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How is everybody backing up their 2015/16 Macbook?

H

hardax

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
193
57
New Hampshire
Since you cant just plug in an external drive and leave it there without a hub of some sort it sort of ruins the idea of Time Machine backing up every hour?

So how does everyone handle their backup chores in the 12" Macbook?
 
hardax said:
Since you cant just plug in an external drive and leave it there without a hub of some sort it sort of ruins the idea of Time Machine backing up every hour?

So how does everyone handle their backup chores in the 12" Macbook?
Click to expand...


Wireless Time Machine backup to an external drive connected to my iMac via OSx Server.
 
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I have an external drive that's connected to my HooToo USB-C hub for backup whenever I "dock" my rMB. I use my rMB for personal use and don't make big changes to anything on it that warrants backing up regularly.

You can by a USBA-USBC converter for $11 on Amazon or buy a new cable for your drive too. Not much different from backing up any other macbook other than needing USBC
 
Time Capsule plus once a month I plug in an external USB drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner.
 
SuperDuper for full drive backup, point to point encrypted cloud service for the day to day stuff, as it synchronises across multiple computers/devices.

Just had to do a full drive restore, SuperDuper just paid for itself 1K times over, seamless, easy & quick. Cloud server took care of any working data that needed bringing up to date since last drive image. "Belt & Braces" it maybe, equally it`s a robust solution with the key working data being backed up off site, shared synchronously across all my Mac`s

Q-6
 
Using an external HD for Time Machine is so last decade. Wireless is the new thing. :p

I backup via Time Machine to a Synology NAS on my home LAN, then I also use Crashplan for offsite backup.

WD also has a really slick little wifi external HDD and SD card reader. Not sure how well it works with TM, but it is mentioned in the manual. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330
 
deeddawg said:
Using an external HD for Time Machine is so last decade. Wireless is the new thing. :p

I backup via Time Machine to a Synology NAS on my home LAN, then I also use Crashplan for offsite backup.

WD also has a really slick little wifi external HDD and SD card reader. Not sure how well it works with TM, but it is mentioned in the manual. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330
Click to expand...


I didnt think Time Machine supported backing up to a network drive?
 
hardax said:
I didnt think Time Machine supported backing up to a network drive?
Click to expand...
You're right, Time machine doesn't let you just grab any vanilla network share and use it for your Time Machine backup. At least not without jumping through some hoops.

However, the major NAS vendors provide Time Machine capability through their own magic. I used a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 2 for years with no issues, even did a full restore of a MBP13 from it after its HDD bit the dust.

I'm now using a Synology DS216j and it works well.
For more info see https://www.synology.com/en-us/know...es_from_Mac_to_Synology_NAS_with_Time_Machine
 
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deeddawg said:
You're right, Time machine doesn't let you just grab any vanilla network share and use it for your Time Machine backup.

However, the major NAS vendors provide Time Machine capability through their own magic. I used a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 2 for years with no issues, even did a full restore of a MBP13 from it after its HDD bit the dust.

I'm now using a Synology DS216j and it works well.
For more info see https://www.synology.com/en-us/know...es_from_Mac_to_Synology_NAS_with_Time_Machine
Click to expand...

This is what I do on my wife's MacBook, except we're using the DS213j. Additionally, I'll back up to external USB directly connected to it. Wireless may be the new thing, but transfer speed is still faster when connected physically to the machine.

BL.
 
bradl said:
This is what I do on my wife's MacBook, except we're using the DS213j. Additionally, I'll back up to external USB directly connected to it. Wireless may be the new thing, but transfer speed is still faster when connected physically to the machine.
Click to expand...
Yes, for sure direct USB is going to be fastest. My statement was a bit tongue in cheek.

In my experience, speed of Time Machine over wifi really only becomes a significant issue if you're doing a substantial restore. I suppose it could also be an issue if one regularly used VM software and didn't exclude the multi-GB images from the TM backup or did something

When I had to do the prior full restore, I made sure to plug the MBP13 into my LAN and it did fine. I've not done specific testing yet with my fairly new DS216j but it's rated at over 100MB/s read speed so it shouldn't be too terribly painful.

How's your speed when reading/writing to a share on the DS213j? I'll do a test tonight with BlackMagic; I did one a while back but don't remember the results.
 
deeddawg said:
Using an external HD for Time Machine is so last decade. Wireless is the new thing. :p

I backup via Time Machine to a Synology NAS on my home LAN, then I also use Crashplan for offsite backup.

WD also has a really slick little wifi external HDD and SD card reader. Not sure how well it works with TM, but it is mentioned in the manual. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330
Click to expand...

synology runs at a creeping slow pace for me when doing time machine backup. Any trick to it?
 
cognitivefun said:
synology runs at a creeping slow pace for me when doing time machine backup. Any trick to it?
Click to expand...
Not that I'm aware of... Opening TimeMachine can be a bit slow at first but works. Running TM backups don't seem to be slow, but we could well have differing definitions. :)

You may want to post up to Synology's forums.
 
Backed up to a TM directory on my networked Thecus NAS. Works like a charm and no local USB drive necessary. Having said that, my 5K iMac backs up to a USB drive and to the Thecus NAS using the same TM directory. It alternates the backups every hour between the USB drive and the NAS drive. I'm ok with just using the NAS though for the MacBook. Cheers!
 
T-Mobile gives subscribers a free 802.11ac wireless router ($25 deposit required). It's actually a rebranded Asus router that's pretty powerful and feature packed. One of the nice features is the ability to be a Time Machine server. I simply plug in a bus-powered 2TB Western Digital drive in its USB 3.0 port, and my MacBook uploads to it automagically.
 
deeddawg said:
Yes, for sure direct USB is going to be fastest. My statement was a bit tongue in cheek.

In my experience, speed of Time Machine over wifi really only becomes a significant issue if you're doing a substantial restore. I suppose it could also be an issue if one regularly used VM software and didn't exclude the multi-GB images from the TM backup or did something

When I had to do the prior full restore, I made sure to plug the MBP13 into my LAN and it did fine. I've not done specific testing yet with my fairly new DS216j but it's rated at over 100MB/s read speed so it shouldn't be too terribly painful.

How's your speed when reading/writing to a share on the DS213j? I'll do a test tonight with BlackMagic; I did one a while back but don't remember the results.
Click to expand...

The read/write speed is comparable, as one of the big differences between the 213j and 216j is the USB 3 bus. Other than that, and notwithstanding the type of drive used (HDD vs. SSD), it's fairly comparable.

Again, the issue comes back to being stuck on 802.11x No matter what we do, since we're limited to that over WiFi, writes are going to be slow, with reads being marginally faster (the whole downstream/upstream thing)..

BL.
 
applesith said:
I have an external drive that's connected to my HooToo USB-C hub for backup whenever I "dock" my rMB. I use my rMB for personal use and don't make big changes to anything on it that warrants backing up regularly.

You can by a USBA-USBC converter for $11 on Amazon or buy a new cable for your drive too. Not much different from backing up any other macbook other than needing USBC
Click to expand...

Question for you: I am considering getting the rMB and setting up a docked set-up like this with monitor and external HDD and peripherals all connected, but my question is: do you still eject the external HDD when you unplug the USB-C from the hub? Seems a little annoying to have to still do that rather than simply pulling out the USB-C from the machine quickly and easily.
 
Experts recommend 3-2-1 backup strategy. 3 backup copies, 2 of which are on-site on different medium and 1 offsite.

I recommend and use:
  1. Bootable backup: external disk clone off Mac's internal disk -- Carbon Copy Cloner ($40) or SuperDuper! ($28).
  2. Time Machine backup: It should be wireless disk, disk hooked up to wireless router (including Time Capsule), or server.
  3. Cloud backup: I recommend Backblaze ($50/year) for most people. But if you have 3 or more computers, CrashPlan ($60/year for 1 computer, $150/year for 2 to 10 computers).
 
I use an Anker USB-C to 3-Port USB-A adapter and a Seagate 2GB external drive (portable, non powered) and it works great with Time Machine. I just plug it in once every couple days and tell it to backup. The first backup took a couple hours (156 GB) and it had no issues. (Though it did use about 40% of my battery) In the past on my 2015 rMB, I used a Time Capsule that has since gone to the great tech graveyard. That worked fine as well.
 
I usually do a Time Machine back up every few months but this day and age, everything is online backed up.

Photos are backup using google photos.
Music is backup by google music.
And documents are backup by dropbox.

Big files such as movies are backup sparingly by Time Machine.
 
This is my mobile computer. I keep all data in two directories: desktop and documents. I then use Dropbox for these.

I don't have the history of hourly backups, but all my data is safe in the cloud. If the machine blows up, I reinstall apps and use Dropbox to sync my data. I think this is Uga simple
 
I connect mine via multiport adapter (I should get one of these small USB-C > USB-A adapter, probably Nonda's), after the initial backup, it doesn't take long for every backups after that, so it's not connected for long.
 
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