Backup of Time Machine Backup?

[keaide]

If I copy a time machine backup (on external hard disc) to another external hard drive and then keep that backup updated with rsync, will that give me a valid backup of my time machine backup drive? With valid I mean that I can use that backup of the backup to restore my data just like with the "original" time machine backup.

Or is it possible to have 2 time machine backups in parallel (e.g. one always plugged in for an hourly backup and the other one plugged in once every (other) day) for some additional backup?

Or what's the best way to keep a second backup?

 

[maflynn]

Seems like a lot of work and possibly wasted space since you'll be backing up all the incrementals as well

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up my Mac onto an external drive. I use TM as well, but with CCC I have a bootable back up that I take offsite.

 

[Wicked1]

Seems like a lot of work and possibly wasted space since you'll be backing up all the incrementals as well

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up my Mac onto an external drive. I use TM as well, but with CCC I have a bootable back up that I take offsite.

BAM there is an idea that will go along way, good thinking, have to get another external 3GB Seagate drive this week and now I have a total solution, thanks

 

[maflynn]

No problem, though I can't claim ownership of that idea. Its been a recommendation by a number of folks here and elsewhere

 

[keaide]

Thanks for pointing me at that! I'll give it a try. It makes me feel better to have a second, independent backup...

 

[r0k]

Time Machine has let me down over half a dozen times. The problem is doing backups via wifi. If I use TM to do a local backup, all is well. If I do backups to a Time Capsule via wifi, I have about a 30% success rate at having the data when I need it. For this reason, I consider TM to be a "convenience feature" that can come in handy but it would never be my only safety net.

I have only used CCC to clone drives when upgrading. It has worked flawlessly.

I have used crashplan as my safety net behind TM and when my wife's HDD went away without warning, and the TM backup was corrupted and couldn't even be mounted by disk utility, I got all her stuff (that she cared about) from crashplan.

 

[keaide]

@r0k: Is crash plan an online backup solution?
Honestly, I don't feel comfortable with using an online backup solution, unless I can encrypt all the data before sending it to the other server. Besides, backing up and restoring 1TB of data might not be the most convenient way either.

Time machine so far works great for me. I back up to an external USB drive, not WiFi. But having only one backup seems not enough to me. So I'm now looking for a good solution o have a second, independent backup of all my data.

 

[r0k]

@r0k: Is crash plan an online backup solution?
Honestly, I don't feel comfortable with using an online backup solution, unless I can encrypt all the data before sending it to the other server. Besides, backing up and restoring 1TB of data might not be the most convenient way either.

Time machine so far works great for me. I back up to an external USB drive, not WiFi. But having only one backup seems not enough to me. So I'm now looking for a good solution o have a second, independent backup of all my data.

Yes crashplan is online. And yes you can encrypt it with either your crashplan login or a separate passphrase for every machine you back up to crashplan. No, I wouldn't send 1TB to them unless I used their "seeding by mail" service where they send me a usb disk and I fill it and mail it back to them. I pick and choose what to back up. I have 2 1TB disks, a 500 GB internal disk, two 2TB NAS and a 1TB NAS lying around. You'd be surprised how little I send up to crashplan. I just need to be able to get my documents back. As for photos and music I'm willing to use the "on site backup of an on site backup" approach which is why I have NAS drives in pairs. I figure they won't all die at once unless my house gets hit by a meteor. If the meteor strikes, I get my "must have" stuff back from crashplan. Another option is to grab a cheap 1 TB usb disk, copy everything to it and throw the thing in a drawer at a friend or relative's house and tell them something like "If I turn up missing in the next few days give this to the FBI." (Just kidding ).

A backup of the disk you send the TIme Machine backup to is not an "independent" backup solution because if TM software screws up you are SOL with 2 junk copies you wish was your stuff. Perhaps Carbon Copy Cloner would fit the bill. Have it back up to a second USB drive and now you have two backups at any one time. BTW, you can use crashplan to back up to a local drive as well and since we all know (from my earlier posting about my wife's data) that crashplan works just fine over the network, you could have crashplan making a backup to a NAS drive. I think that should be the rule: Time Machine to a local usb or firewire disk, ccc to a local disk and crash plan to a network disk or crashplan's cloud. And while we're discussing this, I should admit that there are yet more possibilities. You can buy space on dropbox for about $99 a year for 50 GB and use manual copy of critical files there as well.

 

[keaide]

Thanks for all your help. CCC is running now filling a new 2TB USB hard disk

Regarding the online backup, I think that's an interesting solution as well, especially if I can encrypt my most important files locally and then transfer the encrypted files to the external server.

I'm also wondering what Apple has in store with their upcoming iCloud service. Initially probably not yet so much, but maybe with iCloud 2.0 in 2012...