My MacBook’s fixed… now what?

Yay! After about a week, Apple’s resurrected my dead MacBook and it’s now back in my hands. The 60GB hard drive was out of stock, so I lucked out and got a free upgrade to an 80GB drive. Of course, this means nothing if (and when) the drive fails again. Now that my computer’s working, it’s time to consider some real backup solutions. I’d like to thank you everyone who posted recommendations. Here’s a round-up of your suggestions.

Hardware

• Seagate Mirra
• Buffalo TeraStation
• Coolatoola

Web-based

• .Mac
• Box.net
• Amazon S3
• Strongspace

Software for backing up

• Apple Backup
• Chronosync
• Time Machine
• iBackup
• SuperDuper
• Nero (PC Only)

Software for recovering data

• Data Rescue II
• DiskWarrior
• FileSalvage

Tutorials

• Backup Strategy For The Lazy and Inept
• Keeping a Hot Backup of Your Mac Hard Drive

For me, the most intriguing are the two network drives: the Seagate Mirra and the Buffalo TeraStation. The advantages of these over web-based systems like Box.net and .Mac is speed and capacity (for large design and multimedia files). Both also offer support for multiple users, and the ability to serve files via the web. The disadvantage is having to deal with yet another hardware box in the home and the inital cost. A 320GB Mirra retails at $499 and 1TB TeraStation comes to around $700.

What might be the dealmaker is the Seagate Mirra’s data guarantee. Seagate will cover up to $1000 of data recovery charges should their drives fail. This combined with software to automate the process of backing up would make an almost failsafe solution. Time for me to save up for that shiny new Mirra!