- I need to restore an image of my operating system to my MacBook Pro. It's about five days old. If I restore it, what happens to the files in Dropbox that are more recent than the files in the 5 day old clone? Will they be deleted when I restore? I hope not!
- I run both time machine and Superduper on a partitioned 2TB external drive. This is dangerous correct? If the drive fails, I lose both copies. I should actually have two external drives, one for each the superduper clone and the time machine, right?
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Proper Backup System
- Thread starter machappyboy
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No, Dropbox, will just resync the files. You may need to reinstall the Dropbox app after the install but once Dropbox is back online it will just download those newer files.
And yes putting both backups on the same media creates a risk (primarily of some problem that would destroy your primary and backup drives at the same time). If just the backup failed, you'd lose the backups but could always buy another drive and run two more backups. That said, the prudent approach is maintain 2 separate backups on separate physical disks. Also, having a 3rd disk that can be taken to another home or safe deposit box will mitigate fire, or other damage that might take out everything in your home at once.
You could keep going and try to make sure you never, ever lose anything but it takes time and money the more redundancy you create.
And yes putting both backups on the same media creates a risk (primarily of some problem that would destroy your primary and backup drives at the same time). If just the backup failed, you'd lose the backups but could always buy another drive and run two more backups. That said, the prudent approach is maintain 2 separate backups on separate physical disks. Also, having a 3rd disk that can be taken to another home or safe deposit box will mitigate fire, or other damage that might take out everything in your home at once.
You could keep going and try to make sure you never, ever lose anything but it takes time and money the more redundancy you create.
Appreciate the advice. Re: dropbox, why does it work like this. Is it because actions are timestamped and the program is smart enough to know the redownload?
"I run both time machine and Superduper on a partitioned 2TB external drive. This is dangerous correct? If the drive fails, I lose both copies. I should actually have two external drives, one for each the superduper clone and the time machine, right?"
Not particularly "dangerous", but the partition might limit the drive space needed for TM to do its thing.
But that said, it probably is a better idea to keep your bootable cloned backup on its own drive.
Not particularly "dangerous", but the partition might limit the drive space needed for TM to do its thing.
But that said, it probably is a better idea to keep your bootable cloned backup on its own drive.
My understanding is that Dropbox will only delete files that are affirmatively deleted while Dropbox is running. Otherwise it assumes the missing files need to be resync'd and it does so.
Proper backup system is multiple local drives and kept in sync, and one large one kept at home or off site... The externals are on you at all times u leave the building etc. (treat em like gold) I do that to my USB keys with my only copies of Network passwords...... Never had a hiccup once
If u wanna keep drives off-site then ok. Everyone has their own use case.
Funny, i never use Time machine ever, or any utility.. but i have time to spare. Others just like the automated approach.
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Yes, Dropbox knows which files are newer and only syncs newer -> older. If it didn't work this way and you had 2 or more devices sharing the same account then you'd have a constant battle going on with one device pushing updated files, the other device seeing the change and pushing it's outdated files, and so on until the end of time.
There seems to be some disconnect/misunderstanding that is clouding the waters. The files aren't going to be missing on the restored Mac, they're just going to be older than what exists on Dropbox. The OP was concerned that Dropbox wasn't smart enough to know which files to keep/update.
I thought he had 5 days of work that wouldn't be restored because he didn't have a current backup therefore they'd be missing on the restored Mac. Regardless, as you say Dropbox has him covered.