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  #1  
10-01-2011, 02:52 AM
Sossity Sossity is offline
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I have been looking at this online, & came across something, someone was weary of cloning thier hard drive as back up because if the hard drive they are cloning has errors, & they move this clone over to a new blank drive, wont they be just duplicating the bad drive's errors onto a new one?
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  #2  
10-02-2011, 02:31 AM
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Quote:
wont they be just duplicating the bad drive's errors onto a new one?
No. You can't duplicate hardware related failures from one disc to another.

The worst that could be done is that malware is retained. But being on a Macbook laptop, it's unlikely that you have any malicious software as the root of your problem. While "Macs cannot get viruses (malware)" is a false statement, to suggest a Mac rarely gets a virus/exploit/trojan/rootkit/bootkit/etc is accurate. Most malicious software targets Windows desktops and Linux servers currently. Those are the biggest installed user bases, and therefore the biggest targets. A Mac desktop/server is a small fry, and not as desirable of a target.

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someone was weary of cloning thier hard drive
Don't let tinfoil hat wearing cranks scare you away from reliable methods. There are people who are afraid of all kinds of things, and rarely is their reasoning sound or even sane. I have a family member who swears the big bad Internet monster is going to drain his bank account and lower his credit rating if he shops online. It's ignorance wrapped inside of stupidity, with a side order of insanity.

Be wise, not gullible.

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  #3  
10-02-2011, 03:56 AM
Sossity Sossity is offline
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I just won a new seagate go flex 1 tb portable hard drive, & plan on using it as my backup drive, I notice in the description it said it comes with it's own backup software, will I have to use it? or will I be able to backup with my own software?

it's description says it is compatible with mac & PC, will I need to format it or anything?

with blank drives so far, I have used my mac's disk utility to write zeros to the drive to remove any errors, & then format them.

what would be the best backup software for me to use?

if I get paragon mac os snapshot, (this was suggested to me by another member), will it have instructions on how to backup my hard drive?

and will paragon snapshot or someone here give me instructions on how to replace & transfer content from my drive when it does fail?

I am not sure what to do when that time comes, I will have the backup on my portable hard drive, then what?

should I take my mac into an Apple store near me, with backup hard drive & applecare paper work & have them fix it? or should I just get a new hard drive & try to do it/replace it myself?

if I take my computer in, it will be awkward as I will have to get a ride from family who are all PC people, (Cant afford a car & driver license) who have heard how supposedly reliable macs are, I may never hear then end of it if I get a ride to the applestore with my sick laptop that I have had for less than 2 years.

with it out of commission, I would have to go back to working on the PC in the kitchen again.

Another thought, perhaps I should take a preemptive action & just replace the hard drive now? do a backup of it on my new back up drive & replace it if it is failing, why wait for it to take a dump on me suddenly? the consensus seems is that is what is happening.

To put it another way, if someone told me there is fire developing in the building, why wait for it to become engulfed & get trapped inside?

I am not trying to be difficult or argumentative, but I am a little flummoxed as to what to do, I know things happen it is life, but I just got this computer not too long ago, it was not cheap, & am nicely settled in my room, where I can do my school work in quiet, now I may have to go back into the kitchen again.

I hope I made the right choice in going with an apple computer. This whole hard drive scare is making me wonder, I did spend alot of money, I hope I was not foolish. I was hoping to get at least 3 or more years out of my laptop, as I cannot afford to be replacing things on it right away, or having to replace the laptop.
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10-02-2011, 01:06 PM
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Quote:
it comes with it's own backup software, will I have to use it?
No. In fact, I'd urge you NOT to use it. Use what's known to be good -- use software suggested to you by Site Staff at this forum.

Quote:
it's description says it is compatible with mac & PC, will I need to format it or anything?
Most drives come formatted as NTSC for Windows. Just reformat it for Mac.

Quote:
write zeros to the drive to remove any errors
That doesn't really work. An error is an error.

Quote:
what would be the best backup software for me to use?
if I get paragon mac os snapshot, (this was suggested to me by another member), will it have instructions on how to backup my hard drive?
and will paragon snapshot or someone here give me instructions on how to replace & transfer content from my drive when it does fail?
I use Paragon on a Mac. It's pretty self-explanatory. If you get it, and still can't figure it out, make a post on the site, and somebody will create a quick image-based step-by-step guide. To even say "step by step" makes it sound much harder than it is. It's a quick wizard-based Q&A, and you'll click a few quick boxes and it's all done.

Quote:
I am not sure what to do when that time comes, I will have the backup on my portable hard drive, then what?
should I take my mac into an Apple store near me, with backup hard drive & applecare paper work & have them fix it? or should I just get a new hard drive & try to do it/replace it myself?
If it's under warranty, and is free to fix, have Apple replace it. They'll wipe the drive and give you a new one. All of your data will be lost. This is where the clone backup comes in -- you'll reinstall the Paragon software, and then clone the backup drive over the computer's internal drive. Just don't screw it up, and wipe out the clone drive, by mixing up the SOURCE and DESTINATION drives.

Quote:
if I take my computer in, it will be awkward as I will have to get a ride from family who are all PC people, (Cant afford a car & driver license) who have heard how supposedly reliable macs are, I may never hear then end of it if I get a ride to the applestore with my sick laptop that I have had for less than 2 years.
A Mac is a PC. PC = personal computer. "Mac" is just an operating system (Mac OS X), and uses the same hardware as a Windows computer (Intel CPU, AMD-ATI/nVidia graphics, DDR RAM, hard drives, etc). Being "more reliable" and things of that nature are just Apple propaganda. It's hardware, hardware fails. If they tease you, grill them on what their backup strategy is, should their hardware fail. Turn the tables from the taunted to the teacher.

Quote:
Another thought, perhaps I should take a preemptive action & just replace the hard drive now? do a backup of it on my new back up drive & replace it if it is failing, why wait for it to take a dump on me suddenly? the consensus seems is that is what is happening.
To put it another way, if someone told me there is fire developing in the building, why wait for it to become engulfed & get trapped inside?
That's not a good analogy. Would you replace a car's transmission because it's acting up? Just replace it because it will go someday, so may as well just get it over with? Probably not. That would be a poor use of time and funds. Wait until it's really a problem. At the moment, I'm not convinced it's really the hard drive -- it's just likely that it is. Wait for proof.

Quote:
I am not trying to be difficult or argumentative, but I am a little flummoxed as to what to do, I know things happen it is life, but I just got this computer not too long ago, it was not cheap, & am nicely settled in my room, where I can do my school work in quiet, now I may have to go back into the kitchen again.
I hope I made the right choice in going with an apple computer. This whole hard drive scare is making me wonder, I did spend alot of money, I hope I was not foolish. I was hoping to get at least 3 or more years out of my laptop, as I cannot afford to be replacing things on it right away, or having to replace the laptop.
It was a fine decision. No need for regrets.

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