Whether it’s Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Backblaze, Retrospect, or something else, it’s easy to assume your backup app is quietly doing its job. However, it’s possible for a bug to corrupt backups or for a destination disk to fail silently, leaving you without a usable copy when you really need it.
Backups matter because they protect you from everyday issues (accidentally deleting a folder, a drive dying, a spilled coffee, or a stolen laptop) and larger events (ransomware, fire, or major hardware failure). A good backup lets you roll back a bad update, recover a single lost file, or rebuild an entire Mac without having to start from scratch. For businesses, that can mean the difference between a short interruption and days of downtime.
Best practice is to have more than one backup and to test them regularly. Aim for at least one local backup (like Time Machine or a clone on an external drive) and one offsite or cloud backup, so you’re covered if something happens to your office or home. Then, once a quarter, set a reminder to verify your backups:
- For Time Machine, enter Time Machine, restore a few important files, and open them.
- For a clone, mount it, make sure it’s up to date, and open files directly from it.
- For a cloud backup, perform a small restore and confirm you can access the files.
Backup failures aren’t common, but backups are your lifeline after a catastrophe. A few minutes spent checking them now is far easier than trying to recover lost data later.
(Featured image by iStock.com/Andreus)
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