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backing up a 2TB SSD looking for advice
- Thread starter conamor
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I would suggest more than 2TB, so you can have room for versioned backups...history. Traditionally, Time Machine would like to have twice the space of that data being backed up. Don't forget HDs should not be completely filled.
The good news is, the price difference is not much tp bump up to 3 or 4 TB, or more. No good reason not to buy more space.
The good news is, the price difference is not much tp bump up to 3 or 4 TB, or more. No good reason not to buy more space.
As a general rule your backup disk if using time machine should be twice the capacity of the disk(s) you are backing up. No need for SSD as your backup device. What you are going to buy would be perfect.
If you're using CCC, and choose to keep only "a clone" of your current drive, the size of the backup drive can be the same as the source. It's never going to grow "bigger".
An exception might be if you use the "safety net" feature all the time (which archives old files that have changed on the source drive). Now you have "extra files" (i.e., more than are on the source drive), so the overall size of the backup -could- get larger than the source.
An exception might be if you use the "safety net" feature all the time (which archives old files that have changed on the source drive). Now you have "extra files" (i.e., more than are on the source drive), so the overall size of the backup -could- get larger than the source.
Best practice would be both:
Some backup tools do include compression, which is generally slower and more resource-intensive, but allows more versions/history in the same amount of space.
Also keep in mind that if space is an issue, one can skip backing up OS and Applications. Those are replaceable, while your data is not. Think: photos, documents, videos, etc.
- I clone for disaster recovery. Bootable, with all settings and configs preserved, as well as installed software, licenses, printers....everything. Exactly the same amount of space needed, but there still needs to be some free working space (20% more than drive being cloned would be a good estimate).
- A versioned backup of user data (TM is one solution), so you can roll back to previous versions of files, etc. The more room the better for this. 2x is good, 3x or 4x is great.
Some backup tools do include compression, which is generally slower and more resource-intensive, but allows more versions/history in the same amount of space.
Also keep in mind that if space is an issue, one can skip backing up OS and Applications. Those are replaceable, while your data is not. Think: photos, documents, videos, etc.
Read up on drives on the CCC site. I use CCC and they have some drives they recommend and others they don't ....Have used CCC on and off since the early 1990's ( or there about ) and simple to use; no issues and great customer support as well as lots of good info on their site. Hope this helps.
A CCC clone without safety net is an exact copy of the disks/directories selected. If you run a recommended backup schedule then a deleted file will be removed from the CCC backup clone when you run the job.
Safetynet can assist with that, but it gets a bit complicated setting up the copy as you then have to remove cache and other temporary files. Not sure how easy it would be to find a file deleted 6 months ago.
A versioned backup, such as Time Machine, can fullfill this need as the 2nd of the standard 3 backup strategy.
Backblaze has just introduced a year long retention policy for $2 a month more than their standard, inexpensive unlimited plan. Crashplan will remove a deleted file after a year. One of these could be your 3rd backup.