Need computer drive recovery, please advise.

[TeeDub]

That takes effort to use.   If you are like 90% of people and won't take the time to backup, you might want to use something like Carbonite or the many many other real time backup softwares.    Yes they cost more than a couple external drives BUT they function even when you don't and your stuff is stored offsite and secure.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I had two recommendations at work: Wholesale Computers and Mega Watts. I know nothing about either of them.

Wholesale Computers is not great....

[heironymouspasparagus]

That takes effort to use.   If you are like 90% of people and won't take the time to backup, you might want to use something like Carbonite or the many many other real time backup softwares.    Yes they cost more than a couple external drives BUT they function even when you don't and your stuff is stored offsite and secure.

Offsite - yep!!

Secure - well, I love these opportunities for a good laugh in late afternoon!!  Lightens the mood and gives a refreshing break in the tedium.

Until they crash....or get hacked.

Code Spaces disappeared almost literally overnight earlier this year.  They were using AWS EC2 (Amazon Web Services) and someone has apparently figured out the secret that locks in the flavor to that!!  Didn't Apple get hacked recently....??  Seems like I heard something about that...   ?   I'm just not gonna take that chance - either of losing it or having someone else get it.  Am waiting for the 1 GB thumb drive (or SSD) so can get off rotating media for good. 

Takes a one time 'big event' to backup to two disks - copy and walk away - check in later.  Incremental changes can be handled by software - can't imagine Apple doesn't have some version of backup - but it is just as easy for me to do a quick compare, select all the differences from the computer drive (I display on left side of Beyond Compare screen), then "Copy to Right".  Go do other stuff, and check back later when it's all done.

[TeeDub]

You have discipline.   Most users don't.   

[heironymouspasparagus]

You have discipline.   Most users don't.   

I got burned big time by a crashed hard drive - to the tune of much more than what Artist is talking about, so have an extreme sensitivity to this.  Plus, once the routine is in place, it really doesn't take very much time to do this. 

For daily use, I keep a thumb drive on my key chain to take care of short term daily changes - doesn't everyone have that for their ICE information file.... ICE  In Case of Emergency??  And why not??

Names, contacts, allergies, drugs used regularly, sensitivities, etc, so if consciousness evades one in an emergency, emergency personnel can put that in a laptop and find out what's up.  Turns out I am extremely allergic to ISOVUE, an x-ray dye.  If they couldn't find that out, it could be problematic.  No excuse - thumb drives are available as low as a few dollars - have vendors give them to me at times with their product data on the drive, so can get for free.....

Update the backup on one drive once every week or two.  Then backup the other drive the alternating week or two, with all the thumb drive changes moved there during that time.  Simple.  Easy.  Peace of mind!  Can take a pretty casual approach to backup when I think about it, or just want a break in the day to start it up.  With thumb drive method, backup every few weeks would be good for most people.  Can't get much easier than that.