Backup: Preparing for first iMac

[davidra]

Have a new 27 heading my way soon, transitioning from total PC. Have several good portable drives I'm using for PC backup but don't want to use them for total backup after reformatting. My intention is to get the My Book Studio USB 3.0 1 TB aluminum drive for backup. I have some really basic questions:
1. This is not my work computer, although I do some video and photography (mostly using Lightroom and Premiere Elements). Do I really need continuous backup? Do you routinely leave your drives plugged in 24/7? I don't want to go to an NAS. Won't you shorten the life cycle of an HDD by leaving it on constantly? I know that frequent starting and stopping is worse, but leaving it on would seem to cause heat problems.
2. As opposed to using Time Machine, would CarbonCopyCloner be a substitute?
3. This is the particular drive I'm getting; anyone been using these for any length of time?

Studio External Drive

 

[JoelBC]

Have a new 27 heading my way soon, transitioning from total PC. Have several good portable drives I'm using for PC backup but don't want to use them for total backup after reformatting. My intention is to get the My Book Studio USB 3.0 1 TB aluminum drive for backup. I have some really basic questions:
1. This is not my work computer, although I do some video and photography (mostly using Lightroom and Premiere Elements). Do I really need continuous backup? Do you routinely leave your drives plugged in 24/7? I don't want to go to an NAS. Won't you shorten the life cycle of an HDD by leaving it on constantly? I know that frequent starting and stopping is worse, but leaving it on would seem to cause heat problems.
2. As opposed to using Time Machine, would CarbonCopyCloner be a substitute?
3. This is the particular drive I'm getting; anyone been using these for any length of time?

Studio External Drive

I use both CCC and TM as each has their strength though some like one over the other...I would choose CCC were I forced to choose just one.

I do practice what I preach and do daily backups with both CCC [which I prefer for full backups which are also bootable] and TM [which i prefer for restoring a particular file] though CCC can do this through it scheduling function which works great.

 

[glenthompson]

If it's attached all the time, it's backing up all the time. Too easy to forget to hook it up if it's not connected. My routine backups are over the network except for offsite and CCC bootable clones.

I'm rather anal about backups but I've been working on converting all my files/documents to digital.