Carbon Copy Cloner issue

In preparation to upgrade my 27" iMac running Mt. Lion with FCP 7 to Mavericks, I'm going to run a test of the OS on external drive. First off, I'm going to clone my current OS to the external drive after which I would upgrade to Mavericks. Using Carbon Copy Cloner, I clicked on their Disk Center option to create Recovery Partition on this external drive.
This morning, I read this section under notes "Cloning Apple's Recovery Partition":
"Why were other volumes on my disk unmounted when I created a Recovery HD?:
CCC uses a command-line version of Disk Utility to resize the donor volume. Resizing that volume requires making changes to the partition table on the disk, and Disk Utility may choose to unmount other volumes on the disk while it makes those changes."
Does mean CCC actually changed the size of my internal HD? If so, is this damaging?
Above that, it states:
"When CCC creates a new Recovery HD, it borrows space from your destination volume to create a new, hidden volume on that disk." This is I can understand but I am concerned that my HD has in some way been tampered with unless I am misunderstanding this.
Has anyone else used Carbon Copy Cloner or experienced this? Do I need to be concerned? Everything seems to be running OK. CCC does not have telephone support.
Thanks,
Phil

I've been using CCC with both ML and Mavericks and, if there is no recovery partition on the drive you are cloning to, it needs to create one (unless you'd rather not have one). And it needs to create enough space for the hidden partition to create it. No problem with that. It unmounts partitions and they will come back just as they were - I've not had a problem with that either.
CCC does not have phone support, but they have very good online support - Mike Bombich will reply if you post a question.

Similar Messages

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'

Upgrading harddrive and using Carbon Copy Cloner

Hi I'm planning to replace my internal harddrive on my old MacBook Pro (August 2007) running Leopard with the following harddrive:
Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420ASG - Hard drive - 500 GB - internal - 2.5" - SATA-300 - 7200 rpm - buffer: 16 MB
Is it fully compatible? Also, this ST9500420AS "G" model is said to have its own G-Force sensor. How does it all work out with MacBook Pro's sudden motion sensor?
Finally, if I use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my old harddrive onto my new harddrive, how can I solve the problem of the "etc", "tmp" and "var" recurring folder problem without the use of the Mac OS X Installation Disc (since I've lost it)?
Thanks very much.
P.S.: Anything else special that I need to take note of when using Carbon Copy Cloner?

The Random Sniper wrote:
Thanks very much. So it is recommended that I should rather for the ST9500420AS non-"G" model for my MacBook Pro to avoid conflict with the existing Sudden Motion Sensor?
If you want to stay with a Seagate, yes.
However, I've also heard that Apple has released a firmware in the past to deal with the G-Force sensor / SMS conflict issue for the MacBook Pro (while nVidia didn't)? Is that true?
Which firmware update are you referring to?
On the other hand, would Western Digital Scorpio Blue's WD5000BEVT be a good alternative? I have heard that although it is only 5400rpm, it's performance is as good as 7200rpm harddrives.
Take a look at a site which has reviews, such as newegg, tomshardware, xlr8yourmac.com. In my mind, Seagates seem to have gone downhill and quite a few people have posted here with compatibility issues.The WD 640GB also seems to have more than its fair share of problems, although I don't believe the 500 shares those issues. After reviewing tests at tomshardware, I chose a 7200 Hitachi 500GB, which was at or near the top in nearly all categories, and has very good user reviews at newegg. I've yet to choose a 2.5" SATA external enclosure (with the number of enclosures around the house, it's hard to believe I don't have one yet, but I guess not), so have not run it yet.

Mountain Lion is missing, after installing an external hard drive and Carbon Copy Clone.

I have a mid-2007 desktop iMac Model MA877LL, 2.4 ghz/1gb/320gb, with 4 GB memory, upgraded to Mountain Lion 9/7/2012 at an Apple store (now 10.8.5). I just installed a new external hard drive Fantom Drive 1T G-Force Mega Disk Firewire 800, then installed Carbon Copy Clone successfully. However, I could not get the clone to boot from the backup volume. Mountain Lion showed in both Macintosh HD and External Hard Drive at that point. After working through many steps with CCC, trying to get it to boot, the final suggestion was to try installing Mountain Lion onto the backup disk via the Mac App Store Installer. As my Mountain Lion was installed at an Apple store, there's no record of it on line and I can't find an installer, although I've been doing updates as they're issued. Per article, "OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume", I erased and reformatted the storage device. Now, checking my Macintosh HD, Mountain Lion is gone. How do I get it back?

Woodswalker wrote:
...Per article, "OS X: Installing OS X on an external volume", I erased and reformatted the storage device. Now, checking my Macintosh HD, Mountain Lion is gone. How do I get it back?
Are you saying that your internal HD doesn't have an operating system on it either, meaning you can't boot your iMac at all? Or that the external was also named "Macintosh HD" in which case, having been erased and reformatted (hopefully with a GUID partition table), you'll need to clone your internal to it once again.

Booting Carbon Copy clone on Retina Macbook

First time posting on the forums, I hope one of you guys can help me out :-).
I bought a Retina Macbook a couple of days ago, and rather than migrating with Setup/Migration Assistant from my old MBP (2.26GHz, running 10.7.4), I wanted to start fresh & manually migrate the stuff I want to keep for the new machine. My intention is to wipe the old MBP with a fresh Lion install for my wife. As a precaution (in case I forget something crucial) I made a Carbon Copy clone of the old HD, saved onto a 2TB Seagate Backup Plus external drive. The Seagate is USB3, with optional adapters for Firewire and Thunderbolt.
I formatted the drive & setup 2 partitions, both MAC OS Extended (Journaled), GUID partition, one for the clone, the second for general storage, and the clone process went smoothly. I checked that I was able to boot from the clone on the old MBP, with no problems. However, when I attempt to boot the clone on the Retina MBP, I get the grey screen & no entry sign. Same if I try through system prefs, startup disk.
Does anyone have any ideas why the clone will boot onto the old MBP, but not the Retina?
Your help is appreciated in advance.

Nope, I have just gone through all of this and I now got a brand new, pre loaded MBP retina and 3 geniuses all said that b/c the firmware is different that we can't boot from a cloned drive from a different computer.
This is weird, as I have cloned across iMac to Macbook and didn't get an issue.
I did the 10.8.1 update and still no joy so unless there is something we need to change in the boot files on our clone we are stuck with a drive that mounts yet doesn't boot.
If it were simply a software issue then the drive wouldn't mount or we couldn't access all of our files on the clone right?

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.

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 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.

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.

On a Mac mini OS X server 10.8.5 TimeMchine cannot copy 2.5 TB to a 6 TB Thunderbolt disk, runs out of space, Carbon Copy Cloner works perfectly

On a Mac mini OS X server 10.8.5 TimeMachine cannot copy 2.5 TB (from a Lacie 2big Thunderbolt data disk) to another 6 TB Thunderbolt disk, runs out of space, Carbon Copy Cloner works perfectly: claiming just 2.5 TB after the copy. Thunderbolt disk is
LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Series 6 TB

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes) in the String Matching text field. You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard." Note the timestamp of the last such message that corresponds to an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showning, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.
If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
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Mac Pro Boot slow after Leopard Update and Carbon Copy Cloner

I just purchased a 1TB Internal hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm - and used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my original hard drive (which is running Tiger). Everything seems to be normal, except the the long boot up process. The desktop appears, the dock appears, and then there is a long pause of 20 to 30 seconds before the drives mount and and the desktop folders appear. I have 10 gigs of RAM, I have rebuilt the Directory with Disk Warrior 4.1, and also repaired the disk permissions (although some of them state that they can't be repaired). When I reboot from my original 250 Gig hard drive, the boot is lightning fast. Any thoughts? I have many third party software programs installed and am trying to avoid a fresh Leopard Install. Thanks, this is my first post!

this may happen on the first boot on a cloned drive because the system has to rebuild various caches that are not cloned. it should be back to normal boot speed after that.

What exactly is a Carbon Copy Cloner and does it work on iMac Intel?

A friend of mine recommended to me that carbon copy cloner is the best way to back up data including applications and that it is a freeware downloadable via their website. Can anyone explain to me (using layman's language) what exactly it is and give me a step by step procedure on what I have to do to make it work? Also, does it work on iMac Intel and if so, would I have to set anything differently??
FYI, I do have a La Cie firewire drive.

Did you check out their website? It really has a lot of info, but here it is in a nutshell.
CCC is a cloning software tool. It will make an exact - and bootable - copy of every last bit and byte on your internal drive. You can then use that FireWire drive to boot up your Mac, or restore the data from it in case of an emergency, drive replacement or failure.
It is not universal yet, but it does run through Rosetta.
Download the program and there is a PDF file with all the step by step instructions, but it is really easy to use.
BTW, LaCie has a program that is very similar called SilverKeeper.

Firefox crashes after Carbon Copy Cloner

I powered on the computer, and did not open anything other than Carbon Copy Cloner. I then copied one entire hard drive to another. Everything works, such as Thunderbird and Opera Next, except for Firefox! As it's my primary browser I have spent an hour or two trying to work out a few things. This was the second Carbon Copy Clone I did and it didn't state any errors during the copy process. Firefox was working flawlessly on the other hard drive.
If I open Firefox it goes straight to crash reporter - no Firefox window. If I try and open profile manager the same happens, and if I try and open in safe mode the same happens. I have tried repairing disk permissions. There is no sign of Firefox being open in Activity Monitor

please see this article and follow steps to send us the report of your crash
[[Firefox crashes - Troubleshoot, prevent and get help fixing crashes]]

Carbon Copy Cloner issue

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