Best way to make a sync/archive between two different hard drives

[trinakriae]

I have a MacBook Pro 2013 with Mavericks. I would like to use an external Hard Drive of 2 TB, lets'call it EHDBackup, for making backup/sync for my MacBook Pro and another External Hard Drive, let's call EHDFiles.

In the specific I would like to divide in two partitions EHDBackup and:

1) One partition is used for Backup by Time Machine (or a backup SW that supports exFAT)
2) Second partition is used to store an exact copy (archive) of the files in EHDFiles.

I would like the Second Partition to sync all the content with time basis or explicitly an I was wondering whether there is a sync/archive application for Mac, so I can have safety copy of the content in EHDFiles in EHDBackup as well. Thanks

PS: For this operations I use a RAID 1 system with two HD of 2TB each

UPDATE:

I need to format the EHDBackup with exFAT, therefore Carbon Copy Cleaner is not suitable

 

[Weaselboy]

The app Carbon Copy Cloner will do exactly what you want. It can be configured to run at scheduled times or manually.

https://bombich.com

 

[trinakriae]

Thank you very much, however I forgot to mention that I need EHDBackup to be formatted with exFAT and the software you suggest do not support such format. I also discovered that Time Machine does not support it, so my goal is to make all the EHDBackup a mirror, without partitions

 

[theitsage]

I highly recommend not using exFAT. I thought it was the best format to use for both OS X and Windows. However, it was a nightmare. The drive kept getting corrupted for no reason. Don't do it.

 

[trinakriae]

I highly recommend not using exFAT. I thought it was the best format to use for both OS X and Windows. However, it was a nightmare. The drive kept getting corrupted for no reason. Don't do it.

Thanks man for your advice. I know that if you need to format exFAT you need to do it from Windows in order to avoid issues. If you do it from OSX, you gonna have problems. do you confirm that?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you very much, however I forgot to mention that I need EHDBackup to be formatted with exFAT and the software you suggest do not support such format. I also discovered that Time Machine does not support it, so my goal is to make all the EHDBackup a mirror, without partitions

I believe you could use CCC to backup to a sparse bundle disk image and that would allow you to use ExFAT if you really have to. Note below.

Thanks man for your advice. I know that if you need to format exFAT you need to do it from Windows in order to avoid issues. If you do it from OSX, you gonna have problems. do you confirm that?

It is not so much where it is formatted, but the fact that ExFAT is not a journaled file system and not particularly reliable.

I agree with ongnoi, that ExFAT is not a good idea for a backup disk.

 

[theitsage]

I tried formatting exFAT with both OS X and Windows - thinking it was Disk Utility's fault. The format exFAT itself is the issue.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

learn how to use rsync on the command line.

 

[3rdGradeTchr]

learn how to use rsync on the command line.

I'm in the process of doing just that...slowly...but learning...

I wonder if you would answer a question (or two)?

-Can rsync be used to keep the entire Home directory on my MBP and iMac synced in one operation? Or is necessary to set it up to sync individual folders within each Home directory? Are there any hidden folder considerations?

Many thanks...

 

[trinakriae]

learn how to use rsync on the command line.

Thanks for your reply, in your opinion using rsync is a better option than a software like Carbon copy?

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Thanks for your reply, in your opinion using rsync is a better option than a software like Carbon copy?

For what you need to do it is because it is infinitely more configurable - besides, CCC and SuperDuper! make extensive use of rsync behind the scenes.

rsync on the command line is much harder to get your head around though...