Create a backup plan

A simple, well thought out backup plan will allow you to:

• Types of data backups
  
• Determine exactly which data to back up
• How often to back up
• Where to store data your backup data for safekeeping
• What medium/program to use
  

• A Simple Copy - You select which files & folders to copy from your Mac's hard drive to your backup drive. This does not copy any operating System information, and a re-installation from your OS X Install Disc will be necessary
• Bootable Clone - This is an exact copy or clone of your system's hard drive. All operating system files are copied, including any hidden files that are missed in a simple copy. This backup provides the quickest recovery from a system failure. The backup drive simply needs to be connected to your Mac, and the Option key held down while rebooting
  
• Incremental Backups - An Initial backup is made of your Mac's hard drive. When subsequent backups are run, only changes made since the previous backup are saved. You can choose to keep the historical backups and for how long. Apple's Time Machine performs incremental backups, but does not create a bootable clone. You may still need your OS X install discs to recover from a drive failure

• Mac OS X can only be booted from a Volume, not a partition
  
• PowerPC Macs can only boot from Apple Partition Map formatted hard drives
• Intel Macs can boot from GUID or Apple Partition Map formatted drives, however Apple only officially supports booting from GUID partition formatted drives
• PowerPC Macs can only boot from FireWire external drives
• Intel Macs can boot from FireWire or USB external drives
  

Option 1: Back up everything on your hard drive (Bootable Clone & Incremental Backups)

Pros:

• Offers the greatest amount of data protection
  
• Allows for fast data recovery in the event of a drive failure
  
• Can often be done automatically during off-hours. 

• Takes the longest time to backup
  
• Can be costly

Option 2: Back up only necessary/selected data (Simple Backup)

Pros:

• Shortest time needed
• Not as much extra hard drive space required

• Prone to human error
• Can be disorganised

Any work not easily replaceable should be considered essential. Here are some examples:

• Word processing
• In-progress documents
• Final drafts
• Important letters/memos
• databases
• software programs without original install discs
• bookmarks

• In short, as often as possible. Any work done since the last backup will be lost if your main drive fails
• In reality, a daily backup is acceptable for most people/companies. Real time backups can be expensive and require large amounts of storage space
• A weekly off site backup is also recommended as a minimum

• A second internal hard drive in your Mac. Most desktop Macs (except iMacs) have room for additional hard disk drives. You can treat the second internal hard drive as a separate backup drive, or even create a mirrored RAID array via a Software RAID in Disk Utility
• A CD/DVD. Many backup utility programs allow backups to be written to removable CD's or DVD's
• Removable flash storage, like USB2.0 flash drives. Size may be a limiting factor here
• A network drive. This can be an effective solution for multiple users in a networked office environment
• Online backups are offered by many companies/web hosts/telcos, but space can be restrictive, and requires fast upload internet speeds to be effective
  
• An external USB2.0 or Firewire hard drive. This is the preferred backup destination for most users. It is easy and affordable to buy a firewire hard drive that matches or exceeds the storage capacity of your Mac's internal hard drive. The options are endless, from small portable hard drives, through desktop hard drives with a single hard drive, to multi bay RAID systems with storage capacities up to 15 terabytes and with multiple RAID configurations.

Easy

• No complicated setup - built-in backup sets to quickly backup your iTunes or iPhoto files, other important data or your entire system.
• Custom create your own backup sets. Just drag and drop.
• "Fast Start" feature preselects the files to be backed up, saving you time (requires OS X 10.4+).

Powerful

• Go "back in time" and see your files and directories, as they were when your backups happened.
• Schedule your backups to automatically run at a specific time, on a recurring basis or when a drive is connected.
• Have your Mac automatically wake from sleep to execute scheduled backups.
• Backups run whether you are logged in or not.
• Create a bootable clone of your hard drive.
• Choose to compress and/or password protect your backups.

Flexible

• Backup to any mounted drive including FireWire, USB, ATA, or net worked drives.
• Backup to CD/DVD disks automatically span on multiple disks.
• Creates an exact copy of a folder or a drive, including bootable OS X backups.
• Synchronize folders - perfect if you use more than one computer.