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Best way to back up a Mac

  • 07-03-2011 02:54PM
    #1
    Clanket
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭


    Hi lads,

    I have an external Iomega 500gb hard drive that I've been using to back up my Imac. I only back it up every month or so using Time Machine then remove and hide the drive. This suits my needs as the back-up is only done in case my computer crashed or was stolen.

    I remember discussing this in another thread and people said Time Machine can have issues when the external drive is full and needs to overwrite earlier files. My drive is now full and I'm wondering should I format it and start again to stop these problems?

    It seems to me that Time Machine is probably backing up more than I need. I've heard SuperDuper is good. Does it just copy the drive when you tell it or does it automatically backup every hour or so like Time Machine.

    If I move to SuperDuper, and I lost my Imac, can I simply plug the external drive into a new mac and restore everything as it was?

    Thanks for any help.


Comments

  • #2
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,710 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    If you want to restore everything exactly as it was, you'd be better off using a disk image as the backup. Either Disk Utility or Carbon Copy Cloner. I'm not sure SuperDuper is much use in this regard. But TM is really fine for most things imo.

    I did have a problem with it when the drive runs out of space, but I think that was due to the fact that I was using it to back up both my internal and external drives. Eventually it just got to the point where it had deleted all past backups but still hadn't enough space to backup again. I had to wipe it clean and start again.

    The lesson I learned from this is to make sure (as Apple advise) that the backup drive is quite a bit larger than what you are backing up. I was using it to backup too much and because TM likes to keep past backups I was bound to run into problems. I now backup my external hd separately.


  • #3
    Clanket
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭Clanket


    Thanks Sad Prof. Time machine is great but it really is backing up more than I need.

    Didn't know you could use Disk Utility to create a copy. Presume this would be a fully bootable copy. Will look into this.
    I presume if I used that though I'd have to keep creating a brand new copy.

    Do you know of any programmes that would just update the original copy with any changes made since the last one?


  • #4
    Sad Professor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,710 ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Clanket wrote: »
    Do you know of any programmes that would just update the original copy with any changes made since the last one?
    Well obviously TM does this, and so does SuperDuper. I think the latest version of CCC can do incremental disk image backups as well, if that's what you mean.

    I would recommend having two backups. One using TM connected to the iMac at all times - this would make full use of TM's features and would ensure that you are always fully backed up. And another using CCC every month on a drive that you hide.

    What the problems you are having with TM at the moment? You'll usually get a few errors when the drive becomes full, but if you keep telling it to backup it should delete the old backups and continue as normal.


  • #5
    Clanket
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭Clanket


    Not having any errors with TM. I just don't like the way it keeps making more and more backups. My Imac HD is 300gb full out of 500gb. The external HD I'm using is 500gb aswell. So I'd like the backup TM (or SuperDuper or CCC) takes to be only 300gb (or whatever is on the HD when the backup done) rather than having numerous backups taking up the full external HD at all times (unless I make a partition).

    I really have no use for 2 hard drives at the moment.

    I'll have a look at CCC. Thanks again.


  • #6
    thecommander
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,537 ✭✭✭thecommander


    Clanket wrote: »
    Not having any errors with TM. I just don't like the way it keeps making more and more backups. My Imac HD is 300gb full out of 500gb. The external HD I'm using is 500gb aswell. So I'd like the backup TM (or SuperDuper or CCC) takes to be only 300gb (or whatever is on the HD when the backup done) rather than having numerous backups taking up the full external HD at all times (unless I make a partition).

    Why?


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  • #7
    Clanket
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭Clanket


    Coz I'm weird :D

    No because firstly, you keep getting messages from TM when the drive is full and this bugs me.

    Secondly, I don't know how to make a partition on a drive. I'm sure it's easy but haven't got around to looking into it. Easier for me at the minute to wipe my external HD and start using a prgram that does what I want and will leave room on the drive if I need it for anything.


  • #8
    Losty Dublin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,272 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    Surely though, Time Machine can't have backed up almost 200 GB of changes unless you made that much changes? Are you doing a lot of deleting and adding files etc?


  • #9
    Clanket
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭Clanket


    No. That's what annoys me. I don't know how it works. It seems to take a new back-up when something gets changed. So when you go to the back-up drive you see loads of backups with different dates.

    I'm looking for something that when I use it first, takes a copy of my HD. Then the next time I plug it in, it updates the things that have changed and does not take a new backup of the changed files. This will mean that if my HD has 320gb used space, the backup on the external HD will only be 320gb aswell.

    Hopefully carbon copy cloner will do this for me. I'll have a look later.


  • #10
    Losty Dublin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,272 ✭✭✭✭Losty Dublin


    Clanket wrote: »
    No. That's what annoys me. I don't know how it works. It seems to take a new back-up when something gets changed. So when you go to the back-up drive you see loads of backups with different dates.

    I'm looking for something that when I use it first, takes a copy of my HD. Then the next time I plug it in, it updates the things that have changed and does not take a new backup of the changed files. This will mean that if my HD has 320gb used space, the backup on the external HD will only be 320gb aswell.

    Hopefully carbon copy cloner will do this for me. I'll have a look later.

    TM only adds to the last back up so as such there is a full system sitting there at any one time, just it's shadowed to be a full system of all back ups. Go into TM settings and ask it not to back up Applications, System Files or other large files. This will save you some space on future back ups as it will only save other items. Also, you should consider to back up less often unless it's vital to do it daily or even hourly.


  • #11
    conor.hogan.2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,246 ✭✭✭conor.hogan.2


    I now have an external HD but for day to day things I use dropbox, handy as hell.

    http://db.tt/5HFpDj1

    If you are super paranoid you could encrypt and then place is dropbox - but your data is probably safer in the cloud than on your mac unless you have encrypted the whole drive.

    Best next thing unless you have your ext drive hooked up all the time or have time capsule, and even then this is fire-proof.


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  • #12
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 1,211 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I'm using arq which uses the amazon cloud, I find it as an affordable off-site back up solution.


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