Restore iMac to Carbon Copy Cloner backup

I'm going to restore my iMac HD to a CCC backup and need help. Do I boot into the Recovery HD (Command+R) and restore from Disk Utility? Thanks!

Do I boot into the Recovery HD (Command+R) and restore from Disk Utility?
No, not if you want to perform a complete restoration of the iMac's internal HD from the clone.
The best way is to use Startup Manager to boot your iMac from the clone. That way it will be obvious which is the "source" and which is the "target".
To restore the iMac's internal HD, you will be erasing it first - which means, at least for that period of time, you will have only one copy of what was backed up, so act accordingly. Your subsequent action will be identical to that of creating the clone.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • External Hard Drive Unreadable After Carbon Copy Cloner Backup

    I am using a Maxtor OneTouch III Media external drive. I had formatted it to be read/writeable from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and had been reading and writing files fine. Then I did a system backup to the external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. Now when I plug the drive into the USB port, it says "the disk you inserted is not readable by this computer." I am guessing that Carbon Copy Cloner may have messed with the file system format. I had some pretty important files on there and would like to retrieve them, so I'd prefer not to reformat.
    Disk Utility shows this information for the drive:
    Name : Maxtor OneTouch III Media
    Type : Disk
    Disk Identifier : disk1
    Media Name : Maxtor OneTouch III Media
    Media Type : Generic
    Connection Bus : USB
    Connection Type : External
    USB Serial Number : RA09E5XC
    Writable : Yes
    Ejectable : Yes
    Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
    Location : External
    Total Capacity : 149.1 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
    S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
    Disk Number : 1
    Partition Number : 0
    Also, Partition Scheme : Unformatted
    I know that the drive had a name (besides the generic "Maxtor OneTouch III Media) before I did anything with Carbon Copy Cloner. Is my data already gone?
    Message was edited by: theleez

    Hi , and a warm welcome to the forums!
    I think the problem is more the One-touch, they can't boot PPC Macs even via Firewire.
    I think you'll have to Reformat it again... did you maybe use GUID Partition Scheme the first time?
    See this, except for the GUID part...
    http://carlbach.blogspot.com/2008/02/maxtor-one-touch-iii-and-formatting-on.html

  • Which Carbon Copy Cloner backup is the best?

    I want to restore my iMac to a CCC backup. Which is the best type of backup to use? Should I use a regular "backup everything" or should I create a "disk image"?
    Any help. Thanks!

    Do I have to create a partition on it for CCC or is that just a reccomendation?
    You only need as much space for CCC (or SuperDuper) that your boot deivce is using, although if you want to keep updating the clone, then the space you reserve for CCC should be as much as the size of the boot device.
    If your external 1TB is much large than your boot drive, then you can partition it so that one partition is sized for your boot device, and the rest you can use form something else (although unless that something else is backed up somewhere else, that something else is at risk ).
    Have you ever restored an HD from a CCC backup? What is the process? Thanks!
    The CCC (or SuperDuper) clone is a bootable device that is an exact copy of your boot drive at the time you ran CCC.
    So you boot from the clone (boot holding the Option key, then select the clone to boot from, or use System Preferences -> Startup Disk to select the disk to boot from.
    Once your booted from your clone, you just run CCC (or SuperDuper) selecting the Clone as the source, and your internal disk as the destination.  Basically just use CCC as your would normally, except reverse the source and destination.
    I have not used CCC to restore, but I've used SuperDuper lots of times, to either recover from an old PowerPC Mac that kept corrupting my boot drive, or to replace my boot drive and use SuperDuper to copy my system to the new replacement drive, or if I wanted to repartition my boot drive, I clone it, then repartition, then restore to the new boot partition.
    NOTE:  Your external drive MUST be a GUID partition table.  Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> Partition -> Options

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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?

  • Carbon Copy Cloner:  do you have to wipe the target drive

    From reading the instructions that come with the download of CCC, it seems that when you clone your Applications drive to another drive (as backup), you are essentially reformatting that 2nd drive to be a copy of the first, right?
    So when you use CCC, you must have a drive dedicated to becoming the clone? You would lose all data on the target drive? Correct?
    If so, it seems to make sense to get a modest hard drive just to hold a clone of the cleanly reinstalled system.
    I still am not clear on how to create a bootable clone on a drive, and how to restore that clone. Do you have to reinstall the operating system (and the various application files that also are installed at that time) and then somehow transfer the clone back to the original drive. Or somehow does the clone make it unnecessary to reinstall the operating system before moving the cloned copy of the os back to the Apps drive.
    Whew, that's a tangled up understanding so if anyone can unravel this mess itd be great.
    Also, is CCC better than making disk images with Disk Utility?

    Jon:
    Some of what I say will be repeating some of what has already been posted by way of giving a comprehensive response.
    The two most popular and powerful utilities for backup/cloning are SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner. Both have their supporters. Both are effective and relatively easy to use. The latest version of CCC is more powerful, but, I think, SD is easier to use. One of these is the first element in making a clone.
    SuperDuper will erase the Destination drive before cloning. CCC gives you an option. You really want it erased, unless you are doing cumulative (SmartUpdates in SD) updates, or you will end up with a jumble of stuff. Both will do cumulative updates. CCC allows you to drill down to a single folder. SD allows you to clone the entire HDD, or just the Users Folder. Both make bootable clones, diskimages, compressed read only disk images.
    You need an external firewire Hard Disk Drive. Get the largest you can afford and partition it. Since PPC Macs will not boot from USB devices, firewire is important. There are a lot of HDDs out there, some are sexy looking, some have one touch backup etc. The most important feature in a firewire HDD is that it should have the more reliable Oxford 911+ chipset. This is the part that interfaces the Hard Disk Drive with the computer. When it goes, and it does go on many of these drives after the warranty has run out, the drive itself may still be functional but the computer can't see it. Here is a list of HDDs from OWC that have the Oxford 911+ chipset.
    You need to format the new HDD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and, if it is larger than you need for backup, partition it. Dr. Smoke's FAQ Backup and Recovery has excellent tips on backing up, and has a suggested scheme for partitioning your new external FW HDD. If you need step-by-step directions for partitioning and formatting, please post back and ask.
    Finally, once you have chosen your partition scheme, adjusting or deleting partitions would destroy all data on the drive except you use third party software.
    Cloning is an excellent way of backing up as it not only gives you a backup of your data and total installation, but it gives you an emergency boot drive as well as a drive from which you can boot to run diagnostics and repairs on your internal HDD.
    Please do post back with further questions or comments.
    Cheers
    cornelius

  • 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.

  • Carbon Copy Cloner, Disk Utility, etc..

    I just read a post here about cloning the hard drive in a mini to an external, using CarbonCopyCloner. I was curious so I went to version tracker and downloaded. While it was downloading I read some of the reviews for it. Some people posting on Versiontracker seemed to have problems with it. Such as losing all their date. Another user suggested that using Disk Utility would be a better option.
    My question is, could I create a partition on my external 160gig drive and then use disk utility to clone my mini hard drive to it? Would I then be able to boot off of that partition? If all that's possible then how would I go about doing that with disk utility? And how would I make sure that both the mini and the copy are both updated with the same data?

    Hi Jerry,
    Yes, you can make an identical copy with Carbon Copy Cloner (hence the name ).
    You can use dik utility to partition the external drive, then use CCC top clone the Mini's hard drive to one of the partitions. To test the clone, use system preferences to instruct the mini to boot off of the clone. Of course, this will only work with a Firewire drive.
    There are preference settings in CCC that allow you to sync the drives. This way they both have the same data.
    It also allows you to schedule periodic backups.
    Another backup utility that I have used is SuperDuper. Version 2.0 was just released yesterday. Although it is $29.95, you can download and try it for free.
    Hope this helps,
    Steve
    iMac G5 20 - inch ALS (May 2005)   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

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