bunch of questions!!

Hello Bad Monk:

I will attempt to answer your questions one at a time:

1. If you copy a file (save as), it is a copy. If you use the "copy" from the menu bar, that copies to a clipboard - I am not sure whether just a pointer is created. Backing up is an entirely different story. I back up by making bootable clones on an external firewire drive using a little program called SuperDuper. In that way. I never worry about whether or not I have backed up critical files - I have everything. I always do that before and after software changes.

2. I do not know.

3. Unless you routinely use very large files, no "defragging" is necessary. OS X 'defrags' files of less than 20 MB on the fly.

4. See # 1 above. SuperDuper is about $28 US (www.shirt-pocket.com), well documented, and fast. After the first backup, I use "smart update" which essentially copies only changed data (syncs). If you make bootable clones, you will need a firewire drive. In answer to your question, Apple has software in disk utility that will back up. I prefer SuperDuper because, IMHO, it is easier to use.

5. No. A bootable clone will give you retreat capability.

Ask away. Your dad was correct. You will find that this is the best on-line community anywhere - and virtually everyone is a volunteer.

Barry

Bad Monk

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This then gives you the opportunity to select the label you are using and to compose the contents before printing.

1. if i copy a file(s), say for eg, video, photos, documents, music whatever, into another folder (eg my stuff) then does it use more hard drive space please? or does it just 'copy' without using up additional space, i.e if my hard drive was at 200gb will it still be 200gb & could i then back up this folder to a DVD/external drive please?

When in the finder:
a) If you simply drag a file from one regular folder to another on the same disk (or, really, volume) it will just move the file location information and no copy will be made - the file will disappear from the old folder and re-appear in the new one - no increase in disk usage.

b) if you hold down the option key while you drag a file from one regular folder to another on the same disk the original file will be left intact , and in place, and a complete new copy will be made (ie it takes up additional space equal to the file size)

c) if , instead of using a regular folder, you move things to a "Burn Folder", then the original file will be left in place and an alias of it will be placed in the Burn Folder (no , or rather very very small, increase in disk usage). THis would be the way to go for your DVD burning process.

d) you can also create an alias of a file or folder using the relevant command in the "file" menu, and put it wherever you like. (no, or very little increase in disk usage).

e) If you use the "Save as" command while in an application then a complete new copy of the relevant file will be created.

3) Defragging is the subject of endless debate. The answer, IMHO, is that defragging is far less necessary on a Mac running OSX than on other computers, but there are still some situations that demand it.

Firstly OSX has its own defrag routines which work in the background, defragging files under 20 MB in size and relocating regularly used ones to "hot" areas of the drive - see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668 for the official line on such matters

Secondly, though, the built in routines do not deal with large files (over 20 meg) and do not deal with free space fragmentation (the tendancy for the free space on your drive to be split up into ever smaller segments as files are written, written, erased and replaced, and so forth.

This doesn't matter much for most users while you have plenty of free space, but it can become a serious issue when the disk is getting full, as OSX also needs "contiguous" free space for use by virtual memory and for the writing of directory "extents" files.

If you have an external drive you can overcome this problem by simply creating a bootable "clone" of your internal drive on an external, wiping the internal, and the cloning back to from the external to the internal. THis effectively defrags the drive. Alternatively you can use a product like iDefrag ( http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php ) to achieve the same ends. (see http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag-2.php for a good discussion of fragmentation and OSX)

The short anwer is that for most people only very occasional defragmentation is likely to be necessary unless they are working a lot with large files (videos / DVd's etc) or have a hard drive which is getting up to, say 75% full .

4. No need to buy software to clone your drive. The best solution here is to download a free copy of SuperDuper or LaCie's "SilverKeeper" software. The "fee based" version of SuperDuper ($28) is even better though, and allows much more control over the backup process. Bear in mind that your drive will need to be connected by Firewire if want to be able to boot from it. USB drives can't be ued to boot PPC Macs running under OSX, though you can read and write to them.

5. Not built in to the system as a whole, though there are various ways of achieving essentially the same end.

Cheers

Rod

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