Subject: [X4U] USB 1.2 and 2.0

[Randy B. Singer]

On Nov 26, 2007, at 6:41 AM, Stroller wrote:


> You obviously live in a different world from the majority of home  
> users, Mr Singer.
>
> For me, too, a 1gig flash drive is insufficient to back up all my  
> photos, but for many people a flash drive is sufficient to  
> accommodate the entire contents of their ~/Documents directory.  
> This is a VERY common usage of flash drives and - outside of this  
> list - the number of people who have an external hard-drive or feel  
> the need to backup their entire system is quite small.
>

Not  only do I not live in a different world, quite the contrary, I  
am regularly in touch with literally thousands of both home and  
business Macintosh users.

One thing that is very apparent, if one has any experience at all  
with using personal computers in the real world, is that hard drives  
die with alarming frequency.  Any computer expert will tell you that  
having a complete backup of one's hard drive is crucial.  Even if all  
of your applications are still available on their original disks, in  
the event of a hard drive failure it can take weeks to restore your  
computer to be just as it was without a complete backup.

Apparently Apple recognizes this, and they have included a very  
innovative backup program in their latest version of the Mac OS.   
This program, Time Machine, appears, from all accounts, to be the one  
most compelling feature to "home users" in Leopard.  In addition,  
Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper! are intensely popular among home  
users.  I would say that backing up one's entire hard drive is quite  
popular among home users.

In any case, I just wanted to be sure that the original poster had  
her terminology straight.  I'm not trying to tell her, or anyone,  
what sort of backup they should be doing.  A backup of just your  
Documents folder is far better than none at all.

This does bring up an interesting subject for discussion.

How many folks on this list are backing up to a flash drive?

How many folks are either using, or looking forward to using Time  
Machine under Leopard?

How many folks are creating a clone as their backup?

Who is using a combination of the above?

Anyone care to share their experience with a failed hard drive?

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________