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Backing up a MacBook Completely! Help!

S

sambobsessed

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2013
40
0
I have the 13" mid-2012 macbook pro. I got it in July 2012...

The battery was fine when I first got it but it's just gotten worse and worse... My battery lasts 4 hours WITH-OUT wi-fi on... And maybe 2 hours with wi-fi on.

I've called apple several times and have been told to reset my macbook in different ways with different people but none of these resets have worked. I'm so unhappy with my macbook... It's supposed to be able to do 1,000 cycles and still be at 80% of its capacity, mine has done 100 and is at 90.6%... WTF?

I'm going into a service centre to hopefully get it replaced... Now hears the thing - I believe that this macbook has a non replaceable battery so I would only be able to get the whole macbook replaced and not just the battery...

I have bought apps and installed disks with serial numbers etc... I don't have some of these serial numbers so if I don't back-up I won't be able to re-install them :/ Is there anyway to backup my macbook so that it's a bit like iPhone backing up?

Is time machine that? I want everything that i have on this macbook to be on the replaced one...

Some of the apps include; Adobe CS6, Adobe Elements 11, Microsoft Office and iWork... NONE of these come from the app store...

I also have loads of photos and everything i just want to keep them and be able to put everything back to how it was before when I get the new macbook...

HOW CAN I DO THIS?! HELP PLEASE :( VERY UNHAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!
 
sambobsessed said:
I have the 13" mid-2012 macbook pro. I got it in July 2012...

The battery was fine when I first got it but it's just gotten worse and worse... My battery lasts 4 hours WITH-OUT wi-fi on... And maybe 2 hours with wi-fi on.

I've called apple several times and have been told to reset my macbook in different ways with different people but none of these resets have worked. I'm so unhappy with my macbook... It's supposed to be able to do 1,000 cycles and still be at 80% of its capacity, mine has done 100 and is at 90.6%... WTF?

I'm going into a service centre to hopefully get it replaced... Now hears the thing - I believe that this macbook has a non replaceable battery so I would only be able to get the whole macbook replaced and not just the battery...

I have bought apps and installed disks with serial numbers etc... I don't have some of these serial numbers so if I don't back-up I won't be able to re-install them :/ Is there anyway to backup my macbook so that it's a bit like iPhone backing up?

Is time machine that? I want everything that i have on this macbook to be on the replaced one...

Some of the apps include; Adobe CS6, Adobe Elements 11, Microsoft Office and iWork... NONE of these come from the app store...

I also have loads of photos and everything i just want to keep them and be able to put everything back to how it was before when I get the new macbook...

HOW CAN I DO THIS?! HELP PLEASE :( VERY UNHAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!
Click to expand...

they wont give you a whole new computer, you are mistaken there.... the battery is replaceable and serviceable.
 
As the other poster wrote, I suspect they will take and repair your machine so you will be without it for a few days. To prevent their accidentally erasing your data, the steps are easy.

Buy an external drive and backup your data

Go find your receipts/confirmation emails for your programs, the serial numbers are usually there
 
I agree with other posters that you probably won't lose any data. However, this is a great time to create a good backup system for your MBP.

The quickest way to recover from losing your hard drive is to have a bootable "clone" produced by SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. You can quickly copy the clone onto a new internal drive and be right where you were before losing your drive. If you can borrow a similar computer, you could even boot it from the clone drive and continue working while your system is being repaired.

I highly recommend *also* using Time Machine to create backups which will allow you to retrieve older versions of files from many points in the past. Time Machine can also be used to restore your complete system, but it's a lot slower than simply copying a clone.

If you buy a large enough external drive, you can create partitions for both Time Machine and a clone on the same backup drive.
 
sambobsessed said:
Is time machine that? I want everything that i have on this macbook to be on the replaced one...

Some of the apps include; Adobe CS6, Adobe Elements 11, Microsoft Office and iWork... NONE of these come from the app store...

I also have loads of photos and everything i just want to keep them and be able to put everything back to how it was before when I get the new macbook...

HOW CAN I DO THIS?! HELP PLEASE :( VERY UNHAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!
Click to expand...

Time Machine will backup and can restore all your data and applications, but some applications require reentry of the serial number when the app is used on a different computer than the original install. Unfortunately, MS and Adobe apps are the worst offenders with this. If you are forced to a new machine, those apps will not work without reentering the serial number.
 
Don't just backup now, keep backing up in the future! Imagine if, instead of your battery, your hard drive failed. Anything important on that machine you are comfortable losing forever right here right now? Happens every day!

They'll just replace the battery, like others have said. It's held down by a couple screws and plugs in via a cable. The retina models have some cells glued down, but no other Apple notebooks do.
 
I second the suggestion to clone the drive. If you have an external drive already, you could use that, or pick one up. I used SuperDuper when I recently replaced the hard drive in my laptop with a larger drive. You would either format the external or create a new partition (in Disk Utility). Then open up SuperDuper and copy your hard drive to the external. When you get the computer back, you can copy your clone back onto the computer hard drive. All your programs, settings, passwords, etc. will be exactly as you left it.
 
Just curious, but I always see SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner suggested. What do they do that the built in Disk Utility doesn't do? Disk utility will make a bootable 1:1 clone of your drive as well, and that's built in. Just curious.
 
sambobsessed said:
I have the 13" mid-2012 macbook pro. I got it in July 2012...

The battery was fine when I first got it but it's just gotten worse and worse... My battery lasts 4 hours WITH-OUT wi-fi on... And maybe 2 hours with wi-fi on.

I've called apple several times and have been told to reset my macbook in different ways with different people but none of these resets have worked. I'm so unhappy with my macbook... It's supposed to be able to do 1,000 cycles and still be at 80% of its capacity, mine has done 100 and is at 90.6%... WTF?

I'm going into a service centre to hopefully get it replaced... Now hears the thing - I believe that this macbook has a non replaceable battery so I would only be able to get the whole macbook replaced and not just the battery...

I have bought apps and installed disks with serial numbers etc... I don't have some of these serial numbers so if I don't back-up I won't be able to re-install them :/ Is there anyway to backup my macbook so that it's a bit like iPhone backing up?

Is time machine that? I want everything that i have on this macbook to be on the replaced one...

Some of the apps include; Adobe CS6, Adobe Elements 11, Microsoft Office and iWork... NONE of these come from the app store...

I also have loads of photos and everything i just want to keep them and be able to put everything back to how it was before when I get the new macbook...

HOW CAN I DO THIS?! HELP PLEASE :( VERY UNHAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!
Click to expand...

do u have the retina or classic version? if u have the retina, dont read anymore. LOL

this is a just a battery replacement (non-retina)...its just 2 screws....if your apple store has battery at the location...it will take 5 minutes to swap it out. and if they don't have it....have them order it to be delivered to the store. (so u have ur laptop in the meantime). its very easy....its like changing a hard drive. (this is the beauty of NON-retina version)

so i don't even think you need to back anything up, because you wont loose anything.

so dont get too stressed out trying to back things up.
 
Consider this an excellent time to figure out what backup solution you need.

These forums see about a post a day on folks with no backup that lost "important files". Remember kids, always have a backup plan.
 
Supposedly, Disk Utility can do the same thing. I'm not sure it makes a bootable copy though. I actually tried to clone my drive to an external with Utility first, but I couldn't get it to work; it wouldn't see the external. I got tired of playing with it and downloaded SuperDuper.
 
el-John-o said:
Just curious, but I always see SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner suggested. What do they do that the built in Disk Utility doesn't do? Disk utility will make a bootable 1:1 clone of your drive as well, and that's built in. Just curious.
Click to expand...

For one thing, SuperDuper! can do a "Smart Update" of an existing clone drive. That allows you to produce an up-to-date clone very quickly after the first copy has been made. I do daily SuperDuper! updates in addition to my Time Machine backups.

This really came in handy when the motherboard on my MBP had to be replaced (bad GPU) and I was without the machine for more than a week. I borrowed an iMac and booted it from my clone drive and just kept working.
 
Superduper is amazing for backing up mac, better than timemachine

Hello,
I had a huge problem with timemachine being VERY VERY slow, therefore I used superduper. I backed up around 80GB and took exactly 40 minutes. Thats is super fast!! The great thing is the software is free (limited features). You can survive with a free software as long as you make a "NEW" backup every time. You wont be able to update the backup but rather backup from scratch everytime. Which isnt bad if you dont have alot of GBs to copy. But given the speed of backup its not a bad idea to use the free version.

sambobsessed said:
I have the 13" mid-2012 macbook pro. I got it in July 2012...

The battery was fine when I first got it but it's just gotten worse and worse... My battery lasts 4 hours WITH-OUT wi-fi on... And maybe 2 hours with wi-fi on.

I've called apple several times and have been told to reset my macbook in different ways with different people but none of these resets have worked. I'm so unhappy with my macbook... It's supposed to be able to do 1,000 cycles and still be at 80% of its capacity, mine has done 100 and is at 90.6%... WTF?

I'm going into a service centre to hopefully get it replaced... Now hears the thing - I believe that this macbook has a non replaceable battery so I would only be able to get the whole macbook replaced and not just the battery...

I have bought apps and installed disks with serial numbers etc... I don't have some of these serial numbers so if I don't back-up I won't be able to re-install them :/ Is there anyway to backup my macbook so that it's a bit like iPhone backing up?

Is time machine that? I want everything that i have on this macbook to be on the replaced one...

Some of the apps include; Adobe CS6, Adobe Elements 11, Microsoft Office and iWork... NONE of these come from the app store...

I also have loads of photos and everything i just want to keep them and be able to put everything back to how it was before when I get the new macbook...

HOW CAN I DO THIS?! HELP PLEASE :( VERY UNHAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!
Click to expand...
 
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