Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

"Best" external hard drive for daily Carbon Copy Cloner backups?

U

umbilical

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 3, 2008
1,323
360
FL, USA
"Best" is relative but I'm looking for an external hard drive to make daily full backups of MacbookPro with Carbon Copy Cloner https://bombich.com, you know like time machine but using CCC due is far superior than time machine.

Do you think the SAMSUNG T7 Shield 2TB for $150 is too expensive just for CCC backups? or I don't need that speed for just CCC backups? waste of money?
 
I was able to pick up a 1tb t7 shield for around $85 (on sale at amazon and used some points).
THAT seemed reasonable enough to me for a backup drive.
Works GREAT with CCC.

Do you need the entire 2gb?
How much actual data are you backing up?
 
To me, the important question is how quickly do you need the backup to be done. If it's an overnight task, then I would not use a T7 - a HDD is sufficient (for example the Seagate portable 5TB drives are USB-powered, go for $90-$100 at Costco when on sale, $130 otherwise) and can provide plenty of space if you want to use the Safety Net option in CCC, which retains older source files.

I have a couple of 2TB T7s. They are fast on read, but can slow down when writing large files or on long, continuous writes. Their main asset I think is portability (size) and a USB-C connection.
 
  • Like
Reactions: umbilical and ignatius345
I have three 2tb Samsung T7's that I use for Carbon Copy Clones. Also have a 2tb T7 Shield and two 2tb WD Black SSD's permanently connected to my Mini. It's true that you could save money with hard disks instead, it's up to you, depending on how you use your computer.

For me, if I have a problem I want to be able to just plug in my clone and keep working without a lengthy restore from a hard disk. Also, my disks take a long time to clone, they are are pretty full and one of them is a backup of my website with over 60 million files - that takes several hours to backup on a T7.
 
Boyd01 said:
I have three 2tb Samsung T7's that I use for Carbon Copy Clones. Also have a 2tb T7 Shield and two 2tb WD Black SSD's permanently connected to my Mini. It's true that you could save money with hard disks instead, it's up to you, depending on how you use your computer.

For me, if I have a problem I want to be able to just plug in my clone and keep working without a lengthy restore from a hard disk. Also, my disks take a long time to clone, they are are pretty full and one of them is a backup of my website with over 60 million files - that takes several hours to backup on a T7.
Click to expand...

I thought SSD weren't meant to be used for big regular data back ups because they wear out faster than a traditional HDD? and they shouldn't be kept to full either?

or are these old wives tales now?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Don't really know, but that doesn't make much sense to me. I think an internal SSD gets a lot more wear and tear than a backup disk that is only connected periodically. I don't use SSD's for time machine, just Carbon Copy clones. But the original Apple SSD's in my 2012 Mini and 2013 MacBook Air are still fine after all these years too.
 
For many years my go-to for external CCC back-up drive is a WD Red of the appropriate size in an OWC Mercury Elite Pro enclosure. Have not had a failure yet. Yes, they aren't fast drives, but I do all my backups at night so speed does not matter.
 
thanks for all replies,

First I don't need faster backups, I just mention the SAMSUNG T7 because is small and portable, and the idea is make a full backup of the computer that I could boot in another mac to get the full computer on other computer in case of emergency. You know is like a hit and run in small device.

But! that's my big question, we still can make a full backup that boot in another mac? I remember a couple years ago CCC team says that is not possible anymore due the new Mac Os, but I don't know anything more.

Now maybe the full boot backup is not neccesary, I just need backup my home user folder, (desktop, pictures, documents etc). So in that case a 4TB normal drive WD, Toshiba, or Seagate because can hold more versions of the files https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/leveraging-snapshots-on-apfs-volumes

By the way, is to backup a macbookpro with 512 GB.
 
jasnw said:
For many years my go-to for external CCC back-up drive is a WD Red of the appropriate size in an OWC Mercury Elite Pro enclosure. Have not had a failure yet. Yes, they aren't fast drives, but I do all my backups at night so speed does not matter.
Click to expand...
Do you choose a WD RED for NAS due is more durable than the others (green, black etc.)

I got in the past a WD 1TB Black and the disk fails, is damaged, but I use a Orico (or something like that crappy enclosure) the OWCs are better.
 
I use WD RED for reliability and low noise.

As for the CCC booting question, I have an SSD that I have set up as a bootable recovery drive. I use CCC (following their guidance on setting this up) to make this SSD drive, and I manually backup to it once a month or so, or if I've done a system update. I use CCC to backup my home directory, and a recovery home directory, on a daily basis to a rotating set of directories on the backup WD RED drive (one for each day of the week). I also back up an external data drive (an SSD) to the WD RED on a daily basis, but I don't have this in a day-of-week rotation.
 
  • Love
Reactions: umbilical
Depending on what you do for "backup," you could use a large SSD and have several days of these backups (like Time Machine) and not get to any delete / write-over scenarios for a fair period of time. The drive should last longer than any drive used as an OS drive with all things being equal.
 
FYI: Starting with the latest OS's on M1/M2 machines Apple no longer allows copying of the system files directly. Hence, these 3rd party utils like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper currently cannot make a bootable system backup of either OS (Monterey or Ventura) because of a bug in the ASR code that Apple provides for copying the system files. The procedure now is to just use these utils to backup the Data volume of the internal drive and migrate that back into the system if needed by using the migration tool. The OS is supposed to now be locked and untouchable from corruption etc... So technically you shouldn't have to reload the OS just ones data if corruption occurs. Now if your internal drive goes on the fritz on the M1/M2 systems you're simply dead in the water. Given that scenario you'll either have to have Apple fix it or purchase a new system. Crazy! Note: One last scenario for a clean restore. If you want it to be bootable, you'll have to erase the internal drive, and reload the OS onto the drive again. Once you boot up the new OS you'll have to use the Migration option to reload that user data you backed up via CCC, SD, or TimeMachine. Once any of those are restored you should be good to go.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: umbilical
entropyfl said:
thought SSD weren't meant to be used for big regular data back ups because they wear out faster than a traditional HDD? and they shouldn't be kept to full either?
Click to expand...

SSDs should have ~30% free depending on over provisioning values. TBW values can vary depending on the SSD. HDs are generally better for backups as normally you don't need SSD speeds after the first backup is made. Long term storage on SSDs is not recommended as require refreshes to keep the bits from fading.

phrehdd said:
Depending on what you do for "backup," you could use a large SSD and have several days of these backups
Click to expand...

Personally I would want to have backups for a much longer period, for a year or infinite (Backblaze). I can find photos that disappeared a long time ago.
 
HDFan said:
SSDs should have ~30% free depending on over provisioning values. TBW values can vary depending on the SSD. HDs are generally better for backups as normally you don't need SSD speeds after the first backup is made. Long term storage on SSDs is not recommended as require refreshes to keep the bits from fading.



Personally I would want to have backups for a much longer period, for a year or infinite (Backblaze). I can find photos that disappeared a long time ago.
Click to expand...
If you are looking for backups long term, you can always check out archival quality disc media - discs as in blu-ray that are meant to last well beyond a decade and more.
 
Apple_Robert said:
Get a WD, Toshiba, or Seagate 4TB drive and call it a day. CCC doesn't need a fast drive. CCC 6 does very fast backups as it is.
Click to expand...

May I ask why you recommend Toshiba? is it of past good experience? I think all drives are manufactured by WD or Seagate and all the others just order then and rebrand them but I could be wrong.

entropyfl said:
I thought SSD weren't meant to be used for big regular data back ups because they wear out faster than a traditional HDD? and they shouldn't be kept to full either?

or are these old wives tales now?
Click to expand...

although I can not comment on that, I would be more wary about HDDS since those are mecahnical (it has moving parts) so I would assume they are much more prone to failure. In addition, the constant push for lower prices probably makes them made with lesser quality material making them even more prone to failure.

umbilical said:
Do you choose a WD RED for NAS due is more durable than the others (green, black etc.)
Click to expand...

jasnw said:
I use WD RED for reliability and low noise.

As for the CCC booting question, I have an SSD that I have set up as a bootable recovery drive. I use CCC (following their guidance on setting this up) to make this SSD drive, and I manually backup to it once a month or so, or if I've done a system update. I use CCC to backup my home directory, and a recovery home directory, on a daily basis to a rotating set of directories on the backup WD RED drive (one for each day of the week). I also back up an external data drive (an SSD) to the WD RED on a daily basis, but I don't have this in a day-of-week rotation.
Click to expand...

What makes WD RED more reliable than regular HDD disks? its the same technology.

HDFan said:
SSDs should have ~30% free depending on over provisioning values. TBW values can vary depending on the SSD. HDs are generally better for backups as normally you don't need SSD speeds after the first backup is made. Long term storage on SSDs is not recommended as require refreshes to keep the bits from fading.
Click to expand...

how often that refresh should happen? are we talking weekly or yearly? By refresh I assume you mean plugged to electricity source

HDFan said:
Personally I would want to have backups for a much longer period, for a year or infinite (Backblaze). I can find photos that disappeared a long time ago.
Click to expand...

Something like BackBlaze would be great but I worry too much about storing my HDD files in the cloud. You know their employees can literally open your file and see, read, copy, and share all that data. Its a matter of how much you trust them.

I would use something like Cryptomator , i do not know if I should drag and drop my whole HDD file or can just create a shortcut. Will it update the whole drive each time or just the updated/changed files? Can I use Cryptomator as the destination for Carbon Copy Cloner?
 
HDFan said:
Personally I would want to have backups for a much longer period, for a year or infinite (Backblaze). I can find photos that disappeared a long time ago.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that? Do you pay the extra $2/Month plus $0.005/GB/Month for long retention time? Arq Backup storing on Backblaze B2 (or other storage service) does keep files that disappeared as long ago as you want.
 
gilby101 said:
Do you pay the extra $2/Month plus $0.005/GB/Month for long retention time? Arq Backup storing on Backblaze B2 (or other storage service) does keep files that disappeared as long ago as you want.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Pay the $2 but haver never had to pay the GB charge so far since it only applies to changed versions not the whole archive:

Additional $2/Month + $.005/GB/Month for versions changed or deleted more than 1 year ago

Don't use B2 as that would cost me $315 a month.

As for the "best" drive" it depends on your criteria. Size, $/TB, reliability, ?

Best reliability data comes from BackBlaze:

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q1 2023

Read the Q1 2023 Drive Stats report, and join the conversation in the comments.
www.backblaze.com www.backblaze.com
 
HDFan said:
With hard disks you refresh by copying all files (touching all bits) to null. Not sure if just a power on will refresh an SSD.
Click to expand...
you mean SSD not hard disks? and how do you "touch all the bits" ?
 
HDFan said:
Yes and no. Pay the $2 but haver never had to pay the GB charge so far since it only applies to changed versions not the whole archive:

Additional $2/Month + $.005/GB/Month for versions changed or deleted more than 1 year ago

Don't use B2 as that would cost me $315 a month.

As for the "best" drive" it depends on your criteria. Size, $/TB, reliability, ?

Best reliability data comes from BackBlaze:

Backblaze Drive Stats for Q1 2023

Read the Q1 2023 Drive Stats report, and join the conversation in the comments.
www.backblaze.com www.backblaze.com
Click to expand...

Seagate won't be happy with that report! Also sad to see only 4 drive manufacturers in there. Even HGST is really WD owned. There is no OWC in there.

Another thing intersting to note is that failure rate of high capacity is much less while middle ones at 10GB is high. One would think the higher the capacity -> the more complex -> the more likely you see a failure.
 
MacBH928 said:
Seagate won't be happy with that report!
Click to expand...

On one of their reports some time ago there was an extremely high failure rate on a Seagate drive. Backblaze said they were working with Seagate trying to isolate the problem.
 
I ending to buying a 1TB nvme Samsung and Enclosure to backup my mac mini m2 256 SSD.

www.amazon.com

SABRENT USB 3.2 10Gbps Type C Tool Free Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs (EC-SNVE)

The Sabrent USB 3.2 Tool-Free Enclosure for M.2 PCIe NVMe and SATA SSDs is the perfect solution for your enclosure needs!FEATURES:CONVENIENCE: 100% Tool-Free, quickly install and remove SSDs without any tools.DESIGN: Ultra-slim Aluminum case with ABS frame. Sleek, Durable, and Convenient. Portabl...
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.com

Samsung 980 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD - 3500MB/s Read Speeds, Turbowrite, For PC/Laptop/Gaming

Harness your PC's potential with the 980 SSD. Whether you need a boost for gaming or a seamless workflow for heavy graphics, the 980 is a smart choice for outstanding SSD performance — and it's all backed by an NVMe interface and PCIe 3.0 technology. Satisfy your need for speed with PCIe 3.0, usi...
www.amazon.com

I like the idea of don't have enclosed drives, I almost buy the Shield 1TB Samsung SSD or normal 2TB external Toshiba, but well I take other route.

Also I gain speed, I know in this case is not too important but I like move things quickly.

I'll report later how it goes!
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Like
Reactions: phrehdd
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back