In this week's article I covered two of the new features in the latest upgrade to the .Mac service. There’s more, of course.

Even though Macs are not afflicted with viruses and other malware that can bring the system crashing down, destroying the precious data on our hard drives, we still use fallible hard drives and need to back up our valuable data. Coincident with the new .Mac improvements, this week Apple released a new (and welcomed) version of their backup scheduling software, called, appropriately, Backup 3.

Backup 3 manages backing up your data to recordable CD and DVD disks; to an external FireWire hard disk (even an iPod); any other internal hard drive in your Mac; another computer on the network; and, to your iDisk if you’re a .Mac member. Note that .Mac Trial (Free) Members are limited to 100 MB of data per backup to their trial iDisks, and non-.Mac members are limited to 100 MB per backup, with no access to an iDisk.

Remember that you don’t have to back up your whole hard disk on a regular basis – just the important, irreplaceable data you don’t have archived anywhere else. For example, why back up the AAC or MP3 music files in your iTunes Library that you still have the original CDs for? By the same token, you certainly should back up the music you’ve purchased from the iTunes Music Store, because they’re not going to let you download it again if you lose it, even if you use the “my dog ate my hard drive” excuse.

Backup 3 is built around five backup “plan” templates: Home Folder, Personal Data and Settings, iLife, Purchased Music (from the iTunes Music Store), and Custom. Each plan lets you designate the files to backup, a destination for each, and either a periodic schedule or a “Backup Now” option.

Backup also offers incremental backups. Meaning, it saves a new version of only the files that have changed every time it backs up, efficiently using storage and saving time and media costs. If you need to restore data, Backup lets you choose the most recent version of the file or one saved earlier. Plus, you can now backup data from different Macs (like your desktop and your laptop) to the same .Mac iDisk.

As with most other .Mac offerings, a broadband internet connection is a must.

© 2005 Peter F. Zimowski