Apple going to replace my hard drive - best back up policy before they do?

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Geektastic

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#175515 2-Jul-2015 12:16

I received an email from Apple to let me know that the HDD in my 27" iMac "may fail under certain conditions" and saying that they will replace it free.

Obviously this will mean that the iMac will be tantamount to a fresh new one when I get it back.

I use iCloud and Time Machine and have never needed to do any more than plug and play when I set up new Macs before. Is there any reason this time will be different? I assume it will be returned with OS X loaded?

MikeB4

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#1335666 2-Jul-2015 12:32

Time machine should do it fine

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

lxsw20

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#1335696 2-Jul-2015 12:39

Time Machine is fine, but I'd maybe do a time machine backup to local USB HDD if you have one spare, as it should speed up the restore a bit. This is assuming you do normal time machine backups over the network.

timmmay

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#1335724 2-Jul-2015 13:37

I recommend everyone regularly backs up to an external disk, which they keep offsite. I can't recommend mac software, but I did a Windows software review recently. Online backups are good, for content that's not too huge.

BTR

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#1335867 2-Jul-2015 15:56

Make a backup using some software called Carbon copy cloner, using that you can make a full clone of you HDD to another HDD or you can clone to a disk image.

Where are you located?

trig42

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#1335873 2-Jul-2015 16:00

Time Machine is fine.
Just make sure your Mac is up to date before backing up (you do not want compatibility issues when you restore).

nakedmolerat

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#1335919 2-Jul-2015 16:16

BTR: Make a backup using some software called Carbon copy cloner, using that you can make a full clone of you HDD to another HDD or you can clone to a disk image.

Where are you located?

The Time Machine can restore the whole thing back to his current condition.

There is no need for this in his case.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

mattwnz

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#1335941 2-Jul-2015 16:45

If you are only using time machine for backing up, once Apple have it, you won't have ANY backup of your data, as time machine will be your primary copy. So if it fails when restoring, you will lose everything. I have also heard of people having issues with using time machine for their backups, not sure on specifics though. You therefore probably need another copy, preferably that you can store offsite. I always have at least 2 backups, and archived older copies too.

Geektastic

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#1335944 2-Jul-2015 16:47

Excellent. I figured it would be OK but it never hurts to check

What I might do (unless someone says it's madness...!) is designate one of my portable Thunderbolt drives as a Time Machine drive and do a full 'new' back up to that just before I take the iMac to Wellington for the work to be done. That way, if I restore the 'new' iMac from that disc it will be much faster. I can then (presumably) simply tell Time Machine to use the 'old' disk from that point on?

stevenz

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#1336045 2-Jul-2015 20:37

As above, I'd use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper as it'll create a replica of the disk which you can boot straight off on another machine if needed.

Only really practical if you have an external USB drive handy.

If you do just use TimeMachine, then you should just be able to run the restore when you get it back and it'll be basically as it was anyway.

Make sure they don't replace the drive with a lower performance model.

@KnightNZ

andrewNZ

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#1336068 2-Jul-2015 21:34

Time machine is fine, more than fine, it's great. I have used it to restore a machine after fitting an SSD with no issues.

IMO making a second or third backup is never a bad idea.

There is a chance they'll do the transfer for you.

Geektastic

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#1336106 2-Jul-2015 22:39

andrewNZ: Time machine is fine, more than fine, it's great. I have used it to restore a machine after fitting an SSD with no issues.

IMO making a second or third backup is never a bad idea.

There is a chance they'll do the transfer for you.

No there isn't because I will have erased the drive before I give unknown persons access to it!