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Can Carbon Copy Cloner do this?
- Thread starter Qwerty11
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Not concurrently.... no. But CCC can easily run separate tasks to each of those backup destinations.
Can it really do a backup directly to iCloud Drive, without passing through a local disk first?
I’d be interested in doing this. Is it documented?
No... it would backup to the local iCloud Drive folder, then iCloud would move the data online. You would not want to do this with a full clone obviously because you would be in an endless backup loop. But if say you wanted to CCC something from DriveB/Data/MyStuff to iCloud Drive, it would work fine.
The OP asked if he could backup to iCloud Drive (among others) using CCC.
Your initial response to the OP gave me the impression you were suggesting that it could do so directly.
”CCC can easily run separate tasks to each of those backup destinations.”
However, following your later explanation the answer is NO, not directly, just as I thought.
I hoped you knew of a way around it.
Thanks
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Someone else suggested it could. I found that surprising, so that’s why I asked the question.
As for what I really want to do, I think direct Time Machine backups to a cloud service, as part of a mixed backup plan, could be useful for many reasons.
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Since you can run multiple CCC backups concurrently if you start them manually, wouldn't the same happen if you scheduled them all to start at the same time? Not a great idea though. If they are backing up the same volume likely would hit a volume I/O bottleneck.
I've never tested that, so I don't know what would happen if you scheduled multiple tasks to launch at the exact same time,
Yes to concurrently.
ChronoSync might be better than CCC for your needs.
I tried it and eventually gave up getting it to work when trying to synch to my NAS. Might do better with other volume types.
Both (like other backup programs) can backup the contents of ~/Library/Mobile Documents which is where iCloud Drive files are stored.
But iCloud Drive is not the same as using iCloud to "Optimise Mac Storage". Are you doing this?
I hope that I don't ruffle any feathers by "reviving" this oldish thread, but I presently have a need to backup our one (and only) archive HDD, so that I can reformat it for a newer file system. The archive HDD in question - a WD "GOLD" 8TB HDD - was initially formatted for four FAT32 partitions, but we now have individual files that exceed the 4GB file size limit that comes with FAT32; hence, the interest in reformatting it with exFAT partitions.
As we only have one large [to us] archive HDD, I'd like to use our Carbon Copy Cloner 5 (CCC 5) utility to back the data on said archive HDD directly to "the cloud" - for temporary storage only - before reformatting it. If this can be done, is it fairly easy to retrieve the data after the HDD has been set up for exFAT?
Thank you for your time.
As we only have one large [to us] archive HDD, I'd like to use our Carbon Copy Cloner 5 (CCC 5) utility to back the data on said archive HDD directly to "the cloud" - for temporary storage only - before reformatting it. If this can be done, is it fairly easy to retrieve the data after the HDD has been set up for exFAT?
Thank you for your time.
Do you a particular cloud service in mind? And with 8TB storage? And a high speed Internet connection? And patience?
I am saying that I don't think a cloud service is very practical as a temporary storage for juggling large amounts of data.
Is it not possible to do each the 4 partitions one at a time? That is copy partition A, reformat partition A, copy data back again; repeat for B, C and D. And do that with a smaller HDD, sufficient for your largest partition.
I hate the concept of using any FAT partitions with a Mac, but I assume you have a very special need. I also consider that a single copy of an "archive" is not safe.
Before you do anything make sure you have 3 copies of your data as recommended in a 3-2-1 backup strategy. One should be a physical device that can be moved to a safe off-site location.
Backup to the cloud can be problematic depending upon which service you use. iCloud isn't a backup service, you need something like BackBlaze, Carbonite or Crashplan business. Be aware that uploads can be glacially slow due to bandwidth limitations imposed at the provider end.
Backup to the cloud can be problematic depending upon which service you use. iCloud isn't a backup service, you need something like BackBlaze, Carbonite or Crashplan business. Be aware that uploads can be glacially slow due to bandwidth limitations imposed at the provider end.
I corresponded with CCC today and, long story short, they do not recommend doing what I asked this thread about; namely, using the cloud as a way to store then restore large amounts of data. They do recommend, however, employing your own drives, so it looks like the concerns about a "...single copy of an 'archive' [not being] safe" are well founded.
As for why we employ FAT32, we are into multichannel (MC) audio. The large files associated with MC audio sometimes have to be moved around and transferred via USB devices. The main [oldy but goody] DAC in our system will only accept USB file transfer via the FAT32 file system. Regardless, for archiving purposes, I've now learned that other file systems are obviously more appropriate.
The 3-2-1 backup strategy seems like a very good idea.
Does anyone happen to know if there's a cloning utility for Windows that works as well as Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC)?
There are certainly trade-offs with on-line backup services. Besides the time to do the uploads you have the time required to do a restore if disaster strikes. Download bandwidth restrictions in my case could take months to restore the ~70 TB that I have stored in the cloud. Backblaze will send you hard disks to make the process faster, but it would take a lot of disks to do a restore. There are a lot of options for on-line storage and I assume some expensive ones would be much faster. My experience is with the inexpensive unlimited backups services such as Carbonite, CrashPlan Business and Backblaze. In all 3 cases you use their app to do the backups.
CCC is right if you need to get back up and running within hours. For things that are not time sensitive you can restore using the apps provided by the services.
Are you saying you have data on this 8TB drive that exists only on that drive? If so, that's not a great practice. That drive could die at any moment and you'd be SOL.
If it was me, I'd order today an additional 8TB drive (or larger, to account for future use), format it as you need, use CCC to copy everything onto it, then keep maintaining minimum two drives with that data. Preferably three, with one of them being offsite. Hard drives are dirt cheap these days, and I'm assuming the data is of some value.
(Try https://diskprices.com/ to get the lay of the land, even if you don't end up buying on Amazon.)
As others have pointed out, 8TB is a LOT of data to shuttle back and forth with a cloud service. I suppose you could do your offsite disaster recovery backup that way, but be prepared for it to take ages to transfer.