[Carbon Copy Cloner 4.1.14 Download
Luther Lazaro
i prefer to mirror my mac, so... no extra files. if i delete something, it's gone forever. for me, that works, always has. for others, they want older files, older versions of things (i DO archive a lot of work; my brain just can't handle everything being saved ). i use carbon copy cloner for that (and no time machine).
Time machine is set and forget, very easy to setup and integrates well with MacOS - it's never failed for me personally - but it won't create a boot drive as such, it gives you the option of restoring a boot drive to your SSD/HDD via the MacOS recovery options though.
As long as you have a local backup which you can use for quick rollbacks and an offsite/cloud backup you're golden or most situations. CCC for me is more of a failsafe, and i feel comfortable knowing i have the entire contents stored locally.
If i had entire system failure i'd restore my newest CCC (If i'm busy/lazy i can be 3 months away from my last clone) - which is basically my entire OS and it's apps/settings - and then i would restore data i needed from cloud. But that's mainly because my internet connection would take days to restore everything from scratch. It's data that i'm most precious about.
So yeah, CCC for a true boot disk clone 100% over time machine. But make sure you have at least a local and external backup to be on the safe side, and at least one you want to be incremental for file rollbacks. Things get trickier when you're archiving out to local disks... as they also should techincally be cloned elsewhere too.
i back up after any major work, and regularly once a week. i backup my (external) archive drive as well. CCC is great, simple enough (once you set it up). but time machine is, at least, easy to use, and organizes your backed-up files as well.
I had a powercut that killed my main machine and the local backup which was taking place, literally lost everything overnight and sat in disbelief the next morning thinking it can't be possible! But it was.
For me cloud backups are a blessing, I'm not regimented enough for manual backups and moving local copies to external locations to keep my ass covered, it's the biggest piece of mind out there for my requirements. And best of all it just does its stuff in the background.
The carbon copies are take are just piece of mind, in truth the only time I'd use them is if I migrated to a new hdd Or had to get a system up and running within the hour. Cause they're outdated the minute you take them vs an incremental system.
I use both, with an external SSD drive dedicated to each. I find Time Machine great for quick examination or recovery of an older version of some file, and use CCC for backing up full images to protect against a serious crash (and also to have an external drive that I can use to boot from a different Mac Mini in case of a disaster that keeps the main Mac Mini in a shop for a while).
For security reasons I prefer to limit my use of the cloud for general storage. But I agree it is a good convenient alternative for offsite ('house burned down') if you can get comfortable with the current (and future) data provenance and encyryption.
Backing up is not at all hard, and certainly shouldn't be "set it and forget it". I spend 45 minutes per week swapping out backup drives including taking drives off-site and putting the "other" drives in service. I listen to a podcast while I am doing it.
I like Time Machine because it's built-in and always quietly working. Every now and then you glance down at the external hard drive and see that the light is blinking. You can very easily look through past versions of anything that has been backed up. It also backs up other things like Mail. When I finish making an important change to a project, I click on "Back Up Now" and take a short break while Time Machine does its thing. After I back up my iPhone to my computer, I immediately back up the computer.
i use CCC solely for backup; i like the control i have over what gets backed up (i skip the apps, which i'd reinstall in an emergency, yet backup the logic app support folder, for example). also (& i am sure i'm in the minority), i want a mirror of what's on my mac; if i delete something, i don't need it back in the future.
either way, whatever you use... backing up is, as always, essential. i am amazed when someone loses their data, and says they've been 'meaning to back up'. no one should have to say that in 2020 (or 2002, for that matter).
2002 we was still on tape backup, and that was the most unreliable solution ever. You think you've got a week of backups, until you test a restore from one set and they fail, this is despite each one verifying each night. I used to hate it.
Back then a disk clone was a blessing as you could easily test it out on another machine without a tape drive needing to be installed, But also easily forgotten to do it routinely due to the manual process involved.
In fact, changing tapes was a chore in itself when busy. No matter how much you link it to last activity in the day so you don't forget, something usually comes up that drags you away from doing it. Should've trained a dog to do it really and a treat pops out from the dispenser as you eject the tape.
So yeah, CCC for a true boot disk clone 100% over time machine. But make sure you have at least a local and external backup to be on the safe side, and at least one you want to be incremental for file rollbacks. Things get trickier when you're archiving out to local disks... as they also should techincally be cloned elsewhere too.
By "incremental for file rollbacks" do you mean a backup system that saves previous versions off all files, allowing you to go back to an older version? If that's what you mean, you're essentially saying even if I choose CCC, I do have to use Time Machine or an equivalent system in addition to CCC. Is that right?
If you boot to MacOS recovery ( -gb/HT203981), there is an automated process which will install MacOS fresh AND use your time machine to re-populate/restore data and settings. Which effectively gives you a similar end result to restore a CCC snapshot. A CCC restore is far quicker and 1:1 copy though.
Backups that are stored in the same physical location as your live data. I.e. if you clone your drive from a computer that sits in an office room, and store that clone in a bedroom you risk data loss if in the event of fire/theft.
That's correct, incremental/time machine style backups means that you can go back each hour for a file for where changes have occured, for example - whereas CCC is a snapshot of the entire system. Cloud backups can be up-to-the-minute as changes occur.
I actually plug an internal drive into my tower, clone direct to that drive, power off and remove it and store it somewhere safe. I do it this way as i only use CCC for direct 1:1 copies whereby i can replace the HDD instantly and boot back up - i've always done it like this so a bit of a historic thing for me to hold a like for like drive, with a clone on it.
For frequent backups (every 1-2 days) i really don't know if CCC would be my choice, but hey, if that's what you prefer then yes every 2 days should be easy. In fact, i'm sure there's some kind of scheduling built in - but i only use it for one-time copies and never fiddled with it beyond that.
Just thinking aloud here - I don't know if that would somehow wear a drive quicker if a complete clone of your system was taken 3-4 times a week. Pretty sure it's writing to a drive that ages it, and reading is a free overhead. Anyone?
i don't use a schedule (for CCC or idrive); i prefer to have all the imac's resources focused on the task at hand (ie logic, FCP, or ozone 9). so i manually back up at the end of a session, and weekly as well.
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