Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine?
- Thread starter sparkie7
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I use both.
Time Machine for backups all throughout the day, and CCC daily for a backup to my Time Machine backups. Each backup is on it's own physical drive.
Time Machine for backups all throughout the day, and CCC daily for a backup to my Time Machine backups. Each backup is on it's own physical drive.
There is also SuperDuper.
Similar to CCC but not the same.
Similar to CCC but not the same.
I use both. Time machine hourly and CCC weekly, on separate drives. If I had to pick one it would be TM. With the recovery tools, it is less important to me to have a bootable backup.
I use both but more often CCC. Our family had several issues with TM and eventually lost some important data so we don’t fully trust it. That was 5+ years ago, so I’d hope all those issues are fixed.
Probably best to use more than one product.
Probably best to use more than one product.
You guys may want to familiarize yourselves with these two threads. Much knowledge contained:
Lou
Lou
I’m still creating an internal bootable backup for my Mac Pro 5,1 Mojave boot drive and a external backup also using CCC 5.
I upgraded to Monterey on my Mac Mini so CCC can still create Bootable backup (if you‘re lucky) using the legacy solution of CCC 6. I opted right now for just a files backup of the boot drive and an internet recovery of Monterey and then move the files over using Migration Assistant.
I upgraded to Monterey on my Mac Mini so CCC can still create Bootable backup (if you‘re lucky) using the legacy solution of CCC 6. I opted right now for just a files backup of the boot drive and an internet recovery of Monterey and then move the files over using Migration Assistant.
Last edited:
I use TimeMachine to a local NAS. I also use Arq to backup both to the NAS as well as Backblaze B2.
If the main drive fails, you have no backup if TM is on a volume, so yes, it should be external. As for drives to use, my TM drive is an external 2TB USBC SSD. For TM it doesn't matter all that much what kind of drive to use as long as it is as large as your boot drive. SSDs for me to cut down on the time backups.
I use both Time Machine and Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner. I just want to suggest that you read Bombich's own detailed material on using CCC and its options, and install the 30 day trial. It's worth getting a good understanding of CCC, which you aren't going to get from forum posts.
Last edited:
I never had much luck using TM with a NAS - in fact, I thought (Synology) didn't support it anymore with recent versions of Mac OS?
Ccc has lost ‘supported’ bootable backup of Monterey macs. Read the FAQ on there website. There is a legacy tool that you can enable but it’s not guaranteed to work. In my case, cloning a Intel Monterey install to a M1 computer did not work.
I use both. Time Machine as an hourly safety net for highly paid staff you can't afford to have sitting around due to data loss. CCC for all increments greater than hourly. And in multiple locations.
I use both. They are really different use cases. Bootable backups are not really a thing any longer. If the drive become inaccessible, it usually needs to be redone with configurator.
CCC data backups are very fast to restore after reinstalling the system. TimeMachine is much slower. But with my NAS they are automatic and useful for restoring files or folders quickly.
I do CCC updates every couple of weeks and usually over night. TimeMachine is against two servers (a large NAS and upgraded Time Capsule.) I like to be safe.
CCC data backups are very fast to restore after reinstalling the system. TimeMachine is much slower. But with my NAS they are automatic and useful for restoring files or folders quickly.
I do CCC updates every couple of weeks and usually over night. TimeMachine is against two servers (a large NAS and upgraded Time Capsule.) I like to be safe.
^^^^They certainly are a thing for me😍 Just because Apple, in it's infinite wisdom, is trying so hard to eliminate that option, doesn't mean it's not a valuable backup tool. In the "old" days before OSX, you could make a bootable backup simply by dragging the system file from one disk to another
Lou
Lou
CCC has been a Hugh life saver.
You can make a bootable backup of Monterey and us CCC without using the Legacy Backup.
I have done the following several times; I currently have two external 1tb Crucial SSD's that are bootable and backups using CCC. Backups to those drives are done daily; I have 2 2tb Crucial SSD's use for YM set to auto backup
2017 27" Imac 1tb internal SSD, Monterey fully updated.
2 4 bay Akito enclosures with two 2tb drives for TM, two 1tb drives for bootable backup (CCC); not legacy boot.
two 18 tb iTunes; 2 12tb drives that store DRM removed video files.
1. boot to recovery
2. Disk utility; erase the SSD; APFS (encrypted); I used encrypted for bootable drives to start; much faster to start that way.
3. Install OSX Monterey on the SSD
4. I setup a user with he same user id on my internal SSD.
5. boot from that drive; get the basics setup.
6. Reboot from the internal SSD.
7. Clone using CCC (latest update) to the new SSD.
It clones without any issues; so far;. It will boot and run all the software I use; very basic software.
You can make a bootable backup of Monterey and us CCC without using the Legacy Backup.
I have done the following several times; I currently have two external 1tb Crucial SSD's that are bootable and backups using CCC. Backups to those drives are done daily; I have 2 2tb Crucial SSD's use for YM set to auto backup
2017 27" Imac 1tb internal SSD, Monterey fully updated.
2 4 bay Akito enclosures with two 2tb drives for TM, two 1tb drives for bootable backup (CCC); not legacy boot.
two 18 tb iTunes; 2 12tb drives that store DRM removed video files.
1. boot to recovery
2. Disk utility; erase the SSD; APFS (encrypted); I used encrypted for bootable drives to start; much faster to start that way.
3. Install OSX Monterey on the SSD
4. I setup a user with he same user id on my internal SSD.
5. boot from that drive; get the basics setup.
6. Reboot from the internal SSD.
7. Clone using CCC (latest update) to the new SSD.
It clones without any issues; so far;. It will boot and run all the software I use; very basic software.
1. Open source enterprise class NAS SW from https://www.truenas.com installed on 3 redundant OEM NAS appliances, which supports all file system protocols (including TM) and built in support for a long list of cloud storage providers. Data is automatically encrypted in transit and optionally encrypted at rest.
2. Enabled TM on all clients. I have successfully restored TM backups a number of times, including to a new M1 from an Intel backup.
I don't have to worry about manual intervention, i.e. manual backups to an external SSD, cycling SSDs off site, etc. It just works automagically!
2. Enabled TM on all clients. I have successfully restored TM backups a number of times, including to a new M1 from an Intel backup.
I don't have to worry about manual intervention, i.e. manual backups to an external SSD, cycling SSDs off site, etc. It just works automagically!
Like many others I use both with each on separate drives. Time Machine makes hourly backups, while CCC backs up every evening at the same time. If I am working on something important I'll sometimes manually start both. In addition I use Backblaze.
+1 for Backblaze.
I finally gave up on Time Machine, even with a direct attached drive, and switched to Arq. It backs up to a NAS share, and I've configured it for a similar tiered approach as Time Machine. Hourly backups, with the last 24 retained, and the last thirty daily, last fifty two weekly, etc. The Arq backups perform significantly better, and even take up less space than the equivalent Time Machine ones did.
For me, having a bootable backup isn't important. If my machine died unexpectedly, my process for getting back up and running would be to restore my home directory to a different machine, install the most important apps first, and go from there.
I finally gave up on Time Machine, even with a direct attached drive, and switched to Arq. It backs up to a NAS share, and I've configured it for a similar tiered approach as Time Machine. Hourly backups, with the last 24 retained, and the last thirty daily, last fifty two weekly, etc. The Arq backups perform significantly better, and even take up less space than the equivalent Time Machine ones did.
For me, having a bootable backup isn't important. If my machine died unexpectedly, my process for getting back up and running would be to restore my home directory to a different machine, install the most important apps first, and go from there.