Dragon for Mac Forums and Discussion

Dragon for Mac Forums and Discussion » Dragon Dictate » Using Dictate

1. PeterRHawkes
   Member

   Does backing-up user profiles provide 100% protection if disaster hits the hard drive? In particular are user-defined commands saved automatically to the user's profile?

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. Gelphyn
   Member

   Hi PeterRHawkes.
   Please note I have no links financial or otherwise to any company/product mentioned other than being a user.

   I admit to being a BackUp freak, by no means a guru, having learned by experience and discussion. The following is offered as a pointer only, there are more appropriate forums on which to discuss these matters fully.

   My MO to ‘attempt’ provision of 100% protection against total HDD wipe-out is to maintain clones of the Mac OS. My Data is stored on an external drive plus on different physical internal drives to the OS.
   To actually ‘achieve’ 100% protection is extremely difficult, in real world terms giving it the best shot by developing a routine of regular Cloning/BackUps is a start. This being done whilst ensuring that all the HDDs are never connected at the same time or stored at the same location.

   I use ‘Carbon Copy Cloner’[CCC] application, which is available free of charge, for producing OS Clones and Data BackUps. This makes it easy to maintain up to date versions of my system. CCC is so good I have no issue with making the suggested donation. There are other applications available that will perform similar functions, but I can only write about software that I personally use.
   With 2 cloned OSs‘ and 2 Data copies it seems pretty bullet proof but only if the HDDs are stored separately. Theft, fire or flood could defeat the best laid plans?

   Best regards, G

   Mac Pro early 2008-RAM 8GB-Mac OS X 10.6.5-Dictate 2.0.1 (9605)

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. Maxintosh
   Member

   Time Machine should back up your profile. Just go back to an earlier date when you knew it was good.

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. Gelphyn
   Member

   Hi Maxintosh.

   My ‘BackUp’ MO was developed through experience.
   Certainly you are absolutely correct in saying ‘Time Machine should back up your profile’.
   Time Machine is absolutely brilliant at recovering Files that have gone awry.
   I strongly advocate the use of Time Machine and maintain two separate copies. Yes this is BackUps of BackUps - belt braces and string, but I have been glad to have the use of these over time.

   Just a passing thought, I wonder how many people have recovered such an item and tested to see if it functions?

   However recovering your Dragon Dictate 2.0 profile, or any other for that matter, is not THE issue presented when a system HDD, to quote PeterRHawkes, ‘.....if disaster hits the hard drive?‘ or otherwise goes into meltdown.
   Before you can do anything else you have to regain a fully operational system. I can drop in a new HDD and be up and running in minutes.
   In event of a completely ‘dead’ or ‘completely trashed’ HDD a replacement will be required before anything else can be done.
   Then you will probably need to refer to the Time Machine ‘Recovering your entire system‘ instructions, available here:

   http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15638.html

   Noting of course that you need Internet Access to do this, not much help late in the evening and your only computer has gone down?

   If a user has more than a few Applications installed the recovery process, even having access Time Machine, this is an elaborate process.

   Please accept that HDD failures are not something that only happens to others, work on the principle that if something can happen, it probably will.
   Cloning has uses beyond System Recovery, feel like trying an Application but unsure of the consequences just make sure your Clone OS is up to date and then proceed without concern.
   It might also be comforting in event of any form of Malware attack, uncommon at present but the probability of increasing events in the future is high.

   One caveat if you have any sort of issue on your machine Time Machine or Clone will replicate it.

   Posted 2 years ago #

5. abledoc
   Member

   @Peter
   I recommend you set up a separate folder for back ups for your profile and commands.
   You can place it anywhere convenient. Then, of course, back up your entire system. This way if DD becomes corrupted you can restore you commands and profile without an issue. Yes, you can also go to your alternate hard drive or time machine for your previous profile but not your commands unless you have already exported them.

   I put all my dictate files in this folder or alias so that I can access my library for the plist. It does not matter where its located.

   MacOS 10.6.5; MBPro 15 processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 4GB ; FilemakerProAdv11, Dragon Dictate 2.0.2; (Dragon Dictate Instructor for The Emergent Institute)

   Posted 2 years ago #

6. rickyleejackson
   Member

   sorry if this question does not fit proper protocol, but I really would like some help re Dragon Dictate for Mac profile issues, specifically the problem I have with profiles seeming to disappear--especially news ones I add. I don't seem to be able to SAVE them well, even after initial successful use of the profile. These "lost" profiles are saved to my computer, but I have not known how to get them back into the Dictate Profiles options so as to use these profiles again once they "escape"!!
   Any help would be very appreciated!
   Using Lion, Macbookpro, and downgraded to Dragon Dictate 2.0.3 due to crashes with 2.5 and Lion.
   Rick

   Posted 1 year ago #

7. abledoc
   Member

   See page 10 of user manual for 2.0.
   Make a backup of your profile if you like or put it on Dropbox if you are using different computers.

   DD2.5 (build 11991);OSX10.6.8;i7;266Mhz;8GB;FMPA11;MSW11;
   abledocMD@gmail.com; Speech Recognition Consultant & Instructor

   Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic