Macs are not immune

[kernelbogey]

If your photos are really precious you should be able to pay for recovery BUT its very expensive (last time I thought about it for a dead HD with a composition on it would have been about £20 per Gig).

I got it all recovered for under £100.

kb

[MrGongGong]

I got it all recovered for under £100.

kb

Bargain

[Anastasius]

...
Time Machine isn't - as far as I understand it - intended to be a plain back-up. I use SuperDuper! with SmartUpdate. I only use Time Machine for locating stuff that I've accidentally deleted (or deleted on purpose and then wish I hadn't).

+1

[Anastasius]

Indeed
I wouldn't expect the 'geniuses' (that's a word that looks wrong) to be able to do data recovery
the obvious solution would be to fit a new HD and copy the cloned version onto that but............

Backup Backup Backup

And check you can restore from the backup from time to time.

[Dave2002]

The answer to this is that I believe/assume that a seven year old machine is getting towards the end of its life. I had a catastrophic hard disc failure a year back and the 'geniuses' at the Southampton Apple shop - and I mean no disrespect - couldn't fix it. But I found a man who could and did. I had been lazy/naive about backing up and all my photos for the last seven years were on that hard disc . I'm now backing up with Time Machine.

So, returning to Anastasius's question, I think it's time to upgrade to a more modern, lighter MacBook and keep this one at home for internet music etc.

I'm very interested by this thread and will make time to study properly some of the suggestions.

I hope to return. Thanks for asking, Anastasius.
BW, kb

What are the specs on your 7 year old Macbook? You say you are running 10.6.8 - that's Snow Leopard I think. I have one machine which still runs that, though mine is an iMac and it's coming up to its 6th "birthday". I keep that one set with Snow Leopard as there's software on it which won't run on the later OS systems.

It's a bit slower than the newer machines, but otherwise it's fine. It's also good because it has a 24 inch display, so for some tasks it is very much better. For serious work I'd really recommend the newer iMacs with the 27 (approx) inch wide displays - if you have the space.

If your Macbook is still working and fast enough for you I wouldn't have thought there is a major reason to get a new one, though perhaps the battery has "gone off". Someone else I know has I think an even older model, and hers doesn't work on the internal battery any more.

The latest Macbooks seem to show off Apple's propensity for various forms of madness - as they only have USB 3 and audio ports. That means that any other connections would have to be done via the USB with a converter, or else there is a total reliance on wi-fi. My MBP doesn't have ethernet, but I can do that with an adapter. For some tasks ethernet is very much faster than wi-fi. The MBP does have HDMI, which we use several times a year. Sometimes I think Apple take pushing the boundaries too far, too quickly, and I note Mr GG has just acquired an older model with an optical drive, so he is an example of another user who finds that sometimes older models have advantages over newer ones.

The new models with SSD "drives" - which have been available since around 2011, are really good, silent except when the fans kick in, and very quick start up. The "Air" versions are good, and the laptops are very lightweight, though I gather the latest MBPs aren't too much different in that respect.

FWIW I do have a much older machine which runs Mac OS 8 or 9 - a now ancient Powerbook. It still boots up after 16+ years, though the battery is hopeless. Age doesn't necessarily mean that kit will stop working, though the new stuff is much lighter, faster and runs more up to date software.

You are, however, right to think about using external drives for backup, and for keeping data which is valuable to you. If the drive in your MBP goes down, and you've not got a backup - well - that's it! That precaution should apply to any machine, not just an older one. I have known even new drives to fail. I had one fail within about 10 days of purchase. Probably the likelihood of failure decreases after the first week or two while any manufacturing or other faults take time to appear, and then after a year or so the probability of failure will slowly increase until eventually there may be a catastrophic failure.