Best backup practices and recovering lost data.
Backup and Recovery
Do I need an antivirus for my Mac?
Episode 1666
Theresa fromTheresa is a serious amateur photographer and she wants to know what antivirus she needs with a Mac. Leo says you don't really need one. Apple does some great work in the background to prevent getting a virus. Plus, Mac isn't really that prevalent to attract viruses, and the macOS is very secure. Your best line of defense is your online behavior. Here are a few things to follow:
1. Keep your system up to date
2. Don't click on links in email or open attachments.
3. Only get your software from original vendors.
4. Use a password vault like LastPass
How Can I Get Into Cloud Data Backup?
Episode 1659
Kevin fromKevin wants to know about getting his data into the cloud. Leo recommends starting with DropBox. But if he has GMail, he already has 15GB of Google Drive for free. Amazon Prime also backs up photos and videos for free.
How Can I Get Data Off a Corrupted Drive?
Episode 1659
Ivan fromIvan has a 2 drive NAS that has files he needs, but the RAID 1 hard drive are reading as corrupted. He believes it is the corruption of one, synced to the other. Leo says that the hardware is probably fine, there's just corruption in the files themselves. But it could be a physical issue making it worth using SpinRite to repair it. However, if the corruption has spread, that points to a software error in the files, not the hardware itself.
How Can I Create a Bootable Image?
Episode 1650
John fromJohn has an iMac and he wants to be able to make a bootable image. For the Mac, Leo uses SuperDuper for that purpose. For free, there's also EaseUS. Here's a complete list:
Imaging options -
What's a good online backup solution?
Episode 1647
Chris fromChris recently let his Carbonite expire. Is iDrive an alternative? Leo says that both are good, but they're both advertisers. So to be fair, Leo only does ads for services and products he believes in. But Carbonite is moving towards enterprise backup and might be leaving the consumer end behind. iDrive, by contrast, is ideal for individuals and will allow you to backup anything up to 5TB. =
What Should I Get for Data Storage?
Episode 1644
Gifford fromGifford is getting a new Mac but he also needs some storage for his 6TB of data. Is a Drobo a good option? Should he build a Hackintosh? Leo says that's a fun project, but it'll never be as reliable as a bonafide Mac.
How can I find out what's taking up space on my hard drive?
Episode 1639
George fromGeorge went to back up his iPhone and he got a message that he's run out of room on his laptop. What can he do? Leo recommends installing WinDerStat. It's color-coded and can show you at a glance what is taking up all that room on your laptop. Then move stuff off of it into an external hard drive. Leo also recommends buying extra space on iCloud. For $2.99 a month you can backup 50GB of space. Great deal. Backing up to it is also the easiest thing to do.
How Can I Recover Lost Data From My Computer?
Episode 1638
John fromJohn wants to recover some data off a USB Thumb drive. Leo recommends RECUVA or PC Inspector for Windows. On the Mac, Leo recommends Data Rescue. It's not free though. But the fact is, when flash memory dies on a USB drive, it's pretty much dead. And if it doesn't mount, it's completely shot. The only option at that point is to take it to a professional and that would cost far more than it is worth.
Upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7
Episode 1635
Duke fromDuke is looking to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 without losing his data when he does so. Leo says you can upgrade to Windows 10 from within your computer running Windows 7 without losing your data or having to backup it up. Alternatively, you can do a clean install of Windows 10 by downloading the Windows 10 installer from Microsoft onto a USB drive.
Duke is also wondering which service he should use to back up his data to the cloud. Leo recommends iDrive, who is a sponsor of The Tech Guy radio show.
How can I backup both Windows and iPad without iTunes?
Episode 1625
Octavio fromOctavio wants to make a switch to iOS, but he wants to know how he can do backup while on the road and not use iTunes? He wants to also backup his Windows machine with the same option. Leo says that if you want a "trust no one cloud backup" then there really isn't going to be a solution. But a local backup is your best bet for that, and that means a NAS (network-attached storage). Leo likes Synology. It'll backup every machine, except Octavio's iPad. Your only option there is to iCloud directly or through iTunes.