How can I make sure my computer wont be interrupted while backing up?

Question

I've been wanting to upgrade to Mavericks for a while (but I haven't had a backup in case something went wrong) so this is a real treat
I finally got mybookworld to work with time machine! It's late and I want to let it sit overnight while plugged in so it can finish the backup.
If the computer goes to sleep or the screen goes dim, will it be interrupted? Any other precautions I should take? I once left mine to sit a few months ago but it was constantly interrupted by family :/

Answer 1

Mike Bombich at Carbon Copy Cloner answered this question this way:
Can I run a backup while I'm using my computer? If I have open files, will they be backed up?
Yes and no, it really depends. Performance will be affected during the clone (especially the first one) as CCC reads the entire source volume and writes to the destination volume. If your work is "disk bound" -- that is your applications are reading or writing to either the source or destination, then you'll notice a performance hit. If you're just reading email or writing a Pages document, then you probably won't notice the performance hit.
Affecting the accuracy of the backup task is something else that should be considered. Typically it's OK to work from the source volume while you're copying it, with the understanding that if CCC copied a file, then you open it, make changes, save it, then CCC completes the backup task, the modified version of your document is not backed up (this time around). Typically that's no big deal, the modifications will get backed up the next time the backup task runs. More importantly, though, if you're working with large files (mounted disk image, Entourage email database, VMWare/Parallels container) during the backup operation, it is possible that those large files could be modified while CCC is backing up that file. This won't affect the source file, but there's a good chance that the backup version of that file will be corrupt. For this reason it is a good idea to stop using applications that may be modifying large files.
http://help.bombich.com/kb/troubleshooting/can-i-run-a-backup-while-im-using-my- computer-if-i-have-open-files-will-they-be-backed-up
Looks like the main consideration in the "average case" is a hit to performance only. Very large files (see the link above for a definition) are another matter.