Backups. You don’t need ‘em until you are already hosed…which is why so many people neglect to make a good backup while disks and files are working just fine. Don’t let it happen to you. Here are two articles for Apple users that discuss methods of backing up a system disk. The first tutorial from Lifehacker offers step-by-step instructions on backup up a system disk to an bootable external firewire drive using the free version of SuperDuper.

By mirroring your entire Mac’s hard drive to an external FireWire drive, you can boot from that disk using any other Mac and have your entire system at your fingertips, no tedious software installations, System Preference setting or desktop wallpaper hunting required. Using the excellent free version of SuperDuper and a regular old FireWire drive, here’s how to mirror your Mac onto a bootable disk.

The second backup strategy uses rsync and two FW enclosures/drives that match your system disk capacity, one drive for regular nightly backups and one for offsite redundancy. The author’s comments on the need for multiple drives is priceless.

“OMG, three drives is so expensive! That sounds like a hassle!” Shut up. I know things. You will listen to me. Do it anyway.

A quick note…you can use external USB drives for backup, but it is my understanding that only firewire externals can be bootable. So use firewire instead and save yourself some trouble when your data or disk goes bye-bye. As they say, disks always fail…it’s not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN. Backup your Mac.