The Preferred Toronto Apple Reseller of MacMedics:
The Preferred iPod and iPhone repair shop in Toronto of MacMedics:
A Safe Way To Dispose Of Your eWaste – And Get A Tax Receipt Too!
My Preferred Canadian-Based ISP
-
Sep
22
Into The Breach
Filed Under Advice, Backup, Tips, Views | 2 Comments
For those who follow this blog you will know that I was away for a week on Manitoulin Island. It was very relaxing and peaceful (the picture is taken from a wonderful trail called the Cup and Saucer) – I highly recommend it for people who like to do nothing and just take in clean air, quiet days and starry nights (there actually are stars in the sky – so easy to forget). And now, back into the breach.
As many know, I’m a stickler for backup. I seem to always be writing about it and I do so because it is just so critical now to any computing experience. When a client consults with me on purchases a good backup plan has to be part of the mix. Even with a good backup structure we all tend to let it lapse from time to time. The worst situation arises when we’re feeling secure – ‘I’ll run the backup tomorrow’ – and then suddenly, without warning, with very little or no symptoms (this has happened to me and many of my clients and others) your hard drive fails – oops! I forgot to backup the last week’s work!
That’s where SMARTutility comes in. I love a great utility and this is a very useful one. To quote from their overview SMARTutility is:
an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive’s operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is dying. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the drive. Run this utility once a week or more to ensure your HD, and your data, are okay.
The best defense against drive failure is always a good backup plan, but a utility like this can give a critical warning of a drive’s immanent failure and a window for running that backup or quickly copying your important work, pictures, music – whatever – to your external drive. This is not a free application (there is a 30 day trial period), but it may just save a lot of headache and worry. Also, it works only with a computer’s internal hard drive – it does not monitor the health of external drives.