Powerbook G4 Laptop Hard Drive

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December 30, 2013 by cryan.com

If you have a Powerbook computer, in storage or use it frequently for files, you should consider getting a USB Flash drive to copy the data on the computer. This will make it very easy to have an off line backup of your data should something happen to your computer or hard drive. This is also handy for those times when you want something off the computer and don't want to have to boot it up.

For about $100 you can get a 128GB Flash drive, which is more than enough space to use backup most Powerbook computers. My Powerbook G4 came with a 80 GB hard drive. I suggest using the SanDisk Cruzer Glide USB Flash Drive

Apple's Disk Utility has the ability to create a complete copy of your Hard Disk as a Disk Image. This is practical way of backing up your computer since everything is copied, you won't miss a critical library file or anything. You can then open this disk image on any Mac computer, such as a newest laptop or iMac.

Before you start the backup, you should clean up your computer - get rid of anything you don't need. You may want to delete already back up photos, music and other files. Don't forget to empty the trash, in your applications, such as iPhoto and the Desktop. You may save additional space by deleting the browser cache from Safari and Firefox.

Since this backup will take hours, ;I suggest running this at night:

1. Connect the USB drive to the computer.
2. Launch up Disk Utility. (Search for the Application is the fastest way to get to it.)
3. Click the Hard Drive in the left navigation. (Most cases it will already be selected.)
4. Click on 'New Image' in the top tool bar
5. I suggest calling it 'PowerbookG4-Backup' Tip: There's no need to add the date to the name because it will have the time stamp.
6. Compression is the best image format type for back up. The other options would be good if you plan to modify the disk image later. For example change a file that you commonly use.
7. If you have any sensitive tax or government data, use one of the encryption. Keep in mind that this will add additional time and size to your backup.
8. Click Save and the process starts.

After the backup is completed, you should validate that the backup is done by opening the disk image in another computer.

Once the process is completed, label the outside of the USB drive so it will be easy to find later.