Microsoft has announced Windows 8 is coming in October. Apple will be updating OS X in the coming weeks. Are you ready?
So, what should you do in preparation?
Rule number 1: Backup your entire system. Not just work documents but every file so that all of your settings and configuration files are safe as well.
Rule number 2: Test the backup. Make sure you recover individual files. If possible, try to restore your entire to another computer.
Rule number 3: See Rule number 1.
The best preparation we can recommend is to take a two pronged approach. Each requires an external hard drive.
Mac Users
Time Machine makes regular Mac backups exceptionally easy. Your entire system is backed regularly without any intervention on your part.
Secondly, before upgrading your system, clone your whole system to an external drive. We'd suggest using either
SuperDuper or
Carbon Copy Cloner.
Windows Users
We'd start with the same advice as Mac users. Regular, daily (at least) of your system are the basis of any sound backup strategy. Fortuantely,
Windows 8 will make that easy but until then, you'll need either use the Windows 7 backup utility or some third-party backup software.
