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Just Ordered Mac Mini:Any Must haves?
- Thread starter canes960
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without knowing what your using it for, people cant advise on all possible types of software.
Good point. I will be using the computer for mainly app building.
I ordered a refurbished Mac Mini 2.0. It is suppose to have iLife included
An external drive for backup. This cannot be emphasized enough, even if you never have cause to resort to it.
Definitely not. It runs too hot and there have been too many stories of failures. For a backup drive, any USB drive for $100 or less will do. Just make sure its big enough (like 1.5X your internal space).
That will do but it doesn't have to be "for Mac". Disk Utility can format any drive to HFS+. Personally, I would choose a drive and separate enclosure. Cheaper and easier access to the drive.
If you buy an eclosure, make sure you buy one that has some kind of power management such a auto power down when the computer is off or power down when idle for more than x min.
If you don't many of these enclosures have fans and will be on and can be a bit loud.
Same with ready made external hard drives... I just got a 1TB Hitachi Simple drive and has auto shutdown when it doesn't sense any power from the USB.
How do I know if it has power down? Does it say so? Nevermind I found it. Do I need a power backup? Also What software is great? This is my first Mac.
For backup you can use the include Time Machine, which incrementally and allows you recover different versions of files, even if you trashed them or written over them.
There are other backup packages, like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper which are more traditional packages. I use Super Duper to make a bootable copy of my boot drive nightly to an external USB. Theoretically I should be able to boot off the external to be exactly where I was last night when the backup ran. Reminds me that I have to confirm that everything still works as intended.
There are other backup packages, like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper which are more traditional packages. I use Super Duper to make a bootable copy of my boot drive nightly to an external USB. Theoretically I should be able to boot off the external to be exactly where I was last night when the backup ran. Reminds me that I have to confirm that everything still works as intended.
Both Superduper! and Carbon Copy Cloner are free. Most people make do with Time Machine but the occasional bootable clone is no bad thing. If you get a big enough external, like 1GB, you can have a couple of partitions. One for a bootable clone and one for Time Machine. Its a bit overkill but for app development, better safe than sorry.
I haven't used CCC, so won't comment. But try them both. They have free trials, and I think the free versions will continue working indefinitely.... but you get more features and they're easier to use if buy the license.
Not really overkill for something that's important. A week or two ago on MR there was a programmer (I think they were a programmer) who had all their work files on their MBP. No backups. They installed some software, and *pfft* it overwrote the work files. I don't think he managed to get them back even after a week of hectic file recovery activity - verging on panic.
Like snberk103 said, Time Machine would be your best choice, I think. It's included and it's easy to use... you never have to think about it. It will do it automatically and can go back as far as you want to (within limit of your storage space). If you run out of space, the oldest backup will be deleted to make room for the newest.
Hard drives are cheap nowadays so buy one at least 1TB, but I definitely recommend something like 1.5 or 2TB. 2TB external is about $160 if you find them on sale, online. I would partition about 500MB with Disk Utility for miscellaneous storage and use the rest for Time Machine. You can buy any version (pc, mac - mac version usually have firewire connections (400, 800), that's about the only difference and more expensive because of it). I think any USB model will serve you well.
The only bad think about Time Machine... you have to use Mac OS Journaled formatting to make it work. If you do that, you can't share that drive space with other PCs on the network. So, when you get it, you have to format the new drive with Mac OS Journaled. Unless you keep it in FAT format and find a different backup software. I don't have any experience with other backup software. Sorry.
Is the above info correct, guys? I think it is, but just in case... chime in if you need to correct me.
Wow I am definitely going to use the over kill than. Should I get a APC? I found one for $50 so I am thinking about it.
Thanks for the info. I will definitely get at least a 1TB. Do you suggest internal with enclosure? Or do you suggest a external hard drive?
Also what is a good program for music sharing, from like a PC to a Mac?
When shopping for an external enclosure, check out the ones that have Firewire. It's much, much faster than USB.
I'm a bit funny about APC's. I swear by them, and have always had one on my systems, but I'm in a minority position here. I don't use them in order to have an "orderly shut-down" but to keep my power clean (i.e. I have fairly minimum sized units that will power the systems for only a few minutes, not half an hour). However, I hear them chirp at least once week, letting me know that they have kicked in during power-dip. I'm in the country, so not very surprising. But even when we lived in big city you could hear them chirp every month or so. In most places, immediately after a power dip you get a bit of spike. Not enough to trigger a cheap power suppressor... but we lose light-bulbs here at least once a month due to these power spikes. An inexpensive one should be fine, but do some research and read the reviews. No point putting in an APC that doesn't actually do anything.
If you looking for extra storage that you are going to access yourself, then FW is definitely the way to go. If all you going to use it for backup then a cheap USB only external is fine. You have presumably started with a mini to safe some money... no point overspending on an external HD (or APC). At some point if you need to use external storage for active files you can always add another FW drive.
Good Luck