Re-using your burn folder

At this time you can delete your burn folder, but the cool thing is that you can also keep it around after you've used it so you can make another backup some time in the future. You just treat it like any other folder, either leaving it on your Desktop, or tucking it away somewhere else to be more organized.

Then, when you're ready to do your next backup, just open the burn folder again and press the Burn button. This process automatically backs up the files and folders that are aliased in the burn folder. And, if your folders contain any new data, that new data is backed up as well. It's that simple.

As one last note, you can also add new folders to your burn folder before pressing the Burn button.

For me that's what makes a burn folder such a great backup tool. Dealing with backups over the years, I've learned to keep the data I want backed up in just a few main folders. Using burn folders I just copy these data folders to one or more burn folders, and backups are a breeze.

To describe my situation clearly, I have three burn folders. One is for my working data files, which includes things like this tutorial. A second one if for my Pictures folder, which has grown very large. And a third is for my iTunes Music folder, which is also very large. I do this because each of those folders is large enough to require its own DVD-R.

Before leaving, this is a good time to note that if you've purchased any applications for your Mac you should make sure you have all the license information you need for those applications. If the only place you have that license information is in a configuration file on your disk, you better find that file and make a backup of it.

Summary

To summarize, I think burn folders are a great backup tool. Just copy the folders you want to one or more burn folders, then keep those burn folders around so you can easily make backups in the future. Unless you have some type of external storage system always connected to your Mac, it's hard to make backing up your data much easier than that.

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