Chapter 5. Data Management and Backup

Time

This chapter takes approximately 2 hours to complete.

Goals

Explore and understand the Mac OS X file layout

Discover common system files, their location, and their purpose

Leverage file metadata by using Spotlight for advanced searching

Learn file management techniques unique to Mac OS X

Archive files and folders using technologies built in to Mac OS X

Use Time Machine to back up and restore important data

It is not unusual for a Mac OS X system volume to contain well over 100,000 folders and 500,000 files just to support the operating system and its applications. As you can imagine, the number of items in a user’s home folder varies widely depending on the user, but even the most frugal of users will ...

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