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Time Machine and Carbon Copy Clone issue compatibility?

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porthole2

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 26, 2014
68
0
My new rMBP confuse me more every day (new to Mac).

I am using Time Machine on a 4TB Seagate USB 3.0 drive. My first drive seemed to have a issues causing a serious slow down on my machine. I replaced that drive, fresh format and re-set up Time machine.

After a couple of days I had what I assume is the normal file structure for a Time Machine drive. E.g. MacBook --> Macintosh HD --> then the list of backups, that changed from multiple backups per day to just one a day as time passed.

I tried CCC (1 month trail) last night and used the Time Machine drive.

The message this morning was that the clone was successful. But, I don't know what to look at/for and on my Time Machine drive the previous TM file structure is gone.

What I do see a file structure that appears to be the same as looking under the "Macintosh HD" link on the sidebar.

Clicking between the Mac HD and TM sidebar links I do see that TM link has an new folder "Backups.backupdb" that appears to have my TM backups. although the appear to be labeled differently.

Note, I am also using Crashplan's service.

So, does a "clone" backup appear identical to the original drive's file structure?
Or should is it a single file/folder?

Is what happened to the TM structure normal?

Are the two compatible?

Should I be using a different drive for the CCC clone?

I'm thinking maybe an additional drive (portable) and attempting the CCC's into separate folders by date.

Most of the answers I found on this forum seemed to be from early 2013 or 2012. The best I found with most things I have searched for here, is that it seems that the latest version of Mavericks is, although similar to earlier OS versions, there are quite a few differences.
 
porthole2 said:
Should I be using a different drive for the CCC clone?
Click to expand...

Yes... that is where you went wrong. It sounds like you had a good TM backup then used that same volume for the CCC clone, which would overwrite the TM backup. So what you have on your disk now is a CCC clone and no TM backup at all.

If you want to use both TM and CCC, make two partitions on the external drive. Make one the same size as your rMBP's flash storage size and use that partition for the CCC clone. Then use the remaining area of the disk for the second partition and the TM backup.

Then do a new CCC clone to the smaller volume and a new TM backup to the larger partition.

This will help you with making the partitions.
 
Better is to have two drives, one for time machine and one for CCC. That way you have two different backups on two different devices. I usually have TM running all the time and only use CCC on a schedule. TM is best for when I screw up and delete or overwrite something and need to get the previous copy. CCC is for major hardware failures like a drive going bad.
 
glenthompson said:
Better is to have two drives, one for time machine and one for CCC. That way you have two different backups on two different devices. I usually have TM running all the time and only use CCC on a schedule. TM is best for when I screw up and delete or overwrite something and need to get the previous copy. CCC is for major hardware failures like a drive going bad.
Click to expand...

Agree on the two drives, but I don't understand why CCC is any better than TM for restoring after a drive failure. I've used TM several times to restore my data to either a new drive or a new computer. Time Machine works extremely well for either individual files or an entire drive. What is CCC's attraction?
 
rc135tx said:
Agree on the two drives, but I don't understand why CCC is any better than TM for restoring after a drive failure. I've used TM several times to restore my data to either a new drive or a new computer. Time Machine works extremely well for either individual files or an entire drive. What is CCC's attraction?
Click to expand...

In my case my Macbook Pro can die a horrible death (burn up or such). I can take my CCC drive, plug it into my wife's iMac and boot off the USB clone. I'm dogged slow but I have immediate access to everything including all the apps I use that she doesn't. I can then shop for a new Mac at my leisure.
 
Carbon Copy Cloner is not free? , i been using it for 2 months now without paying , i got the download from there website
 
Che Castro said:
Carbon Copy Cloner is not free? , i been using it for 2 months now without paying , i got the download from there website
Click to expand...

Carbon Copy Cloner was donation-ware up until V3.4.7. If you got that version or earlier from them you can continue using it but it is not updated for compatibility with Mountain Lion or later. From V3.4.8 and newer it is commercial software so after the one month free trial you need to pay $39.95 if you want to keep using it.
 
Che Castro said:
Carbon Copy Cloner is not free? , i been using it for 2 months now without paying , i got the download from there website
Click to expand...

Newer versions (that support recovery partitions) are not, the older version is still available is considered donationware. I still use the older flavor even though it doesn't automatically do my recovery partition.
 
glenthompson said:
In my case my Macbook Pro can die a horrible death (burn up or such). I can take my CCC drive, plug it into my wife's iMac and boot off the USB clone. I'm dogged slow but I have immediate access to everything including all the apps I use that she doesn't. I can then shop for a new Mac at my leisure.
Click to expand...

Excellent use for it. Thanks!! I keep an external drive updated with the current system as an alternate boot point, but have other (older) computers to use in an emergency, so didn't think of your use. Really good idea! The thought of my MBP dying a horrible death is an ugly picture, tho. ;):apple:
 
Thanks all.

I re-formatted (again) my Seagate 4TB drive and will use it exclusively for TM.

I picked up a Seagate portable 1.5TB dive that I will use for CCC.

I noticed on CC's website that although it will back up a Bootcamp Windows partition, it is not recommended.

I bought and used WinClone when I traded in my iMac for the rMBP.
I was very disappointed with that "recovery" and in fact ended up just reinstalling everything manually and dealing with all the license key issues.

So, any recommendations for the Bootcamp side?
 
[[ What is CCC's attraction? ]]

1. It's bootable
2. It's already an exact copy of your source drive -- no "restoration" necessary (just boot and use). All your stuff is IMMEDIATELY visible, accessible, usable. You don't have to "restore" first.
3. No need to fool with the recovery partition -- if you want to restore the internal (source) drive, just boot from your CCC backup and "re-clone" to the internal
4. Did I mention that CCC creates a fully-bootable copy of your internal drive?

Try booting from a recovery partition and using your files directly from TM (WITHOUT having to do some "recovery" first...)
 
Fishrrman said:
[[ What is CCC's attraction? ]]

1. It's bootable
2. It's already an exact copy of your source drive -- no "restoration" necessary (just boot and use). All your stuff is IMMEDIATELY visible, accessible, usable. You don't have to "restore" first.
3. No need to fool with the recovery partition -- if you want to restore the internal (source) drive, just boot from your CCC backup and "re-clone" to the internal
4. Did I mention that CCC creates a fully-bootable copy of your internal drive?

Try booting from a recovery partition and using your files directly from TM (WITHOUT having to do some "recovery" first...)
Click to expand...

1. Great.
2. It's only as up-to-date as you take the effort to make it up-to-date. CCC doesn't do automatic incremental updates like Time Machine does, or does it? edit - it does!!!
3. OK, but I haven't had to "fool" with the recovery partition.
4. Yes, I'm pretty sure you did. But it's only as up-to-date as of the last time you cloned the entire beast, right? edit - Wrong. Sorry. It does do incremental updates.

No need to try that. If my internal is dead, I replace it, put a system on it & restore from Time Machine which is updated hourly, automatically, & I'm back in business.

If you have a need for the things that CCC does that Time Machine doesn't (bootable copy), then CCC is what you need. So far, I don't, but thanks to this thread, I'll sure keep it in mind. Thanks!!!
 
Last edited:
[[ If you have a need for the things that CCC does that Time Machine doesn't (bootable copy), then CCC is what you need. So far, I don't... ]]

Prediction:
At some point in the future, you are going to have an "I can't boot!" moment.

THIS is when a CCC backup becomes worth its weight in gold to you.

You will discover why, when it happens to YOU.
 
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