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Backup ideas when booting iMac from external SSD

V

volkwagen1300

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2019
31
3
Maryland, USA
All:

Earlier this year I got a Samsung T5 and am using it as my boot disk for my 2017 iMac, which only has the internal 5400rpm HD. Great improvement in performance for little cost. Since then I've saved documents and photos etc. and it's time to think about backing them up. I'd like to keep the internal HD bootable in case something happens to the T5. One option is to simply clone the T5 to the internal HD every so often, or use the pay version of Carbon Copy to do the backups to only changed/added files which seems like a good idea.

I know a lot of people here boot their iMacs from an external drive - any other suggestions on how to do backups to a bootable drive?

thanks in advance
 
OK. I asked because it's time to update the external boot drive to Catalina and I want to make sure everything is saved on the internal backup while keeping it bootable.
 
That’s a good use for the internal drive. I did that with a Mac Mini for awhile.
 
MacManiac76 said:
Time Machine backups have never been bootable.
Click to expand...
I don't use TM and I have little experience with it, but Apple disagrees with you:

Change your Mac startup disk

Change the startup disk of your Mac using Startup Disk settings.
support.apple.com
Check out the last paragraph under using start up manager.

It is also here:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Automatically back up what's important: Photos, email, music, and more.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

If your TM back up isn't bootable, the drive is probably not formatted in GUID.
 
What is the size of the SSD?
What is the size of the internal HDD?

If the sizes are the same, just use CCC to clone the contents of the SSD to the internal HDD.
You always always ALWAYS want to have a SECOND "fully bootable to the finder"*** backup within easy reach.
What happens if the t5 suddenly fails?

***TM backups have NEVER been "bootable to the finder".
 
MacManiac76 said:
Time Machine backups have never been bootable.
Click to expand...
It sort of is. You cannot boot to it and operate the computer normally, but you can option key boot to a local TM disk that will get you to the recovery screen where you can format a new drive then restore.
 
A Time Machine backup may boot up into recovery options, but is not a true full bootable backup clone such as one you can create with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.
 
Weaselboy said:
It sort of is. You cannot boot to it and operate the computer normally, but you can option key boot to a local TM disk that will get you to the recovery screen where you can format a new drive then restore.
Click to expand...
This sounds accurate.

I used Time Machine a long time ago and was unhappy with it for a reason that I couldn’t remember until you just posted this.

I think that was when I purchased CCC for the first time, after finding out that Time Machine wasn’t meeting my needs.

CCC is great and I highly recommend it.
 
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One more question - before I carbon copy the T5 back to the internal HD - do I need to reformat the internal HD or will CCC just overwrite everything automatically?
 
It wouldn't hurt to just give it a "quick erase" with disk utility, and then a "fresh clone" from the T5.
That will also clear up any fragmentation that may have accumulated on the internal drive.
 
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