Making The Case For A Simple Backup Solution

Thanks to my trademarked Nag With A Smile™ routine about the virtues of Mac ownership, both of our next door neighbors have Macs.

Imagine my surprise when I asked my dearly loved Neighbor to the Right how she backs up her Mac’s files. She said, “What do you mean—backup?” See a problem there?

Honestly, she didn’t know about the need to back up files. Her Mac was loaded with a couple of thousand songs, some from the iTunes Store, many thousands of digital photos in iPhoto, not to mention a few hours of video clips.

Without some kind of backup plan, that setup is a disaster waiting to happen, right? Instead of being thankful when I told her of the need to backup those files, she was upset with me.

Why? There was never a need to backup anything on her Windows PC, so why was it important on a Mac?

Sigh. Under the surface of her initial reaction was a telling truth. Her husband told her never to store anything important on her PC so a backup wasn’t required.

She thought the Mac was different. It is. But not that much.

I imagine that many Windows PC users fall into the same category of knowledge and experience. My Neighborhood Mac Watch™ indicates that Mac users have a similar neglect, though certainly not Mac360’s readers, since we’re an informed minority—thanks to my nagging, right?

So, I looked around to find something to help with my neighbor’s backup woes, if anything, just to avoid sharing responsibility in the future when what can go wrong goes wrong.

My favorite solution was BackityMac, a $10 gem ($5 for a limited time) which makes backing up important Mac files ultra easy, no brainer, so simple former Windows users can do it.

And, BackityMac doesn’t require another hard drive, which, for some of my Mac loving neighbors seems to be an extra expense they can do without in an economic time where jobs disappear with the wave of a pink slip.

That means that Apple’s vaunted and nearly fool proof (except for all those creative fools out there) Time Machine may not get used because of the extra expense and trouble that newbies need to go through to save their files.

For not much more than free, BackityMac makes it easy to backup important files. Except that some Mac users, my neighbor included, don’t have any idea which files are important.

Think about it. There’s music, digital photos, movie clips, sure. Then there’s email, bookmarks, maybe Keychain files, not to mention all the other documents such as Word or Excel or PowerPoint or Keynote or Pages that need to be saved.

Still, BackityMac makes it easy. If $10 is too much for, then try something like Sync Two Folders from a Mac lover in France. I think. My French is rusty, though my addiction to French pastry is alive and well.

Sync Two Folders is ultra simple, a true testament to a one trick pony lifestyle. It simply make sure that all the files in one folder are the same as in another folder.

For Mac users, there are somewhere around 129 such utilities available, ranging in price from free to almost $100. In between are varying levels of complexity, expense, and assurance that your Mac’s files will be safe.

Remember Murphy’s Law? “Whatever can go wrong, will.” It will.

My question for Mac users today is simple and aimed primarily at educated those many new Mac users who have yet to get on the Backup Bandwagon™ preached by the folks at Mac360: “What is the easiest, simplest, most effective way to backup files on your Mac?”

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