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Is it essential to back up before downloading?
- Thread starter McVickety
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Lion should leave your files intact. However, I would strongly recommend backing up before installing, things can go wrong.
Don't you back up on a regular basis anyway?
Don't you back up on a regular basis anyway?
Not essential, it will just upgrade you to Lion and keep things in tact
It is wise however, to have a backup of your system, you never know when things will go wrong
Yes, do a backup.
I have had two machines that lost all their data when upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.
Just do not take the risk with Lion.
I have had two machines that lost all their data when upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.
Just do not take the risk with Lion.
Apple has given us a great backup tool. There's really no excuse not to back up and I think its risky not backup your system before upgrading your operating system as i posted earlier
No need to back up at all.
The installer won't touch any of your files.
However, there is always a very small chance that something will go wrong. I'd reccomend backing up your most important files to a memory stick/CD/DVD before you go ahead. If you have the ability to do a full system backup to an external hard drive or something similar, do it.
Don't listen to the scaremongers.
The installer won't touch any of your files.
However, there is always a very small chance that something will go wrong. I'd reccomend backing up your most important files to a memory stick/CD/DVD before you go ahead. If you have the ability to do a full system backup to an external hard drive or something similar, do it.
Don't listen to the scaremongers.
I think you meant "transferred over after the new installation." Obviously, no personal files are moved just in the process of downloading Lion from the App Store. At that point you're still running Snow Leopard, so there's no place to transfer the files to...
Technically, by default, Lion will install over whatever operating system you have while keeping your personal files intact. That means you *shouldnt* lose anything, unless you're prompted at some point during the installation to erase your hard disk (usually you have to manually do something to get to that point anyway.) Still, it's good to back up to an external hard drive just for safety.
Thanks for the help!
I do have a hard drive which I use to back-up however the current format of the hard drive is set up to be used by Windows and Mac (as I have only been using Mac since the release of the new MBP) so when I just went to use Time Machine it wants to erase the drive so it can reformat which isn't really convenient.
So aslong as I have back ups of my Photos, Music and Uni files then I should be fine.
I do have a hard drive which I use to back-up however the current format of the hard drive is set up to be used by Windows and Mac (as I have only been using Mac since the release of the new MBP) so when I just went to use Time Machine it wants to erase the drive so it can reformat which isn't really convenient.
So aslong as I have back ups of my Photos, Music and Uni files then I should be fine.
Yes- I meant if he has a regular back up system, why not do a 'special' one right before Lion? Maybe I wasn't clear.
I have an external I use for TimeMachine, which I plug in once a week, or right before big software updates.
Yes, it only repartitions your disk. Nothing risky about that at all...
The question you should be asking yourself isn't 'do I need a backup to install Lion'... it's 'why don't I have a complete backup anyway'?
External drives are cheap. SuperDuper! is free, and will quickly create a completely bootable copy of your drive. No excuse not to do this...
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