MP 1,1-5,1 Backup Plan

[KingCachapa]

There doesn't seem to be a section on the Mac Pro guide when it comes to backing up in general, tips and best practices. Shall we?

Recommended apps, fore example I like using SuperDuper. For me, I'm looking for information such as: does making a bootable backup copy of an OS in an NVMe drive, into any other drive, be it HDD, SSD or another NVMe – is this a reliable backup plan? Will this other boot copy be viable without any modifications or tweaks?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Rodan52]

If you use one of the reputable apps to create a bootable macOS installer onto either a USB flash drive or similar it will afford you the option to erase the HD and reinstall the OS.
A clone gives you a wider range of options such as replacing the internal HD but is not as suitable for restoring individual files or versions as Time Machine.
Personally I have all three. A thumb drive with a bootable installer for my current OS and the previous OS, a clone because its so easy to restore a complete OS and a TM backup for incremental B/U's and restore of same.

 

[MIKX]

My Mojave 10.14.6 install on a 500gb HFS+ formatted Samsung 970 EVO Plus is backed up to . . .

1. Time Machine

2. An APFS formatted Samsung 250gb 970 EVO using Carbon Copy Cloner. ( Safety net OFF )

 

[Rodan52]

Interesting because I still do not know the cause but I had what you have MIKX and it failed me. I too was running Mojave. Suddenly my system slowed to a snails pace. I tried everything to repair it but decided in the end to restore the whole SSD from CCC. CCC took over 35min to boot displaying the same problems. I took over 3 hrs to discover TM was just as bad and Recovery would not boot.
So I searched through my drawers and found a thumb drive with a Sierra bootable installer which I was able to quickly boot my MBP, erase it and install Sierra. From there I downloaded and installed Mojave. Now although CCC was useless as a boot volume the files all seemed intact so I transferred everything except some apps by drag an drop. Essentially a clean install. This worked perfectly so it was something wrong with the OS not the user data and that problem was duplicated on my backups. Now I always make a bootable installer on a thumb drive before running it for macOS upgrades.

 

[MIKX]

I've been backing up this way for about two years, no problems. Whatever works for you is best.