My quest: Get a good backup of my 8 TB MBP before upgrading to 26

[MareLuce]

Before I install Tahoe (MacOS 26) , I need a good backup of my 8 TB M1 Max MacBook Pro drive.
AND, Before I move houses, I want to merge the contents of alllllll my HDDs, SDD, M.2's, etc and some of my Dad's HDDs with his code on it that he gave me.

Hardware:
I'm thinking about buying
1 - this enclosure from a German company I've never heard of "Icy Box".
https://a.co/d/8vrOWXB

2 - a huge HDD (16 TB or larger, something with 7200 RPMs) as the target.

Software:
Can't trust Time Machine. So many errors trying to complete a backup that I stopped using it years ago.
GoodSync is amazing for file sync-ing. I have used it for 10 years.
Carbon Copy Cloner 7 seems to have a good rep for full clones.

Any thoughts on this approach?

 

[hovscorpion12]

Biggest issues is that 8TB SSDs drives don't come cheap. [personally] I always recommend OWC for my portable needs. They do have a TB5 SSD, but that caps at 4TB. Their 8TB Express 1M2 is USB4. Costs $1,299.00.

OWC Express 1M2 80G: Portable USB4 NVMe M.2 SSD Solution

Offers incredible speeds of up to 6000MB/s, DIY flexibility with NVMe M.2 SSDs, and compatible with USB4, Thunderbolt, and USB-C computers and devices.

www.owc.com

 

[ChrisA]

Software:
Can't trust Time Machine. So many errors trying to complete a backup that I stopped using it years ago.
GoodSync is amazing for file sync-ing. I have used it for 10 years.
Carbon Copy Cloner 7 seems to have a good rep for full clones.

I would try to solve the problems you had with Time Machine. It is rare to hear of people having problems with it. Perhaps this was from the old days before APFS? Having problems with TM might be an indiction of some other problems.

As for getting just one good backup, all you need is to copy the files to some other media like a large disk drive. No special software is needed. But you should have redundency. Make two copies to two drives.

But really, you need to figure out what is wrong that TM does not work

One more thing, If you data is on external storage, then simply disconnect it while doing the upgrae if you think something bad might happen.

 

[ChrisA]

Biggest issues is that 8TB SSDs drives don't come cheap. [personally] I always recommend OWC for my portable needs. They do have a TB5 SSD, but that caps at 4TB. Their 8TB Express 1M2 is USB4. Costs $1,299.00.

OWC Express 1M2 80G: Portable USB4 NVMe M.2 SSD Solution

Offers incredible speeds of up to 6000MB/s, DIY flexibility with NVMe M.2 SSDs, and compatible with USB4, Thunderbolt, and USB-C computers and devices.

www.owc.com

You do not need SSD for backups, A 16tb spinning disk works well. Or rather a pair of them works well.

For primary storage, do you really need all the data on a SSD? Only what you are currently working with needs to be on ssd.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I wouldn't upgrade to Tahoe now, especially in your huge storage situation. Not for a WHILE.

I updated my MBA M2, and could not go a whole day before reverting back to Sequoia.

I recommend getting a smaller (and thus cheaper) external drive and installing Tahoe on it, so you can give Tahoe a proper test drive and see if you really want to commit.

 

[MareLuce]

I would try to solve the problems you had with Time Machine. It is rare to hear of people having problems with it. Perhaps this was from the old days before APFS?

re: from the old days, pre APFS? Yea, maybe.

Last time I tried was April, 2021 when I had a maxed out 15" MBP.

These are the Time Machine related topics I started the first 3 years after I started using a MBP.

( No need to read them. I have not tried Time Machine with the M1 Max.
Just posting here for context. I really did try to make it work! )

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-mbp-15-i7-2-9ghz-10-days-in-90-done.2112552/

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pgrade-and-time-machine-backup-error.2214158/

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...or-and-time-machine-still-new-15-mbp.2022101/

 

[MareLuce]

For primary storage, do you really need all the data on a SSD? Only what you are currently working with needs to be on ssd.

You are correct, I'm fine with all the data on a big spinning hard drive.
If the drive seems to perform well, I'd buy another and put it in my safe deposit box.

 

[MareLuce]

I wouldn't upgrade to Tahoe now, especially in your huge storage situation. Not for a WHILE

I definitely would not want to upgrade to Tahoe yet, but when I connect my phone running iOS 26 to backup / sync,
I see a message "You must upgrade to connect this phone"

 

[Honza1]

Having multiple backups is critically important even if you are not upgrading OS, I had MBP (soldered in) SSD die on me with no obvious reason. Lucky me I had great multiple backups, after mainboard replacement the restore (from TimeMachine) was question of running it overnight.
Backing up 8TB is going to take serious time, even if you do direct copy. I use TimeMachine and it works well for me, but man, it is awfully slow for the first backup.
I also use Carbon Copy cloner to backup number of SSDs/disks to their external clones weekly and it is OK, after you create the first copy. But my largest backup size is like 2-3TB.
Note, that I bought raid DAS USB enclosure (~$50 on Amazon) and populated with two disks. I can select from two basic raid types or use as enclosure with two separate disks. If you raid it right, you can bump up the speed to double the one HD speed (100MB -> 200MB/sec) and that helps with large backups, but you need two large disks.
Lots of options, potentially lots of money, surely lots of time.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In addition to getting a single external for backup, consider getting a 2 bay NAS for the task. That way you will have a backup of your backup., in addition to any offsite backup.

 

[G5isAlive]

re: from the old days, pre APFS? Yea, maybe.

Last time I tried was April, 2021 when I had a maxed out 15" MBP.

View attachment 2555841


These are the Time Machine related topics I started the first 3 years after I started using a MBP.

( No need to read them. I have not tried to make it with the M1 Max.
Just posting here for context. I really did try to make it work! )

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-mbp-15-i7-2-9ghz-10-days-in-90-done.2112552/

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pgrade-and-time-machine-backup-error.2214158/

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...or-and-time-machine-still-new-15-mbp.2022101/

Most Time Machine related issues are actually storage device related in that they time out and stop working with Time Machine. Cheap external hard drives and until recently most NAS systems were notorious for not playing well with Time Machine. No clue what “hopper.local” was but doesn’t sound standard.

Having said that I use both Time Machine because it plays nice with restores and CCC for more standard backups. Large spinning platters concern me because there is literally more to wrong (once density limits were hit they started stacking platters) so do get two.

 

[TheRdungeon]

Tangent, but the M1 Pro had an 8TB drive option?? I don't recall that when I ordered mine

 

[ignatius345]

Software:
Can't trust Time Machine. So many errors trying to complete a backup that I stopped using it years ago.
GoodSync is amazing for file sync-ing. I have used it for 10 years.
Carbon Copy Cloner 7 seems to have a good rep for full clones.

I use Time Machine for daily backups (convenient) but Carbon Copy Cloner for weekly and monthly offsite backups. I agree TM is not at all good for what you're planning.

However you go, just remember you never want data to exist in only one place. Ultimately if you own 8TB of data you'll want to pony up for at least 16 TB of storage on separate devices.

 

[m1maverick]

If you're comfortable using the command line and you're just wanting to backup your data (it can do other things but I am keeping it simple) then I would recommend "rsync" to perform the backup. It's as easy as:

rsync -av <source> <destination>

Where <source> is your source drive / directory and <destination> would be your new drive. Example:

rsync -av /home/MareLuce/ /Volumes/Data_Backup​

"data_backup" is the made-up name I used for the name of your backup drive.

If this looks like Greek to you then I would recommend something like CCC.

 

[MareLuce]

Okayyyyyyy ok okay. I'm taking alllll your advice and knuckling down to get this freaking backup.

First goal - Backup the data I have on my MBP and probably no where else.

Question:
My "-Pics" folder contains mostly photos that pre-date when I started using Apple Photos / iCloud.
There seems to be a link to my entire Apple Photo Library. I don't want to back those up right now.
Can someone please be psychic and tell me: Why did I put that link there (see the red arrow, pic 1)?

GoodSync seems to be backing up allllllllllll my iCloud photos when it hits that link.
If I delete that link, could I delete my Apple photos library? 🤯

In the Photos app Settings, location still looks default. (pic 2)

 

[splifingate]

Why did I put that link there

You did not; Mac OS did.

symlink(7)

man.freebsd.org

I've accumulated about 80TB of storage space over the recent years.

You really don't need to stress yourself out--and double-down--with a 3-2-1 "lock-box" storage strategy . . . all you need to do is make a copy (or two, if you find yourself feeling twice-shy).

I personally exist in the "Am I paranoid-enough?" Space; so I maintain double-handfuls of backups (local(x49+)), remote (B2/Goog, et al.), and in five of my nine friend's basements)

 

[MareLuce]

Tangent, but the M1 Pro had an 8TB drive option?? I don't recall that when I ordered mine

Hmmm.. I ordered the M1 Max with 64 GB and 8 TB. Not sure if the M1 Pro had 8 TB as an option.

 

[MareLuce]

You did not; Mac OS did.

That's insane! What made MacOS think to put a symbolic link there in my personal directory?

(I will read the full doc - maybe the answer is in there?)

Thank you for your reply.

80 TB! You WIN!

Are there any hard drive brands you would never buy again?

 

[R2FX]

Biggest issues is that 8TB SSDs drives don't come cheap. [personally] I always recommend OWC for my portable needs. They do have a TB5 SSD, but that caps at 4TB. Their 8TB Express 1M2 is USB4. Costs $1,299.00.

OWC Express 1M2 80G: Portable USB4 NVMe M.2 SSD Solution

Offers incredible speeds of up to 6000MB/s, DIY flexibility with NVMe M.2 SSDs, and compatible with USB4, Thunderbolt, and USB-C computers and devices.

www.owc.com

Is there any significant different between Thunderbolt 5 and the other USB-C drive with support for 80gb speed? I mean apart from the protocol

I got a M4 Max and I'm contemplating whether to get 4TB USB-C or 4TB TB5

 

[hovscorpion12]

Is there any significant different between Thunderbolt 5 and the other USB-C drive with support for 80gb speed? I mean apart from the protocol

I got a M4 Max and I'm contemplating whether to get 4TB USB-C or 4TB TB5

The only real difference between the two is the transfer speed. Being able out to transfer significantly large files in a shorter time.

 

[m1maverick]

Hmmm.. I ordered the M1 Max with 64 GB and 8 TB. Not sure if the M1 Pro had 8 TB as an option.

The 14" M1 Pro shows an 8TB option on Apple's technical specifications page.

 

[Honza1]

That's insane! What made MacOS think to put a symbolic link there in my personal directory?

(I will read the full doc - maybe the answer is in there?)

Data are located in place where convenient for system and iCloud backup, I assume you are using Photos in iCloud? Humans want simple access, so it created symlink where humans expect it to be found. At some point you told Photos where you want the data to be.
CCC is copying properly the data based on where they are (for humans they look like they are there).

You seem to be overthinking this. CCC is backing up the photos folder. YOu expect it to backup all photos which appear there to be for humans. It is doing the right thing.

Keep in mind, that lot of macOS and iOS are now various versions fo links. System is stored on separate, sealed and signed, partition which you cannot modify in any way. It is linked to places where humans and apps expect it to be.

Even for user files a location is not really location... when you duplicate a file which already exists in your folder the os simply creates link to that file in your new location and does not actually create a copy. It keep track of how many links there are to any file (or even part of the file) and deletes the physical location only after all links are gone. If you modify the file, it links only modified part to the parts which were not modified and keeps track of all of this mess... It makes for much faster and space efficient system. So a file is in storage, but there may be multiple pointers to that file - so where it is really?

Worth reading in various reviews. Amazing that it works and actually how well it works.

 

[R2FX]

The only real difference between the two is the transfer speed. Being able out to transfer significantly large files in a shorter time.

i don’t have a need for super large files, more like lots or small ones


OWC lists similar speeds for both…difference is 8TB for envoy and removable cable

 

[Alameda]

Before I install Tahoe (MacOS 26) , I need a good backup of my 8 TB M1 Max MacBook Pro drive.
AND, Before I move houses, I want to merge the contents of alllllll my HDDs, SDD, M.2's, etc and some of my Dad's HDDs with his code on it that he gave me.

Hardware:
I'm thinking about buying
1 - this enclosure from a German company I've never heard of "Icy Box".
https://a.co/d/8vrOWXB

2 - a huge HDD (16 TB or larger, something with 7200 RPMs) as the target.

Software:
Can't trust Time Machine. So many errors trying to complete a backup that I stopped using it years ago.
GoodSync is amazing for file sync-ing. I have used it for 10 years.
Carbon Copy Cloner 7 seems to have a good rep for full clones.

Any thoughts on this approach?
View attachment 2551555

I think your approach is wrong.


What I suggest is that you break your storage and your backups into two pools. One of the pools contains your System Software, the Applications, and your non-media documents. The other pool contains the media files which, I assume, are likely taking up 7.5 TB of your 8 TB.

For most of us, our media collection does not change, it only grows. In my case, I take thousands of 45 megapixel RAW photos. I have about 4 TB of them... but I keep them separate from my other files, in folders which are excluded from Time Machine backup. In my case, I backup my photos manually to an external SSD, which gets backed up to my NAS.

And my basic system/applications/documents, which still includes some photos and videos but not a lot... that's only about 200 GB and it gets backed up to two separate Time Machine drives. One is direct attached and the other is my NAS.

Managing the backup of a single monolithic 8 or 16 TB volume is a lot. If you don't separate the media files out, then every time your backup software runs a backup, it's going to run through all 8 or 16 TB of stuff to see if any of them have changed... and you know perfectly well that 15 1/2 of that 16 TB isn't going to change ever, because you took the photos of your kid's 6th birthday party ten years ago and you just want to keep it as-is.

 

[MareLuce]

Quick q - how should I format a new NVME stick

it will be the target of all my Imazing backups