All about backup...(zz)

One of my friends cried at me, saying that her important photos "strangely" vanished in the result of a computer crash. At the time being, I'm about to make a bootable backup of my iBook. So I just copied this from the instruction of a powerful backup application "SuperDuper!" running on the MAC OS X platform.

Backing up is one of those things that never seems important until something goes horribly wrong, and things never go horribly wrong until the worst possible moment. Many backup programs do too much for the “normal” user: rather than making it easy and faster to get their data backed up, they overcomplicate the process to the point of frustration.

So, to determine whether that complexity is worth adding, it’s important to ask: when do most people need to restore? In general, we’ve found that “regular users” (and by that, I mean real “end users” like yourself) need to
use their backups when:
• They’ve made a “bad mistake”, like accidentally deleting an important file, or overwriting one (this kind of mistake is almost always recognized immediately)
• Their drive (or computer) fails catastrophically, requiring a full restore
• They sent their computer in for service, and it came back wiped clean
• An application they installed, or a system update, caused their system to become unusable/unstable

None of these situations require much other than a high-quality, up-to-date, full copy backup.

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And besides that, for Chinese readers, the following posting is helpful, too: (click HERE for original posting)

近日出这些问题的堂友好像特别多。我包括在内，一个才用14个月的Toshiba 2.5"硬盘乎然决定罢工。。。

以下是个基本的问题解决策略供堂友们参考，不一定符合所有和个别情况的要求。堂友们需要自己斟酌而行。

1）闭眼睛，停止工作和关机，到屋子外头散心，等心情平静后再回来。。。以下的工作绝对不能在心情激动时操作，一个操作错误就可能让你永远丢失更多的数据。

2）备份，备份，再备份！在没问题前备份到外置硬盘，CD/DVD光盘，网络储存空间或任何地方。同硬盘的其它区域里的备份是自欺欺人，因为当硬盘真的出问题时，同硬盘上的所有区都一起没救。对大多用户来说，LaCie公司的免费备份软件SilverKeeper可以推荐。其它可推荐的有SuperDuper!，适合克隆整个硬盘。

3）如果注意到硬盘问题时（如读写特别慢，或是有奇异的声音，表示可能有硬件问题），那第一就要赶快再备份最新的数据。这个有时候可以完成，有时候完成不了。

3.1 如果硬盘还没完全死，那可以用Disk Utility看看硬盘的SMART状况。现在新系列的硬盘都会自验，自动报告任何自身上硬件的问题。

3.2 硬盘是不应该有任何奇异声音的。这种情况下建议立刻换新硬盘。

4）如果硬盘没有古怪声音或SMART的问题（表示硬盘硬件上工作正常)，那可以用系统附带的Disk Utility（磁盘工具）检验和修理。

4.1 如果Disk Utility报告说有没法修理的问题（如B-tree等)，那可以用第二线的DiskWarrior工具软件修理。

4.2 在Disk Utility和DiskWarrior都修不好的情况下，这个时候需要根据数据的重要性考虑是送专业硬盘公司修理(价格昂贵)，用其它三方工具软件试试，或认命。作者不特别信任那些其它的三方工具。如果数据重要，这些工具经常只会把硬盘继续搅乱，让专家公司也无法取回数据。

5）不是硬盘问题而是自己的疏忽，不小心删了文件。

5.1 立刻关机，关硬盘。继续使用只会让新文件覆盖在已删除文件上，迅速降低恢复的几率。

5.2 用另外没问题和附带启动系统的硬盘或光盘启动，然后用在启动硬盘或光盘上的Data Rescue II或、和FileSalvage等软件搜索和恢复问题硬盘上的数据和文件。这些工具软件都需要足够的硬盘空间来转换原硬盘的里找回的数据