Other Sites
"Our number one recommendation for mitigating the negative effects of a problematic system update, or any other software revision for that matter, is the creation of a startup drive clone with a utility like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner directly prior to applying said update. When things go wrong, the clone can be quickly copied back to your original startup drive, or you can simply startup from the clone and get back to work immediately."
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070612233646918
They also note that for example, Apple does not generally maintain old versions of various applications - like iTunes - nor some system update revisions (delta and combo Mac OS X updaters are notable exceptions) after the next version is released. The same goes for many third-party application developers. Others, like Netscape, have downloadable archives of old versions back to the beginning, and good on them for that, but you can't count on being able to download a fresh installer of a favorite piece of software if your current copy becomes corrupted or gets lost in a hard drive failure.
And if you continue computing for long enough, you will suffer data corruption and hard drive failure.
I always marvel when someone phones me up for tech advice, and when I suggest that a reinstall of misbehaving software might be the best approach, they tell me: "Oh, I don't know what happened to the installer disk (or worse, that they threw it away, figuring they wouldn't need it any more). Sometimes it's hard to feel sorry for people.
Now, if you keep scrupulously updated cloned backup copies of your hard drive's contents, you probably can get away with discarding installer disks, although it's still not advisable. I'll cop to being a bit obsessive about this matter, but I have every installer disk for every piece of software I've ever owned, going back to the original system and software floppies that came with my old Mac Plus. CDs and DVDs really aren't that bulky to store, and with a minimum of organization can be collected in a bag or drawer for future reference. Someday you will thank yourself.
An associated issue is Apple software updated online via Software Update. Personally, I never update software via Software Update, and wouldn't even if I has a broadband connection. The concept of modifying software (especially the operating system) over an online connection, probably with a bunch of other applications open, always seems to be like throwing out the welcome mat for troubles, and I like to have real standalone installers archived so I can run them under ideal conditions.
Another point is that if you need to reinstall your system, you may not be able to connect to the Internet.
It may be "belt & suspenders," but my policy is to keep redundantly archived copies of all software installers and updaters on local disks, along with backups of my data.
Digg this
del.icio.us
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Blogs ď Hands On Mac ď
