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How do you backup your computer
- Thread starter rsted222
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Not sure if my Mac is acting strange, but...
I just erased my external and then dragged my picture file (about 50gb) to it and it's taking a LONG time to copy. I have the 2011 iMac and it seems it shouldn't take this long...saying an hour.
I just erased my external and then dragged my picture file (about 50gb) to it and it's taking a LONG time to copy. I have the 2011 iMac and it seems it shouldn't take this long...saying an hour.
I use Time Machine for the time being. I had no idea CCC existed so until I get another external HD, TM will have to do.
Right now I use Arq and backup to Amazon's Cloud. It costs me about $5 per month for storage. They have a new storage server that only costs pennies per month if you do not access the data often.
When I get the new iMac, I will probably just copy over to an external drive.
When I get the new iMac, I will probably just copy over to an external drive.
Use the 3-2-1 rule for data.
3 copies of your data
2 on-site (production/local backup)
1 off-site (Crashplan, etc.)
I use Time Machine and Crashplan.
Granted, the 1st backup to Crashplan took 4 months (4TB), but it's done now and subsequent backups take minutes.
3 copies of your data
2 on-site (production/local backup)
1 off-site (Crashplan, etc.)
I use Time Machine and Crashplan.
Granted, the 1st backup to Crashplan took 4 months (4TB), but it's done now and subsequent backups take minutes.
fire/water proof ioSafe for constant time machine backups, then a small portable time machine backs up to every couple weeks and I keep off site
Here's a simple, relatively cheap, not-physically-attractive way to backup your computer:
1. Get one of these gadgets for as little as $20-25:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ords=usb3+sata+dock&rh=i:aps,k:usb3+sata+dock
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)
2. Download the FREE version of CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7) from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(disregard the warning about what systems it works with, works fine for me with 10.8)
3. Get one or two "bare" SATA hard drives from the vendor of your choice (or, do you know anyone who has an old drive lying around they don't need anymore?)
Put the drive into the dock, connect it, turn it on, initialize with Disk Utility.
Use CCC to "clone" the contents of your internal to the docked drive.
You now have a "bootable clone" -- a fully bootable backup of your main drive. If you need something from it, just connect and it will mount in the Finder, then copy over what you need. You can even "re-clone" the entire backup back to the internal drive if you need to.
If you run off a second cloned copy, keep that somewhere "off-site" (office, bank vault, even a fireproof/waterproof box in your basement). That way, if the house burns down, you'll STILL be backed up.
You can also periodically boot from the docked drive, to do regular maintenance on the internal hard drive.
There is NOTHING you can buy that will beat having a bootable clone backup close-at-hand during a "moment of extreme need". You ALWAYS want to have a second bootable copy of the OS and your data close by.
1. Get one of these gadgets for as little as $20-25:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ords=usb3+sata+dock&rh=i:aps,k:usb3+sata+dock
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)
2. Download the FREE version of CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7) from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(disregard the warning about what systems it works with, works fine for me with 10.8)
3. Get one or two "bare" SATA hard drives from the vendor of your choice (or, do you know anyone who has an old drive lying around they don't need anymore?)
Put the drive into the dock, connect it, turn it on, initialize with Disk Utility.
Use CCC to "clone" the contents of your internal to the docked drive.
You now have a "bootable clone" -- a fully bootable backup of your main drive. If you need something from it, just connect and it will mount in the Finder, then copy over what you need. You can even "re-clone" the entire backup back to the internal drive if you need to.
If you run off a second cloned copy, keep that somewhere "off-site" (office, bank vault, even a fireproof/waterproof box in your basement). That way, if the house burns down, you'll STILL be backed up.
You can also periodically boot from the docked drive, to do regular maintenance on the internal hard drive.
There is NOTHING you can buy that will beat having a bootable clone backup close-at-hand during a "moment of extreme need". You ALWAYS want to have a second bootable copy of the OS and your data close by.
Time machine for most stuff. Manually dump movies and music to an external as I get them. Photos get TM-ed, but manual copies every few weeks. I burn batches of them to DVD for off site storage when I have enough to fill a disc. Off site is my parent's house, my old room's closet! Don't yet trust the cloud options yet, because I don't want my files to be shared by hackers with the rest of the world.
Time Machine for my system, which is enough since I almost always have my laptop with me and TM is at home. I don't keep anything that sensitive on the system itself, so this is more for convenience that in case something happens, chances are it only happens to one of the drives.
I have a RAID 1 external that I keep the bulk of my documents, including can't-lose documents, on with a third physical hard drive kept secured off-site. Every month, I swap the third one in and one of the others out so all three are kept up-to-date. A cloud solution like Crashplan is probably more convenient, but there's that little bit of paranoia inside that feels safer and more secure doing it this way.
I have a RAID 1 external that I keep the bulk of my documents, including can't-lose documents, on with a third physical hard drive kept secured off-site. Every month, I swap the third one in and one of the others out so all three are kept up-to-date. A cloud solution like Crashplan is probably more convenient, but there's that little bit of paranoia inside that feels safer and more secure doing it this way.
A combination of Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. Time Machine for our MBP, CCC for everything else. It all goes to a WD My Book Live NAS (2TB).
I use all three methods. Time Machine to a USB External drive. The NAS I bought is a Synergy 212J with 2x3Tb hard drives and I use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup up to it. Also use CCC to backup to other external drives.
When I had my hard drive replaced through the current iMac Hard drive replacement program I used my Time Machine backup to re-install my Data and it was dead easy.
In my working setup....
I have a external Thunderbolt drive and use CCC to backup. Normal backups ranging in size from 5.5 to 12.5 GB. Pretty fast, I know!
I have a external Thunderbolt drive and use CCC to backup. Normal backups ranging in size from 5.5 to 12.5 GB. Pretty fast, I know!
I use Time machine as my day-to-day backup.
And CCC as a weekly clone, just incase my hdd dies (on a 2.5" shock resistant, waterproof external drive.)
I also use Backblaze as a primary back-up incase I lose the contents of my apartment.
I also just started using Amazon Glacier, as it seemed dirt cheap, and will offer further redundancy.
It may seem a little over the top, but given where I live, natural disasters are a a very real possibility.
Backblaze is good, but they delete your data after a certain time, and don't back up certain file types. Glacier is really a very last resort, which I hope I never use.
All in, I think I am paying about $5 a month for almost guaranteed certainty that I never lose any data. Works for me.
And CCC as a weekly clone, just incase my hdd dies (on a 2.5" shock resistant, waterproof external drive.)
I also use Backblaze as a primary back-up incase I lose the contents of my apartment.
I also just started using Amazon Glacier, as it seemed dirt cheap, and will offer further redundancy.
It may seem a little over the top, but given where I live, natural disasters are a a very real possibility.
Backblaze is good, but they delete your data after a certain time, and don't back up certain file types. Glacier is really a very last resort, which I hope I never use.
All in, I think I am paying about $5 a month for almost guaranteed certainty that I never lose any data. Works for me.
Many Mac's and PC's between house and office.
All back up to server running FreeNas from Freenas.org. The macs use a time machine share on the Nas.
Also have complete cloned drives using CCC and now SuperDuper.
Offsite is CrashPlan. Their service allows you to backup all your machines for one low price.
Utility runs in the background spitting out files during idle moments.
CrashPlan does not backup system files, just the data you created, pictures, videos, PDF, etc..
All back up to server running FreeNas from Freenas.org. The macs use a time machine share on the Nas.
Also have complete cloned drives using CCC and now SuperDuper.
Offsite is CrashPlan. Their service allows you to backup all your machines for one low price.
Utility runs in the background spitting out files during idle moments.
CrashPlan does not backup system files, just the data you created, pictures, videos, PDF, etc..
I use Crash Plan. Mainly because for multiple computers it is cheaper than the other online backup services.
The client software is Java though, which kind of sucks, but it does work on both Mac and PC. Occasionally when you plug in a new disk it will take up high amounts of CPU while scanning - but you can tell it to take a break if need be.
But I also have a local time machine backup. Just for redundancy.
The client software is Java though, which kind of sucks, but it does work on both Mac and PC. Occasionally when you plug in a new disk it will take up high amounts of CPU while scanning - but you can tell it to take a break if need be.
But I also have a local time machine backup. Just for redundancy.
I've tried, on trial basis, cloud type services like Carbonite and Crash Plan, but found them lacking. Speed for one thing.
I have a 3.5 prong backup plan:
1. Time Machine for instant recovery of single files.
2. Nightly automatic incremental backup of all music, pics, video, docs to a Drobo using CCC.
3. Manual copying of my most important video, pics, docs to Drop Box.
3.5 Annually clone my video, photo, and docs drives to new ones (I have separate drives for each to minimize downtime and loss). I then store the old ones -- they'll eventually fail being stagnant, but since it's annual they won't all fail at the same time. Drives are so cheap these days it's the best insurance plan I know of.
I have a 3.5 prong backup plan:
1. Time Machine for instant recovery of single files.
2. Nightly automatic incremental backup of all music, pics, video, docs to a Drobo using CCC.
3. Manual copying of my most important video, pics, docs to Drop Box.
3.5 Annually clone my video, photo, and docs drives to new ones (I have separate drives for each to minimize downtime and loss). I then store the old ones -- they'll eventually fail being stagnant, but since it's annual they won't all fail at the same time. Drives are so cheap these days it's the best insurance plan I know of.