iTunes: Backing up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch software
From http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414:
Backing up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Your device is backed up by iTunes each time you:
- Sync with iTunes (automatically on the first sync, every time you connect it to the computer)
- Update in iTunes (occurs automatically without prompting)
- Restore in iTunes (prompts you to create a backup before the restore process begins)
Although iTunes backs up most of your device’s settings, downloaded applications, your audio, video, and photo content are not included in the backup.
If restoring from an iTunes backup, your device settings, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo contents will re-sync to the device because the “Sync” option under the respective tabs will be checked in iTunes when restoring from a backup. If you choose to restore your device as a new user, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo content will not be synced until you select the “Sync” option in iTunes under each tab.
You can manually back up or restore your iPhone or iPod touch from a backup. To do so, Control-click or right-click the iPhone or iPod touch icon on the left side of the iTunes window and choose Back Up or Restore from Backup*:
iTunes will not offer the option to restore from backup if no backups have been performed prior to accessing this option. For a list of content that iTunes backs up, as well as more information about backups, see iPhone and iPod touch: About backups and iPad: About backups.
For restoring and updating instructions, see apple’s support guide: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414
iPad backup considerations
My guess is that Apple will sell 1 or 2 iPads this weekend. If they do, then there will be quite a few folks out there taking pictures loading pictures, storing music, books, files, apps, etc. So, remember, this is not an item that is approved for end-user service. So, if your device dies, or the screen cracks, or the battery dies, then you may end up sending the iPad in to Apple for warranty “repair” – depending on your service options. Apple has already stated that for battery issues, they will be sending out REPLACEMENT iPads, and it seems likely that the same may be true for most depot service orders for the iPad.
SO??? So, make sure you sync it with iTunes often. That is the only current backup method for the iPad, and doing so will make you feel much better if or when you do have to swap it out for a replacement.
Free, Faster, Better Disk Image backups
Dennis O’Reilly has a write upcomparing the built-in disk imager of windows 7 to a free 3rd party tool: Easeus Todo Backup
The write-up is thorough and the Easus Todo Backup product comes out on top, mainly because it is faster and it uses a nifty wizard to guide the end user through the process.
Disk Imaging is likely to become a pretty hot topic in the coming months, as various companies implement the API from Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2, which supports leveraging Volume Shadow Copies to create disk images. Managed backup service provider The Backup Plan (sponsor of this site) is even in on the game, offering full offsite backup of images in Vista and windows 7 and Server 2008.
Disk Imaging is important because it allows full point-in-time recovery of a partition. This is often known as bare-metal restore, and saves recovery time because the machine can be deployed exactly as it was at the time of the image, so all programs are installed, computer identity is intact, etc.
Planning and Testing Your Backup Strategy – ComputorEdge Magazine
From the ComputorEdge Issue from 11/13/09, “Backup Strategies—Don’t Wait for the Bomb!“
I wrote another article:
Planning and Testing Your Backup Strategy
Dealing with backups is important, and having a good plan in place, maintaining that plan and periodically testing that plan will help ensure that your backup is solid.
This IS a Drill
Few computer users have to be convinced of the importance of backing up their data, even if vast numbers of people still admit that they don’t. But having a solid backup isn’t as simple as selecting your files and assuming they’ll be there if you need them. A big part of backing up that is not so obvious is testing your backup. To truly test it, you must have a good plan in place in advance.
When I was in second grade, I really looked forward to fire drills, for a number of reasons. I had a crush on a girl who sat on the far side of the room, and if I was very clever about getting in the line out the door, I ended up standing right next to her (smooth!). Another benefit was that if we students played our cards right, we could delay classes by almost a half hour. But while I was busy furthering my own selfish interests, I was missing the real importance of the drills. The fire drills gave the administration the chance to test the routes, gauge the capacity of the hallways, and measure the speed of the evacuation. For the students, the repetition prepared us to automatically know what to do in the event of a real emergency. The testing and the learning were both based on one thing: a plan. Backing up (and successfully restoring from a backup) has a similar requirement. You must have a good plan in place, and you must test the effectiveness of that plan.
Most people do have at least a general plan in place, although it may not be documented. And for most people, that may be enough. But, depending on the type of data you are backing up, it can get more complicated. Some programs save settings in a different location, others have log files, others create libraries to save data, and these files could be in a particular folder or even a different drive. Part of the importance and value of the plan lies in making sure you are familiar with your data, and then documenting it, so you do not have to piece together this info later, after a problem.
After documenting the settings and file locations of your important programs, and their recovery requirements, you can use this as a checklist when setting up your backup, to make sure you have everything important included. After you have configured your backup job, it is valuable to print out the list of files and folders that are backed up, the details of the backup, and include this as an appendix in your plan. When you have the plan nailed down, I’d suggest storing a hard copy someplace safe, and also e-mailing a copy to yourself at an online e-mail account, where you can save it separate from all your other data.
Once the plan is established, most people will happily forget about their backup, assuming it is running and taking care of all their very important information. But how do you know? The good answer is that you don’t, so now you go about testing your backup. The “drill” will cover several important aspects: It will test your backup method (reliability and integrity), it will test your familiarity with the data, and it will test the applications you use. Lastly, it will reinforce the need to keep the plan current.
Method
Pick a random file, any file. Try to restore in whatever software you use to backup. So many folks never do this until they are in a tough spot and are really trying to retrieve a file. That is already a pretty stressful situation, so being familiar with the process, and confident that it works, can really serve to diffuse some of that tension. In my experience, this is often when someone learns some very important limitations or even failings of their backup procedure. For example, one client learned that their inexpensive online backup solution requires 24 hours to generate a restore file and make it available via download. There is nothing wrong with that, if you can wait, but if you were up against a deadline and only discovered that while trying to restore, you can imagine it would be pretty disappointing.
So, knowing that this online provider follows this procedure is important, and there won’t be expectations of something else during crunch time. Another customer thought they were doing solid backups, but in fact, they were never swapping their tapes. So day one got a great backup of the files. And day two overwrote that file backup with the database. And day three zapped that and stored the e-mail. The client didn’t know it, but on any day she would only have been able to restore whatever had been backed up the previous evening. A test would expose this problem, and give you time to resolve it before you need to rely on those backups.
Familiarity
This time, think of a single, important file to restore. Now go to the backup software and try to specifically restore that file. This is good practice; you are learning the software and testing your familiarity with where your files are stored. Again, with many clients, this is when they sheepishly realize that they’ve never actually set the backup to grab a particular folder, instead assuming it was part of the backup job. Better now than later!
Applications
Now, try restoring a file that you may not use directly (a picture or document is pretty normal and would be stored where you might expect it to be, but Outlook uses database files, for example, or your music library might have some hidden files you don’t directly engage). Restore the files, and follow through by opening or using them. Too many backup applications put so much effort on making the backup side super easy, with one click to grab all of Outlook. But not all of them have a one-click restore.
Many will restore the files required, but it is up to you to configure, for example, an Outlook profile so you can even open the file that was restored. A real-life data-loss emergency is not when you want to learn that restoring your e-mail database also requires log files, or that your financial software requires a license file in order to open the restored company file, or that you are not sure where to put the restored files. Becoming more familiar with these scenarios in advance will save you a lot of stress, and possibly even some money (that you might spend on a consultant or recovery specialist), in the event of catastrophic data loss.
Maintenance
The last step is maintenance. Your backups need recurring attention. Contrary to what is sometimes advertised, “set it and forget it” is not a good idea when it comes to disaster recovery or computer security in general. Set a task in your calendar to remind you to do monthly backup drills. Included in the drill should be a task to update your plan. When you visit this plan each month, make a note of new folders or drives you’ve added, or new applications you’ve installed, and add them to the backup if that is appropriate.
Just like any skill, the more frequently you practice, the better you will be at it. Dealing with backups is very important the few times you’ll ever need to do it. Having a good plan in place, maintaining that plan and periodically testing that plan will help ensure that your backup is solid and that you have the skills to make good use of it if the need arises.
Tim McGuire founded The Backup Plan, Inc. in 2005 and writes on a variety of blogs as tmcguire47.
Free is not a good business model
Consumers, especially internet consumers, like getting stuff for cheap…even for free. And this is great. Free offers and free services can be great ways to extend the reach of a brand. However, sometimes free can be too good to be true. Sometimes, it can be a signal of a company that is not sure how to run itself, or how to turn a profit. It can be a sign of leftover dot-com era thinking, which was too often: we’ll be free for a while, sign up millions of users, and then sell out to someone big, and they can figure out how to monetize the user base. That only worked when the business had a unique or perfectly executed idea. In many many other cases it failed. Those millions of users who were happy paying nothing may not be so into the site or service with a fee attached.
Anyway, a while back there was a PC World article by Tom Spring, addressing the issue of data loss related to online backup services going away. He lists some of the major and not so major players, including AOL with AOL Pictures and XDrive, HP’s Upline, Sony’s Image Station, and Yahoo’s Briefcase. These offerings have been yanked from the marketplace. Most of the big companies that pull their service give the users plenty of notice and time to move their files to another location. Some of the smaller services simply ran out of money and vanished, and their customers’ backups right along with them.
In the article, Kurt Scherf, VP of market research firm Park Associates, says, “Companies without a business model are going to fail.” I agree with that, and that is what I want to stress. When selecting a firm to store your precious data, pick one you trust. Pick one whose business model, pricing, and service make sense. Pick one who has been doing it a while, or seems like they will be able to stay around. At The Backup Plan, for example, out business model is not to collect as many free users as possible, or even to target home users and compete with lots of other companues at unrealistically low rates. We follow a managed service provider model. We have developed a strong service, at a reasonable and sustainable price. But rather than market direct to customers, we prefer to resell this service through IT consultancies and shops. Why? 2 main reasons:
1. Ownership…the customer has a trusted IT partner, and that IT partner leverages our service…we now have 3 parties involved, each of which has an equal stake in making sure the backups are solid and useful. Each party has a sense of ownership of the process, and I think the result is a much stronger offering than a polished self-service web site
2. Overhead…ours is lower without the need for field agents and a massive first-level-support staff. By supporting our authorized resellers we can be more efficient, our rates can be a little bit lower.
It may seem that by stacking a middle-man in the model we are creating a more expensive, less efficient model. I think in this case, it is more efficient to have the trusted IT partner, which already has a relationship with the customer, continue that relationship, learn from our experience, and offer the best service to the customer. I think it is dishonest for some of the low cost or free services to suggest they offer a realistic backup service, when often their business model is simply unsustainable.