Mac OS® X Leopard™ For Dummies®

Chapter 17. Safety First: Backups and Other Security Issues

In This Chapter

• Backing up is easy

• Discovering why you should back up

• Finding out what happens to you if you don't back up

• Keeping your Mac safe from rogue viruses and malicious attacks

• Protecting your data from prying eyes

Although Macs are generally reliable beasts (especially Macs running Mac OS X), someday your hard drive will die. I promise. They all do. And if you don't back up your hard drive (or at least back up any files that you can't afford to lose) before that day comes, chances are good that you'll never see your files again. And if you do see them again, it will be only after paying someone like Scott Gaidano of DriveSavers Data Recovery Service a king's ransom, with no guarantee of success.

DriveSavers is the premier recoverer of lost data on hard drives. The people there understand Mac hard drives quite well, do excellent work, and can often recover stuff that nobody else could. (Ask the producers of The Simpsons about the almost‐lost episodes.) Understandably, DriveSavers charges accordingly. Here are some phone numbers for DriveSavers: 800‐440‐1904 toll free and 415‐382‐2000.

Now pray that you never need those numbers — and if you back up often, you won't. But if, somehow, none of this sinks in, tell Scott that I said, “Hi.”

In other words, you absolutely, positively, without question must back up your files if you don't want to risk losing them. Just as you adopt the Shut Down command and make it a habit before ...