Backing Up Your Macintosh Computer

Backing up your files means making a spare copy of every file stored on your computer's hard drive that you have created or modified yourself. Information Services recommends that you make two back up copies since media has been known to fail on occasion.

• Why should I back up?
• When should I back up?
• What types of media (i.e., CDs, disks, drives, etc.) should I use to back up?
• How do I back up?

Why should I back up?

Backing up protects you from data loss in case your hard drive fails, and allowsyou to transfer old files to a new computer.

When should I back up?

• As a matter of routine. To protect yourself against accidental data loss, you should back up your files according to a regular schedule (e.g., every Friday afternoon). You may also choose to back up each file whenever you make changes to it.

• Before your computer is repaired or has new software installed. You must back up your files before any hardware or software repairs or upgrades can be performed.

• Before you receive a new computer. If you are moving to a different computer, you must back up any files which need to be transferred to your new machine. All files left on the hard drive of your old computer will be lost.

What types of media should I use to back up?

IS recommends that you burn CD-Rs or DVD-Rs to archive your files as opposed to CD-RWs or DVD-RWs so that you don't risk overwriting or corrupting the data during a future backup. Zip disks, floppies, and USB drives are portable media that can easily become corrupted and irrecoverable, and should therefore be used solely for transporting files between computers.

For more information on how to burn a CD or DVD see the DiscBurner documentation.

How do I back up?

To determine which version of the Macintosh OS your computer is running:

Go to the Apple menu and choose About This Mac.
In the window that appears, the version will read OS X v. 10.x.x.

Please print this checklist to help you keep track of your progress through the instructions below:

Backing up files from:

OS X v.10.2
OS X v.10.3
OS X v.10.4
OS X v.10.5

Restoring files to:

OS X v.10.3
OS X v.10.4
OS X v.10.5

If you are looking to back up files from an OS 9 computer, please call the Faculty/Staff Computing HelpDesk at x3333.

	Wellesley College | Information Services | Archives Computing | Library | Media Services | Telephone & Voicemail

• Erin Foti, efoti@wellesley.edu
• Information Services
• Created: October 5, 2005
• Last modified: March 20, 2008
• Expires: July 1, 2009