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JordanLB23

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
213
0
Right now when I back up my stuff onto an external, I just drag and drop, but it always ends up replacing, which takes forever (overnight) to transfer everything. I have one of those mypassport usb 3.0 1tb externals.

I am wondering is there a function to just update or back up new files?

Thanks.
 

Samuelsan2001

macrumors 604
Oct 24, 2013
7,729
2,153
Time Machine

Right now when I back up my stuff onto an external, I just drag and drop, but it always ends up replacing, which takes forever (overnight) to transfer everything. I have one of those mypassport usb 3.0 1tb externals.

I am wondering is there a function to just update or back up new files?

Thanks.

Every mac has come with a fantastic backup system called Time machine for many years now....
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,735
If you don't want to use Time Machine then use Carbon Copy Cloner a fine alternative to TM.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,052
13,078
One more recommendation for CarbonCopyCloner.

It will create a bootable "clone" of your internal drive.

The clone will boot and run as if it -were- the internal. Everything will be "there" (up to the point of the last incremental backup).

You may not appreciate the importance of having a cloned backup until you get into an "I can't boot!" moment -- then it's worth its weight in gold.

Just be aware that the initial backup will take longer, because EVERYTHING is being cloned.
Once that's done, the incremental backups go quickly.

CCC can also create a clone of your recovery partition -- very nice feature.
 

Toltepeceno

Suspended
Jul 17, 2012
1,807
554
SMT, Edo MX, MX
Try Super Super. I tried both it and carbon copy cloner and went with it as it has a free version you can continue to use plus ccc stopped twice while cloning my drive. CCC is probably a good program, but free trumps 40.00 also.

Discussion of both, how to use, at the below link. You don't get smart updates or scheduling with the free version, but if you just want to manually make a bootable clone backup it's hard to beat free. I have a bootable clone backup on a partition on my passport AND I made a bootable usb flash drive with diskmaker x. :

http://www.imore.com/how-easily-clone-your-mac-using-superduper-or-carbon-copy-cloner
 
Last edited:

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,752
2,476
Baltimore, Maryland
Try Super Super. I tried both it and carbon copy cloner and went with it as it has a free version you can continue to use plus ccc stopped twice while cloning my drive. CCC is probably a good program, but free trumps 40.00 also.

Discussion of both, how to use, at the below link. You don't get smart updates or scheduling with the free version, but if you just want to manually make a bootable clone backup it's hard to beat free. I have a bootable clone backup on a partition on my passport AND I made a bootable usb flash drive with diskmaker x. :

http://www.imore.com/how-easily-clone-your-mac-using-superduper-or-carbon-copy-cloner

Decent article but I'm wary of anything written over 2 months back!
 

MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,628
3,868
Something is not right. When you move files to another disk that has a file with the same name it should as you if you want to replace files with similar names (which you should if the files as been updated, like word files..etc).

Try Time Machine or pay for the very worth Carbon Copy Cloner.
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,491
1,573
East Coast
Something is not right. When you move files to another disk that has a file with the same name it should as you if you want to replace files with similar names (which you should if the files as been updated, like word files..etc).

Try Time Machine or pay for the very worth Carbon Copy Cloner.

You're misunderstanding his question. He currently just drag/drop his files that he wants backed up. So every file gets copied over to the backup drive every time. This is very time consuming.

Using a dedicated backup app, like SuperDuper, CCC, or Time Machine, backs up only the files that have changed from the previous backup. So while the first back up takes a while, subsequent back ups are significantly faster.

ft
 
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