While I'm on the subject of back-ups, I've recently installed a network attached hard drive at our North East campus. This drive should be big enough for all of the North East teachers to backup their documents to. Kerry has been using it for several weeks and I think she has found it quite simple to manage. Here are instructions for those who like the step by step approach to computing. 

 

1. Connect to the drive - to copy your files to a network shared drive you must first establish a connection to that drive. There are several ways to accomplish this - the easiest is to use the Network item in the side bar of a Finder window. 
   
    
   
   1. Open a window in the Finder (if you select the Finder icon in the dock a window should open). 
      
   2. Select the Network item in the side bar. 
      
   3. Double click "NEBackup AFP" in the listed network items.  
      
   4. A connect to server dialog will appear. You will need to change the listed Name to your first initial and your last name (as you see I have done in the picture to the left). The password is your regular password. 
      
   5. Click OK and another window will appear which displays the shared folders you have access to. Select the one with your name. and click OK. 
      
   6. You are now connected to the backup drive. The shared folder you selected will appear in the upper part of the side bar of each Finder window. Click on that name to select it, or click the little eject icon to the right of the name to disconnect from it. 
      
    
   
2. Copy files to the drive - to actually perform the backup you simply drag files to be backed up to the network shared folder we just connected to. I suggest you backup your entire home directory. This is the folder on your hard drive that lives in the Users folder with your name on it. The image to the right shows Kerry's home directory and my folder on the backup drive. At this point I can simply drag the home directory over the the dmartens item in the side bar and the copy process will begin.  
   

 

 
If you have iTunes music files, or iPhoto pictures on your computer the copying process will take quite a while. You may want to back up your music and pictures in another way and not copy them over the network. If this is the case you can select the Desktop, Documents, and Library folders inside your home directory and move only those folders over to the backup drive.
 

 
The Library folder is an important folder to backup - it contains things like email, addressbook, bookmarks, etc.
 

 
The first time you copy files over they will simply start copying with out any dialogue after you drop them on your shared folder. From that point on a window will pop up indicating a folder already exists with that name. You will want to replace the existing file, so click the correct answer to that warning message. I suggest you do this backup process once a week.
 

 
There are several ways to backup your pictures and music. You can burn them onto CD's, but if you have alot of files this may be cumbersome, as it may take quite a few CD's to hold all your information. You can also, for very little cost get an external hard drive. These USB or firewire drives can be quite inexpensive, and will hold quite a bit of data.
 

 
As always feel free to email me with any questions. 

@ November 2, 2007 2:43:34 PM PDT ( )