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Help: What is the best way to backup my MBPr?

Absolutely agree with Queen6 in post above.

If you want a "backup that will get you going again QUICKLY", use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable cloned backup on an external drive.

Having a bootable cloned backup is nearly worth its weight in gold if you ever get into an "I can't boot!" moment.
Just connect the backup, boot from it, and go to work on the problem.

Time Machine has its place, I suppose.
But I've never once used it, for any purpose.
I have reached for my CCC backups in moments of need, and they've never let me down.

Read the board here (and from other boards elsewhere), and you'll encounter MANY instances where folks in a similar "moment of need" tried to access their TM backups, and..... couldn't.
 
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Fishrrman said:
Absolutely agree with Queen6 in post above.

If you want a "backup that will get you going again QUICKLY", use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable cloned backup on an external drive.

Having a bootable cloned backup is nearly worth its weight in gold if you ever get into an "I can't boot!" moment.
Just connect the backup, boot from it, and go to work on the problem.

Time Machine has its place, I suppose.
But I've never once used it, for any purpose.
I have reached for my CCC backups in moments of need, and they've never let me down.

Read the board here (and from other boards elsewhere), and you'll encounter MANY instances where folks in a similar "moment of need" tried to access their TM backups, and..... couldn't.
Click to expand...

Personally I no longer use Time Machine, I have a secure "point to point" encrypted cloud service that takes care of file archival aspect, which keeps all my system`s working data current with the capability to recover files similar to TM. I use either Superduper & CCC for imaging the SSD`s. I simply don't trust TM to be 100% reliable for restoring the complete system.

In a worst case scenario of internal drive failure, I would just boot from the external clone, my cloud sever will update all the working data in the background. With TM this is not possible in the event of drive failure as the drive is not bootable, and restore times are extensive, in the event of the issue being solely software related. If the issue is hardware related, you are stuck until the issue can be remedied, then look to restore the TM image, if it works...

Q-6
 
Queen6 said:
Personally I no longer use Time Machine, I have a secure "point to point" encrypted cloud service that takes care of file archival aspect, which keeps all my system`s working data current with the capability to recover files similar to TM. I use either Superduper & CCC for imaging the SSD`s. I simply don't trust TM to be 100% reliable for restoring the complete system.

In a worst case scenario of internal drive failure, I would just boot from the external clone, my cloud sever will update all the working data in the background. With TM this is not possible in the event of drive failure as the drive is not bootable, and restore times are extensive, in the event of the issue being solely software related. If the issue is hardware related, you are stuck until the issue can be remedied, then look to restore the TM image, if it works...

Q-6
Click to expand...

I backed up using time machine to another external drive I have. It's a pen drive.

I think it's enough. If my SSD fails in the Mac I'll just get a new Mac and plug in my pen drive with the backup and load everything on there.
 
Hieveryone said:
I backed up using time machine to another external drive I have. It's a pen drive.

I think it's enough. If my SSD fails in the Mac I'll just get a new Mac and plug in my pen drive with the backup and load everything on there.
Click to expand...

Just be aware "Pen" drives have a finite life, I would recommend a reputable external hard drive dedicated to solely for backup. It may seem expensive, however if you need to use the backup drive, you will find it may well be the best money you have ever spent, depending on the content of your data.

Remember that the backup is only useful if current, I recommend weekly or monthly backups, your usage/data will determine the frequency. My system`s archive my working data in realtime, combined with monthly imaging of the SSD`s

Q-6
 
Queen6 said:
Just be aware "Pen" drives have a finite life, I would recommend a reputable external hard drive dedicated to solely for backup. It may seem expensive, however if you need to use the backup drive, you will find it may well be the best money you have ever spent, depending on the content of your data.

Remember that the backup is only useful if current, I recommend weekly or monthly backups, your usage/data will determine the frequency. My system`s archive my working data in realtime, combined with monthly imaging of the SSD`s

Q-6
Click to expand...

That's amazing. You've got a great setup. I do have an external drive too. It's a western digital one that I use for backups. I keep it plugged in most of the time and backup hourly.

The pen drive is just a second backup.
 
As others have touched on, a key component of a real backup strategy is to eliminate location risk. My SuperDuper backup drive sits right next to my laptop most days. A fire, or a water leak or a thief or whatever happens, I'm doomed if that's all I have. So I use Crashplan to backup to the cloud as well. I like their service fine, but realistically I don't want to depend on it in case of a time-critical problem as restoring gigs of data over the network is going to take a while. But I feel better knowing it's there.

Any disaster bad enough to destroy my laptop, my backup drive AND Superduper's data center, well, I would guess I'd have more to worry about than my computer in that case.
 
WD external drives are garbage IMO

I wouldn't buy ANY 3.5" external hard drive. They fail much, much more than the 2.5" drives. I'd get a 2.5" USB drive for a time machine backup. I'd also backup your files online. BackBlaze, DropBox, whatever you want to use. What if someone broke into your house and stole your laptop and they steal your external hard drive too? You need a copy off-site.
 
robvas said:
WD external drives are garbage IMO

I wouldn't buy ANY 3.5" external hard drive. They fail much, much more than the 2.5" drives. I'd get a 2.5" USB drive for a time machine backup. I'd also backup your files online. BackBlaze, DropBox, whatever you want to use. What if someone broke into your house and stole your laptop and they steal your external hard drive too? You need a copy off-site.
Click to expand...
Happened to a girl at work, someone stole her computer and back up drive, that's why I now have a OneDrive account (on top of my Time Machine). My critical files are backed continuously on the OneDrive, the less important stuff on an ad hoc basis.
As to a 3rd party seeing my stuff, I guess someone could hack into my MBP just as easily as hacking into OneDrive. My more important stuff is encrypted, so hopefully that would make it more difficult.
 
I also use a combination Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner backup. CCC is much faster then TM when restoring, but TM has advantages in restoring a specific file from a specific time frame.

CoastalOR said:
Not if you use something like Arq to encrypt you stuff before it sends it to your desired cloud service.
Click to expand...
I've tested this out, and found it to be a very useful app. My problem is that my OneDrive storage is very very slow. I'm not sure its feasible for me to backup my data on that, as the restore process will be glacially slow. I'd much rather just use an external drive and then take that offsite.
 
Fishrrman said:
Having a bootable cloned backup is nearly worth its weight in gold if you ever get into an "I can't boot!" moment.
Just connect the backup, boot from it, and go to work on the problem.
Click to expand...

Sure, if you have another Mac that is using the exact same version of the OS. Otherwise you are risking to to run into firmware incompatibility issues.

Queen6 said:
Personally I no longer use Time Machine, I have a secure "point to point" encrypted cloud service that takes care of file archival aspect, which keeps all my system`s working data current with the capability to recover files similar to TM. I use either Superduper & CCC for imaging the SSD`s. I simply don't trust TM to be 100% reliable for restoring the complete system.
Click to expand...

I use redundant TM servers to provide backups to 20+ clients. So far, it is fast, reliable, secure and convenient. In case of a hardware failure we can provide a replacement machine with the exact copy of the user data within 2 hours or less. Furthermore, with TM you are much more flexible if you want to backup files that require continuous access (such as databases). Look for instance how Apple handles TM backups of postgres DB in their server architecture.
 
Hieveryone said:
Do people here trust these 3rd party cloud backup people?

Won't they be able to see your stuff?
Click to expand...

There are a minimum of 3 criteria necessary to do it right.

1.) The data needs to be encrypted properly. Just because some company says they do it right doesn't make it so. Just because some app produces cipertext doesn't make it secure.

2.) The encryption tool needs to be open source. You cannot trust anything closed source, ever. There is no way to verify if they are doing it right or if they happily send the keys to organized crime, or the government (same thing, I know). Open source tools can do it wrong too, but at least it's possible to find out.

3.) You need to be the only one with the keys. Some services like Dropbox say that your data is encrypted when it's on their server. That may be true, but it's utterly pointless if they have the key. It's like buying a safe from a stranger, but calling him to unlock it for you every time you need to open it because he has the key. How secure do your think your valuables are in that safe? Not very.

Cyphertite and Tarsnap are two online backups I can think of that meet this criteria. I would use them if I had a need for it.
 
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