I do not have an M1 Mac yet! You know those expensive hobbies like living indoors and eating seem to get in the way of upgrading my computers. (That is ok I’m really good at keeping the old Macbooks running) The M1 Mac is fast, crazy battery life, and a data recovery nightmare. It will be more important than ever to back up your Mac! Time Machine your M1 Mac now before it is too late.
SSD attached to the logic board
There is a lot of benefits to having the SSD attached to the Logic Board. I’m told that this will make the computer more resistant to malware (Though there is already Malware for the M1 Mac)
The two things this really changes is the fact that if you ever have a failed HD the Logic Board will need to be replaced, and if the Logic board ever dies all your data is on that board. Now this may not be much of an issue if the totally integrated Hard Drive and Logic board actually improves the longevity of the system as a whole (Only time will tell)
This is a problem that Smartphones have as there is not way to access the data of a dead phone without contacting a data recovery specialist.
No way to boot the MacBook from an external drive
Something that bothers me is that I’m hearing reports that M1 Macs cannot be booted from an external source. ( Have not had a chance to verify this with an Actual M1 Mac yet) This does worry me as this is a technique that I use every day when attempting to recover someone’s data from a failing HD.
Data Recovery is expensive at the best of times!
Nobody wants to pay for a tech to recover their data. The Data recovery specialists almost always have a degree in computer science and have spent half a million dollars on specialised equipment to do their job. Data recovery for an old style of Hard drive starts at $600 AUD and gets more expensive depending on how badly the drive has been damaged.
This was before the M1 came around. I do not even want to think how much data recovery on an M1 Mac will cost. So save yourself some money and tears by backing up your Macbook TODAY!
How to backup your M1 Mac
Lucky for all of us who are thinking about getting an M1 Mac, is Time Machine is a very effective and easy way to back up. It really simple you just need to remember to do it.
Step one! Get a blank HD with a USB-C connector
Any Blank hard drive will work as long as it is blank. (Time Machine will destroy all data on the Hard drive when it reformats it). You should have at least 2T hard drives. The best part is that you do not even need to get a special HD for a Mac. Any Hard drive can be easily formatted for a Mac.
Step Two! Connect your HD to your Mac
Once you connect the HD to your M1 Mac Time Machine will ask if you want to use that hard drive for Time Machine Backups … Say YES! This will wipe the data on your drive.
Step Three! The first backup!
The first backup takes forever! I recommend that you set the first backup then expect it to take overnight. You cannot disconnect the HD or shut down the computer during this time.
Next Back up often! Talking to you business owners!
Business owners are the worst at backing up! I often get the excuse from a very stressed out business owner who needs to recover 7 years of data from a dead mac. Time Machine only backs up the changes since the last time you ran the software. This means if you are backing up every day then it will only take a few minutes to do the job.
The best part is that you can back up while you are doing other things on your computer. Hell, I am backing up while writing this blog post.
If you don’t have the time you must have the money to pay me to recover your data.
Moral of the story … M1 Macs are great (I’m going to get one … at some point) but make sure you have backups.