Manual backup - which files to choose?

I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner for creating bootable backups of your entire drive. You can also select individual folders, but backing up your entire drive is recommended.

 

Carbon Copy Cloner is great for making images but I like SuperDuper as a backup solution. For file backup a rule of thumb is, if you are a clean user all you need to do is backup your users folder (~). If you are storing things all over the place then you may have a harder time.

 

Well the easiest way to do a "manual" backup is to use Time Machine. It gives you control over what you want to back up by exclusion (you could exclude everything BUT your user folder). Just works. And more efficient in terms of copying and storing than using the Finder to copy stuff, and easier to restore if you need to.

Take a look at Backup as well. I think it's still included with every Mac, and it's a very handy backup solution. And free.

But note the two different backup schemes: one does versioning, one does archives. You didn't specify which kind you wanted.

Rob

 

For clarification, Carbon Copy Cloner can backup with versioning or archiving, can backup only selected files/folders, and the backup files can be browsed with Finder and files restored with a simple drag and drop. It can also create bootable backups, which TM can't do.

 

No, Time Machine is the software that does the backups. Time Capsule is a device that Apple sells that you can use for backups. You can also use any external drive with Time Machine.

 

I've been using ChronoSync for years. I think I originally chose it because I was syncing work files between my desktop and laptop but I now use it to back up changed files from both machines to an external.