“Having a backup strategy is essential for every Mac OS X user. When issues arise due to disk corruption, a problematic incremental Mac OS X or Security update, or other unforeseen factors, having access to vital documents and applications is essential,” MacFixIt writes.
“There are essentially two practical strategies for backup: Cloning your Mac OS X startup disk to an external volume, providing a bootable drive that is virtually identical to your current set-up; or simply duplicating your Home user folder to another volume or an online repository then relying on other methods for restoring your applications and various settings.,” MacFixIt writes.
MacFixIt looks at strategies for cloning your Mac OS X startup disk and backing up your home user folder in their full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: ‘Tis better to be safe than sorry.
Also take a look at Apple’s .Mac Backup features here: Learn more about all the things you can do with .Mac
(MacDailyNews is an Apple .Mac affiliate. Thank you for supporting MacDailyNews.)
Since I haven’t crashed in the last 5 years, why would I back up?
Seriously, I do back up, mostly because I know that my external, non-mac firewire drives will fail and have. And I do back up my documents folder….. but no crashes since the roll out of OSX 10.1 is a major accomplishment.
MDN word is CAME, as in Steve Jobs came, he saw, he conquered.
I’m the loser who likes to write “First Post”
I use Apples Backup utility to backup certain folders, mail, and preferences. I’m still looking to get something that can back up OS X server configurations, not just a cloning utility. I’m still have yet to read what Retrospect and Netfault offer, but I’m sure I’ll end up with one of them.
first post
i had the hard drive on my ibook die on me… had to send it to apple to get the hard drive replaced… lost everything…
or so i thought, I was able to boot into target disk mode and salvage most of my crap before I sent it to apple.
some stories have a happy ending.
MW: price
as in “Look over there! It’s a price!!!”
hmmm… not first post…
MW: through
as in “Look over there! It’s through!”
Try SuperDuper, it works great
I don’t back up nearly as often as I should, but it’s smart, especially if you have a laptop. They take a beating, and you have no way of knowing if that one big fall could turn your iBook into a useless rectangle
A major flaw in .Mac IMO is that it cannot syncronize directories, particularly the Documents directory. Would be nice if I could syncronize my home and office machines.
As for the price, I’ll leave it to you to decide if it is worth it.
Undoubtedly the best program to clone your entire boot drive is Carbon Copy Cloner.
1: They have the most experience doing it
2: The software is donation-ware (please give generously)
3: They give you the terminal commands to do it yourself if your CLI junkie.
4: Their software does not “phone home” the minute you launch it. This is very suspicious behavior from a program that takes your Admin Password. (use Little Snitch to warn you of suspicious outgoing net connections) Also to gleam marketing information everytime you use it.
5: Carbon Copy Cloner does not “trap” you into registrations with no exit or constantly beg you to upgrade for $20.
6: Carbon Copy Cloner does not confuse you with terminology, a clone is a clone. A duplicate of a drive. Unlike other software which says it’s cloning but its not.
7: Carbon Copy Cloner copies the whole drive, unlike other companies software that says it is, but is avoiding coping certain “files” that are hidden and used to enforce copy protection schemes because they don’t want to get sued. Since CCC is donation-ware and they provide the terminal commands so you can do it yourself, it lessens the liability for them. All they do is provide a GUI.
I highly recommend CCC, because many companies are attempting to capitalize on this market and short changing folks without being altogether trustworthy or have our interests at heart.
I hate to see a essential thing like cloning our boot drives get owned by a company who wants to charge $70 for the privilege of doing so.
This is a needed and highly essential boot backup method, some folks can barely afford a external drive to begin with, much less paying a fortune for cloning software.
So please support Carbon Copy Cloner and it’s efforts.
Thank you
(no connection to CCC, just a big fan!)
I’ll give an enthusiastic second on the CCC. saved my butt more than once.
I used SuperDuper and it was confusing and I didn’t like how the little lock trapped me into a registration cycle with no cancelation option.
I didn’t know it called out on the internet, why should a cloning software do that?
Why doesn’t it copy the whole drive? Will this mean if my original drive fails for some reason I can’t immediatly boot from the clone and be back at work?
WTF???
I have had problems with CCC, including instances the clone wouldn’t boot. Also it’s a confusing at times. I prefer SuperDuper, though it isn’t perfect…
Then you must not be doing it right, I have used CCC for years and every clone booted. You must have forgotten to enable “Make bootable” in preferences.
Simple cloning method
1: External Firewire 800 or 400 with updated driver software (especially for Tiger)
2: Disk utility format Erase w/ Zero option all new drives to elimate bad sectors.
3: Disk Utility “Repair Permissions” on original
4: CCC clone with “Make Bootable” option in Preferences
5: Set Clone as startup and reboot.
6: Run OnyX (or other software) “Update Prebindings” option (for better performance) and Disk utility “Repair Permissions”
7: Run all programs, check out everything for proper operation.
8: Disconnect drive and keep in a safe place to avoid errors and exploits from affecting the clone.
9: Re-Clone after a successful software update or install, large iTMS purchase or other times you feel neccessary.
10: If a exploit occurs, “C” boot from Tiger install disk and Zero internal before connecting/booting from clone and reverse cloning.
There was a 10.4.1 Mac OS X problem that didn’t allow CCC and other cloning software to work properly. This has been resolved in 10.4.2 and is no fault of anyone but Apple.
Just like the 10.4.2 security update broke all 64 bit apps and it was pulled and another one issued.
Apple does indeed screw up, so clone and remain safe.
Your hard drive WILL fail, for the first poster and any others that do not backup, your HDD is not magical because it is in a Mac, sure it has good Karhma, but that doesnt meant aht your drunk friend with bad karma wont knock it over and cause your HDD to fail.
So but another drive, and BACKUP people
Best solution is this:
first run raid 1 (or the like), so you have a constant and instant backup, second get an external drive that is on a different powersupply, third get an external HDD that is on a different powersupply but this one do not leave it plugged it, take it off site and place it in a fireproof safe at an undisclosed location after every backup (you may want to have 2 of these drives so you can stagger the transports in case of an accident (or the like) during transport, and fourth backup to a highspeed server over the internet on a regular basis.
If you follow the above instructions I guarentee nothing
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I’ll give an enthusiastic third on the CCC.
I had my PowerBook drive replaced twice. The first time it was a disaster I then installed CCC and cloned my internal drive to an external firewire drive. After the second failure, I could immediately attach my older PowerBook to the external drive and was immediately back in business. When my newer PowerBook was returned after the repairs, I reversed the cloning and everything was restored including the new work I had done on my older PowerBook.
Like the earlier post, I have no connection to CCC, but merely a very satisfied user.
All I care about is my home directory. I’m really tempted to use Subversion on my home directory. Subversion is version control software. Every change you make to a file causes a new version of that file. There is a good article here on a Debian Developer who has been doing this for the last 7 years:
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/06/svn_homedir.html
Lest we forget to mention them, CDs and DVDs are a very good way of backing up your DATA (and cheaper than keeping 2 external drives on the go). Not so good for your software and configuration, or if you need to be back up in a hurry.
RAID 1 or “Mirror” is usually only necessary for mission critical information that can never be gotten again, it only protects against hardware failure as everything instantly gets written to the second drive.
All the bugs, corruption, etc.
Cloning the boot drive once in awhile and making regular backups of files is sufficent for most people.
Cabon Copy Cloner gets a nice write up in this book
Nifty Utilities to Hack Mac OS X Tiger
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1852474,00.asp
retrospect is a pile of trash, avoid it like the plague. Look at BRU backup from Tolis group. Worlds more reliable.
if free is your game look at rsyncx.
CCC provides nothing more than a gui to the utilities that already exist on your machine, it uses asr, or Apple Software Restore as the main componant. Disk utility is perfectly capabale of creating the same images.
Magic word = truth BTW
Disk utility is perfectly capabale of creating the same images
Who wants a “Image?” I want a bootable clone, this way I can access the problem drive, grab files if need be and simply reverse clone.
I don’t have time to be down, if my boot goes down, I’m out of thousands of dollars in lost buisness.
This is all Apple’s fault for no longer allowing us to drag our folders to another drive. Sure there is a security issue, but that’s what a admin password is for.
FSCKNG APPLE DRM SELLOUTS
Retrospect has its virtues. It can backup to almost any media and does incremental backups, to name just a couple. But it has a few warts too. YMMV.
Isn’t CCC just a GUI front-end to the CLI tool ditto (which ships with MacOS X)?