Difference between Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner?

Carbon Copy Cloner will clone(make an identical copy of) your Mac's HD, which will enable you to boot your Mac from it in the case of an internal HD failure. You can schedule subsequent backups to run automatically if required. You will need a separate partion for this as CCC wipes everything at the start of the next backup, depending on how you've set it up.

The first time that you run Time Machine, it also makes a backup of youir entire system, but it's not bootable(AFAIK). In the event of a failure you will need to boot from your install discs, and then recover your system using Time Machine.

After the first backup, TM will only back up what has changed since the last backup. You can store other files on the TM partition outside of the TM folder and they will remain untouched during subsequent backups.

For both, you will need to format your external drive using using the Mac OS Extended settings in Disk Utility and the GUID format. I'm pretty sure that a Windows PC will not be able to read those partitions.

If you want to access stuff from a PC, you'll need a separate partition formatted under MS-DOS(FAT).

A lot of people do, and a lot don't.

I'm sure someone will correct any errors in the above.

 

As already stated, CCC makes bootable backups. I use CCC and don't use TM. You don't need both. As far as accessing data from both Windows and Mac:


FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  [*]Maximum file size: 4GB.
  
• Maximum volume size: 2TB

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  
• Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
• Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  [*]Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  [*]To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  [*]To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB

 

For best results, use both. They complement each other well.

A clone backup (such as with CCC or SuperDuper!) is bootable, which is really handy. It's also ideal for keeping off-site, which offers the most protection against theft, fire, or natural disasters.

A TimeMachine backup gives quick recovery of deleted files or accidentally modified files. It's almost a version control system, but much easier to use. To be effective it should be running all the time. This is easy for a desktop system, but for a laptop consider a TimeCapsule or other NAS solution so backups can occur over WiFi.