External HD ? Pin drive? CD-R ? 3rd party cookies?

[Sooz]

On June 4 at 1:10 pm, I officially retired from 36 years of teaching (the last 34 were in the high school spec ed classroom). I started out with 2 years of teaching the deaf at the elementary level. Following that, I taught the deaf in high school for 17 years--after that, the rest of my career (another 17 years) was spent with high school students who have developmental delays like autism, Down Syndrome, severe disorder of language, mental retardation, etc.

It's definitely time for me to relax and enjoy!

Now, on to the computer questions I have (remember, I'm still not "all that" with computers!).  

I have an iMac 10.4.11.  I use Safari 4.0.3 and Firefox 2.0.  

I also want to back up all the files and stuff on my hard drive.  Back when I was teaching, I'd use my little 1 gig pin drive as a backup for my school files.  Currently, I've been using CD-Rs as backup for my recipes and documents and stuff here at home.  My sister, who uses a computer from the Dark Side, uses an external hard drive.  

Which backup thingy would suit my needs for the long term?  I don't really want to have to pay for any off-site daily uploading (being on a limited income budge now, y'know) and thought one of the three things I mentioned would suit me fine, if the data didn't get compromised over time.

As for the cookies question, within the last couple weeks when I go to my Hotmail account, it says I cannot sign out unless I accept third party cookies or quit the browser.  I've been quitting the browser, but am wondering if accepting third party cookies are a bad thing??  Never had to do this before.  

Thanks for any help and input, and happy retirement to meeeeeeeeee!  

Smiles,
Sooz

[Highmac]

I'm also running 10.4.11, on a G5 iMac; a 250GB partition on my 1TB Lacie external drive holds the backup, using Silverkeeper (packaged with the HD). I run it manually when I decide it needs it, but it can be scheduled to operate as frequently as you want.

Welcome to the world of retirees (if that's the word)

Might see you posting a bit more often now, eh?

[jwboyd]

WELCOME TO THE RANKS OF THE HAPPILY RETIRED!

After 40 years in public education, it was definitely time for me to go.

Now, after 16 years of retirement, I'm about to get caught up on the list of things I was going to do "some day." Trouble is, I keep adding things to the list.

As for daily backups, I get along fine with an external firewire drive and SuperDuper.

Let  us hear from you often!

Joe

[Highmac]

QUOTE(jwboyd @ Nov 11 2009, 09:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Trouble is, I keep adding things to the list.

That's probably not as bad as having someone else adding to the list

[Paddy]

Sooz, your best bet is an external hard drive, used with SuperDuper (or Carbon Copy Cloner) and set to back up automatically each day or whatever interval makes you comfortable. You can either buy an assembled hard drive, or buy the enclosure and the drive separately. Sometimes this is cheaper (particularly if you want a really large capacity drive - not so much with drives under 1TB) - and it has the advantage of allowing you to select the hard drive of your choice. It is extremely easy - if you operate a screw driver and plug in a lamp, you've got the talent required.

Good sources for hard drives and enclosures are:

http://www.newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817347017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152181

Assembled drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20Wor...g/MAU4S7500G16/ (500 GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148355

Sooz - which iMac do you have? It makes a difference, as the Intel ones will boot from USB 2.0 or Firewire and the older PPC iMacs will boot from Firewire and possibly less reliably from USB. The drives and enclosures I've recommended have both USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. Firewire also allows you to use Target Disk Mode should you ever need it, and it is faster in real life than USB 2.0. (I don't think you need FW 800, BTW - drives with both FW400 & FW800 tend to be a lot more expensive and I don't think your iMac has FW800)

How big is your current internal drive and how much of it is used at the moment? I've given you info on 500/640 GB drives, but you can always get a bigger one. I wouldn't get a smaller one - they don't get much cheaper and you never know when you'll want more capacity.

SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner can be used for free, but I'd recommend buying SuperDuper as then you can use its automated backup features. Terrific support from the developer, too.

[Sooz]

Thanks, everyone, for the good wishes and the helpful info!  

Well, my iMac has a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.  The memory is 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.  BTW, all of that is mostly Greek to me, except for Hz means Hertz (I remember that from my days of working with the deaf and reading audiograms, etc!).  

Paddy, as for how big is my current internal drive and how much of it is used at the moment?  You'd best tell me, step by step, how to find this info.  

Aside from that, I AM able to use a screwdriver (even cordless ones! with reverse!) AND I am able to plug in a lamp!!!!  

While some things I can learn by seeing and copying someone's example or demonstration, I have always realized that I need specific step-by-step (baby steps!) directions to do computer stuff.      

Smiles,
Sooz

[Paddy]

Sooz, to find out how big your drive is and how much space is still free, click on it in the Finder (or on your Desktop) and either select "Get Info" under the File menu, or simply press the command and "I" keys together. Or you can right click on the drive icon and select "Get Info" from the contextual menu. You'll get a window with various bits of information that will look something like the image below. (Click on the flippy triangles if you don't see all the info in your window). You can also look in "About this Mac" (click on the Apple logo on the top left of the menu bar) and then click on "more info" and then on "Serial-ATA" in the list of parts. But that takes a lot more clicks than simply doing a "Get Info".

[krissel]

Hi Sooz, welcome to the ranks of retired educators!  

Second the recommendations of an external drive and SuperDuper. Also think that a unit with both FW and USB is a good thing.

Good to see you again at TS!  

[Sooz]

Glad to be back!!!  Of course, I'm not sure how much I might "add" to any knowledge relative to any posts, but I know I'll have more questions so will post more often as things come up!  

Thanks, Paddy, for the visual AND the step-by-step --and the links too.  
Here is the info:
Capacity 232.57 GB
Available 192.88 GB
Used 39.68 on disk (42,610,946,048 bytes)
So do I have a USB 2.0 and Firewire 400?  (btw, in baby sentences, what are these?)

Oh, and BTW, about the question regarding third party cookies...As for the cookies question, within the last couple weeks when I go to my Hotmail account, it says I cannot sign out unless I accept third party cookies or quit the browser. I've been quitting the browser, but am wondering if accepting third party cookies are a bad thing?? Never had to do this before.

Krissel & Joe & Highmac,  I am SO GLAD to be the newest retired educator among you!
Smiles,
Sooz
Not having any IEPs or teacher paperwork, I've been working on my cooking... here's what I made tonight for a friend. Yum!

[sandbox]

Hey Sooz,


I'm coming in on the middle.

I think if your not inclined to assemble a drive.. that Paddy's Mercury drive is a good choice.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20Wor...g/MAU4S7500G16/

On the Back-up software choice i would download SilverKeeper as Highmac suggested, it's free and as far as I can determine as good or better than anything you can purchase. http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/

I backup nightly on at least 3 different drives and various partitions within those drives... from three computers and Silverkeeper has worked flawlessly, night after night for years. Before you buy any backup software, give it a try.

[sandbox]

Sooz on the side or back of your iMac you'll have some plug-in ports that look like these.

The one with the rounded end is a Firewire Port, the other is a USB port....the port that you most likely plugged the thumb-drive (little 1 gig pin drive) into. Firewire is most likely a better choice for Booting off the storage drive, so that would be the kind of backup drive you should be examining. Having both type ports is a plus, as Krissel has mentioned.

[Xairbusdriver]

You don't even need to look at any 'holes' on the back of your Mac! Just run "System Profiler." It's an application in your Utilities folder. And you may be able to run it by a simple click and hold the button down on the "Apple" icon in your menu bar. Now press the "option" key. The top item will change from "About this Mac..." to "System Profiler." This may not work in the version of OS X that you are running, but you can still run the application by double-clicking on its icon when you look in your "Utilities" folder. And it's a good idea to learn where that app is. It will provide you and anyone else with all the information they might ever want to know about your hardware.

edited to clarify how to access System Profiler. how to use it remains the same.

BTW, when you get System Profiler running, you should see a window with a list of items (labeled "Contents") on its left side. There should also be a label called "Hardware." If it doesn't already show what you have, click the little triangle deal to 'open' it. In that list will be another label called "FireWire!" In the other side of the window will be a technical description of just what capabilities your FireWire has. There is probably an item called "Maximum Speed:" Hopefully yours reads "Up to 800 MB/sec." Don't worry about all that other stuff for now. But it certainly won't hurt to explore all the stuff in that left hand list.

[Paddy]

Option+Apple to reveal the System Profiler is a feature of 10.5 and up, Jim.

Sooz, you can access System Profiler in 10.4.x from Apple->About this Mac and then click on the "more info" button.

And neither of the 2.16GHz iMacs have FW800 - both the 20" and the 24" have FW400.

[Sooz]

You guy rock!  Thanks so much for the great, explicit, step-by-step directions and images!

I have 2 Firewire Ports and 3 USB ports on the back of my computer.  

I also followed "Grumpy's" (didn't you used to have a different name besides Grumpy and airbusdirver/xairbusdriver?) suggestion and  as Paddy noted, my FireWire says: Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec.  I'd love to explore all the stuff under Contents, but it looks like it's written in Ancient Greek to me!    

Sandbox, thanks for the images and the recommendation and link for Silverkeeper.

So now my new question is about this FireWire Maximum Speed thingy.  Do I need (want) up to 800 Mb/sec ? If so, why, and how do I get it?  

lolam, gosh have I ever got a steep learning curve!  

Again, MANY thanks to everyone for your time and patience and explanations!  

Smiles,
Sooz

[sandbox]

QUOTE(Sooz @ Nov 12 2009, 05:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You guy rock!  Thanks so much for the great, explicit, step-by-step directions and images!

I have 2 Firewire Ports and 3 USB ports on the back of my computer.  

I also followed "Grumpy's" (didn't you used to have a different name besides Grumpy and airbusdirver/xairbusdriver?) suggestion and  as Paddy noted, my FireWire says: Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec.  I'd love to explore all the stuff under Contents, but it looks like it's written in Ancient Greek to me!    

Sandbox, thanks for the images and the recommendation and link for Silverkeeper.

So now my new question is about this FireWire Maximum Speed thingy.  Do I need (want) up to 800 Mb/sec ? If so, why, and how do I get it?  

lolam, gosh have I ever got a steep learning curve!  

Again, MANY thanks to everyone for your time and patience and explanations!  

Smiles,
Sooz

Your welcome Sooz, and no you don't need to worry yourself about the 400 v 800 speed issue. If you have a rounded Firewire port, that will be 400 which is what most of us use. I have one 800 drive and the others (6) are 400 and do just fine.

If you download the Silverkeeper software, when your hard drive arrives you'll plug it into the wall, and the firewire cable into the FW port and turn on the hard drive.

In the Top menu on your Mac click-on >GO....click-on > Utilities ...click-on Disk Utility....Under the Erase icon you will be able to format the drive for Mac Extended format for example, and you will be able to name the drive My-FW-drive??

One of my computers is named Edith, the backup drive is Bunker, the partitions are named after the actors in the program.

After you format the drive, you can then open Silverkeeper and create a SET, the name of the computer you are using is the SOURCE the new hard drive is the DESTINATION and then you'll click GO to and that's it. if you want to schedule a backup automatically you can click-on >Schedule > set the time >and the Set that you have created and it will back-up whenever you want it too.

When you download the application it will come with a full book of instructions that you can access in the Help file when the application is open.