Best backup solution

[macz1]

I have just bought an additional hard drive for my Mac Pro to backup my data. All my precious data is stored on the main OS X boot drive.
Now I have to decide how to backup this drive. Do you use Time Machine (Is this the easiest way?) or do you prefer Carbon Copy Cloner or similar 3rd party utilities?
Mirroring the drive is a possibility, too

I mainly want to be protected against a drive failure, the ability of TM to "go into the past" is not very important for me.
However I want to be able to reconstruct the original volume including the OS and all prefs...

Which solution would you recommend?


Tank you in advance for every input

 

[Julien]

I use TM because it is fully automatic and you get a backup once an hour. Also while you say the ability to go in the past to find a missing file isn't important that one time when it is need could still happen. Better to have and not need than need and not have.

If you are just making a backup to change HDs then CC is a better option (that's what I did to change my HD) but for every day I'd say TM is better.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Time Machine is the easiest, and always make a full backup image and take it to an off location place as time machine won't do you much good if there is a fire at your house.

 

[macz1]

Thank you very much for the responses, I think I will try TM.

Last question: The two HDs have more or less the same capacity. Is this enough space for Time machine to work properly? I heard of things like "TM drive must be at least two times as big as the main drive"...
At the moment my data occupies about a fourth of the space and it's not growing very quickly, therefore it should be ok, I assume. Is that right?

 

[Julien]

...At the moment my data occupies about a fourth of the space and it's not growing very quickly, therefore it should be ok, I assume. Is that right?

There is your answer. Your TM HD will be 4 times larger than your data.