. I'm not a fan of Time Machine, too much drag on the system.

    Reply
  16. Michelle.Muto@gmail.com

    I'd be okay. I use TM along with TM Editor, and I clone. On top of that, many files are stored in Dropbox.

    Other than the hassle of taking my iMac in, it'd be a non-issue for me as well. Great post! It's something more people need to think about.

    Reply
  17. Michelle.Muto@gmail.com

    I'd be okay. I use TM along with TM Editor, and I clone. On top of that, many files are stored in Dropbox.

    Other than the hassle of taking my iMac in, it'd be a non-issue for me as well. Great post! It's something more people need to think about.

    Reply
  18. Michelle.Muto@gmail.com

    I'd be okay. I use TM along with TM Editor, and I clone. On top of that, many files are stored in Dropbox.

    Other than the hassle of taking my iMac in, it'd be a non-issue for me as well. Great post! It's something more people need to think about.

    Reply
  19. Michelle.Muto@gmail.com

    I'd be okay. I use TM along with TM Editor, and I clone. On top of that, many files are stored in Dropbox.

    Other than the hassle of taking my iMac in, it'd be a non-issue for me as well. Great post! It's something more people need to think about.

    Reply
  20. Michelle.Muto@gmail.com

    I'd be okay. I use TM along with TM Editor, and I clone. On top of that, many files are stored in Dropbox.

    Other than the hassle of taking my iMac in, it'd be a non-issue for me as well. Great post! It's something more people need to think about.

    Reply

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