ONLY about 50 per cent of computer users back up their data and even then most do it only once a month.
As data protection goes, this is a dismal showing and offers little security in the event of data deletion or loss.
Despite the robustness of the Unix-based OS X, Mac users are certainly not exempt from these catastrophes.
The good news, though, is that the latest operating system (OS) from Apple - Leopard - has a nifty trick up its spotted sleeve. It is called Time Machine.
This OS-based app backs up all user data automatically - and hourly - behind the scenes, with minimal set-up required. It is meant to be so fuss-free and simple that anyone can get into the habit of backing up.
Conceptually, Time Machine has got it together. Select it from System Preferences or choose a hard disk to back up to from the menu bar. Tweak the options as needed and push the on-screen button to "on".
The app automatically backs up the hard disk every hour. It keeps all of the day's backups for 24 hours but deletes older versions to save space.
However, you can go back a month or more to look for data. How does it do that? Although it archives every hour, Time Machine saves only the files that have been changed.
Through what is known as Unix's hard links, it is able to store just one copy of a file or folder while it displays it in multiple locations. In this way, Time Machine efficiently saves the latest changes without accumulating massive amounts of data.
If any file is required, just "Enter Time Machine" at the menu bar. All the recent saves appear with a flair that Hollywood would be proud of - the entire screen turns into a scene from outer space with the desktop view stretching into eternity (right) - and the user needs only to locate the file and hit "Restore".
Time Machine is able to back up to an external hard drive, a second drive in the Mac, a partition on the internal hard disk, a network server or Apple's new Time Capsule.
Of course, the Time Capsule - a hard disk linked to a high-speed Wi-Fi router - is the most convenient option as the backups are done wirelessly and automatically when the Capsule is detected.
Unfortunately, Apple does not allow Time Machine to work with an Airport disk, which is a hard disk attached to the Airport Extreme Wi-Fi hub. So while the Airport disk can work as a network attached storage device, it cannot double up as a Time Capsule.
Time Machine has other limitations too. For one thing, you cannot start up a Mac from the Time Machine disk. So it is necessary to create a bootable disk for this purpose.
Data is neither encrypted nor compressed in Time Machine. Anyone with physical access to the Time Machine disk will be able to read all your files.
Finally, Time Machine is not an off-site backup solution unless you manually remove the Time Machine disk and store it somewhere else.
In other words, serious users would need to supplement it with other backup solutions.
One suggestion: Use Apple Backup 3 in conjunction with Time Machine. Backup 3 is able to easily create and manage multiple backup plans for a variety of sources and destinations.
While Time Machine backs everything to a single drive, Backup can be configured to upload contacts and bookmarks to .Mac, burn an iTunes library to DVDs and copy the Documents folder to a network drive - each with its own schedule and frequency.
Time Machine is easy to use and offers amazing eye candy but the serious Mac user would do well to supplement it with Backup 3.
This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life on 1 July 2008.
