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Back Up Your Data & Save A Squirrel

Friday, January 13th, 2012 | Author: OWC Chris S.

A couple of months ago, OWC Stephen wrote an article that dealt with RAID units not being a “true” backup for your data. This caused confusion for some people; after all, RAID has built-in redundancy (it’s the first letter, for goodness’ sake!), so data should be completely safe, right?

Well… not really.

RAID will protect you against drive failure; that’s exactly what it’s designed to do. However, there are a lot of other things that can cause data loss. For example, if you knock the average RAID enclosure off your desk, there’s a good chance both drives are going to be damaged. If both drives are damaged, then anything on that unit is gone.

What it comes down to is that an actual “backup” consists of at least two copies of the files you want to keep.

  1. the original file (usually on your main hard drive)
  2. a copy of the file (preferably on some sort of external device that can be moved off-site)

Ideally, you’d want three copies – your original and two copies – one on-site and one off-site in case of things like fires, tornadoes or theft. That, however, is an article unto itself, full of “exciting” topics like “backup drive rotation scheduling” and “methodology comparison.” Yeah… about as exciting as that Economics class we all had to take in high school, in that stuffy classroom which, despite being windowless, somehow still admitted the slightly disturbing smells emanating from the cafeteria kitchens just down the hall.

Instead, we’re going to talk about something much more exciting: a cross-country auto race. No, I haven’t watched Cannonball Run one too many times; I’ve got a viable (if somewhat bizarre) analogy going here; just follow along. Article Continues…

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Category: New @ OWC, Tech Tips
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Quick “Stocking Stuffer” Tech Tips from OWC

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Are you a new Macintosh user? Perhaps you’re just new to Lion or maybe you’ve been using Macs for years and you just want to brush up on things? Whatever the case, the OWC Tech crew have gotten together to bring you some quick tech tips – kind of a  “stocking stuffer” of sorts.

Comparing Prices/Products? Swap back and forth easily with Tabs. (OWC Laura)

Tabbed browsing isn’t anything new, but it sure makes switching between one page or another a lot easier. Interestingly enough, the command for opening a new tab in your browser window is the same in Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome. A simple Command-T in any of these will open up a new tab, leaving the other page as it was. You can also Command-click on a link and it will open up the link in a new tab – incredibly handy when you’re not finished with the page you’re on.

Quick Switching Between Open Applications (OWC Ben P)

Want to switch between programs or close a bunch of programs at once? To switch programs quickly, hold the Command button down as you tap the Tab key. Tap Tab repeatedly to scroll through all your open applications. Once the app you want is highlighted, release the Command button and the selected program will move to the front. Article Continues…

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Hear Your iDevices’ Full Potential

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 | Author: OWC Mike H.

Grado SR60Little known and less often written about is the sound quality that the iPhone 4, iPad, and the latest iPod touch are capable of outputting. Apple must’ve upgraded something in the hardware or software design because these iDevices can output near laptop quality sound. The only thing holding the iDevices’ sound quality back is a full blown custom equalizer, like that found in iTunes, which would allow you to “tune” your iDevice to sound as good as a dedicated CD transport. (Audiophiles debate that all you want. I’ve got my iTunes tuned to match my audiophile CD transport and I could A/B test anyone to guess the wrong source.)

The main point here is if your using the original headphones that came with your iDevice you’re missing out on all that yummy sound quality, and the difference is breathtaking. Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Tech Tips
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Teach your Mac New Things – Keep Your Software Up-To-Date.

Friday, December 9th, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Not everybody is running the “latest and greatest” versions of software. This is extra true when it’s something like Adobe Creative Suite, which can easily top a grand each time a new version comes out. While the extra features may be worth it to some (I absolutely love Photoshop CS5′s  ”Content Aware Fill”), it may not be as useful for others, and $1000+ is nothing to sneeze at.

Sometimes, though, all  you need is an incremental update to give you the features you need. OWC Customer Robert Scott wrote in to us to relay his story of just how true this is.

Robert was running Adobe Photoshop CS4 (11.0.0) under Tiger (OSX 10.4.11) on his 2007 Mac Pro. Unfortunately, Photoshop would disable OpenGL rendering with the stock nVidia GeForce 7300GT video card, which was unsupported. He replaced the GeForce with a refurbished Radeon X1900 XT (purchased from OWC), which allowed Photoshop to enable OpenGL rendering.

This worked great for several years until recently, when the Radeon started running extra hot, causing all sorts of striping on the screen, shutting down the displays at random, and causing hardware freezes.

Apparently, Robert had had enough, and he replaced the X1900 XT with the original GeForce, while preparing to pick up a Radeon HD 5770 to replace it. To his surprise, though, he found that OpenGL was still enabled. Apparently, either the latest version of Photoshop CS4 (11.0.2), the fact he’s now running OS X 10.6.8, or a combination of the two has now added support that was not there initially.

Now, everything is running great for Robert – OpenGL rendering with no striping, freezes or shutdowns – and it didn’t involve any extra expenses.

So what’s the lesson we’ve learned here? Keep up with your software updates for maximum compatibility and functionality; you may save yourself money down the line.

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Category: Tech Tips
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Take It from a Tech: RAID ≠ Proper Backup

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 | Author: OWC Stephen

I thought that today I would try to clear up a misconception that I encounter fairly often on the topic of data storage. I’ll start with a couple of examples:

Say a customer is looking for a RAID solution like the NewerTech Guardian MAXimus to store their important information. It’s a fantastic product and certainly a wonderful solution for your backup or main storage, but here’s the important part: when I ask the customer if this is going to be a backup or their main storage, the response I sometimes hear is, “Well it’s a RAID, so doesn’t it back itself up?”

Another scenario that I have seen, unfortunately, is this. A customer calls in because their RAID has failed, and they are extremely distraught because all of their critical information is on it—tax documents, raw footage for a movie in production, irreplaceable family photos, dissertations, you name it. I’ll ask, once again, if this was their main storage or a backup, and I’ll hear back, “Well it was a RAID. That was the whole point!” Article Continues…

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AirPort Apparently Not The Best Place For Time Machine

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

We’ve gotten a couple of emails from readers wondering how to get Time Machine to work with an AirPort.

Well… theoretically, getting the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour on a long stretch of tarmac would probably be fairly straightforward. Take a base 0-60 time of 8.8 seconds, factor acceleration curve for 60-88mph, account for deceleration while swerving around the occasional 747, and you’ll need about …

… What? You meant using Time Machine via an AirPort Base Station?

Oh.

That’s something completely different – and a lot easier to talk about.

The Theory

In early 2008, Apple introduced Time Capsule, which essentially combined an AirPort Base Station and a 500GB-1TB hard drive. At first glance, replicating this setup with a AirPort Extreme Base Station would seem to be fairly simple.

First, you attach a drive (such as a NewerTech miniStack, which stacks nicely underneath) to the USB port on your Base Station. Then, mount it on your desktop like you would any other remote drive. Finally, select it as your TimeMachine backup disk and let it run. After the initial (lengthy) backup, Time Machine will mount the drive remotely when connected to the network, run its backup, then disconnect – just like with Time Capsule.

The Reality

Article Continues…

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OWC Options Address Hard Drive Shortage

Friday, November 4th, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Over the last week or so, we’ve talked about the flooding situation in Thailand and how it will likely result in a widespread shortage of platter-based drives. In the wake of all this, a question has arisen: if you’re running out of room, what does one do instead of trying to purchase a possibly non-existent hard drive or deleting files? After all, you need to store your files somehow.

Yes, this shortage is certainly inconvenient, but it helps if you look at it like this: it’s not about what you can’t get; it’s about making the most of what you already have.

Fortunately, a solution may be sitting in your basement, that bottom desk drawer or the old storage unit. If you’ve been a computer user for more than a few years, there’s a good chance that you have an older hard drive or two laying around unused. Sure, they’re not the multi-terabyte, super-fast drives that we’ve been seeing recently, but in a pinch, 80GB is 80GB.

Connecting the Drives

The trick is, of course, mounting those drives on your desktop, so you can transfer files over to them. Fortunately, OWC has a number of different options for using those older drives externally with your current system. Let’s take a look at the different options. Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Tech Tips
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Sometimes, “Recommendations” Are Actually “Requirements”

Friday, October 14th, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

About a month ago, we talked about how MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.2 “secretly” resolved problems that 2011 MacBook Pros were having with 6.0Gb/s SATA performance.

Since we posted about the fix, we’ve been hearing from customers that some firmware updates are not fully completing… even though it appears that it is. These failed updates offered no indication that the update didn’t complete.

So a bit of sleuthing on our behalf turned up the culprit. When installing the update using Software Update, the installer informs you that it is recommended that you plug in your MacBook Pro to working power source while installing. This makes sense – the one time you don’t want your battery to go out is when running a firmware update.

However, if you download the update via its Apple KnowledgeBase page, though, the description there states that you must have your MacBook Pro connected to the power connector for installation.

From all the reports we’ve seen, it would appear that the KnowledgeBase instructions are the more accurate or at least more specific. Connecting the power supply while updating your firmware isn’t a recommendation; it’s a requirement.

Taking that requirement mindset even further is that when installing any firmware update on any Mac notebook, make sure you have it connected to its wall outlet power adapter before you start the update. Then, after running the updater, check the Hardware Overview screen in System Profiler and see if the the correct new Boot ROM or SMC version number for the update you’re running is present. If you still have the old version, then you will need to run the update again.

Naturally, this connect to power requirement is already solved for desktop machine users. But if you can think of a way to update a desktop machine like an iMac, Mac Pro, or mini without being connected to power, we’d like to hear about it!

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