Hi, I searched forums and manuals a bit before this thread, so my questions are a bit complex. My use for MBP is music recording and ocasional video and picture edit. I think this threads possible solutions could help others with same or similar requirements. Thanks in advance for your time.
I am about to switch to HDD and SSD in OWC DataDoubler combo without having possibility for external drive. I managed to create USB MAC OSX bootable original install DVD clone for sure.
I will use OCZ Vertex 3 120GB ssd and stock 750GB Apple Toshiba 5400rpm hdd.
For the time i own Vertex3, i had an issue of corrupted disk space on it, showing more and more free space that was actually available, unable to repair disk through install DVD booted DiskUtility, that as i assume was caused by heavy m2t video rendering and overwriting as there were little free space on the disk when i did this tasks. Fortunately i had TM backup and after reinstalling OSX i simply restored from TM backup located on my WD My Passport Essential SE 750GB. Everything was back in order in shorter than two hours.
Future arangement probably will be:
SSD - Mac OSX Snow Leopard with NTFS read/write enabled.
HDD partition 1 - Mac OSX Backup (bootable or not ?)
HDD partition 2 - W7 Ultimate 64bit on its own partition with HFS read/write enabled. (as read/write enabled on both systems, no need for exchange FAT volume)
HDD partition 3 - Data partition (containing music, films and projects that i am not working on right now)
HDD partition 4 - MAC OSX install DVD image bootable (Not sure as i have USB created, but it will be more comfortable and takes about 16GB of space that is not too much.)
extHDD - Backup of both internal disks, partitioned if needed.
All data on this dual hard drive 2011 MBP need to be backed up.
PLAN 1: TM backup of 120GB SSD to 750GB HDD partition 1 inside MPB for ability to 2 hour restore from backup after crash and fresh install (or shorter as i have sata3 ports and this time was estimated by using USB2.0 ext drive). And ability to find missing or deleted files for projects immediately. Currently now i am using about 200GB space for 120GB. (probably will go to 160GB, as all system files and apps took up to 60-70GB and 50-60GB are free for work that changes rarely and will be stored on internal HDD after finishing them, so older TM backups can be erased).
CCC internal HDD image on extHDD (every partition from internal HDD will have its own backup partition on extHDD - time consuming and overwriting whole extHDD - better to use two ext HDDs, so there will be other backup drive, when temporary overwriting other creating new images ?)
Total restore process: Working Mac OSX on SSD with CCC will restore each partition on 750GB internal HDD. When SSD drive failed too, there is an option to fresh install Mac OSX with CCC, then restore partitions on internal HDD and then restore from TM backup the system on SSD.
PLAN 2: CCC image copied 120GB SSD to HDD recovery partition. Bootable? Can CCC update this drive image without overwriting whole image, just add new files and delete older deleted files ? This will make perfect copy of latest files when possible SSD drive failure will ocur. Then i could make recovery partition even smaller say 120GB, right? Thus using more of internal HDD for other files. Then i could just replace SSD drive with working one and restore from bootable CCC backup, which is running ?
TM backup of internal HDD to external HDD excluding partition 2 (Windows7) and partition 4 (MAC OSX bootable DVD copy) so there will be about 70GB (50GB W7, 20GB MAC bootable DVD) more on external then on internal for file versions.
Total restore process: In case of damage to internal HDD, Time machine on working SSD will replace newest copies of CCC backups back to pre-created partitions on new internal HDD, and restore all files to Data partition from external usb backup, right? Leaving MAC bootable DVD partition to be created by myself and Windows7 to be reinstalled from scratch (anoying, but whatever.., Time machine can not restore windows partition and make it bootable, right?) Or I could CCC copy Windows partition once upon a time to networked drive on other computer, so that restore would be easier? If SSD failed in this scenario i have to install mac osx somewhere on internal HDD with CCC first, and then restore image to ssd? or just boot the image and restore from that.
Other plans: use only TM? crazy for me as i saw some preferences switching thru ControlPlane, use only CCC? yes it makes additive backups with history but is not as simple as TM for this purpose.
Other questions: 1) Is it better to use HFS than NTFS for partition 2 on internal HDD because NTFS can not (as i read somewhere) save some mac system files? or is it obsolete because my data will not contain this kind of files. I work mainly on OSX so HFS is preferable and more stable? What about windows thumbs.db and such on HFS ? (yes, windows7 will use projects on HFS formatted SSD)
2) For partition 4 on internal HDD (or bootable USB) when using CCC is it better to have preinstalled Mac OSX with CCC cloned (thru DMG and DiskUtility) to partition 4 on internal HDD (or USB)? Or use bare copy of instal DVD that came with my MBP ? Consindering using CCC version of *.sparseimage will require CCC instaled to recover, thus reducing time installing fresh copy of mac osx somewhere and then recovering the drive.
3) Should i get bigger external HDD to directly create backup from SSD or is it OK to make backup of a backup already created on internal HDD ? When considering this, should this be FW or i can go with thunderbolt ? or better USB for compatibility in case my MBP gets stolen or something happen to it?
4) A bit of thread: Using Thunderbolt NAS, do you prefer use of other one (probably higher capacity than the first one) to back up the first one ?
Ideal solution: Some arrangement that can recover both drives in absolute failure of both drives to other new ones (of when stolen or damaged). When failing SSD to boot, other image can boot without waiting to recover (ideally additive image - do this exist ? i dont want to wait until up to 120GB is copied to new image on slow HDD, and taking risk the image temporarily do not exist), or buying new drive. Along with accessing history of both SSD and HDD. History is not that important on HDD than on SSD.
Any ideas? Thank you for reading this !
I am about to switch to HDD and SSD in OWC DataDoubler combo without having possibility for external drive. I managed to create USB MAC OSX bootable original install DVD clone for sure.
I will use OCZ Vertex 3 120GB ssd and stock 750GB Apple Toshiba 5400rpm hdd.
For the time i own Vertex3, i had an issue of corrupted disk space on it, showing more and more free space that was actually available, unable to repair disk through install DVD booted DiskUtility, that as i assume was caused by heavy m2t video rendering and overwriting as there were little free space on the disk when i did this tasks. Fortunately i had TM backup and after reinstalling OSX i simply restored from TM backup located on my WD My Passport Essential SE 750GB. Everything was back in order in shorter than two hours.
Future arangement probably will be:
SSD - Mac OSX Snow Leopard with NTFS read/write enabled.
HDD partition 1 - Mac OSX Backup (bootable or not ?)
HDD partition 2 - W7 Ultimate 64bit on its own partition with HFS read/write enabled. (as read/write enabled on both systems, no need for exchange FAT volume)
HDD partition 3 - Data partition (containing music, films and projects that i am not working on right now)
HDD partition 4 - MAC OSX install DVD image bootable (Not sure as i have USB created, but it will be more comfortable and takes about 16GB of space that is not too much.)
extHDD - Backup of both internal disks, partitioned if needed.
All data on this dual hard drive 2011 MBP need to be backed up.
PLAN 1: TM backup of 120GB SSD to 750GB HDD partition 1 inside MPB for ability to 2 hour restore from backup after crash and fresh install (or shorter as i have sata3 ports and this time was estimated by using USB2.0 ext drive). And ability to find missing or deleted files for projects immediately. Currently now i am using about 200GB space for 120GB. (probably will go to 160GB, as all system files and apps took up to 60-70GB and 50-60GB are free for work that changes rarely and will be stored on internal HDD after finishing them, so older TM backups can be erased).
CCC internal HDD image on extHDD (every partition from internal HDD will have its own backup partition on extHDD - time consuming and overwriting whole extHDD - better to use two ext HDDs, so there will be other backup drive, when temporary overwriting other creating new images ?)
Total restore process: Working Mac OSX on SSD with CCC will restore each partition on 750GB internal HDD. When SSD drive failed too, there is an option to fresh install Mac OSX with CCC, then restore partitions on internal HDD and then restore from TM backup the system on SSD.
PLAN 2: CCC image copied 120GB SSD to HDD recovery partition. Bootable? Can CCC update this drive image without overwriting whole image, just add new files and delete older deleted files ? This will make perfect copy of latest files when possible SSD drive failure will ocur. Then i could make recovery partition even smaller say 120GB, right? Thus using more of internal HDD for other files. Then i could just replace SSD drive with working one and restore from bootable CCC backup, which is running ?
TM backup of internal HDD to external HDD excluding partition 2 (Windows7) and partition 4 (MAC OSX bootable DVD copy) so there will be about 70GB (50GB W7, 20GB MAC bootable DVD) more on external then on internal for file versions.
Total restore process: In case of damage to internal HDD, Time machine on working SSD will replace newest copies of CCC backups back to pre-created partitions on new internal HDD, and restore all files to Data partition from external usb backup, right? Leaving MAC bootable DVD partition to be created by myself and Windows7 to be reinstalled from scratch (anoying, but whatever.., Time machine can not restore windows partition and make it bootable, right?) Or I could CCC copy Windows partition once upon a time to networked drive on other computer, so that restore would be easier? If SSD failed in this scenario i have to install mac osx somewhere on internal HDD with CCC first, and then restore image to ssd? or just boot the image and restore from that.
Other plans: use only TM? crazy for me as i saw some preferences switching thru ControlPlane, use only CCC? yes it makes additive backups with history but is not as simple as TM for this purpose.
Other questions: 1) Is it better to use HFS than NTFS for partition 2 on internal HDD because NTFS can not (as i read somewhere) save some mac system files? or is it obsolete because my data will not contain this kind of files. I work mainly on OSX so HFS is preferable and more stable? What about windows thumbs.db and such on HFS ? (yes, windows7 will use projects on HFS formatted SSD)
2) For partition 4 on internal HDD (or bootable USB) when using CCC is it better to have preinstalled Mac OSX with CCC cloned (thru DMG and DiskUtility) to partition 4 on internal HDD (or USB)? Or use bare copy of instal DVD that came with my MBP ? Consindering using CCC version of *.sparseimage will require CCC instaled to recover, thus reducing time installing fresh copy of mac osx somewhere and then recovering the drive.
3) Should i get bigger external HDD to directly create backup from SSD or is it OK to make backup of a backup already created on internal HDD ? When considering this, should this be FW or i can go with thunderbolt ? or better USB for compatibility in case my MBP gets stolen or something happen to it?
4) A bit of thread: Using Thunderbolt NAS, do you prefer use of other one (probably higher capacity than the first one) to back up the first one ?
Ideal solution: Some arrangement that can recover both drives in absolute failure of both drives to other new ones (of when stolen or damaged). When failing SSD to boot, other image can boot without waiting to recover (ideally additive image - do this exist ? i dont want to wait until up to 120GB is copied to new image on slow HDD, and taking risk the image temporarily do not exist), or buying new drive. Along with accessing history of both SSD and HDD. History is not that important on HDD than on SSD.
Any ideas? Thank you for reading this !