iDrive Backups

[mkjohnnie]

I’m trying to figure out the best way to backup my MacBook. I have previously used time machine with an external hard drive, but the drive kept breaking and I got tired of having to remember to plug it in. I now want to try a cloud based backup that I can set and forget, so I signed up for iDrive. But it looks like iDrive only automatically includes documents, desktop, pictures, and music. I want iDrive to include all the system files and preferences that are saved in time machine, so that restoring a backup would set up my MacBook exactly as I had it (applications, system preferences, etc.). Is that possible on iDrive? If so, how do I do it?

I apologize in advance that I’m not super tech-savvy, so I may need clarifications on basic concepts and terms.

 

[chscag]

I'm not a fan of using a cloud service as my only backup. If your Mac's drive crashes or if you need to have your data to keep working on a project, it may take days for you to recover your cloud backup. Of course iDrive can send you a hard drive with your backed up data but that too can take days to arrive.

I suggest you re-think your backup strategy and come up with something that you can live with on a real time basis. (I personally use Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner for my backup regimen.)

Using iDrive is okay as long as it isn't your only backup. If you don't like Time Machine, consider using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper:

Carbon Copy Cloner: macOS Backup Software - Bombich Software

bombich.com

SuperDuper!

CCC has a free 30 day trial, and SD has a free version.

 

[mkjohnnie]

I'm not a fan of using a cloud service as my only backup. If your Mac's drive crashes or if you need to have your data to keep working on a project, it may take days for you to recover your cloud backup. Of course iDrive can send you a hard drive with your backed up data but that too can take days to arrive.

I suggest you re-think your backup strategy and come up with something that you can live with on a real time basis. (I personally use Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner for my backup regimen.)

Using iDrive is okay as long as it isn't your only backup. If you don't like Time Machine, consider using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper:

Carbon Copy Cloner: macOS Backup Software - Bombich Software

bombich.com

SuperDuper!

CCC has a free 30 day trial, and SD has a free version.

Thanks for the recommendation. Do CCC and SD require an external hard drive? I’m specifically looking for a system where I would not have to remember to plug in an external hard drive - I want backups to happen automatically.

 

[chscag]

Thanks for the recommendation. Do CCC and SD require an external hard drive? I’m specifically looking for a system where I would not have to remember to plug in an external hard drive - I want backups to happen automatically.

LOL, you can't put your Mac on "autopilot". Yes, both CCC and SD require an external drive, same as Time Machine. Just plug in the external drives and leave them attached while you're at home. Unplug them when you're on the road with your Mac. Can't be that hard to remember, can it?

 

[mkjohnnie]

LOL, you can't put your Mac on "autopilot". Yes, both CCC and SD require an external drive, same as Time Machine. Just plug in the external drives and leave them attached while you're at home. Unplug them when you're on the road with your Mac. Can't be that hard to remember, can it?

I feel like you probably could have said that with less snark and more humility.

I have a physical disability which causes extreme fatigue and brain fog. Recently, I have been having so many problems remembering to plug in my external drive (I move my laptop around a lot, so can’t just leave it plugged in) and dealing with the constant disk failures (on a fairly new disk), that I wanted to find an alternative to save myself some of my very limited energy. From my limited understanding, it looked like iDrive (and other cloud backup services) provided an easy way to backup in the background, without me having to do anything. As I originally said, my tech knowledge is limited, so I’m asking if that’s true and how I would set it up. If there is no way to backup a MacBook without manually remembering to start a backup or plug in an external drive, please tell me with a gracious understanding that not everyone is as tech-savvy as you.

 

[chscag]

No insults intended. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

Let me ask you this.... Do you always keep your Mac at home or do you on occasion travel with it? Because it does make a difference on how you make backups without having to worry about attaching or removing an external drive.

 

[mkjohnnie]

No insults intended. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

Let me ask you this.... Do you always keep your Mac at home or do you on occasion travel with it? Because it does make a difference on how you make backups without having to worry about attaching or removing an external drive.

I generally keep it at home (although moving frequently between different rooms) - I probably travel with it about 3 times a year.

 

[mkjohnnie]

I should add I don’t mind a slow backup. Ease is much more important to me than speed.

 

[chscag]

Okay. Since you generally keep your Mac at home, it would be best to attach an external hard drive and leave it attached. I know you said you don't particularly like Time Machine, but it really would be the easiest for you to use. Just set it on automatic backups and leave it. Then you would not have to remember to attach it for backup purposes.

You can continue to use iDrive as a redundant backup in case if it's ever needed.

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper might be more difficult for you to use since both have varying options to do automatic backups.

And slow backups are not a problem with Time Machine although much depends on how much data you have to backup.

Sorry, I can't think of a better way for you, but I think once you get used to using Time Machine as I described above, you'll not have to worry about remembering to do the backups or attaching the drive.

 

[now i see it]

A backup no more than once a week is sufficient for most people.
Maybe make it a habit to back it up on the same day every week (set a reminder) and do it over night so it's effortless.
Get a big external SSD hard drive and use it just for Time Machine backups They're super reliable and usually don't need a separate power cord

 

[gilby101]

I want iDrive to include all the system files and preferences that are saved in time machine, so that restoring a backup would set up my MacBook exactly as I had it (applications, system preferences, etc.). Is that possible on iDrive? If so, how do I do it?

For a complete restore you are much better with a local solution for which the easiest is Time Machine and an always connected hard drive.

Most cloud backups (and I think this includes iDrive) do not backup all macOS filesystem metadata (Finder tags and other extended attributes) and none aware of file aliases and links. This means that it is impossible to configure them for full system recovery with all your apps and settings.

Cloud backups are best used as a second line of defence with all the things you really need to keep in the event of a disaster - that is your documents, photos, etc.

 

[de Spin]

I’m trying to figure out the best way to backup my MacBook. I have previously used time machine with an external hard drive, but the drive kept breaking and I got tired of having to remember to plug it in. I now want to try a cloud based backup that I can set and forget, so I signed up for iDrive. But it looks like iDrive only automatically includes documents, desktop, pictures, and music. I want iDrive to include all the system files and preferences that are saved in time machine, so that restoring a backup would set up my MacBook exactly as I had it (applications, system preferences, etc.). Is that possible on iDrive? If so, how do I do it?

I apologize in advance that I’m not super tech-savvy, so I may need clarifications on basic concepts and terms.

Mey mkjohnie, I am having chronic and intense pain on my hands, shoulders, etc. My solution was to Connect my backup drive to my airport extreme and let it backup wirelessly. Everywhere in your house you are it will backup with the features of time machine. The first time it will take a lot of time, but subsequent backup won’t be long.
It keeps it easy and safe.
There are also harddrives with built-in wifi.

Concerning your question about iDrive and time machine: see link

Time Machine Backup - IDrive For Mac

www.idrive.com

Good Luck!

ps. I also have iDrive as off-location backup

 

[mkjohnnie]

Thanks for all the advice!

Last question - can anyone recommend a reliable external hard drive? I had been using LaCie Mobile Drive, which had constant problems and completely failed after two years. Is that standard? Is there anything more reliable, or that would last longer? (Also, what is the difference between HDD and SSD? Which do I need?)

 

[chabig]

To help you remember to plug in your backup drive, there is an app called Reminders which is part of macOS and can be set to provide reminders. I do not suffer from brain fog and I use for lots of things.

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

Personally I’d go with Backblaze over iDrive. iDrive is attractive due to their pricing but I’ve heard some horror stories about it’s reliability. The only downside of BB is if you have multiple machines you’ll have to pay to backup each separately, whereas iDrive I believe allows you to add up to 5 machines.

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

As others have said online backups won’t restore all the system files and preferences—I think the only one that’s capable of this is Acronis True Image. I wouldn’t rely on it as your only backup. The 3-2-1 backup strategy is best practice:

Backup Strategies: Why the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy is the Best

A Backblaze survey revealed 54% of people said they know someone or have themselves recently lost data. Find out what you can do to prevent data loss.

www.backblaze.com

 

[nottooshabby]

This thread popped up in a search. I have also had issues with external drives failing after a couple years(spinning drives). It may be due to occasional power glitches, so I now have it plugged into a UPS, along with my airport extreme so hopefully that will minimize the failures and corrupted backups.

Is there a service that would allow me to periodically backup the time machine backups, or possibly a cloned drive image to the cloud? I keep an external drive at work that i bring home occasionally, but I have not been very consistent with bringing it home due to infrequent office visits due to covid, and I run the risk of having it at the house when disaster strikes.

 

[Zuleika]

First off, the best back-up is the one you're going to use. If Time Machine isn't working for the way you work, but a web-based backup will, that's what you should use! I use both.

Time Machine is great for continuous backups. As others suggested, you should be able to plug a drive into your wifi router and just let it do its thing. My experience is that drives need replacing every few years. The plugs go bad, especially if you plug and unplug them a lot (if you move your work space frequently, like a digital nomad or in and out of student housing).

I use iDrive for offsite protection in case of disaster. I work for myself as well as digital file as much as I can, and I don't want to lose all that. iDrive was well-reviewed, a competitive price, AND would back-up both my internal drive AND an external drive which holds all my media. At the time (maybe still?) BackBlaze wouldn't backup external drives.

iDrive offers a connection to my backups long as I have an internet connection. If I had an internal drive failure, I could restore any files once I had reinstalled the system software. chscag is right that a full restore would be slow. But you'd can immediately download any crucial files and you can select exactly which ones. You could even get to them them via the web and download to another computer.

Nottooshabby, because you can backup external drives, you could backup your Time Machine backups if you really wanted.

My biggest complaint is that the instructions are basic and the online help does nothing other than repeat to you what you're already reading on your screen. If you want to know what they mean by "XYZ" you're out of luck. The alert messages are also misleading and annoying.

 

[Makisupa Policeman]

This thread popped up in a search. I have also had issues with external drives failing after a couple years(spinning drives). It may be due to occasional power glitches, so I now have it plugged into a UPS, along with my airport extreme so hopefully that will minimize the failures and corrupted backups.

Is there a service that would allow me to periodically backup the time machine backups, or possibly a cloned drive image to the cloud? I keep an external drive at work that i bring home occasionally, but I have not been very consistent with bringing it home due to infrequent office visits due to covid, and I run the risk of having it at the house when disaster strikes.

You cannot backup TM to any cloud service afaik, something to do with TM's use of "hard links" that need to be accessed locally? (Not sure of the exact technical reason.) You can however backup Carbon Copy Cloner Clones saved on a local drive to services like Backblaze and Arq.

 

[HDFan]

A backup no more than once a week is sufficient for most people.

As long as you are content with losing a weeks worth of data if your drive dies.

Personally I’d go with Backblaze over iDrive.

or Crashplan for smaller (unlimited) backups.

online backups won’t restore all the system files and preferences

But they are easily recreated with an OS restore/install.

The recommended 3-2-1 backup strategy would include only 1 TM backup (as they can be unreliable), 1 local backup via something like CCC, and one on-line backup (not iCloud).

If a drive is unreliable replace it. If you can keep a TM backup drive always attached in most cases that will be the easiest for one of the backups.

 

[chrispdx]

Any reason one couldn't use iDrive to cloud-backup the local Time Machine drive?

 

[HDFan]

Any reason one couldn't use iDrive to cloud-backup the local Time Machine drive?

1. You don't want to backup the TM drive but the original files. If you had to do a recovery on a not supported TM cloud volume (I'm assuming here) TM likely wouldn't see it and it would be difficult to find the files to restore.

2. Be sure you have a 3-2-1 backup strategy in place with only one of them being TM. TM backups tend to fail.

 

[gilby101]

Any reason one couldn't use iDrive to cloud-backup the local Time Machine drive?

I would also add one word: Snapshots.

TM presents its content as file system snapshots (one for each backup). Attempting to copy the content elsewhere would cause massive problems unless the product was specifically written for Time Machine snapshots. And recovery even harder as iDrive (or whatever) would need to reconstruct a TM volume and its snapshots. That would be difficult as the internals of TM are very largely undocumented.