Advice on Carbon Copy Cloner vs. Time Machine

I have been stuck with a crappy all in one router/modem from the cable company for the last year. Yesterday, I bought an Asus RT N56U. It works great and I get great range. I almost went with an Airport Extreme, but went $40 cheaper. Then, while I was there I decided to get a hard drive for backups since I really need to be better about this with all of the pictures we have of our young children. My wife and I also have Macbooks from 2006-2007 era. Mine's 1,1 with an upgraded memory to 2GB and a new 500GB HD. My wife also has a new HD and the same specs. Anyway, I was tired of hooking them up for time machine backups, so, I tried to format my new Toshiba 3TB hard drive with 3 partitions, all MacOS Extended. One Partition for each of us for time machine and one for random other storage. I wanted a box where I could access this stuff from my iphone if I wanted, just because I thought it was cool to use aicloud (asus).
Anyway, I backed up my computer and hers using time machine with a direct connection to each computer. Then, I tried to hook the hard drive up to the router and can't find it. Come to find out the router only supports FAT and NFTS and one or two other formats. It does not support Mac OS.
So, now I've tried to figure out a way around this. Carbon Copy Cloner says that it will support non Mac OS formats for the hard drive, but not for a bootable copy. So, I could theoretically use CCC to copy things to the HD through WiFi if it is formatted non MacOS, just I wouldn't get a bootable copy. Maybe, I could just copy things like pictures and what not and not all the crap that ends up on my computer after 6 years.
Or even could CrashPlan do a local back up through Wifi?
I basically want something similar to the functionality of Time Capsule with or without Time Machine, but kind of like saving a few bucks, getting 3TB, and a pretty solid router.
Seem reasonable to anyone?
Sometimes I think I should have just gotten a time capsul ... Need to double check Best Buy's Return policy.
Thanks!

Sometimes I think I should have just gotten a time capsul ...
So do I.
Time Machine supports two and only two backup devices: a locally connected volume (like your Toshiba HD) and Time Capsule. If you are fond of the pictures you have of your young children, then use a supported backup method.
You can exclude specific volumes or folders from Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Why anyone would buy anything from Best Buy is one of the great mysteries of life. Good luck returning it.

Similar Messages

Can I Use Time Machine With Carbon Copy Cloner?

As of today, I upgraded my iMac (and eventually my Macbook) to Snow Leopard. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to create a clone of my drive to my external (I did a clean install) and now that Snow Leopard is installed, I only want to put back on to my computer just certain files, such as a select selection of my documents, some of my iTunes library, etc. Given that I couldn't find that option in Migration Assistant, I just manually copied over what I wanted from the clone on my external.
Still, I would like to keep a daily backup for my iMac's HD and that's where Time Machine comes in, but there's some questions I have before I do it:
Given that my iMac's HD now has significant free space (as I only brought back, say, 10% of the stuff to my iMac from my external when I cloned on CCC), if I enabled Time Machine to back up my iMac's HD stuff, it wouldn't overwrite the 90% of stuff on my external with the 10% that's on my iMac's HD, would it? For instance, I have about 20,000 songs on my external drive, but maybe have brought back only, say, 5,000 to my iMac (for now). Given that my iMac's iTunes Music folder shows 5,000 songs on it, when TM backs that up to my external drive, it won't overwrite the other iTunes Music folder which has the other 15,000, right? The same thing could be applied for documents, photos, etc. If not, how would TM deal with that? I would hope to avoid the other extreme, which are duplicate files/folders.
I guess I just want to be able to have the ability to get into that cloned drive on my external if I need to add more stuff to the iMac or if I need it one day to boot up the machine. But I also want to be able to have Time Machine at hand to back up daily the little that is on my iMac right now. So I suppose I'm wondering how can I achieve this without the two conflicting or screwing up?
Thanks!

MM1010 wrote:
when TM backs that up to my external drive, it won't overwrite the other iTunes Music folder which has the other 15,000, right?
Correct. Time Machine won't delete anything else on the same volume.
But as Barry says, it will use all the empty space available, before it starts deleting its oldest backups, so there will eventually be a conflict. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum). Also see #1 there, to be sure you have enough space for Time Machine to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups.
A better bet, however, would be to use a separate external HD. If you have the Time Machine backups on the same physical HD, when it fails (and they all do, sooner or later), you risk losing both.

Finder crashes when backing up time machine or carbon copy cloner

I'm trying to create backups of my system, i did have time machine running to a secondary drive internally, but that stopped working at some point and i assumed it was a bad partition.
Everytime i try to create a backup through timemachine it would crash the finder (though it would never create a crash report, just hang) i'd have to hard crash my machine to get it running again.
I verified and repaired any permissions, dumped pref files but still no joy.
I've now bought 2 new drives for clone / backups, thinking the drive is perhaps corrupt.
My plan was to use carbon copy cloner and clone the main hdd as a safety,( incase it was a time machine issue) but its doing the same with CCC-
when i hit clone the finder window pops up asking for my admin password, but beachballs and wont let me type anything. i can select anything with the keyboard (i.e. Jump between programs, or force shutdown running apps) i can shutdown using the file menu but i can close any open windows.
I can copy files manually, but i want a bootable backup of the main hdd (i'm a video editor and reinstalling an entire suite is not good when on a job)
Can anyone suggest a workaround to cloning the main hdd (even if it does have a bug in it, i'd rather have something safe before i do a fresh install)
Cheers

That should read 'CAN'T select anything with the keyboard or finder'

MacPro wont back up to Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner?

I am running 10.6.8 on my 2 x 3 Ghz Intel Mac Pro with 10 Gb of Ram. I have been backing up my two internal drives to an external 2 Tb WD for over a year using time machine and it would lose the drive every once in a while but I could get it back. Now after multiple erasures and reformats I can't get Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner (not at the same time : ) ) to run any faster than 1Gb/13min. Just my big ol' music drive will take 6 days at that speed!
I know there is something wrong for these speeds to be this slow. Does anyone have any suggestions of ways to speed up transfer and get the data flowing freely like it should or even theories about what's going on? I am using USB 2.0 from the drive to the tower. Cheers.

First what interface did you use? USB2? can't and expect any decent backup performance and forget zeroing a drive. FW800? on some WD MyBook, yes.
I would if possible move it into a FW800/400/eSATA drive case from OWC.
Add a PCIe SATA + USB3 CalDigit card and use that.
Move the drive inside an option? some WD MyBook can't, were built around the external drive case.
Your profile is out of date 10.4.11 is way old and didn't include TimeMachine (10.5 Oct 2007)
Lion and ML are better at Disk Utility and managing disk drives.
I use WD Green, very inexpensive, but no MyBook (yet, maybe USB3 NAS some day).
Why keep your data on one drive that has been beaten to death and not try a WD Black or couple other drives - or do you have those just not listed? Clone your system, clone your data, and even a spare TimeMachine... but I would go with two system backup drives. That is safe, and covers anyone's important system and media and digital library needs.

Back up options? Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner? What's Better?

Hey guys,
I'm considering performing a clean install of OS X Mavericks on my macbook pro mid 2010. I've been having a lot of lag issues with opening/switching programs and slow browser performance (Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox). I'm currently using Time Machine to back up my macbook pro, but I recently heard of Carbon Copy Cloner as a back up option from the Apple community forums. What do you guys think is a better option? When I do a clean install of Mavericks, which backup option will give me the safest and quickest file transfer?

TM is a system backup, not an archive or best idealized "all data backup"
Carbon Copy and Super Duper are for making system clones for quick recovery of your internal HD
NIETHER are close to "best" or idealized data-only backups or archives, theyre both system emergency backups / restores.
External NAS or HD data collections are for your expanding data archives and backups.
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.
12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
HD cloning software options:
1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)
3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]
#6. Cloud based storage
Drawbacks:
1. Cloud storage can only be quasi-possessed.
2. No genuine true security and privacy of data.
3. Should never be considered for vital data storage or especially long-term.
4. *Level-0 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. Quick, easy and cheap storage location for simplex files for transfer to keep on hand and yet off the computer.
2. Easy source for small-file data sharing.
#7. Network attached storage (NAS) and JBOD storage
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to RAID failure and mass data corruption.
2. Expensive to set up initially.
3. Can be slower than USB, especially over WiFi.
4. Mechanically identical to USB HD backup in failure potential, higher failure however due to RAID and proprietary NAS enclosure failure.
Advantages:
1. Multiple computer access.
2. Always on and available.
3. Often has extensive media and application server functionality.
4. Massive capacity (also its drawback) with multi-bay NAS, perfect for full system backups on a larger scale.
5. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
JBOD (just a bunch of disks / drives) storage
Identical to NAS in form factor except drives are not networked or in any RAID array, rather best thought of as a single USB feed to multiple independent drives in a single powered large enclosure. Generally meaning a non-RAID architecture.
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to HD failure but not RAID failure and mass data corruption.
Advantages:
1. Simplex multi-drive independent setup for mass data storage.
2. Very inexpensive dual purpose HD storage / access point.
3. *Level-2 security of your vital data.

Time Machine vs. Carbon Copy Cloner & Disk Utility

I have an iMac 320GB whereof 50GB are used (no partitions). I am using Time Machine on a 500GB external HD.
As I want to have at least 2 copies of my entire system, I have also been considering using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for bootable backups.
Or would you rather suggest using Disk Utility and the restore option for copying the system to an external HD? Is it the same copying procedure (bootable backup) like CCC?
Any suggestions?
I own:
iMac 320GB (system)
LaCie 500GB (whole disk used for Time Machine)
LaCie 250GB (empty at the moment)
LaCie 160GB (multimedia storage)
Thank you
Message was edited by: airwalker

CCC would be MUCH easier to use than Disk Utility-it has an incremental feature where it only backs up what's changed between the backups, and it can be scheduled.
You should probably have 2 separate external drives- 1 for TM, and 1 for CCC (the TM one should be at LEAST 2-3 times the storage space used, and the CCC drive should be 320 GB if you want a "block level" -and faster-copy. If you don't want the block level copy, it can be smaller.)
Good luck!

Considering FileVault usage on an iMac with OSX 10.6.7. Wanting to know more about strengths and weaknesses of Filevault with Time Machine, Parallels and Carbon Copy Cloner. Any negatives to consider before flipping the switch?

I'm considering FileVault usage on an iMac with OSX 10.6.7. Wanting to know more about strengths and weaknesses of Filevault with Time Machine, Parallels and Carbon Copy Cloner. Any negatives to consider before flipping the switch? Any information ?
Would specifically like to know:
Filevault impact on performance and application usability.
TIme machine impacts, and whether TIme Machine volume will also be secure?
Will a Cloned copy made with CCC be bootable, or usable?
Any other negatives to consider before turning this thing on?
Thanks,

Filevault impact on performance and application usability.
FileVault encrypts the user's home directory only - it is basically an encrypted disk image that is automatically opened when you log in and closed when you log out. It does cause disk accesses to be a bit slower so it isn't a good idea to use an encrypted account with sound or video or large graphics files. I have no experience with it with Parallels Desktop but suspect that you'd notice a bit of a slowdown. Note: in the User's directory you'll see a Shared Folder. Since FV only encrypts the user's directory you can put data you don't need encrypted in this shared folder which won't be encrypted.
TIme machine impacts, and whether TIme Machine volume will also be secure?
There are issues with TM and FV but how extensive they are with Snow Leopard I can't say, once I realized that TM and FV hadn't substantially changed between 10.5 and 10.6 I stopped dealing with it. When FV and TM were first introduced my testing led me to recommend using CCC or SuperDuper! for backing up.
Will a Cloned copy made with CCC be bootable, or usable?
Yes
Any other negatives to consider before turning this thing on?
Since FV is nothing more than a disk image - and disk images can fail - there are several problems with FV in my opinion. If an encrypted disk image fails it isn't possible to access any of that data. If you don't have a recent (undamaged) backup of the disk image and/or recent backup of the data within the disk image you are in a world of hurt. This isn't just a warning of possibility - this is a real danger that I've seen all too often at the shop where I have worked part time for a number of years.
At this time I strongly recommend that people who have sensitive data keep that sensitive data segregated from their general data and encrypt only the sensitive data or use other methods of locking it down such as saving on an external drive that is kept in a safe. Call me paranoid but I don't even keep all my sensitive data in one encrypted disk image. I use multiple disk images and keep multiple sequential backups. That way I might someday find that my up-to-date investments disk image won't mount but (a) I can go back a week to a backup and (b) that won't impact my up-to-date business records because those are in a different disk image

Can I update an iMac from another iMac using Carbon Copy Cloner?

I change office locations every 6 months and move to a similar iMac setup. At each move, using external hard drives, I update the "older" iMac HD with the current Mail, Addressbook, work files, etc. Currently, I am using Snow Leopard; the machine I am transitioning to is behind, using Leopard.
This time something new is before me, I purchased (honestly) the Snow Leopard upgrade for the iMac that I am transitioning to. So I have an OS upgrade plus a file plus a lot of application additions/upgrades.
The question is, can I use *Carbon Copy Cloner* to make an image of my current iMac and upgrade the 2nd iMac with all my recent applications in one fell swoop? I would

Arthur Levy wrote:
I change office locations every 6 months and move to a similar iMac setup. At each move, using external hard drives, I update the "older" iMac HD with the current Mail, Addressbook, work files, etc. Currently, I am using Snow Leopard; the machine I am transitioning to is behind, using Leopard.
This time something new is before me, I purchased (honestly) the Snow Leopard upgrade for the iMac that I am transitioning to. So I have an OS upgrade plus a file plus a lot of application additions/upgrades.
The question is, can I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make an image of my current iMac and upgrade the 2nd iMac with all my recent applications in one fell swoop?
Yes. Noondaywitch is correct. As long as the version of OSX is no older than the one the newest Mac came with, and the older Mac is compatible (enough RAM, etc), and the drives are formatted properly, you should be able to clone from one Mac to an external HD, then clone that back to the other one.
When you make the clone, boot up from it and run several apps, make sure your internet connection and browser work, etc.
Before cloning back to the other Mac, boot it up from the clone and do the same.
You may have to change a few settings for your internet connection, of course.

How can we disassociate an Apple ID from a set of computers formated from a single computer using Carbon Copy Cloner and a single image and then Migration Assistant to install their old profile? The original ID is the Apple ID for all the stores.

Here is a bit more detail.
We were replacing old teacher machines and wanted to do it as efficiently as possible. Therefore, we set up one computer, through the OS installation and ran all updates, and then made a disk image so that we can use Carbon Copy Cloner to image all the other computers without having to run all the other updates. Once they were set up to a base level and assigned to a teacher we used Migration Assistant to import all their old files and items. Everything has been fine until recently the computers became aware of needing an update for one or two apps. The machine asks for the original computer's Apple ID for all updates. We have logged out of the apple id and back in with another to test if running the updates will work with that Apple ID and even after a refresh it still asks for the other Apple ID. How can we disassociate the Apple ID from those other computers so that the individual who owns the original is not needed each time there is an update or has to give out their Apple ID password?

There are two parts to this:
1) It may be that you should have an Apple Education Support person helping you with this. If you have enough computers for this to be a problem, you may benefit from a Server, a site license, and an occasional visit from an Education Support Specialist.
2) The brief answer, if you want Individual Apple_IDs to control each computer, is to buy new copies of Mac OS X under those new Apple_IDs and re-download and re-Install. Mac OS X is customized to the Apple_ID before it is downloaded.

Can I clone my Time Machine hard drive, to another HD, and store Off Site?

Good day All, I love my new Macbook, but am trying to come up with a foolproof method of backing up all my data, documents, and business.
I have become very nervous about BACKUPS, and want to have an OFF-SITE week old backup done on a external Hard Drive?
I presently have a 200 gig Time Machine backup/archive, and have a daily clone with Super Duper & Carbon Copy Clone. However these hard drives are at home, so should the building burn down, or should we get broken into, there goes my business and digital life.
My thought is to buy an external hard drive and clone my current Time Machine hard drive to the external on a weekly basis, and store it off-site or at a friends house.
Would I be able to do a clone of my TM HD archive, and have it still useable / bootable / recoverable should a tragedy happen?
I would like to upload it all up to Mozy, or BackBlaze, or similar offering, but 200 gig is way too big.
Is anybody cloning a Time Machine hard drive and able to restore from it?
Thanks for reading my post, and am lookin forward to all of your comments, IAN...

Hi Ian,
Sorry I missed the discussion last night. I'll tell you how I'm accomplishing the backup task and you can let me know if this is what you're trying to do.
I now have 2 external HDs. A 1TB Seagate and a 250 GB LaCie. The LaCie used to be my TM backup drive, but it was the same size as my internal iMac drive. I knew I'd eventually need a bigger drive so I bought the 1TB Seagate yesterday and cloned the LaCie drive onto it using SuperDuper. The only thing on the LaCie drive was TM backups. Now the TM backup are on the Seagate. I unmounted the old TM drive and changed the name of the new drive to "Time Machine". I activated TM and it picked right up where it left off. I did test it by restoring an old file. I also changed a current file and made sure TM was still operating as advertised. Everything worked as expected.
Now I simply used the 250 GB drive to clone my system HD using CCC. It is a bootable backup and can be used to run the system should my internal drive become unusable. I will update this drive once a month with any changes to the system drive using CCC and keep it off-site in a safe deposit box in the meantime. Using this methodology, I don't see why you'd want to swap the drives weekly/monthly. Just let TM run on the large drive and keep the other drive as current as you like. I've decided monthly is good for me. I'm mostly worried about photos, but I keep them on the camera longer than a month, so there's my cover for the month.
Nano

I have an iMac 2013 running OSX 10.9.4. I want to use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup user files to an external hard drive. Then I want to remove iPhoto libraries from iMac. What will happen to the iPhoto libraries that I back up when I run backup in a

I have an iMac 2013 running OSX 10.9.4. I want to use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup user files to an external hard drive to free up space on my iMack Hard drive.
So, say I make the backup today, delete iphoto libraries from my iMac, and then backup my iMac in a week. What happens to the iphoto libraries that are on the external backup drive now that I am backing up the iMac where they no longer exist?
I will have them backed up to a separate second external drive as well.
I'm just very cautious about removing them from the hard drive.
Thanks for helping and understanding my crazy caution!

I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

HELP! Has Carbon Copy Cloner Killed This G5?

I've got myself into a right old pickle, and wondered if any of the Mac faithful would be able to share any bright ideas on how to proceed.
Essentially, here's how I spent my Bank Holiday;
Mission - To completely clone the 150GB System and 230GB 'Projects&Sounds' internal drives on a Dual 2GHz G5 - both drives over 99% full. OS=10.3.5
Began by downloading SuperDuper only to find Sys Reqs not met. (10.3.9 required).
Used Carbon Copy Cloner to duplicate 230GB Internal to 240GB partition of 400GB Ext FW800 drive - all good.
Used CCC to move 56GB of files from 150GB Ext FW400 drive to 130GB partition of 400GB Ext FW800 drive - all good.
Used CCC to clone internal 150GB System drive to 150GB Ext FW 400 drive. 'Bootable clone' selected.
At end of cloning process, with roughly 1GB left to go, CCC hung up.
Force quit CCC yielded no result.
After 2 hours, whole system was frozen, including menu-bar clock & dock. Hard restart from power button.
Stalled at grey screen - Apple & spinning cursor
Disk utility verified all clones OK - backups intact. Initial side by side check reveals all files seem to be present.
Mission now to get G5 going again.
Hooked up 1st G5 by firewire Target Disk Mode to 2nd G5.
Ran Disk Utility on 1st G5's System drive from 2nd G5. Error reported; "The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)" Also reported "Keys out of place" Failed to verify/repair.
Installed Disk Warrior 3.02 on 2nd G5 & ran on 1st G5's System drive. Reported major differences between original and rebuilt directory in preview, chiefly in HD Library (App Support) & System Folder.
Made note of differences and rebuilt directory of 1st G5's System drive with Disk Warrior.
Rechecked with Disk Utility, 1st G5's System drive appeared fine this time.
Attempted to boot - stalled at grey screen - Apple & spinning cursor
Booted 1st G5 into Single User mode; fans screaming; reported
"Can't open Library: / System / Library / Frameworks / CoreFoundation.Framework / Versions / A / CoreFoundation (No such file or directory, Errno = 2)"
Ran fsck, all good.
Exited Single User mode, Finder failed to launch.
Relaunched Target Disk Mode, copied missing file from clone back to original.
Attempted to boot - stalled at grey screen - Apple & spinning cursor
Booted into Single User mode; reported huge screen of gobbledygook (see pic!)
Attempted to reinstall System 10.3.4 (Archive & Install) from Install disk - got first kernel panic
Would not boot from install disks
Ran Apple Hardware test - test would not run
Error - "Invalid Memory Access at %SRR0: 00000000.00000000 %SRR1: 10000000.00083030"
Apple PowerMac7,3.5.1.8f2
BootROM built on 05/21/04 @ 10:56:59"
Reinstalled system 10.3.4 over firewire Target Disk Mode from 2nd G5 using Install disks.
Attempted to boot - Kernel panic.
Ran Apple Hardware test again - test still would not run.
Error - "Invalid Memory Access at %SRR0: 00000000.00000000 %SRR1: 10000000.00083030"
Apple PowerMac7,3.5.1.8f2
BootROM built on 05/21/04 @ 10:56:59"
Unplugged all FW & USB peripherals
Removed all but 2 of RAM chips (8 x 1GB DIMMS installed in machine altogether)
Attempted to boot - Kernel panic.
Swapped RAM around in pairs
Attempted to boot - Kernel panic.
Ran Apple Hardware test again - test still would not run.
Error - "Invalid Memory Access at %SRR0: 00000000.00000000 %SRR1: 10000000.00083030"
Ran out of ideas, patience and hair to pull out. Went home to sob on the wife's shoulder and hug the cat.
Now what?
I have to get this computer working again fast!
cheers, and sorry for the long post
Dave
G5 2GHz Mac OS X (10.3.5)
G5 2GHz

Just an update on the situation;
First of all, many thanks you guys for all the replies and helpful suggestions - I was a few millimetres from the end of my tether when I first posted.
After I ran DiskWarrior on the System Drive, it appeared to be OK according to both DU and fsck, so I was able to do another backup copy of all the important stuff. I'd already used Target Disk Mode to create some space on it, prior to my Archive and Install of 10.3.4 over firewire. This still had no effect, however.
As luck would have it, yesterday morning a mate of ours who is an audio systems tech was in the building on another job, so he popped by to have a look. When I opened it up, it was like it had been found in the middle of an ancient pyramid, brown sandy dust all over the fans and the heatsink. We performed a PMU reset, swapped the ram around again, unplugged the HDs and attempted to boot from CD - still no joy. Quite a lot of swearing though.....
My techy mate confirmed my worst fears that it is most likely a blown processor or logic board. We're going to swap in another system drive today just to make sure, but it doesn't look good. Fortunately, he was able to loan my colleague another machine to use whilst the G5 goes away to sickbay for diagnosis and a no-doubt costly repair, but we still had to reinstall and reauthorize the mountain of plugins (over 250!), then copy over more than 100Gb of project and audio files from the backups, which took until 10pm last night to accomplish. We'll have to do the same thing again if and when the original machine comes back from repair.
I'm devastated, this is exactly the disaster I was trying to avoid in the first place. I didn't know you could clone from DU (thanks Tom) - if I did, I probably wouldn't be in this mess..... you live and learn, eh?
This morning though, everything seems to be running fine, the temporary G5 is performing well. Three days behind schedule, looking at a possible £1500 repair bill, but at least we can get some real work done now!
Thanks again to everyone
Dave
G5 2GHz

Carbon Copy Cloner from Older OS to Newer OS

If I use Carbon Copy Cloner and clone my HDD for my Mac Book Pro which is currently running Snow Leopard, and copy it onto a computer with Mavericks, is there anything I have to do special?
Will it replace Mavericks with Snow Leopard?
Or will it just put all my files and programs and such on Mavericks?
Seems like a dumb question, but I am operating under the assumption that the newer OS X's may psossibly have some slightly different system folder structures and having a carbon copy of and older OS may cause there to be doubles of folders that couldnt be replaced because they are in different loctations or have different names.

You could buy an external HD and make a time machine backup... in the setup of mavericks (with the new HD in your MacBook) you have the option to import user data from time machine or an old mac...
An other option is to copy the HD of your MacBook to an external HD (with CCC) but you have to import your old data per drag and drop from the external Copy. This option is more difficult and requires much time, but you have a "clean" new system without any old stuff from previous systems...

Reinstalling and Carbon Copy Cloner

I mistakenly posted my question to an 'answered' thread, so will re-post it here. Apologies for the duplication!
Hello Good people on this Mac Forum.
I need your help. Here's the situation:
I'm running OS 10.3.9 on my powerbook G4, which I divided into 5 partitions when I first set it up, a couple of years ago now.
The trouble is that as I grow and my computer grows with me, the partition where I store my hard drive files just isn't big enough to keep up (I have less than 1GB free on this drive and obviously keep getting 'full' messages).
I've already moved most of my applications out onto another partition (months ago now), which has caused various small problems (e.g. I can't open PhotoShop or Dreamweaver files without opening the application first), but the hard drive keeps exanding as I receive emails and blah blah and now it's to the point where I don't even have room on my hard drive partition to receive a podcast, or download a new album to iTunes.
I have plenty of room on other partitions, so my thought is to get rid of the partitions altogether and open my computer up into one large hard drive disc again.
The folks at AppleCare have told me I need to boot from my Software Install and Restore disc and erase the whole disc; then go through the re-installation process.
The problem is that installing from my 'Software Install and Restore' disc will take me back to where I was when I bought the computer (Jaguar), while I am currently running Panther with the benefit of all those years of software updates, etc. I would like to save myself the time and trouble of redoing all this work if at all possible.
I've backed up all my current files on an external drive, using Carbon Copy Cloner (which is partitioned to exactly mirror my computer). What I'd like to do is just get a clean slate on my computer and transfer everything from the external hard drive over onto it. In other words I want to have one drive on my computer, and keep everything exactly as I have it now (sans the partitions).
Has anyone done this before? The AppleCare folks can't help me with the transfer because they are officially unable to advise on anything involving third party software (in this case CCC). They suggested I come here with my question, where people are not constrained by the same rules.
I had originally imagined I could just go through the installation process with my 'install and restore' disc, and then drag and drop (or clone) my backed up files over the new install, replacing them, but they said there might be problems with that. Has anyone had experience with this?
Another solution might be to erase my computer's hard disc, and then boot up from my external drive and clone the backed up files directly onto the empty disc. Would that work? I'm not sure how to boot up from my external drive, or make sure that those files are bootable, however.
Unfortunately I can't find my Panther OS install disc (it's somewhere in a box in the basement that I haven't unpacked since moving), which I'm sure would make the whole thing easier.
Any thoughts or advice for would be very much appreciated.
Amy

Hi Grant,
Thanks for replying!
I've done it several times. The only thing that I'm
not sure of is how you go from several partitions
back to one
This is what I need to do, yes. Are you saying you haven't actually done it? (I too have gone from one to several partitions, and also from several back to one -once- but I didn't need to replace files from an external back up that time.)
(your backup must be to several different
partitions, right?)
Yes, my back up is an exact mirror of my current set up, with the same partitions.
Before you do this, make sure that your backup on the
xternal drive:
1. Is on a firewire, not USB drive
Right - it is.
2. You marked "make bootable" on CCC
I did that, yes.
3. Make sure it actually boots
How would I check that? I don't know how to start up from the external hard drive.
All that said, there are advantages to doing a clean
install.
I'm not sure what you mean by this - do you mean just install through my 'install and Restore' CD?
Its not a bad idea, so long as you can back
up and restore just your files. Most of the updates
will happen automatically (except apps and 10.3.x),
But these are the updates I'm concerned about. There are a LOT of them - I am a web designer and regularly use a LOT of applications. I don't want to reload every one of these, and go through all the updates again. I have deadlines to meet and need to spend the shortest possible time on all this and be safe and smart about it.
and you know that its clean and uncorrupted.
Nothing is corupted now, that I know of. That isn't really the problem.
But you
can always do that later, after the clone, if you
have a problem with it.
I'm not sure what you're referring to here, but I do appreciate the support, especially since it sounds like you use CCC. Can you tell me know to check to see if my backed up systems partition (on the external hard drive) is bootable? Thanks so much.
Amy

Rebooting from USB / Carbon Copy Cloner?? Is it possible? Or Firewire only?

Hello
I'm just choosing a new backup drive for my MacBook Pro.
I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner to back up.
Is it possible to book from a USB 2.0 drive?
Thanks

Having a CCC image and running TimeMachine is an excellent option. With a clone, you'll always be able to get up and running in just the amount of time it takes to reboot should you have a catastrophic failure of your internal drive. You cannot boot from a TimeMachine backup. Of course your TimeMachine backup will always have the most current versions of anything you might be working on that might not have been included in your last CCC image. This way you'll be able to get up and running fast and you'll have access to all of your most current data. You will need separate partitions if you want to run both on the same machine as TimeMachine will grow to fill all available space in the partition on which it is running, so you will need to give it its own partition.

Advice on Carbon Copy Cloner vs. Time Machine

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