[Macworld]

Post your comments for Bullet-proof backups: When you absolutely can't lose any data here

[pcharles]

I was using Super Duper but switched to Carbon Copy Cloner because Super Duper was not creating the recovery partition I needed to recover lion and Mountain Lion. I'm not sure if this is fixed now they are ML compatible.

I can highly recommend Backblaze for a cloud backup. It is incredibly easy to set up, fast, and well priced. You do not get some of the mobile gizmos that companies such as carbonite or mozy offer, but it is a lot less expensive. I used mozy for a long time until they priced themselves out of my marked.

[pcharles]

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I used mozy for a long time until they priced themselves out of my marked.

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Oops, auto correct! should be market

[John__B]

I use SuperDuper! to clone the drives on my Macs to two bootable external FireWire drives that I rotate offsite so that there is always at least one drive offsite at all times.

I do take the time to test the external drives to validate they are bootable. Depending on how the drive was formatted, a store-bought drive may not be *bootable* even though it has been cloned. I go so far as to eject the internal drive's volume (i.e. "Macintosh HD") to validate that I've actually booted from the external volume.

This way, if my Mac mini or MBP crashed/burned/went missing I could be up and running from a cloned drive immediately after buying new hardware.

FWIW, I have just started running separate Time Machine backups to a separate volume, but I'm using that more for file version recovery than what I'd think of as a true backup strategy. I did test a full restore from a TM backup, but it was *painfully* slow compared to being able to instantly boot from a cloned drive.

Re: SuperDuper! vs. CCC: I don't mind that the CCC developers moved to a paid product model -- both products are excellent and either developer deserves our financial support -- but SuperDuper! is *far* easier to setup for straight drive cloning than the latest versions of CCC.

[talmy]

Joe Kissel's last point about the restoration plan is probably the most important thing of all. I've discovered systems in use for years that were presumably being backed up by IT departments (at two different companies) and were not! I've also had a couple of different tape backup systems that turned out to be non-restorable. All the work you put into backups and the peace of mind you may have all go away in a flash when you can't do a needed restore!

That said, for my personal use I've got SuperDuper! clones off-site, TimeMachine, and CrashPlan, so I feel well covered. And I've verified restores from all three.

[RhymingDesigner]

"Be sure to update your duplicate at least once a week."

That's fine if you're prepared to lose six days worth of data. I've configured my MacPro to wake up every morning at 6:00, and SuperDuper to run starting at 6:05. By the time I'm ready to begin work, my backup is current. I also have a separate internal hard drive for Time Machine and an offsite drive updated regularly with SuperDuper.

[Mr_EMan]

I'm a SuperDuper! user as well, having backups made on a schedule. I also use FolderSynchronizer to back up specific folders (Music, Pictures) on (old) Macs on my Ethernet network automatically. These are in the basement keeping the spiders warm.

One issue with these automated backup is if you make a mistake on your main unit, the mistake will eventually propagate throughout your backup locations. Just a reminder.

What I find by having multiple backup locations at different schedule is a sort of Time Machine setup, but for a limited number of days in the past.

[Spiritman]

You cannot eject an internal drive, say on an iMac, if you are booted from an external. Indeed that is the way one determines which drive you are booted from, the external you are booted from becomes unejectionable! So I don't think you go that far.

[fotojim123]

I have used SuperDuper for years. Excellent company support if ever needed. At one time I had 7 macs in our shop. All where backed up with SuperDuper. Any HD failure was replaced and cloned from BU and up and running with no issues.

[John__B]

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You cannot eject an internal drive, say on an iMac, if you are booted from an external. Indeed that is the way one determines which drive you are booted from, the external you are booted from becomes unejectionable! So I don't think you go that far.

True, you don't *physically* eject the internal drive on an iMac or a mini.

But you can *unmount* the internal drive, assuming you booted from an external drive, by Control-clicking (or right-mouse-clicking) the internal drive on the desktop and choosing *Eject "Macintosh HD"* (or hitting the Eject icon next to that drive in the Finder sidebar).

This post has been edited by John__B: 07 November 2012 - 07:53 PM

[justjim]

I have a 500GB Macbook Pro - so got two 1TB external drives (USB & Firewire; from Other World Computing - which is GREAT!). Partitioned the two 1TB drives into 4 logical 500GB drives.

Use Mike's CarbonCopyCloner (CCC - a stellar-good utility!). Have it set to cycle through those 4 logical drives, one per night - making a complete, bootable copy of the internal drive. Also have CCC archive any files it replaces on that night's backup drive.

This way, I have complete backups of EACH of the last four nights' internal-drive contents, PLUS many months of replaced files in the archives. And even if BOTH the internal drive AND one of the external drives (both partitions) goes kabloieee, I still have the OTHER disk with its two partitions - with nothing being more'n 4 days old.

When a drive gets short of space, I go thru the archives and do manual deletes - or move archives to some other external disk. However, I also have CCC set to automatically delete the oldest archives if it needs more space than is available.)

And, if I leave the house, one of the drives leaves in my pocket!

[Bigmac37]

Does anyone know of a web based backup that will backup your applications and system software along with your regular files and folders? Can you believe how much time it would take to restore your applications?

I use SuperDuper to back up 11 volumes very day and it is compatible with ML.

Thanks

[AFK]

I'm still a snow leopard user. Two external SuperDuper clones alternated weekly plus Time machine. However, I'm worried about the day that I will have to convert to Snow Lion or later since I have many old applications and important data that still need Rosetta.

One a month I make an old PowerBook a clone using Super Duper. Thus, when I finally have to make the leap to SL, my old legacy applications and data will still be available to me.

[jbranton]

One of the most clear and concise articles on backup I have ever read. Thanks especially for the testing scenario. If you don't regularly test, then you are truly relying on luck.