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Primary backup alternative-been burned by Time machine

C

cuestakid

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 14, 2006
1,785
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San Fran
So I have been burned three times by Time Machine not cleaning up the local mobile backups on my various macs, and last night I had to do a full erase and install to get rid of the problem as a set of folders simply would not go away. I am beginning to strongly consider dumping time machine as my primary backup solution (I already pay for Crashplan's offsite online backup plan so I have a secondary solution in place). I have started a a trial of Carbon Copy Cloner and from the little I have seen it looks promising. My question to you all is has anyone else been able to move away from Time Machine as a primary backup and how has it worked out for you, or am I better off just sticking with Time Machine?

Thanks!
 
cuestakid said:
So I have been burned three times by Time Machine not cleaning up the local mobile backups on my various macs, and last night I had to do a full erase and install to get rid of the problem as a set of folders simply would not go away. I am beginning to strongly consider dumping time machine as my primary backup solution (I already pay for Crashplan's offsite online backup plan so I have a secondary solution in place). I have started a a trial of Carbon Copy Cloner and from the little I have seen it looks promising. My question to you all is has anyone else been able to move away from Time Machine as a primary backup and how has it worked out for you, or am I better off just sticking with Time Machine?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would not entirely give up on Time Machine as it does have some advantages such as data migration to a new machine. I use both Time Machine and CCC on a regular basis in order to ensure data safety.
 
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I am using SuperDuper several years for bootable clones and it has worked very well. I also tested Carbon Copy Cloner but I started using SD because it has Sandbox feature which is missing from CCC (it allows easy testing of new OS versions without long cloning time in case of problems). I am not saying CCC isn't a fine software, it just isn't suitable for my needs.

I have used Time Machine as a secondary backup but I am getting fed up with its problems (corrupted data, failure to backup data, etc.) If Apple improves Time Machines reliability I might consider using it but I am currently looking for a reliable replacement and QRecal might be a good option, I haven't tested it enough to be sure.
 
I like CCC. You can schedule when you want CCC to do backups, unlike being stuck with every hour on TM. CCC will also clone the Recovery partition. It is good to have a bootable clone that can get you back up in minutes. The clone can be used to migrate data to a new clean install when using Apple's Migration Assistant.
 
I use SuperDuper, but CCC is about the same. I backup on a rotating schedule to different external HDDs so that I always have at least 3 bootable backups, including 1 in a fireproof vault.
 
chscag said:
I would not entirely give up on Time Machine as it does have some advantages such as data migration to a new machine. I use both Time Machine and CCC on a regular basis in order to ensure data safety.
Click to expand...

/\/\/\ This. Always cover yourself with multiple routes to a restore (backing up by itself is useless, its the restore capability you want).
 
simonsi said:
/\/\/\ This. Always cover yourself with multiple routes to a restore (backing up by itself is useless, its the restore capability you want).
Click to expand...
Is there any way to do CCC and Time Machine on a single backup drive, or would i need to get a separate drive to do this? If not, I suppose I will go back to Time machine. As I said I have my off site online backup plan with CrashPlan so i have a secondary solution
 
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Assuming the drive is big enough, just partition it into two, one partition big enough for a CCC clone + any space you want to allow for the CCC Safetynet (i.e. some version protection on deleted files), and the rest for TM. Set CCC to run on drive connect or on a schedule and there you go.
 
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My drive is 1TB and since I only have around 180 or GB of data I figure splitting the drive in half will do, I will give CCC its 30 day trial and see how it goes.

Thanks everyone!
 
My vote goes to either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

Your chances of "being burned" with either of these are far, far less.

You -do- have to think about running them (I've never attempted to set up an automated back with CCC, I just run it "manually" at regular intervals).

Another advantage of a cloned backup is that it's FULLY bootable.
That means that once you're backup up-and-running, you have "finder access" to EVERYTHING -- not the "limited options" you get when booted to a recovery partition.

You won't appreciate the "fully bootable" concept until you get into an "I can't boot!" moment. THEN you'll find that -- compared to TM -- being able to boot "to the finder" is worth its weight in gold.
 
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cuestakid said:
Is there any way to do CCC and Time Machine on a single backup drive, or would i need to get a separate drive to do this? If not, I suppose I will go back to Time machine. As I said I have my off site online backup plan with CrashPlan so i have a secondary solution
Click to expand...

While it is possible I don't recommend doing so because if your drive fails all backups are likely gone. If that isn't a problem you can partition it in two like simonsi said.
 
I use a Synology 1515+ with a 4TB raid-1 volume, works a treat.

IMG_0099.jpg
 
chscag said:
I would not entirely give up on Time Machine as it does have some advantages such as data migration to a new machine. I use both Time Machine and CCC on a regular basis in order to ensure data safety.
Click to expand...
Same here. I do a monthly full clone of everything with CCC and keep the drives in a second location. Everything that changes a lot more frequently than that is caught by Dropbox and of course Time Machine.
 
I moved away from time machine after the 2nd time it said my backup was corrupt and has to create a new one. All that history gone. I now have a local backup to my NAS and remote backup to backblaze.
 
cuestakid said:
… better off just sticking with Time Machine? …
Click to expand...

ericv said:
I moved away from time machine after the 2nd time it said my backup was corrupt and has to create a new one. All that history gone. I now have a local backup to my NAS …
Click to expand...

FreeNAS works well for Time Machine service. If you have ZFS snapshots of the file system where Time Machine stores its sparse bundle disk image, then if corruption occurs you can roll back to a point in time before that corruption.
 
grahamperrin said:
FreeNAS works well for Time Machine service. If you have ZFS snapshots of the file system where Time Machine stores its sparse bundle disk image, then if corruption occurs you can roll back to a point in time before that corruption.
Click to expand...

I use FreeNAS. That is what I did the first time. However after the 2nd time I figured it wasn't worth it.
 
I have central backuped up NAS manually done, not automated.

My own issues are aautomatic solutions are good, but my worry is always "what happens if it misses something, corruption etc..)

I always backup manually over any automated approach, for this reason..... if something gonna happen, u wanna minimize any issues. than something that is always-running/backing up in the background..

Convenient ya, but give me the hard work any-day. That way i can be sure what was copied was done right always, without hassle of making sure if something is there.. Plus, my time is worth more :D
 
I have both NAS and DAS (directly attached external storage) for my systems. I have used both SD and CCC and find its just a matter of preference. Though I use my NAS for multiple purposes, I find that DAS works well with the above software and is a simple (and cheaper) way for those who simply want backups.
 
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