Carbon Copy Cloner vs Time Machine: best backup software for Mac

[kumakuma]

You might want to check out this thread:

 

 

[kumakuma]

13 minutes ago, PAR said:

I am generally averse to using any proprietary backup software.  Why? Because if you use an application to back up your files you also need to use it to restore them. Add in a dose of reality and this is what will happen:

 

1. You've been backing up for 5 years using an app. Suddenly your computer has a catastrophic failure. Everything is lost. OK you think, I have a backup and will buy a replacement computer. You get it home and try your backup. Oh, you haven't got the backup app on your new computer. No worries. Just download it. Then you find that they're not there, they went out of business six months ago. Or ; Great, here it is downloaded. Now just click restore and ... not recognised. You were using Fab Backup 3. Your new download is years later and they now have Fab Backup 7. Not compatible. Fab Backup 3 is no more and there are no obtainable copies. Your files are there somewhere but it now requires a specialist to retrieve them at some cost.

 

Frankly IMO, although it requires more effort,  it is more secure to just copy and paste your files to an external HDD or, better three of them. If you only make one backup then you have one shot at a restore. Then you find that your one backup drive is corrupt! Make two to try to avoid this using drives from two different manufacturers to minimise production batch errors. The third copy is kept offsite or alternatively try cloud backup for that copy even though it does risk some of the above downsides. It doesn't matter how many backups you keep at home they are not proof against fire, flood, or burglary.

 

Incidentally this is obviously not aimed specifically at mac users but I think that the principles are more universal in application.

 

You can already see people reporting difficulties in restoring from backup apps in this thread alone. That's why I do what I say.

 

I agree with much of what you have written and the need to be wary of apps that store backups in a proprietary format certainly applies to Time Machine which needs Time Machine for a proper restore.

 

I don't think anyone needs to worry though about cloning apps like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper which simply create a clone of your drive which can be freely accessed by any program.

 

Essentially what these cloning apps are doing is the same copy and paste operation that you advocate but in a much more efficient way that only copies the files that have changed.

 

Your advice on keeping offsite backups is very sound and is exactly what I do. I also upload to Backblaze as well.

 

[kumakuma]

The way I would do this in CCC would be to partition the 2TB SSD into two virtual drives using Disk Utility to match the two drives you want to clone files from.

 

Then select the directories containing your music files using "Copy Some Files". You can leave SafetyNet On but note it might fill up the backup drive quickly if you make a lot of changes to your music files such as modifying metadata, etc., as old versions will be archived.

 

[kumakuma]

5 minutes ago, cambridgehank said:

I have three macs, my laptop and iMac each has an external drive to which I run Carbon Copy Cloner.  I tried starting Time Machine and that program wants to erase the external hard drive before starting.  Does that mean I should have a separate external drive for Cloner and time machine back ups?

 

One solution would be to partition a single physical drive into two virtual drives.

[kumakuma]

3 minutes ago, kirkmc said:

Yes, Time Machine requires  a dedicated drive. 

 

I've used TM on a non-dedicated drive but I think it needs to be in HFS+ format.

 

https://www.macworld.com/article/3441857/why-you-re-prompted-to-erase-an-external-drive-when-you-use-it-with-time-capsule.html