back up

[bs0604]

I have all my files & pictures (close to a terabyte) on an external drive. A few months ago I backed up this external drive to a 2nd external drive which took a few hours. To do so I dragged the icon of the first external drive on to the icon of the 2nd drive. Its been a few months and I would like to refresh this backup. If I drag the icon again on to the 2nd drive's icon will it just back up those files that have been changed, taking only a matter of minutes, or is it going to replace every file, taking hours?

 

[Communicator]

From what you have written, I would expect it to make a second copy of ALL your backup files, so taking the same time or more that the first backup took.

 

[maflynn]

I recommend using a backup software, it will determine what's changed and backup the deltas.

I use Time Machine for day to day stuff, and Carbon Copy Cloner for my other backups that I want the ability to do a full restore. CCC also does deltas as well.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Same here. Time Machine for daily back ups. CCC on a third drive every week.

Also if your main drive fails, you can boot from a CCC drive (not TM).