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Carbon copy or use TM?
- Thread starter lukester
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You definitely can back up multiple disks on a computer with Time Machine.
Not necessarily better, but different. There's a place for both. I like Time Machine because it runs unobtrusively and automatically but there can be a use for a bootable clone as well.
I use both as well
CCC for a bootable clone to get back running immediately
TM for incremental backups and file restores
My wife's MBA took a dump 3 days ago and lost the SSD
I was able to boot from the attached clone, reformat the internal SSD and clone back
Process was a painless as possible and took minimal down time
CCC for a bootable clone to get back running immediately
TM for incremental backups and file restores
My wife's MBA took a dump 3 days ago and lost the SSD
I was able to boot from the attached clone, reformat the internal SSD and clone back
Process was a painless as possible and took minimal down time
I use CCC as my main backup product. I have two different external drives I use for CCC. I also manually backup with Time Machine once a week. In addition, I use Backblaze to backup my iMac and all my attached drives.
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You want to use this as a production disk as well as a backup disk? Or you want to backup both disks to another disk? TM will backup multiple disks (or folders on different disks) to a dedicated backup disk. CCC is the same but is pretty much single disk source per task.
Time Machine is convenient and easy to use, but because of its complex structure (all of those links) it is subject to corruption. I have lost multiple TM backups. Don't forget the golden rule of 3 different backups on 3 different sources stored at 3 different locations.
One my big iMac at work (production studio for an art photographer), I keep 3 sets of backups:
The more minor machines get less attention. The 2 print servers merely get a clone monthly, with 1-2 early clones kept, generally on a large (4tb+) that has multiple partitions sized to match the size of the server's HD.
- TM - backs up all drives, internal and external, for recovery of individual files or folders that have been deleted or overwritten with incorrect data, etc.
- Clone - CCC or SuperDuper (I currently use the latter) of the internal boot drive only, for quick recovery should the boot drive fail. I clone monthly and keep 1-2 earlier clones as well.
- Full copy of externals - Full copies of the external drives, done monthly. I have two sets so that when I erase one drive set to make the new copy I still have the previous months set untouched.
The more minor machines get less attention. The 2 print servers merely get a clone monthly, with 1-2 early clones kept, generally on a large (4tb+) that has multiple partitions sized to match the size of the server's HD.
Thanks for the input... I use Parallels with a bootcamp partition for windows 7. I have not had backups for it,, duh!
I found out parallels has a built in program to backup the entire HD with the VM using Acronis which does the same thing as TM except it includes the entire HD, no need for separate backups.
Its only $39 for the program.. not sure it it makes a bootable drive or not..
What format should be use now with Mojave, which I just upgraded to?
I found out parallels has a built in program to backup the entire HD with the VM using Acronis which does the same thing as TM except it includes the entire HD, no need for separate backups.
Its only $39 for the program.. not sure it it makes a bootable drive or not..
What format should be use now with Mojave, which I just upgraded to?
Two different solutions for the same problem.
Both do backups and restores
Both have their place
CCC
+ much faster (backing up & restoring
+ exact copy of drive
+ very useful if drive dies: fast & efficient way of getting everything back as you had it
- costs money
TIME MACHINE
+ free
+ takes an eternity (see note below)
+ easy (set & forget)
+ HUGE ADVANTAGE is that its very easy (with Migration Assistant) to choose what you want to copy (very helpful if part of your config is malfunctioning & just want to rescue Documents, Movies, Pictures etc)
Side note: you can use this Terminal command to speed up backups "sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0" (WITHOUT " marks) but that's "lost" each time you restart. Follow this article for "permanent" turbo charged TM backups www.mackungfu.org/massively-speed-up-time-capsule-time-machine-backups
Both do backups and restores
Both have their place
CCC
+ much faster (backing up & restoring
+ exact copy of drive
+ very useful if drive dies: fast & efficient way of getting everything back as you had it
- costs money
TIME MACHINE
+ free
+ takes an eternity (see note below)
+ easy (set & forget)
+ HUGE ADVANTAGE is that its very easy (with Migration Assistant) to choose what you want to copy (very helpful if part of your config is malfunctioning & just want to rescue Documents, Movies, Pictures etc)
Side note: you can use this Terminal command to speed up backups "sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0" (WITHOUT " marks) but that's "lost" each time you restart. Follow this article for "permanent" turbo charged TM backups www.mackungfu.org/massively-speed-up-time-capsule-time-machine-backups
I just reformatted my TM drive and I am using Acronis in conjunction with Parallels.. So far so good,, it asked if I wanted to add a boot up drive along with the entire drive backup,, awesome,, Finally a one solution for back up which includes my bootcamp and windows partition.. well worth the $39.. I tired Winclone and could not back it up, forget it.. lots of people have problems with that one.
[doublepost=1540662059][/doublepost]Nothing is ever easy.. trying to back up using acronis and it crashes, errors? no problem creating the boot up partition, but the Data portion is crashing after a while.
[doublepost=1540662059][/doublepost]Nothing is ever easy.. trying to back up using acronis and it crashes, errors? no problem creating the boot up partition, but the Data portion is crashing after a while.
Im super impressed with CCC. Long time user and person who has used many solutions and CCC is a fantastic tool. For my "no thought" backup solution though nothing beats TM.
OK OK.. I had trouble when enabling the permisions. Once I figured it out, I am backing up the drive now..
if all else fails, read the instructions
i have successfully used TM for years with several machines. I have restored from it also successfully.
This week my TM backups failed with a non-helpful error. I ran disk utility on my MBA and external drive - no problems found. I bought a new external drive - still didn't work. Backups were failing at the same point so I suspected a bad file but TM didn't provide me any info. Apple support wasn't much help.
So I installed the trial version of CCC. It completed and told me it had errors with several files (belonging to the same app). So I deleted those files and my TM backups worked again.
So that is points for CCC so I will continue to use through out trial and then decide. Apple needs to change TM so when it has errors it tells you where the bad files are and skips those files and continues.
This week my TM backups failed with a non-helpful error. I ran disk utility on my MBA and external drive - no problems found. I bought a new external drive - still didn't work. Backups were failing at the same point so I suspected a bad file but TM didn't provide me any info. Apple support wasn't much help.
So I installed the trial version of CCC. It completed and told me it had errors with several files (belonging to the same app). So I deleted those files and my TM backups worked again.
So that is points for CCC so I will continue to use through out trial and then decide. Apple needs to change TM so when it has errors it tells you where the bad files are and skips those files and continues.
I use TM and BackBlaze. BackBlaze backs up the main drive and attached drives over the internet. No matter what happens at home you have a copy. You can restore over the internet or they will send you a drive. 5 bucks a month.
I got Acronis working fine and found out it compresses the backup so there is no way you can restore individual folders like TM.. However it does copy the entire drive with Bootcamp/windows which is nice.
I wish CCC would do the entire drive too, why can't they do it?
I suppose I could do TM for the mac side and Acronis for the entire drive. I tried my older version of Winclone and I got an error, it didn't work.. So I would probably need to buy the upgrade for that and for my older version of CCC.
The convenience of having just the one back up for the entire drive is really nice and plus it takes up less room and does incremental backups too. However not sure how it does at restoring the drive?
[doublepost=1540819588][/doublepost]I just found this Backup Software.. Looks good, Paragon??? What do you think?
https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-mac/
Just read more info,, it does not support APFS files yet, working on it.. a deal breaker for now.
I wish CCC would do the entire drive too, why can't they do it?
I suppose I could do TM for the mac side and Acronis for the entire drive. I tried my older version of Winclone and I got an error, it didn't work.. So I would probably need to buy the upgrade for that and for my older version of CCC.
The convenience of having just the one back up for the entire drive is really nice and plus it takes up less room and does incremental backups too. However not sure how it does at restoring the drive?
[doublepost=1540819588][/doublepost]I just found this Backup Software.. Looks good, Paragon??? What do you think?
https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-mac/
Just read more info,, it does not support APFS files yet, working on it.. a deal breaker for now.
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I decided not use Acronis.. I am going with CCC and Winclone so I just bought the updated versions.
I formatted my 1 tB drive with 2 partitions 1 for CCC and the other for windows, Winclone using EXFAT.
I just finished making images of both partitions on my MacBook. I see that they both compress the data? My OS HD is normally around 380 gigs and CCC compressed it to about 240 gigs, is that right??? Not sure it got everything?
I formatted my 1 tB drive with 2 partitions 1 for CCC and the other for windows, Winclone using EXFAT.
I just finished making images of both partitions on my MacBook. I see that they both compress the data? My OS HD is normally around 380 gigs and CCC compressed it to about 240 gigs, is that right??? Not sure it got everything?
I'd go with both TM and CCC. I've twice seen TM copies not be usable. Although this goes back several iterations of Mac OS, it's always left me second guessing having a single back up method.
Is the saved image, the backup, smaller than the original?
[doublepost=1541182266][/doublepost]
I found out that I have 183GB of hidden space available on the my HD and CCC does not copy that over..No need to