Backing Up to Your iDisk


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Backing Up to Your iDisk

Once you know what files you need to back up, you’ll want to make sure they’re saved in a safe place that is easy to access in case you ever need to restore your files. What better place to back up your files than your iDisk? Your iDisk is easy to get to, secure on Apple servers, and can be accessed from almost anywhere.

Your iDisk is a great place to back up your application preferences, passwords, and any other files that are small and change frequently. Each time you back up your files to your iDisk, only the files that have changed since the last backup are saved. This saves time during backups.

Check how much space is available on your iDisk

If you’re not sure if you have enough space on your iDisk to perform a backup, open System Preferences and then click the .Mac icon. In the iDisk pane you’ll see how much space is available on your iDisk. If you need additional space, click the Buy More button to purchase additional space.

Change the space allocation for your iDisk if you need more space

If you need just a little more space on your iDisk to back up your files, you can borrow space from your .Mac email storage. On the .Mac website, click the Account link to change your account settings. Click the Storage Settings button, and then choose a new storage allocation from the Manage Your Storage pop-up menu.

Back up multiple computers to your iDisk

If you use more than one Mac and want to make sure that the data on all of your computers is backed up to your iDisk, you can. To identify which computer a backup file came from, remember to rename the files in a way that allows you to do that.

Remove backup files from your iDisk

If you want to remove previous backup files from your iDisk, simply go to the Backup 3 menu and choose Remove iDisk Backups. This removes all the backup files from your iDisk, so the next time you back up files to your iDisk a full backup will occur.

Force a full backup to your iDisk

By default, Backup performs a full backup the first time you run a backup plan, and then only backs up the files that have changed each time after that. If you ever want to do a full backup instead of an incremental backup, select the plan you want to run, and then choose Full Backup from the Plan menu.

If your computer is in sleep mode or turned off when a backup is scheduled

Backup lets you schedule your backups at a time that’s convenient for you. If you ever miss a backup because your computer is in sleep mode or turned off Backup will launch the missed backup plan when you wake up or turn on your Mac.

Create a backup plan to save your important data and preferences to your iDisk

From the Plan menu, choose New Plan. Select Custom from the list of plan templates, and then click Choose Plan.

Type a name for your plan in the field at the top of the window, and then click the Select Items to Back Up (+) button.

From the list of QuickPicks, select Address Book, iCal, Keychain, Mail messages and settings, and Safari settings, and then click Done.

Click the Add a Destination or Schedule (+) button, and then choose iDisk from the destination pop-up menu.

Set a schedule for your backup and click OK.

Click Back Up Now to start the backup for the first time, or close the window to wait for the next scheduled backup.

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