How to Minimize Risks of Data loss and Corruption in Mac OS X

Mac OS X systems offer enhanced stability and reliability. But after a prolonged usage, these factors tend to fade out and give rise to a number of serious problems, such as data corruption and loss. The potential causes of data corruption range from power outages causing unexpected shutdowns, to system software bugs because of bad programming, to critical hardware issues, such as bad sectors, bad RAM, etc. These factors may cause corruption in the hard drive directory. As a consequence, you may notice files being overwritten or several files missing from the system.

File System Journaling has helped to address the issue of directory corruption and thus, avoid data loss. However, this technique is not always fruitful. Additionally, if you have corrupt system files due to several failed software updates, you may encounter frequent kernel panics on your Mac. In order to easily avoid cases of data loss and corruption, you can follow the below mentioned strategies:

• Use a Comprehensive Backup and Recovery Plan:

Backups provide an easy solution to work around perplex data loss situations. You should implement a comprehensive backup and recovery solution to  avert all the risks of potential data disasters.

• Clean up System and User Cache:

You should clean your System and User cache files on a routine basis. This will enable you to delete all the potentially corrupt data in these files that may cause a plethora of issues in Mac OS X.

• Repair Disk Permissions:

This should be a part of your regular maintenance plan. This step is often important when you install various third-party software in your system that employ their own installers. These installers tend to change permissions on various files and folders on your startup disk. Repairing disk permissions is a useful troubleshooting step to resolve directory corruption.   

• Avoid Installing Updates on Malfunctioning Mac:

It is a blindly followed practice to install Mac OS X updates for fixing a problem with your Mac. Before installing any OS X updates, you should check your startup disk and create a backup of the current OS X installation. This would help to secure yourself against any failed update.

• Disable Third-party Modifications and Menu Extras:

If you have installed various third-party modifications on your Mac, you should disable or uninstall these items as they might interfere with the OS X update or create problems after the update.     

The strategies cited above will help you prevent data corruption in the first place and relieve you from the tedious task of troubleshooting your Mac.