a way to never be left without your iMac

[zoran]

On my mid2010 iMac i believe that a safe installation so that a user will never be left from his iMac when there is a hdd failure, would be to have two ssd's, each with two partitions and a diff OS in the first partition for each.
So if one ssd goes bad, the user can always boot from the 2nd ssd that would already be equiped with a diff OS in his iMac. What do u think?

 

[TwoH]

I mean.. yeah it’ll work, but why not just spend the money on one reliable SSD instead of buying two for one as a “backup”? That sounds like extra hassle for little reward.

And I am not completely certain but I’m pretty sure to have two SSDs in a 2010, it’d require using the data connector from the Optical disk drive.

 

[zoran]

I already have 2 drives in there. The one is the factory hdd (now gone bad, the ssd saved me) and the second was an ssd i had installed in 2015.

 

[hwojtek]

Automated daily backup to a secondary, bootable drive, so there is ALWAYS an up-to-date copy, kind of 'mirroring'? Isn't it the way we use Carbon Copy Cloner since 2002?

 

[zoran]

I had no idea about this option cause i never used CarbonCopyCloner... hmm it does seem like a nice idea
Only that now that i come to think of it, the two SSD drives i will have in my iMac are a 1TB and a 500GB. Stuff on one drive, i recon wouldn't fit in the other Would it?

 

[DeltaMac]

hmm... You say in your post #3, that you have two drives in your iMac, a (dead) HDD (the original hard drive), and an SSD that you installed. Now in your last post, you say you have two SSDs.
Which is correct?
And, why would you want to even consider backing up to a drive that you already know is bad?

What size is the SSD that you currently use for a boot drive?
One good option would be to remove the bad drive, and install a good, larger drive. Double the size of your boot drive would be a good place to start, and would give you a decent space for backups..
And, even using Time Machine would give you an automatic backup of your drive. Best way for that would be with an external drive.
Or, CarbonCopyCloner is also a good backup utility. There's other methods, too.
So, lots of choices.

 

[zoran]

hmm... You say in your post #3, that you have two drives in your iMac, a (dead) HDD (the original hard drive), and an SSD that you installed. Now in your last post, you say you have two SSDs.
Which is correct?

You are right, im in the phase of installing the ssd and i didnt want to mix up people... apparently i did just that.

And, why would you want to even consider backing up to a drive that you already know is bad?

I will not backup the bad drive, but i do have the bad drives files saved on a drive from the TMbackup.
The bad 1TB spinner drive, will be replaced by a 1TB SSD.

What size is the SSD that you currently use for a boot drive?

Its 500GB. The second SSD im gonna install is 1TB

One good option would be to remove the bad drive, and install a good, larger drive. Double the size of your boot drive would be a good place to start, and would give you a decent space for backups..
And, even using Time Machine would give you an automatic backup of your drive. Best way for that would be with an external drive.
Or, CarbonCopyCloner is also a good backup utility. There's other methods, too.
So, lots of choices.

On the 1TB (bad hdd) i have most of the files i daily use.
On the SSD i have the OS, my apps, and a few files of daily use.
The badHdd was a bootable drive with SnowLeopard, but i rarelly used it because it was an old OS.
The SSD was bootable too, but with ElCapitan.
For backup i have an OWC drive bay with 2x4TB + 1x2TB drives.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

@zoran I suggest you do like this:

1. Replace the 500GB SSD with 1TB SSD. (for now)
2. Install High Sierra on 1TB SSD. iMac 2010 supports High Sierra.
3. Move all you files on the old HDD to the new 1TB SSD
4. Remove the old HDD and re-install the 500GB SSD to the iMac.
5. You now have 2 bootable drives in the iMac, one with El Capitan, one with High Sierra.
6. The HDD fan will go crazy at first, slower it down with Mac Fan Control, or short the 2 wire of the sensor cable.

 

[zoran]

Yes that was my plan in the first place with the two SSD’s, to make them bootable with an OS (wasn’t too sure about HighSierra).

The question is what will I do with the TMbackup. The old hdd was named MacintoshHD. If I name the new Ssd the same, will the TMbackup continue as i, or will it recognize that it’s a diff drive?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Yes that was my plan in the first place with the two SSD’s, to make them bootable with an OS (wasn’t too sure about HighSierra).

The question is what will I do with the TMbackup. The old hdd was named MacintoshHD. If I name the new Ssd the same, will the TMbackup continue as i, or will it recognize that it’s a diff drive?

After completing the SSD transplant, you may erase the whole TM and restart a new session of TM.
What's TM for?

 

[zoran]

The TM was working in ElCapitan (SSD) and it was backing up the bad hdd, the SSD and two drives that were located in an OWC DriveBay. All this backup was stored on a third drive in the Drivebay.
But unfortunately it was a bit slow (FW800) because it was old.

 

[hwojtek]

Only that now that i come to think of it, the two SSD drives i will have in my iMac are a 1TB and a 500GB.

Obviously, as CCC effectively "mirrors" the source drive, it will only allow as much data as the target drive can hold. I have my server set up with this workflow, however in an opposite way. A 512 GB SSD is automatically cloned to a 1 TB spinner every 12 hours.

 

[Fishrrman]

"a way to never be left without your iMac"

Ummm...
I've been doing this for about 25 years now.
Since back in the days of the "classic" Mac OS.
Keep an external bootable drive -- same thing.

Or, one can keep a bootable cloned backup with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, and one is "already there"...

 

[zoran]

Regarding the ext.bootable drive, its an old iMac, fw800 is the fastest port available.