Carbon Copy Cloner - Users Thread - Yosemite to Mojave to Big Sur - and after

[mikzn]

There have been several threads about "Which Back Up Software?" is used by MacRumors members and various other back up services and competitive software options.

I noticed that many CCC users are posting on the other threads and as a long tme CCC user I was also tempted to post comments on those threads. I held off because it leads to a "CCC vs the other product" kind of situation

Perhaps it would be useful to have a dedicated CCC thread and "less conflicted" thread for discussing CCC use and configuration?

Here are a few links that might be helpful . . .

Carbon Copy Cloner 5 for Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and earlier - FAQ's and other support -
Use CCC version 5 for Mojave and earlier version of macOS

CCC 5 licenses purchased on or after February 18, 2021 are . . .
eligible for a free CCC 6 upgrade license.

Upgrading from Mojave and earlier? - Catalina / Big Sur do not support 32 bit applications - see this link to check for 32 bit apps before upgrading to Catalina and later -
Go64 "Quickly scan your disk for 32 bit applications"

"Things you should know before relying on an external macOS Big Sur boot device"
- Link to Post # 294

CCC 6 is Available For Catalina, Big Sur and later - More info Here

System Requirements for CCC 6 and CCC 5 -
Download Page for CCC6 (Catalina and later) and CCC 5 (Mojave and Earlier)

 

[mikzn]

I will start things off with one of my topics of interest - Safety Net - On or OFF ?

I have used SAFETY NET - ON - in the past - but really never found myself needing to find any old versions of files and since I began using a dedicated SSD for most of my different back ups and also make duplicate back ups on different days - I have switched to Safety Net OFF for most of my "back up sripts"

I like the fact that the incremental back up is fast and - no "Safety Net" wipes any UN-needed files off the destination drive - keeping things simple and easy to understand

Any thoughts on "Safety Net On" vs "Safety Net OFF" - with Carbon Copy Cloner ?

 

[Geepaw]

I will start things off with one of my topics of interest - Safety Net - On or OFF ?

I have used SAFETY NET - ON - in the past - but really never found myself needing to find any old versions of files and since I began using a dedicated SSD for most of my different back ups and also make duplicate back ups on different days - I have switched to Safety Net OFF for most of my "back up sripts"

I like the fact that the incremental back up is fast and - no "Safety Net" wipes any UN-needed files off the destination drive - keeping things simple and easy to understand

Any thoughts on "Safety Net On" vs "Safety Net OFF" - with Carbon Copy Cloner ?

I keep Safety Net on merely because I have the space on my backup drive and I think it is recommended. It's like insurance -- it's good to have. However, I have never actually needed to use it. If my drive space was limited I would turn it off.

 

[fisherking]

i've used carbon copy forever (never used time machine), and i do that too, mirror my drives. i want a copy of everything i want to keep, and don't need files i've deleted. i've never regretted this... but good to have options.

CCC is essential software; appreciate the continual updates, tech support... and the functionality.

 

[svenmany]

I'm a big fan of CCC. I particularly like their great technical articles and explanations.

I keep Safety Net off. I clone every night and rotate through three disks. I use CCC for bootable clones.

I use a mix of strategies to go back further than two days in time; first and foremost is Time Machine. I also have various offline strategies which allow me to look back in time: Arq, Dropbox, iCloud, and OneDrive. To date, I've not used my offline strategies for recovery. I've used Time Machine and my Clones many times.

 

[fisherking]

one of the things i love about CCC is how it helped me figure out how to (best) work with my 12" macbook, and it's single usb port; i backup my macbook thru my imac to an external drive (connected to the imac) over the network. bombich has great tutorials for these things (as svenmany mentions).

 

[harrisonjr98]

Welp, wrote a dedicated post with a couple of questions about CCC because I'm thinking of using it - and then saw this!

Here's what I wrote:

Hello there! Hoping to get an answer about a couple questions I have with CCC. I plan to migrate to it to use as my backup solution. I have long just made a literal drag-and-drop copy of my most important external drives to a hard drive every quarter or so as "backup," but I've decided that I owe my precious data a little more due dilligence than that!

I have a couple of very simple needs (by backup standards at least)- I'm just trying to back up a couple of external SSDs to a single, larger external HDD. I do not necessarily need to backup boot volumes - I have a time machine disk for that which is fine for me, but I understand that CCC can offer bootable backups which is cool, and I may switch my boot drive backup from Time Machine for that.

Anyways, my main setup - I have 2 Samsung T5 2TB drives, one contains my music collection and the other my own music and photography projects. Both are currently formatted as exFAT - I debated biting the bullet and switching them to APFS and then just using Time Machine, but I use them with a Windows machine quite often and like the flexibility anyway - occasionally I want to be able to have a friend plug in and grab a project or whatever. So Time Machine is off the table, hence me researching and stumbling upon CCC! It seems CCC's headline feature is cloning your boot volume in a way that makes it - well, bootable. That's cool and all but it makes me wonder whether the goals I have in mind (incremental scheduled backup of one exFAT external drive to another) line up with CCC's design intentions.

So to recap:

• I want to back up two exFAT, GUID external SSDs to a single large HDD for simple on-site redundancy.
• I really am not concerned with version history more than a week back or so, if that. Is this kind of thing commonly customizable in software like CCC? Would love to use an HDD that's essentially the same size as my two SSDs together, because I already have one lying around!
• I don't want any chance of my software solution messing with my live drives - even having read-only permissions would be great. Maybe that's just my paranoia, but the more "idiot-proof" the GUI the better.
• Hoping to format my backup HDD as exFAT, GUID like the drives that are being backed up. But... can I back up exFAT drives to an APFS volume with CCC? Is there any issue with that in general? Another option I was thinking of was to just get a big 8TB or so external and volume part of it as my Time Machine and then part of it as my CCC backup for my SSDs. Not imperative though.
• I need foolproof M1 compatibility because I'm using an Apple Silicon machine as my daily driver. The more a backup service seems to have embraced it and is confident in their software running on it, the better.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you guys can provide

 

[mikzn]

Welp, wrote a dedicated post with a couple of questions about CCC because I'm thinking of using it - and then saw this!

Here's what I wrote:

Have you checked out the CCC web page? - I just added the links above - and there is lots of good info there

I do use a few exFAT drives as secondary back ups - APFS to exFAT - have not tried it the other way - I can try later this week and get back to this thread - but if it just the files being backed up I don't see why it would not work the other way too?

 

[Cayenne1]

I turned Safety Net off. It filled its backup partition worse than Time Machine.

I run two CCC backup tasks on all files; one at 12AM and one following at 1:30AM on to separate attached USB drive dedicated CCC 1TB partitions. Each CCC partition is bootable. Essentially I have two mirrored daily CCC backups.

I also run the standard Time Machine hourly backups on the same two drives, but to their own TM 1 TB partitions. I can then recover files at the worst one hour old in event of a disk crash, or an "oops" delete/empty trash.

The USB drives are Seagate 8 TB drives with three partitions each. 1 TB for TM, 1 TB for CCC and 6 TB for Data. The two 6 TB Data partitions also mirror each other. I do that manually which is a pain. I need to look into automating that maybe with CCC. I pull work from the Data partitions onto the SSD then post revisions back to both if I'm disciplined. Interested if others have a better workflow.

My system disk is a 1TB SSD. The TM and CCC backup partition 1 TB size seems to work well. No issue for CCC and TM cleans it up after filling it up.

Of course, if there is a fire or theft with loss of the disks, I'm toast.

 

[artfossil]

I've used CCC so long I used to get a free copy as an educational user. (There's still a 25% discount). I've been grateful for my CCC clones in the past and I'm a very loyal user.

Safety net is OFF for me. I just want a mirror of my hard drive so I can get up and running if disaster strikes. (I have separate backup strategies (and separate disks/cloud storage) for my critical files like the photo documentation of my art work.)

 

[Blowback]

I will start things off with one of my topics of interest - Safety Net - On or OFF ?

I have used SAFETY NET - ON - in the past - but really never found myself needing to find any old versions of files and since I began using a dedicated SSD for most of my different back ups and also make duplicate back ups on different days - I have switched to Safety Net OFF for most of my "back up sripts"

I like the fact that the incremental back up is fast and - no "Safety Net" wipes any UN-needed files off the destination drive - keeping things simple and easy to understand

Any thoughts on "Safety Net On" vs "Safety Net OFF" - with Carbon Copy Cloner ?

Im in the same boat as you.....kept it on for the longest and recently turned it off. I keep several backup so am not worried and can' t, really can't, remember a time when I absolutely NEEDED an older version of a file. Just my 2-cents but am glad this thread is being started. Also, had the same questions about Safety Net as yourself.

 

[mikzn]

Im in the same boat as you.....kept it on for the longest and recently turned it off. I keep several backup so am not worried and can' t, really can't, remember a time when I absolutely NEEDED an older version of a file. Just my 2-cents but am glad this thread is being started. Also, had the same questions about Safety Net as yourself.

yeah thanks 👍

I am suddenly feeling much better about turning it off (Safety Net) - about 2 years ago, in my case not about drive space - just to keep things simple and clear - no exploring old versions etc. - I would rather have an exact copy of my last back up

seems like many have done the same - and even beyond that - I am more than happy to hear why someone else has a good reason to turn it back on again - but I just can't think of any good reason to turn it on.

 

[k-hawinkler]

2 different use cases:
1) Backup of system disk - Safety Net OFF
2) Backup of new images from scratch SSD to permanent storage of all images - Safety Net ON.

CCC is also handy to delete TM snapshots.

On my M1 Mac mini I use CCC to make incremental backups of none-system drives.

 

[Sciuriware]

I will start things off with one of my topics of interest - Safety Net - On or OFF ?

I have used SAFETY NET - ON - in the past - but really never found myself needing to find any old versions of files and since I began using a dedicated SSD for most of my different back ups and also make duplicate back ups on different days - I have switched to Safety Net OFF for most of my "back up sripts"

I like the fact that the incremental back up is fast and - no "Safety Net" wipes any UN-needed files off the destination drive - keeping things simple and easy to understand

Any thoughts on "Safety Net On" vs "Safety Net OFF" - with Carbon Copy Cloner ?

I have Safetnet on with a margin of 200Mb. That should guarantee a smooth incremental backup.
At least once I changed my mind about a bunch of deleted files and I found them back in the saved area.
The idea posted above of multiple backup disks in a round-robin sequence is professional, mandatory
and even at home a must. Off line disks could always drop, get lost or damaged by dog(s) or children (!?).
;JOOP!

 

[Blowback]

yeah thanks 👍

I am suddenly feeling much better about turning it off (Safety Net) - about 2 years ago, in my case not about drive space - just to keep things simple and clear - no exploring old versions etc. - I would rather have an exact copy of my last back up

seems like many have done the same - and even beyond that - I am more than happy to hear why someone else has a good reason to turn it back on again - but I just can't think of any good reason to tur

2 different use cases:
1) Backup of system disk - Safety Net OFF
2) Backup of new images from scratch SSD to permanent storage of all images - Safety Net ON.

CCC is also handy to delete TM snapshots.

On my M1 Mac mini I use CCC to make incremental backups of none-system drives.

k-hawinkler,
Can you explain more your case #2 as well as how you use CCC to delete TM snapshots? Thanks.

 

[ignatius345]

i've used carbon copy forever (never used time machine), and i do that too, mirror my drives. i want a copy of everything i want to keep, and don't need files i've deleted. i've never regretted this... but good to have options.

CCC is essential software; appreciate the continual updates, tech support... and the functionality.

Same. I run CCC to have an offsite backup that mirrors the drives I have at home, but kept in a second location in case of distaster. I don't rely on CCC to save altered/deleted files, though. When I've used Safety Net, in my experience the "pruning" that it does before cloning wasn't at all effective -- inevitably it would fail to delete enough old stuff and I'd get a failed clone because it ran out of space.

However, as far as file versions go, I also run Time Machine backups which are kept locally. I get the idea of not wanting files you've deleted, but having on hand past versions of files has helped me out on many occasions, if something gets corrupted or maybe an app "updates" the format of a file and messes it up -- or if I just flat out ruin something myself and need an earlier version.

 

[halofan56]

I will start things off with one of my topics of interest - Safety Net - On or OFF ?

I have used SAFETY NET - ON - in the past - but really never found myself needing to find any old versions of files and since I began using a dedicated SSD for most of my different back ups and also make duplicate back ups on different days - I have switched to Safety Net OFF for most of my "back up sripts"

I like the fact that the incremental back up is fast and - no "Safety Net" wipes any UN-needed files off the destination drive - keeping things simple and easy to understand

Any thoughts on "Safety Net On" vs "Safety Net OFF" - with Carbon Copy Cloner ?

I use both CCC and Time Machine. One to backup the other. Just data. Double insurance.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I use both CCC and Time Machine. One to backup the other. Just data. Double insurance.

More forum members (and lurkers) need to practice the same kind of proactive computing. For some reason, the urgency doesn't seem to strike until disaster has struck.

 

[halofan56]

More forum members (and lurkers) need to practice the same kind of proactive computing. For some reason, the urgency doesn't seem to strike until disaster has struck.

It just makes good sense to always have more than one backup. I even backup hard data such as photos and videos on a separate external HDDs. Anything that is irreplaceable. I just recently converted VHS-C to digital of movies from 15-20 years ago and stored it off the mac to a external HDD. Storage is cheap today. Thanks for acknowledging my practice.

 

[fisherking]

for me, it's carbon copy cloner (for both macs and my external drives), and idrive (online backup). data in 3 places, one of them offsite. when i travel (or, when i used to), online backup is essential. either way, feel like all bases are covered.

 

[k-hawinkler]

k-hawinkler,
Can you explain more your case #2 as well as how you use CCC to delete TM snapshots? Thanks.

Sure, there is a lot of stuff that is already stored on this drive that happens to also function as a backup drive for the working drive, referred to as scratch. That data needs to stay on that drive. Safety Net ON assures that. Then of course I make another copy of this drive, also with CCC. So I have 2 drives with complete data sets.

In Show Sidebar, CCC lower left corner, VOLUMES are displayed. Click on one and snapshots become visible in the upper right. Lower right CCC Snapshots can be set to ON or OFF. Select a Snapshot, hitting the DELETE button will get rid of it.

 

[mikzn]

A new CCC Update

and a link for some further info for Big Sur - macOS Big Sur Known Issues

 

[KaliYoni]

I maintain backups using Time Machine and CCC. The Time Machine drive is always connected. The CCC drive is disconnected most of the time. I do a CCC backup about once a week or before installing an OS update.

I do this for redundancy and to increase the chances of having a clean version of my entire setup in the event of a catastrophic failure or a security breach.

 

[k-hawinkler]

On an M1 Silicon computer can CCC now make a backup of the internal startup volume?

 

[lexvo]

I have Safetynet on (enough space on my backup drives). But now I think of it, I very seldom need a previous version of a file (if at all).