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Comment by mchanson | Hacker News Reader

Not having any backup is, for a technically capable user, indefensible.

For a non-technical Mac user, I would hope someone mentioned buying an external hard drive for Time Machine. Seems to work fine for the normal case.

Yes. I push this with extended family. Best ~$100 investment a Mac user can make. Windows 7 built in backup works fine too.

Ubuntu uses Deja-Dup for backup, and I've heard it works wonders too.

I'm curious how remote wipe acts when a computer has multiple partitions or multiple drives (internal or otherwise); would a remote wipe with a connected USB drive for time machine nuke that too?

How is it even possibl? iOS devices back themselves up every time they are plugged into a Mac automatically, and it's really difficult not to have a Mac backup, time machine just does it automatically whenever it feels like it. I find that within the Mac ecosphere, it's hard not to have backups.

I backup gmail with gmvault to a thumb drive, which I suppose is beyond many non technical people, but I'm sure google will figure out how to restore his account without much difficulty.

I wish I knew how this person knew how his password was compromised, it sounds reasonably secure.

I have apps in the App Store and have to deal with a certain level of technical support. You'd be amazed how few people still plug their iOS devices into the master computer.

Well, honestly, why should it be necessary?

I had no idea about a Gmail backup solution. I just had a network of duplicate accounts which get copies of mails and password resets if my primary ever got hacked.

Thanks.

Link for the lazy - http://gmvault.org/

I suspect a lot of people ONLY have the devices, and have not spent the extra few hundred on any kind of backup. A Time Capsule? A third-party remote backup service? An external HD? That costs MONEY!

I personally haven't plugged my iPad into my Mac in ages. Then again I've also made damn sure it's backing itself up to the cloud. I'm not sure if this is the default setting. It should be, IMHO.

(And I gotta say, it's really freeing to know that even if all my possessions are destroyed, I will have lost at most a day or so of work.)

Backing up to the cloud isn't going to help in this guys situation. The malicious user had access to his iCloud account to remote wipe his devices, they would (did?) just as easily delete his cloud backups

Gmvault stores your Gmail password locally. An alternative is using an email client which can download your Gmail using POP3. Most clients let you choose whether to store the password. You can set up your own folders and filters if you email client supports it.

Gmvault uses mainly OAuth to authenticate you so there is no need to store any passwords. The token will only allow you to access your Gmail account via IMAP.

As an alternative there is a mode where you can use your Gmail passowrd and it can be saved but this is not recommended.

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