My Macbook Pro 13 Died.......

[W32PAMELA]

Originally Posted by colemj

The best thing about backing up a Mac is that one can simply image the drive with full boot capability and have a fully functioning computer from it. Mark

In fairness this is not a Mac exclusive. Every boat cruising with a computer should have an external drive that has been cloned from the internal drive and that contains recent image files of the internal drive. Free cloning and imaging software is available for PC's. Easus Todo Backup has a free version and owners of Western digital or Seagate drives can get a free version of Acronis from their drive manufacturer to mention a few.

[sy_gilana]

My Macbook Pro died. I fixed it by baking it in the oven, yes, baked apple hahaha. BUT it worked. The object is to reflow the solder. Now I only run the macbook on top of a cooling base. go to Youtube and search for baked apple.
I ran 9 minutes at 200 degrees C.
Good luck!

[maytrix]

Originally Posted by DotDun

Hence, I run the Windows apps I desire in a VM. Difference is I can't run the Apple apps I want on a Windows PC. I still get all the benefits Apple delivers and the choice of Windows apps I desire.

I switched as I was getting really tired of the care and feeding Windows OS requires to keep it running.

IMO, there is more choice with Apple, not less.

That's a fair point - if you run both, then you can run whatever apps you want.

Not sure I see that as more choice with Apple. There's more choice if you run both. But you can run OS X in a VM too. Personally, I just don't find any of the Apple apps worthwhile for myself. And I did own a Mac mini - I just don't like to do things the Apple way

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by maytrix

But you can run OS X in a VM too.

Only OSx server and only on Apple hardware, legally!

[DumnMad]

The baked apple trick is great but, seeing mine doesn't need cooking just now how do I avoid the need in the future? Is it a tropical issue, or leaving it in sunshine, or running it when on a feather-down duvet etc or something more common?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by W32PAMELA

In fairness this is not a Mac exclusive. Every boat cruising with a computer should have an external drive that has been cloned from the internal drive and that contains recent image files of the internal drive. Free cloning and imaging software is available for PC's. Easus Todo Backup has a free version and owners of Western digital or Seagate drives can get a free version of Acronis from their drive manufacturer to mention a few.

Thanks for that Bob, I am always looking for a better way to back up our PC's and have never found a clone option.

Looking at Todo Backup, I'm not really sure it clones a complete backup that can be used readily. I will look into it more, but it seemed like it creates a bootable drive that allows one to restore software on it. And the clone function sounded like it didn't always work (they had lots of advice on what to do if it did not work and said that the main drive needed to be disconnected before booting a clone drive).

The Mac backup doesn't contain image files - it is truly an indistinguishable copy of the main drive and can be booted from at will. The only way to tell you are not using the main drive is by the path for it (or you have named it something else). I can plug "my" backup drive into any similar Mac computer and be running "my" computer instantly. I suppose I may have some problems with a vastly different Mac because "my" system might be older and would not have the appropriate hardware drivers for a newer system, but I have not had problems yet.

But I am off to research your suggestions more because anything that makes our PC's work like our Mac's is highly appreciated.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

The baked apple trick is great but, seeing mine doesn't need cooking just now how do I avoid the need in the future? Is it a tropical issue, or leaving it in sunshine, or running it when on a feather-down duvet etc or something more common?

I haven't heard of widespread solder problems with any model. If solder was a problem, I would be more inclined to isolate the component and bake that instead of the entire machine. If the component problem was widespread and known, then it seems like locally treating the area with a heat gun or solder iron would be better.

However, I personally would not resort to the baking method in any case.

Mark

[roverhi]

A net book has more than enough power to do what you need to actually run a boat. Anything more is wasting money unless you are into heavy video editing or other high ram/cpu using stuff. If you are that type, hope you already know more than the information you're going to get here. This is a sailing site not a geek blog.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by roverhi

A net book has more than enough power to do what you need to actually run a boat. Anything more is wasting money unless you are into heavy video editing or other high ram/cpu using stuff. If you are that type, hope you already know more than the information you're going to get here. This is a sailing site not a geek blog.

What is a sailing site if not a geek blog for boat geeks? Some of us want to be able to do these things WHILE CRUISING. Therefore it is relevant to the forum. There is much information specific to running such a rig on a boat, or to building one for a boat.

[engele]

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...macbook_air/11

[engele]

Originally Posted by engele

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...macbook_air/11

For some reason my message was lost, but the link should take you to the refurbished MacBook airs. Don't buy a PC if you are sailing.

[dgasmd]

Great to see so many people running MACs on their boat. I would like to know what kind of software are you using for navigation, weather, etc? I am also looking for a way to use GPS with the MacBook PRO. IS there something you can plug into one of the USB ports allowing the computer now to be able to use GPS with some of the various softwares? Links would be awesome!!

[W32PAMELA]

Originally Posted by colemj

Looking at Todo Backup, I'm not really sure it clones a complete backup that can be used readily. I will look into it more, but it seemed like it creates a bootable drive that allows one to restore software on it. And the clone function sounded like it didn't always work (they had lots of advice on what to do if it did not work and said that the main drive needed to be disconnected before booting a clone drive).

The Mac backup doesn't contain image files - it is truly an indistinguishable copy of the main drive and can be booted from at will. The only way to tell you are not using the main drive is by the path for it (or you have named it something else). I can plug "my" backup drive into any similar Mac computer and be running "my" computer instantly. I suppose I may have some problems with a vastly different Mac because "my" system might be older and would not have the appropriate hardware drivers for a newer system, but I have not had problems yet. Mark

I'd give Todo a try. I haven't had any problems making clones with v4.0 or v4.5 of XP or W7. If you have a bootable drive in your PC you will have to go into BIOS and disable it as a boot device if you want to test a clone.

A PC clone is also an indistinguishable copy of the main drive. Whether it can be moved to an identical computer or any other computer depends on the type of license that is purchased from Microsoft. An OEM license will only allow use on a computer with the same model of motherboard. A "retail" license with allow movement to a different computer. Image files are just another way to back up a hard drive including the system. I clone my hard drive and keep image files after that so that I have multiple backups on one drive. An image file will make a bootable drive. Image files usually use some compression and are smaller than the actual space used by the data and system files on a drive.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by colemj

While that may be good advice at home with a big pipe, it is literally impossible to do while cruising in many places.

The best thing about backing up a Mac is that one can simply image the drive with full boot capability and have a fully functioning computer from it. By that, I mean if the main drive goes, you simply plug in the backup drive and start using your computer again. No rebuilding the system or reinstalling software or recovering anything or reactivating the OS - the backup drive is bootable and identical to the main drive.

And this bootable drive can be taken to questionable places, used for a while as the main drive and simply wiped afterwards and reimaged again from your main drive. The main drive is never exposed to any potential harm.

Running Windows on a Mac using a virtual machine has similar advantages. I just keep a known clean copy of the virtual machine and run windows at will without much regard to safety. If there ever is a problem, I simply replace the virtual machine with the clean copy, make another clean copy and take off again. Everything is sandboxed and nothing bad can get out.

With our actual PC's, I have to be much more careful and the whole process is painful. A disk crash can take days to recover from. A disk crash on a Mac literally takes 5 seconds to recover (plug the drive in the USB port and press the power button) and you are running an identical system as to before the crash. Then when you have a convenient time, you just open up the backup drive enclosure, take out the drive and stick it in the computer for good (and get another backup drive).

Mark

You can run VMware or Hyper-V on a PC and do everything you just wrote about.

Without virtualizing, you can run Acronis TrueImage software and make a disk image on external USB storage that can be restored from any drive to any drive, even if the disks are different sizes.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by colemj

While that may be good advice at home with a big pipe, it is literally impossible to do while cruising in many places.


Mark

I suggested cloud backup for data, but disk-imaging for the system. Even if you don't have frequent broadband access, it's wise to have a copy of your personal/work files in another place (off the boat) in event of theft or loss, for whatever reason.