Why its so important to backup

[Kerryd]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: imap

Something happened last night that has never happened before although lots of strange things have happened. When I sat down at my computer this morning all my iCal entries were gone and my tasks were gone and some appeared that had been cleared. I have no idea whether this has anything to do with Entourage, sync services or.... I would have sync'd my Palm TX and BlackBerry Bold as I do every night before I shut down. The Palm was missing all the entries also but not the BlackBerry.

I first restored my 3:30 am SuperDuper! Backup but that was missing all the info too. So I went to my next backup which was in Time Machine at 1:32 and all the info was there. I reset sync services, over wrote all my Apple apps in sync services and then did a combine and finally I over wrote my handhelds on first sync.

All is well now. I'm guessing something happened during the final sync but I have no idea what or if this is fully the case but I'm assuming it must be. However, I've had to rely on backups extensively in the past due to funny outcomes with Entourage sync services and as I said I don't know whether this has anything to do with Entourage but I sure was glad I had a backup. Not only would some records say be dup'd or what have you but absolutely everything was gone in my calendar and there was a pile of data there all categorized, some linked and some part of a project.

 

[Diane Ross]

So I went to my next backup which was in Time Machine

It's advised by the developers not to let Time Machine backup your Entourage
database. If the database is copied while being used, the backup could be
corrupt. You can set the Time Machine to exclude the Microsoft User Data
folder and create an iCal event to copy it over at night while not in use so
you get one backup daily in Time Machine.

<http://tinyurl.com/aba7tl>

Some users have found that only checking one items in Sync Services works
better. Uncheck then check other for sync.

Everything you wanted to know about syncing. The Truth, The Whole Truth, and
Nothing But The Truth.

³Why does syncing play Gossip with my contacts?³

<http://tinyurl.com/34qkrv>

 

[Kerry]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
Email Client: imap

Something happened last night that has never happened before although lots of strange things have happened. When I sat down at my computer this morning all my iCal entries were gone and my tasks were gone and some appeared that had been cleared.

--
In further investigation, I don't think this failure of lost data had
anything to do with Entourage sync. Rather, I believe it had to do
with the BlackBerry Missing Sync. They just released their V2 software
and there have been some issues. Although sync's had stabilized and
been going fine, Rogers sent me a new service pack to enable my
handheld Facebook. I think this service pack caused problems on the
BlackBerry Bold and something went wrong with the Missing Sync sync.

Using the BlackBerry desktop under windows I cleared the messed up
handheld calendar and it seems fine now. However, it was so lucky that
I had this well backed up. I'll have to keep my eye on my Missing Sync
backups as V2 is still a touch shaky but not like it was when it came
out.

This is one area where Mac computing is a touch problematic. Sync,
which is so critical as the world is rapidly going mobile, is very
problematic on the Mac. There are sync services issues, Entourage sync
issues, the need to use 3rd party apps to sync devices better intended
for Windows etc. In fact, when using the BlackBerry sync under Windows
is really a non-issue as you use the BlackBerry desktop from RIM.
There is no sync services to think about as this is designed for
device to desktop sync. So too with Palm.

I write this as I feel it is really important for people to have a
good backup strategy with the Mac. There is so much written here about
sync issues in Entourage, corrupted DB's etc that no one should be
without a good backup strategy. Design something that works well for
you; test it a couple of times to make sure it works. If disaster
occurs, you know you're safe.