CCC And Time Machine: Both ?

[Robert4]

Hello,

I am using CCC Carbon Copy Cloner for backups.
Like the fact that if ever needed, it is apparently a bootable copy.

My understanding is that Time Machine is not ?
Is it ?
How would one use it if everything has to be put back on the Mac ?

Guess I have the "Belts AND Suspenders" mentality.

What would you think of also using Time machine (with a separate dedicated HD) also ?

Do they play well together ?
Pros and cons ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Release]

I use both together and have no problems. CCC for daily backups and TM for hourly.
I've been burned more than a few times with drives going down so (overkill) backups are critical to me. I even have a subscription to Backblaze just in case.

 

[maflynn]

Why not use both?
CCC offers faster restores, and is bootable. TM is provides hourly backup, to which gives you a level of versioning.

In the past
I've used CCC in for those horrible moments when I had to restore my system, and TM for those oh crap, I saved a file and over written something I shouldn't have.

 

[fisherking]

i use CCC as well (not setup to be bootable); i prefer a mirror of my mac at all times, not every file-i-ever saved being backed up (for me, this has worked since forever).

but maybe, instead of also using TM... use backblaze or crashplan (ie, an online backup); for simplicity, i only backup selected items (in my home folder, etc). but then, you have backups in 2 different (physical) places.

just a thought...

 

[SaSaSushi]

Agree with those above using both CCC and TM together. I've been doing so for years now. As mentioned, they serve different purposes so why not use both if you've got the storage to do so?

 

[Robert4]

Thanks for all replies.

Will get a new external HD that I can dedicate to, and will try out
Time machine.

Thanks for help,
Bob

 

[macduke]

I use Time Machine to back up my internal drive for current projects. I use CCC to backup between archive disks for redundancy, as well as for backing up my Lightroom catalog SSD to the archive drive so I have three backups of that. Then I put my most important and cherished files such as my wedding photos, baby photos of my kids, and some of my best portfolio pieces in Dropbox. It's good to keep important things backed up off-site. When a WiFi 6 mesh solution comes out, hopefully later this year, I plan to upgrade my internet to gigabit and might look into one of the online full backup services. I just have concerns about privacy. When I worked in banking years ago in college, we had customers who would bring in hard drive backups and store them in lock boxes in our vault. So that's another option. You can't have too many backups, lol.

 

[glenthompson]

I use both. Came in handy recently when my 2011 MBP suffered a GPU failure and wouldn’t boot. When my wife upgraded her iMac last year we kept her old one. I copied the CCC clone onto it and was back up running in a few minutes. The. Lone had been created during the previous night so nothing was lost. The iMac is working nicely since I have less need for a laptop these days.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Hello,

I am using CCC Carbon Copy Cloner for backups.
Like the fact that if ever needed, it is apparently a bootable copy.

My understanding is that Time Machine is not ?
Is it ?
How would one use it if everything has to be put back on the Mac ?

Guess I have the "Belts AND Suspenders" mentality.

What would you think of also using Time machine (with a separate dedicated HD) also ?

Do they play well together ?
Pros and cons ?

Thanks,
Bob

Yes. Both. Been that way for years. Plus I copy some folders via CCC to network attached storage. It's truly the only way to fly. And if your data is critical or irreplaceable (photos, important documents, etc), rotating CCC copies between home and an offsite location would also be a good idea (in case of fire, theft, etc).

 

[drewaz]

I use Time Machine, SuperDuper and Backblaze for cloud storage. All 3 are set to automatically backup so it's effortless. The Time Machine backup is to a HDD and the SuperDuper backup is to an SSD. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[nouveau_redneck]

I used to use both CCC and TM for the reasons others have stated. CCC for bootable full disk copy, TM for occasional file recovery if needed.

Ultimately, I got tired of using TM for two reasons; 1) it creates snapshots which use up space on my primary drive, and more importantly, 2) I got tired of the eventual corruption of large TM archives. Over the past couple of years, the TM backup became corrupt twice resulting in it being deleted and me starting over.

Now, I'm using CCC and Arq backup to Backblaze B2. I'm much happier with this solution. I make CCC backups once per week on rotating external media, kept in my safe at home, and at my ranch out in the middle of nowhere. The Arq backups are made a couple times per day and being stored at Backblazes data center give me extra offsite protection. Also Arq uses encryption giving me piece of mind that no one will steal my upcoming hit novel!

 

[JoSch]

Firstly, you can't have enough backups.
Secondly, I use TimeMachine, CCC for a clone of the boot volume and Backblaze for an off site backup.

 

[Robert4]

Hi,

Thanks all; really appreciate the help and comments.

BTW: Does CCC or Time Machine also back up full "Programs," or only files, documents, pix's etc. ?
What, specifically, is not backed up ?

If not, any suggestions as to how ? e.g., WORD, EXCEL, etc.

Bob

 

[maflynn]

BTW: Does CCC or Time Machine also back up full "Programs," or only files, documents, pix's etc. ?

CCC is a fully featured backup application where you can choose to have the entire drive imaged, or select folders. From that perspective you can define what folders to back up, though I don't think you have the ability to choose by file type - I'm not sure if that's what your asking.

TM is less flexible and you don't really have any options to choose.

 

[JoSch]

Hi,

Thanks all; really appreciate the help and comments.

BTW: Does CCC or Time Machine also back up full "Programs," or only files, documents, pix's etc. ?
What, specifically, is not backed up ?

If not, any suggestions as to how ? e.g., WORD, EXCEL, etc.

Bob

Both backup everything you want them to including the OS and Apps. Backblaze only backups your data.