Help with backup software for MBP?

[CB98]

I’m looking for a backup software that will allow me to backup an external 2tb drive to another 2tb drive (all of my photos). I don’t want to use Time Machine as I don’t want my Mac SSD to be backed up there, and as well as this I have another backup solution for my SSD anyway.

At the moment I have Time Machine set to include the external drive in my backups, but this means I always have to remember to unplug my primary SSD backup (because it isn’t anywhere near big enough to take all off the data on my external!).

What’s a software that will allow me to plug in my external 2tb photo drive and the other 2tb backup drive and let one backup the other, without backing up any Mac data? Carbon Copy Cloner?

Thanks

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Yes, CCC

 

[ssmed]

Yes, CCC

This!

 

[CB98]

This!

Thanks! And then Time Machine for the Mac?

 

[ssmed]

re CCC
I use it for everything - this is my no 1 utility for Mac (followed closely by DiskWarrior)
Bootable back-ups, incremental changes saved
Never got on well with Time Machine – but to be fair haven't used it for years

 

[CB98]

re CCC
I use it for everything - this is my no 1 utility for Mac (followed closely by DiskWarrior)
Bootable back-ups, incremental changes saved
Never got on well with Time Machine – but to be fair haven't used it for years

When would you use Disk Warrior as opposed to CCC?

The reason I love Time Machine is how you can so easily restore and migrate data natively with it.

 

[ssmed]

Sorry that was off topic - Diskwarrior fixes slightly to moderately messed up disks! and is not a backup utility.

 

[CB98]

Sorry that was off topic - Diskwarrior fixes slightly to moderately messed up disks! and is not a backup utility.

Will CCC have any issue with this being a disk that’s only intermittently plugged in?

 

[ssmed]

Will CCC have any issue with this being a disk that’s only intermittently plugged in?

No you can set it up to do the backup when the disk is attached.

 

[CB98]

No you can set it up to do the backup when the disk is attached.

And then further backup whilst attached (every hour or so)?

I want to partition my 2tb backup drive - 1.75 for the photos and 250gb for regular Time Machine. This will go ok won’t it?

Edit:

Or maybe better yet, use the 250gb as a bootable backup (which I’m right in saying TM won’t do?). So I have one normal TM backup and one bootable CC backup.

 

[hobowankenobi]

A bootable clone is very valuable. If you go with CCC, I would certainly recommend a bootble full backup, and run it especially before any software updates or OS changes or updates....so you have an undo.

TM is great to run quietly in background, automatically, continuously. In this case you would want to exclude everything except your photos (and any other replaceable user data). Using the two, either on partitions or better yet on separate drives is a good plan to have a multi-layered defense against data loss.

Consider where your drives are stored too. If you have a fire, flood, theft or zombie apocalypse....how safe are your backups if sitting connected to your computer?

A simple plan that protects from most disasters is two external drives, and you rotate them on a schedule you are comfortable with (weekly, monthly, etc). The drive not connected is kept in a fire-proof safe or some other location protected from most disasters/threats. Every so often, you swap drives, and the latest goes into the safe spot, while everything gets updated on the drive that came from the safe spot.

 

[CB98]

A bootable clone is very valuable. If you go with CCC, I would certainly recommend a bootble full backup, and run it especially before any software updates or OS changes or updates....so you have an undo.

TM is great to run quietly in background, automatically, continuously. In this case you would want to exclude everything except your photos (and any other replaceable user data). Using the two, either on partitions or better yet on separate drives is a good plan to have a multi-layered defense against data loss.

Consider where your drives are stored too. If you have a fire, flood, theft or zombie apocalypse....how safe are your backups if sitting connected to your computer?

A simple plan that protects from most disasters is two external drives, and you rotate them on a schedule you are comfortable with (weekly, monthly, etc). The drive not connected is kept in a fire-proof safe or some other location protected from most disasters/threats. Every so often, you swap drives, and the latest goes into the safe spot, while everything gets updated on the drive that came from the safe spot.

Thanks for the detail. I’ve ended up setting up two partitions on the backup drive, 500gb for a bootable clone and 1.5tb for a clone of my photos. I then have a 228gb USB for Time Machines (and that’s set to exclude everything except Macintosh HD).

I’m interested to know why you said to include the photos in Time Machine? The reason I don’t want to do it that is because in the event of a restore or system migration I wouldn’t want them included with the Macintosh HD files. By having the clone I can specify that whenever the two drives are connected I’ll have a backup that won’t interfere with Time Machine.