I use Time Machine to back up my data, and I have an external hard drive plugged in to my Mac mini all the time, but that’s easy because a Mac mini is a desktop computer.  If you’ve got a laptop that doesn’t live a sheltered life in the office or on a desk somewhere, you probably don’t take the time to back up your computer as often as you should because it’s a pain to have to plug in your external hard drive and wait for Time Machine to back up your computer.

I will tell you this: approximately 95% of customers that come to us needing hard drive replacements don’t have their data backed up and never thought their hard drive would fail. (I may be exaggerating a little, it might actually only be around 94.875%)

If you just got yourself an AirPort Extreme and aren’t sure how to set it up, check out THIS BLOG POST RIGHT HERE!

We’ve had customers come to us with dead hard drives in their computers that have lost months of work, years of pictures, entire music libraries, all of their downloaded movies from iTunes, priceless memories that can’t ever be replaced.  So, take a piece of advice from me: back up your data.  Back it up again.  Keep backing it up on a regular basis.  Check the quality of your backups and make sure you’ve got it all.  In fact, make more than one backup.  Keep one external hard drive plugged in to your computer so it’s backing up all the time.  Use another external hard drive to back your computer up once every other two weeks or so and then store that off-site somewhere (in a safe-deposit box, or over at your parent’s house, or with your kids at their place, or maybe you know someone with a wine cellar you can keep it in or something).

To start this project you’ll need the following:

•One Apple Macintosh computer
•One AirPort Extreme
•One USB-powered external hard drive
•All of the appropriate cables for all of your devices

Step One: Turn on your computer.

Step Two: Plug your USB-powered external hard drive in to one of the USB ports on your computer.

Step Three: Ensure that your external hard drive is formatted correctly for use with a Mac by using Disk Utility, or when your computer asks you if you want to “use this disk with Time Machine” click yes.  Don’t let Time Machine start backing up your computer yet, though.  If the Time Machine window opens up after formatting the disk or if it starts trying to back up your computer, move the slider switch from “On” to “Off” before it can complete the process.

Step Three Point Two Five: Eject your external hard drive from your computer by dragging its icon into the trash can (which has conveniently turned into an eject symbol).

Step Three Point Five Zero: Unplug the external hard drive’s USB plug from the computer

Step Three Point Seven Five: Plug the external hard drive’s USB plug in to your AirPort Extreme router or a powered USB hub that is, in turn, plugged in to your AirPort Extreme.

Step Four: Make sure that your AirPort Extreme is plugged in and set up correctly and the green light is glowing on the front.  Open AirPort Utility.  Your AirPort Utility window should look something like this:

If it does, great!  If it doesn’t, refer to one of our other blog posts and correct it.

Step Five: Click on the icon representing your AirPort Extreme.  If it asks for your password, enter the password that you created for your DEVICE, not the password that you created for your NETWORK.  Your AirPort Utility window should look something like this:

Step Six: Click that little button there, the one that is located in the bottom right corner and says “Edit”.  You’ll see a window that looks like this:

Step Seven: You’ll notice that there’s a button at the top that is labelled “Disks”.  Click that button.  You’ll see a window that looks like this:

If you see an icon representing your disk with the proper name, that’s a good thing.  Make sure “Enable file sharing” is checked.  You can secure your disks with a different password if you want, but that’s totally up to you.  You can close AirPort Utility if your settings are correct and the “Update” button is greyed out (as pictured above).

Step Eight: Click on your Finder icon in the dock.

This will open a new Finder window that looks something like this:

You’ll note that I’m using the column view, which is selected on the control bar of the Finder pane and looks like this:

Step Nine: Scroll down on the left side of your Finder pane until you see the name of your AirPort.  You’ll see in the screenshot below that my AirPort is named “matt’s airport”

Step Ten: Click on the name of your AirPort.  You may need to enter the password for your DEVICE, not your NETWORK, but you’ll see a window that looks like this:

Step Eleven: click where it says “Matt’s Backups” or whatever the name of your disk is.  It may take a few seconds, but eventually you’ll see a window that looks like this:

This is a good thing.  If your Finder Preferences are set to see “Connected servers” then you’ll see a little icon representing your disk on your desktop, as shown below.

Step Twelve: Click on the Time Machine icon on your menu bar.  You know, the one at the top of the screen that looks like this:

The icon on the very left is for Time Machine.  if you click it, you’ll get a drop down menu that looks like this:

Step Thirteen: Click the option that says “Open Time Machine Preferences”.

You’ll see a familiar window that looks like this:

Step Fourteen: Click the button that says “Select Disk”.  You’ll see a window that looks like this:

Step Fifteen: Click on the appropriate disk (in my case “Matt’s Backups”), then click “Use Backup Disk”.

Step Sixteen: You’ll be asked for your password in a window that looks like this:

Click “Connect”.  You’ll notice that your Time Machine Preferences window looks like this now:

Let it back up your computer.  Every time that your computer is on the network and powered on, Time Machine should be wirelessly backing up your entire system from now on.

You should, of course, check your backup history on a weekly basis and verify that your external hard drive is doing its job and isn’t broken or corrupted, but I probably didn’t need to tell you that, because you’re already doing it, right?

Until next time,

Matt.

We’ve changed the day of the week to Friday and the time to 6:00 PM.  We’re also meeting at Davidson Beverage Company from now on, because it’s a more enjoyable environment to hang out, relax, and talk iPads.

Davidson Beverage Company is located across the street from ComputerTree of Davidson at 442 South Main Street Suite 100.

As always, iPad Users Group is ABSOLUTELY FREE, no iPad required to attend.  If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’re more than welcome to come since they all use the same Operating System.

This week I’m going to talk about utilities.

Speedtest.net Mobile Speed Test – Free

This app is amazing. It’s one of the first programs I installed on my iPad. When you open it up, you have one button (begin test) to push. Once you push it, it picks a nearby server, runs a few tests which you can watch in real time, and reports its findings. This app will tell you what sort of internet speed you are getting on your wireless. This is a great way to test to make sure that your wireless is working well and that you’re getting the same sort of speeds you do on any computers you might have physically wired into your router.

Flashlight. – Free

This app is packed full of goodies. First of all, if you have an iPhone 4 or 4s, you can activate your camera’s LED as a flashlight. (Warning: Using it for long periods of time will drain your battery.) What about all of the other iOS devices? When you open the app, it will automatically adjust your brightness and make your screen pure white. If you touch the screen, a menu will come up with all sorts of options. You can customize the color, turn it into a mirror, a magnifying glass, a clock, and even send out an SOS signal. For free, it is hard to beat.

The Weather Channel – Free

The iPhones comes with a built in app for weather, but the iPad does not. This app does an admirable job of substituting for it. It’s both quick and easy to use, and the information is presented in a helpful and intuitive manner. It will give you the daily high and low temperature, the chance of precipitation, as well as an hourly temperature chart. It allows you to track multiple locations and it even has a section for the tree, weed, and grass pollen count.

Find My iPhone – Free

Don’t let the name fool you, this app works for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. This free app from Apple allows you to track and find your iOS devices wherever they may be. Simply install it on your iOS device and make sure location services is turned on for it. Log into iCloud.com with the Apple ID associated with your iOS device(s) and select “Find My iPhone”. It will list all of your iOS devices and Apple computers that have it turned on. (It shows up as “Find My Mac” in the iCloud section of System Preferences on a Mac computer with Lion installed.) You can play a sound or display a message (which will override any current volume setting on the device), remotely lock the device, or remotely wipe it to erase all of the information on it. For me, the comfort and ease of mind that it gives me is well worth the minute it takes to set it all up.

This week I’m going to talk about entertainment.

IMDb – Price: Free

IMDb is one of my favorite apps, period. IMDb  (Internet Movie Database) is a massive database of Movies, TV shows and actors. It compiles all sorts of information about movies, actors, showtimes, reviews, trailers, box office stats and more. If I’m hanging with my friends, and we can’t remember who played a character in a movie or voiced over some obscure cartoon on tv, I can quickly look it up and settle the dispute. If I want to go see a movie, I can look at what nearby theaters are playing a specific movie, what times, and whether or not it’s in 3D. It’s chock full of interesting facts, comments, user and critic reviews, parent guides, and blooper notes; all presented in an easy to use format. This app is one of the first things I install on any of my iOS devices.

iBooks – Price: Free

iBooks is an incredibly easy to use e-book and pdf reader. You can find current bestsellers and free classics on the store and download them straight to your mobile device. For people who have just gotten themselves a new iPad the first book I would recommend is: “iPad User Guide for iOS 5.1″. They also distribute different versions for each of the iOS devices as well as which version of the operating system you have. It covers all how to use all of the preinstalled apps, as well as how to setup and configure your device. It is a great read, and a nice manual to have handy.

Soundhound – Price: Free

Soundhound is a simple app with an awesome idea. Hear a song but don’t recognize it? Let it listen for a few seconds, it will go online and look it up, and then it will tell you what it is. This is especially convenient if you’re using your iPhone. You can be in a restaurant or in the mall, hear a song you like, and find out what it is in seconds. Soundhound does have a paid version for $6.99, but I’ve had no issues with the free version (which is supported by unobtrusive ads).

Next week I will be talking about Utilities, so check back soon!

Yes, that’s correct.  Until September of 2011, my mother was still using an original iBook with a Power PC G3 300MHz processor, a 3.2GB Hard Drive, and a whole 32MB of RAM.  Being the kind of person that I am, I decided that it was time for me to buy my mother a new computer, which I did.  She now has a 13-inch MacBook Pro and loves it to death.  It’s so much faster and so much more powerful than her old computer that she gets all of her work done in a quarter of the time.

My father had just purchased a new 13-inch MacBook Pro a few months before, so now there were two laptops in their household.  Now with these two laptops at home, my parents wanted to use them to the best of their capabilities.  They buy their internet through AT&T and are U-Verse customers.  Their U-Verse package included a “2-Wire” combination modem/router that’s mediocre at best.  The modem part works fine, and I suppose that the router would create an admirable wired network, but with two laptops on a two-story house, who wants a wired network?  The issue that the 2-Wire modem has is that it broadcasts wireless signal at 802.11g specification, not the more current 802.11n specification, and it doesn’t have enhanced wireless capabilities (like a USB port for auxiliary devices).

What, exactly, did they want to do with these “auxiliary devices,” you may ask.  Well, I had taught my parents about backing up their data months before this when they were still using their 2007 Mac mini, which has been wonderful for them, and they wanted to continue to back up the data from both of their computers now (wirelessly of course).  My parents also wanted to use their two USB printers to print documents wirelessly.

Enter the AirPort Extreme.  Using the AirPort Extreme to replace the router part of their 2-Wire modem, I was able to create a full-house 802.11n network, and using a powered USB hub, I was able not only to connect both of their printers, but also connect an external USB hard drive that I partitioned in half for them, so my father’s computer backs up onto one half (wirelessly) and my mother’s onto the other half (also wirelessly).

This setup has served them well and they have experienced exactly zero problems with it, and I haven’t had to provide phone support for them either.

How to set up an AirPort Extreme to create a new wireless network (using AirPort Utility version 6.0):

Step One: Make sure that your internet is working.  If it isn’t, please contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) before starting this project.

Step Two: Connect your AirPort base station (AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, or Time Capsule) to your modem using an ethernet cable.  You should be sure to use the WAN (Wide Area Network) port that looks like this:

Step Three: Open the AirPort Utility found in Hard Drive/Applications/Utilities/AirPort Utility.  Its icon looks like this:

Step Four: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Click on the button that says “Other AirPort Base Stations (1)”

Step Five: You should now be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Select your base station by clicking on its name.

Step Six: You should now be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Click the “Other Options” button.  This will let you select what exactly you want to do with your device.

Step Seven: You should now be seeing a window that looks something like this:

We are, in fact, going to create a new network, so that option is correct.  Click the button labelled “Next” or press enter.

Step Eight: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

This is where you start having more options.  You need to decide what you’d like to call your Network and then what you’d like to call your Base Station.  The Network Name is what will be broadcast and appear on the list of local networks.  The Base Station Name is what the physical device is called.  You can choose to use the same password to secure both the network and the base station, but I recommend having different passwords, so we’ll un-check the “Use a single password” box and rename our Network and Base Station.  You’ll need to create two different passwords at this point, so go ahead and do that as well.  If you’re going to attach an external hard drive, you have the option of using yet another password for that.

Step Nine: You should be looking at a window that looks something like this:

You will now click the “Next” button.

Step Ten: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

You must decide if you’d like to create a guest network or not.  A guest network is a network that may be used by other people (guests, if you will) that need wireless access but not access to any of the computers, devices, drives, or printers on your primary network.  I think a guest network is a good idea, so we’ll go ahead and set one up.  Check the box next to “Enable guest network” and give it a unique name.

Step Eleven: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

You’ll notice that a little box labelled “Secure guest network” appeared when you clicked “Enable guest network.”  Because I’m into passwords and such, we’ll go ahead and click that box.

Step Twelve: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Go ahead and create a new password for your guest network.  Pick something that’s not too onerous to type, but not something that’s WAY too easy like “password”

Step Thirteen: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Click the “Next” button.

Step Fourteen: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

Click the “Done” button.

Step Fifteen: You should be seeing a window that looks something like this:

You’re done!  You can now quit out of AirPort Utility and start using the internet wirelessly.  If you’re going to plug in one auxiliary device, now’s a great time to do so.  If you want to use more than one auxiliary device, find yourself a POWERED USB hub and plug it in to your Base Station, then plug your other devices into the hub.  You can use either USB printers or USB hard drives.

Another post will detail how to set up those auxiliary devices step by step, but this post has gotten long enough, so I’ll sign off now.

Until next time,

Matt.

Addendum: As of 19 May 2012, there’s a blog post about how to use your AirPort Extreme and an external hard drive to back up your data wirelessly.  You can find that post RIGHT HERE!

So… As promised to a number of people, here is a brief tutorial on how to use Disk Utility to pamper your hard drive.

But first things first, please, Please, PLEASE back up your data using an external hard drive and if you don’t know how, there happens to be another blog post about how to do just that, located HERE.  If you don’t already own an external hard drive, you could just pop on down and see us in person because we have a selection of reasonably-priced, high-quality drives in stock for immediate purchase.

The application that we’ll be using for this is Disk Utility which can be found in Hard Drive/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.  Its icon looks like this:

When you open the application, you’ll get a window that looks something like this:

Your computer probably doesn’t have multiple drives (like mine), but if it does, you can repeat the process that I’m about to outline here on each of them.

Step One: Don’t Panic.

Step Two: (This is a teaching moment) There are multiple parts of a drive that you’ll see in Disk Utility.  The top part is the physical disk, with a name that describes the physical piece of hardware, hence “500.11 GB Hitachi HTS545050B9A302 Media” the bottom part is the partition or partitions that you have formatted on the disk.  A disk can be formatted with as many as 16 partitions (in Lion) and each partition can be formatted differently, or all the same.  If you’re interested learning more about this, stop on by the shop and talk to Justin for a while or check out Wikipedia.

Step Three: Select the disk (the top part) by clicking on it with your cursor.  You’ll get a window that looks something like this:

Note that the tab that says “First Aid” is selected.  This is what you want.  You will notice that there are two buttons available to click on the bottom right of the window: “Verify Disk” and “Repair Disk”.

Step Four: Click Verify Disk.  Ideally, when complete, your new window should look like this one:

Note how it says “The partition map appears to be OK”, that’s what you want.  If that’s what you’ve got, proceed to Step Five.

However, sometimes what you’ll get is a window that looks like this:

This, of course, is the Bad News Window.  No one wants to see this window.  Ever.  Especially if you haven’t backed up your data.  If your window looks like this, continue to Step Five anyway.

Step Five: Click Repair Disk.  Again, when it’s complete, you should get a window that looks like this:

If you’ve gotten the Bad News Window, and you clicked Repair Disk like you were supposed to, there’s one of two options; first option, you get a window that looks like this:

This is the Very Bad News Window and chances that you’ll see this window are pretty high, and if you do, you should do one of the following three things:

1- breathe a sigh of relief because you’ve got a Time Machine backup of your hard drive from about fifteen minutes ago (like you were supposed to), reformat your disk, and then restore your system using Time Machine.

2- Leave your computer on and RUN, do not walk to your friendly neighborhood ComputerTree of Davidson (or comparable locally-owned computer store) and get yourself an external hard drive, go back home and back up as much of your data as you can get.

3- you should immediately shut your computer down (safely, of course, by going to the Apple icon in the menu bar and selecting Shut Down), and call us at 708-804-0750 to tell us that you’re bringing in your computer for attempted data recovery.  Option three is, of course, the least favorable option if you haven’t backed up your data prior to coming in, because you can never be sure that you’ll be able to get anything off of your drive that you actually need.

Step Six: Select the partition of your drive that is located just beneath the drive that you just used Verify Disk and Repair Disk on.  You’ll get a window that looks like this:

It looks just like the window from Step Three except the partition is selected, not the disk, and you have TWO NEW BUTTONS TO CLICK: “Verify Disk Permissions” and “Repair Disk Permissions” and one old one: “Verify Disk”.

Step Seven: You could start by clicking Verify Disk Permissions, but we’ll actually begin by clicking Verify Disk, just to be thorough. You’ll see another window that looks like this:

Step Eight: You, of course, will want to click the button that says “Verify Disk” and go get yourself a drink or something while it does its thing (because “your computer may be slow or unresponsive”).  And ideally when you come back the window looks like this:

Step Nine: Next you’ll need to click the “Verify Disk Permissions” button.  Upon completion, the window will look something like this:

Step Ten: You’ll click the “Repair Disk Permissions” button.  This may take a while depending on how badly out-of-sync your disk permissions are.  When this is done, you’ll get a window that looks like this:

Step Eleven: Repeat this step two more times and then you’re done!  You’ll have a disk that’s been verified and repaired and a partition that has had its permissions verified and repaired.  When complete, this should speed up your computer a bit and make it run a little more smoothly.

I recommend doing this about once every other week if you use your computer a moderate amount and once a week if you use your computer a lot.

I’ve been using a Crux360™ for about a month now and I’m just thrilled at everything that it does for me.

First, it provides a rigid case for your iPad.  This is no wimpy fabric-backed piece of polyurethane held on by magnets, this is a serious piece of plastic that’s got screen protection covered.  I throw this thing into my backpack every morning around nine and every evening around six and then start my commute. (It’s about a mile.  I walk to work.)  I don’t worry at all about my iPad’s safety or security.  Speaking of security, this case fits so snugly around the iPad that you might have some difficulty getting it in there, and it sure doesn’t want to come out easily.

Second, if you’re using it with an iPad 2, this is the only third-party case I’ve ever seen to take advantage of Apple’s Smart Cover technology.  Because of the integrated magnets, when you open this case, your iPad wakes up from sleep.  When you close it, the iPad returns to energy saving sleep mode.

Third, and what you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure, is the keyboard!  This keyboard is great!  It’s got all the keys you’re looking for and quite a few you’ve never seen but will make perfect sense once you start using them.  There are 17 iPad-specific keys, including Select All, Cut, Copy, and Paste.  There’s even an Option key that you can use for typing alternate characters, symbols, accent marks, and bullets.  There are arrow keys so you can shift-select text when you’re writing an email with Mail or word processing in Pages.  The keyboard is powered by a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery that plugs in to a micro-USB charging cable (included) so you don’t have to worry about using AA batteries.

Fourth, (man is this case loaded with features or what?) you can use this case in four modes – Carry mode, Laptop mode, Movie mode, and Tablet mode.

While I was writing this review last night I said to (the now legendary) Justin “what are the things that I DON’T like about this case?”
To which he inquired “do you really want to tell people about the bad parts of this product?”
I replied with “absolutely.  I would want people to know the whole story about any product we sell and if there’s a design flaw, or a feature that doesn’t work properly, I’m going to write about it.”
I’ve racked my brain, I’ve asked friends and family, I’ve put this case to the test, and I can honestly say that the only potential drawback of this case is that it’s a little chunky.  But that’s something I’m willing to live with, and I think you might be too.

Come on down to the shop sometime soon and check out our demo model, you might be pleasantly surprised at how good a keyboard case can be.

EDIT 10 February 2012:  The metal strips at the top of the screen bezel have a bad habit of falling off, but I managed to fix my case by scraping off the original adhesive (looks like double-stick tape), cleaning both sides with rubbing alcohol and sticking the metal back on with super glue.

Registration is $50 per participant and allows you to attend as many sessions as you want on Saturday Training Day, and includes lunch provided by Toast Café.

This month’s Saturday Training Day is on Saturday, March 24 from 10:00 AM until 5:45 PM.

Pre-Registration is required for this event, with payment accepted at time of registration.  Minimum of six participants, maximum of ten.  If we do not have six participants pre-registered by Thursday, March 22, we will have to cancel the event (full refund of payment).

The schedule is as follows:

10:00 – 11:00 MAC 101 (Intro to Mac)
This class will introduce you to the basic functions of your Mac and introduce some intermediate concepts.

11:15 – 12:15 MAC 111 (Apple Integration)
This class will build on the fundamentals from MAC 101, expand on those intermediate concepts, and start discussing how your Apple peripherals interface with your computer.

12:15 – 1:00 Lunch (provided by Toast Café) 

1:00 – 2:00 CLD 101 (iCloud Introduction)
iCloud and all it can do for you.  An introduction to Apple’s latest cloud-based data service.

2:15 – 3:15 IPD 101 (iPad Introduction) 
An introductory look at the iPad and the iOS operating system (used on iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad).  Also including more advanced capabilities of iPad based on participant skill level.

3:30 – 4:30 LIF 101 (iPhoto / iMovie) 
How to use Apple’s popular iPhoto and iMovie software that is accessible, easy to use, and great for sharing your creations!

4:45 – 5:45 FBK 101 (Intro to Facebook) 
A whole hour spent on how to set up a new Facebook account, add friends, edit your privacy settings and news feed, upload photos and videos, and find friends.

How devastated would you be if your computer’s hard drive failed and you couldn’t recover your data? Years of photos, your entire music library, projects you were working on for school or business; all of them could be gone in the blink of an eye.

Enter the Time Machine utility that is already on your computer. [If you're running Leopard (10.5), Snow Leopard (10.6), or Lion (10.7)]

Time Machine is a useful program found in the Applications folder and your menu bar that is designed to automatically back up the data that’s on your computer to an external hard drive. You can review the data on your backup at any time simply by choosing “Enter Time Machine” from the drop-down menu located in the menu bar located at the top of the screen.

Time Machine keeps backups of your entire system hourly for the last twenty-four hours, daily for the last month, and it retains weekly backups until your external hard drive runs out of space, at which point it starts writing over the oldest backups, thus keeping the most relevant data secure.

If your computer’s internal hard drive crashes and you’ve been using Time Machine, you’ve still got your data! All you have to do is bring your computer and your external hard drive in to us and we can replace the internal hard drive in your computer and restore your system to exactly how it was before your computer crashed by using your Time Machine backup.

If you use a laptop (or desktop) and prefer not to have to plug your computer in to an external hard drive, you can even use Time Machine wirelessly with Apple’s Time Capsule (a wireless router and external hard drive all rolled together) or by using an AirPort Extreme with an external hard drive.

We can help you find a solution that works with your needs, so come on in today and ask all the questions you may have about backing up your data.