Looking for a recommendation for a drive sync app. (see thread)

[AnimeFunTv]

So I'm on the look for a Mac App that would allow me to sync drive, not necessary clone a drive, so let me explain.

Say I have a 3TB drive in my MacPro that contains documents, videos and photos, its not an OS boot drive.

I'm looking for an app that can backup that 3TB drive into an 3TB external drive and that external drive I want to store away in a safe place.

I will still continue to use the 3TB drive in my MacPro to, add or delete as I see fit until, lets say a month as passed and I want to 'sync' the 3TB drive with my external 3TB drive that I had backed up previously.

I want to be able to hook up my external drive open an app and let that app 'sync' any changes that have been made on my internal 3TB drive onto my 3TB external drive, then remove the external drive and store it away again for another couple of weeks.

Most apps I see I think require the drive to be attached 24/7 which is not what I'm looking for, I actually want to remove the drive and store it until I need to backup again. This way the drive it self doesn't 'wear down' being continuously on.

Any recommendations would be very helpful.

 

[Stephen.R]

Personally I'd just setup Time Machine, exclude the system folders, and set that drive as the backup drive. Unless you're storing it in a water/fire-proof safe, I wouldn't bother disconnecting it either - there may be some advantage to turning it off, but at the price of ~3TB spinning rust these days, I'd take that over the more likely "oh **** moment" when you realise you've lost the last 3 weeks work because it isn't a continual backup.

 

[AnimeFunTv]

Personally I'd just setup Time Machine, exclude the system folders, and set that drive as the backup drive. Unless you're storing it in a water/fire-proof safe, I wouldn't bother disconnecting it either - there may be some advantage to turning it off, but at the price of ~3TB spinning rust these days, I'd take that over the more likely "oh **** moment" when you realise you've lost the last 3 weeks work because it isn't a continual backup.

To be fair I do have Time Machine enabled and in use, however what I'm looking for is more for archival purpose. Also, Time Machine takes snapshots and it will eventually get full before you'll have to delete some of the old snapshots.

Kind of think of it as iPhone when you plug it in, it syncs any changes. Once its done you unplug it and be on your merry way.

 

[Stephen.R]

To be fair I do have Time Machine enabled and in use, however what I'm looking for is more for archival purpose. Also, Time Machine takes snapshots and it will eventually get full before you'll have to delete some of the old snapshots.

I see.. does TM backup the 3TB drive in your Mac, or is that excluded?

Rsync (or one of the GUI wrappers for it) will do what you want, but I personally would still just use TM. Providing you give it enough space to work, it will give you that archive capability, with point-in-time snapshots (like a versioned archive) and with much less space use (i.e. you only need space for the changes, not for the whole data set again).

 

[AnimeFunTv]

I see.. does TM backup the 3TB drive in your Mac, or is that excluded?

Rsync (or one of the GUI wrappers for it) will do what you want, but I personally would still just use TM. Providing you give it enough space to work, it will give you that archive capability, with point-in-time snapshots (like a versioned archive) and with much less space use (i.e. you only need space for the changes, not for the whole data set again).

Time Machine drive is only 2TB plus I do work with a lot of video media so file sizes can get pretty big pretty quick.

 

[HDFan]

that would allow me to sync drive, not necessary clone a drive,

I'm looking for an app that can backup that 3TB drive into an 3TB external drive and that external drive I want to store away in a safe place.

lets say a month as passed and I want to 'sync' the 3TB drive with my external 3TB drive that I had backed up previously.

I want to be able to hook up my external drive open an app and let that app 'sync' any changes that have been made on my internal 3TB drive onto my 3TB external drive, then remove the external drive and store it away again for another couple of weeks.

Most apps I see I think require the drive to be attached 24/7 which is not what I'm looking for,

That's exactly the way Carbon Copy Cloner works.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I use CCC to do exactly what the OP is describing.

 

[superscape]

Yup. I'd probably give a +1 for TimeMachine although I've used Carbon Copy Cloner in similar situations before with good results.

If you want to be super-fancy, you could use Automator and an rsync command as shown in the attachment. Save it as an app when you have it working and just double click it when you want to run it.

NB. You'll need to adjust the paths to the source and dest folders.

 

[AnimeFunTv]

Thank you for the recommendations, I have looked into CCC and have used it in the past for cloning boot drives but it never occurred to me that I could use it more than just that. I'll have to play around with it more to see if it will workout for me.

Thanks again everyone.