Best way to do full backup

[jerryk]

I have a 16" MBP coming and want to backup the stuff on my current 15" MBP. I want to initially set up the 16" with nothing from the old system installed because about 50% of the stuff I have on my 15" MBP I hardly ever use. But, there may come someday when I want that dusty old file. TM seems more incremental than full backup. So the question is what is best way to do this type of backup all at once, aka a full backup on my 15"?

 

[bsbeamer]

Carbon Copy Cloner:
https://bombich.com

 

[Stephen.R]

I have a 16" MBP coming and want to backup the stuff on my current 15" MBP. I want to initially set up the 16" with nothing from the old system installed because about 50% of the stuff I have on my 15" MBP I hardly ever use. But, there may come someday when I want that dusty old file. TM seems more incremental than full backup. So the question is what is best way to do this type of backup all at once, aka a full backup on my 15"?

Time machine is incremental after the first backup.

If you have time with both, just copy your files/etc across using file sharing or airdrop.

Or just clone the hard drive to an image file using Disk Utility if you need a copy now to refer to later (eg after getting rid of the old one).

 

[jerryk]

Time machine is incremental after the first backup.

If you have time with both, just copy your files/etc across using file sharing or airdrop.

Or just clone the hard drive to an image file using Disk Utility if you need a copy now to refer to later (eg after getting rid of the old one).

Thanks. Can target a NAS Share with the Disk Utility? If so, this more closely matches my need.

 

[leman]

Use ditto command in terminal, that is exactly its purpose (https://ss64.com/osx/ditto.html)

For example,

sudo ditto /Users /Volumes/MYBACKUP

(replace MYBACKUP by the name of the backup volume)

Obviously, this will take a while

 

[Stephen.R]

Thanks. Can target a NAS Share with the Disk Utility? If so, this more closely matches my need.

It just creates a file (dmg, iso, cdr) using a regular save file picker so it will write to anywhere you have access.

 

[leman]

Thanks. Can target a NAS Share with the Disk Utility? If so, this more closely matches my need.

If you mount your NAS in Finder, you should be able to ditto to it.

 

[jerryk]

If you mount your NAS in Finder, you should be able to ditto to it.

I think I like this even more. I just want an image of the folders with my data. And with ditto I don't have to unpack something to get at the data.

 

[matram]

Is rsync an option. It would copy changed files to a target directory, e.g. on a NAS. Works well as regular job. I belive that is what ccc uses under the hood.

 

[jerryk]

Is rsync an option. It would copy changed files to a target directory, e.g. on a NAS. Works well as regular job. I belive that is what ccc uses under the hood.

This will be a one time copy. I will play with a new 16" for a week or so and if everything is OK, copy files to NAS and reformat and reload 15" before sending it to a reseller.