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Which Backup Software Do You Use?
- Thread starter honestone33
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Yes, definitely interesting! Myself I have used SuperDuper! for so, so long, and it has always been reliable. I also test those bootable backups every so often, just to make sure all is well.Interesting choice - can you explain why you do not use one of the products for all your backups? Looking to see what I might have missed here with my own use of SuperDuper for all drives
CCC weekly to a rotating set of removable media.
CCC monthly to a mirrored array of disks that goes offsite.
Arq backup to B2 several times per day.
I also store many of my documents in iCloud for mirroring between devices. Although this is not a traditional backup, it can protect from device loss.
I would have liked to see multiple choice in the poll.
CCC monthly to a mirrored array of disks that goes offsite.
Arq backup to B2 several times per day.
I also store many of my documents in iCloud for mirroring between devices. Although this is not a traditional backup, it can protect from device loss.
I would have liked to see multiple choice in the poll.
I tried to do that, and that is how the "Something Else" category came about. But there are some "obscure" programs that are used for backups that I (and I suspect many others) are not familiar with.
I'm a bit old school OS is on its own Volume and occasionally backed up to a SuperDuper asr disk image.
Files are backed up as needed via good old drag and drop.
Files are backed up as needed via good old drag and drop.
Nothing like old drag and drop!
I do something similar, but automated using Hazel. Using Hazel rules, I mirror a folder to a 512GB SD attached to my 2015 MBP. This way I get an immediate backup of an important document that I have whenever it it saved. Then later before shutting down, I'll send it up to B2 using Arq.
- Time Machine for backups.
- Standard copy for archival.
- Archive (~50%)
- MacOS Install (~16GB)
- Time Machine (whatever is left).
Time Machine on an attached drive works quite well with the Migration Assistant – works great whenever I bought a new Mac and transfer data to it without needing much effort.
Before the pandemic I used to cycle two drives, put one of it on my parent's house, and swap it whenever I visit. However the pandemic impedes by ability to refresh offsite backups/archival.
Chronosync for as long as I can remember.
I did try TimeMachine when it came out, but it failed on me twice.
I did try TimeMachine when it came out, but it failed on me twice.
I didn't see any mention of encryption. That is an immediate disqualifies it for many of us.
As far as I'm aware, CCC and Superduper also don't provide their own encryption. Instead, you could use Filevault on your backup drive, if that's possible for your use case. For primary locally attached backups, I wouldn't use proprietary encryption anyway.
If you're backing up to say B2, then agreed, you'd probably want encryption handled by your backup software.
True, they do not have their own encryption. And neither does Time Machine. But one can get around that easily enough. This article explains all that:
How to encrypt your Mac backups
How do you make sure the backups you take are as secure as your Mac itself? By encrypting the drives!
www.imore.com
CCC Scripts - for automatic weekly backups (incremental - no safety net) and use the clone button manually sometimes if there is important new info / data / media to "make safe"
2 MBP's - each Backed up to separate bootable SSD's weekly and sometime more often (manually - just press clone button)
Media Drive - 3 Large "Photos" libraries and home movies - from MBP's and external working drive to a "Master Media Backup Drive" Drive
Music, Movies Garageband Drive - iTunes Backed up to master SSD weekly Sat - and WD-HDD wednesday and to TCAP sunday
Passwords File - Backed-up separately to Media Drive - weekly
Outlook (10 years of emails and attachments) - separately backed-up to Media drive - as a back up to the cloned MBP's
Have time machine turned off - had issues in the past - 4 years ago and CCC offers so much more flexibility from "backing up important folders or files" to creating a "bootable clone"
CCC = IMHO "worth every penny"
2 MBP's - each Backed up to separate bootable SSD's weekly and sometime more often (manually - just press clone button)
Media Drive - 3 Large "Photos" libraries and home movies - from MBP's and external working drive to a "Master Media Backup Drive" Drive
Music, Movies Garageband Drive - iTunes Backed up to master SSD weekly Sat - and WD-HDD wednesday and to TCAP sunday
Passwords File - Backed-up separately to Media Drive - weekly
Outlook (10 years of emails and attachments) - separately backed-up to Media drive - as a back up to the cloned MBP's
Have time machine turned off - had issues in the past
- 4 years ago and CCC offers so much more flexibility from "backing up important folders or files" to creating a "bootable clone"CCC = IMHO "worth every penny"
Yes, CCC is an excellent program! I believe the paid version of SuperDuper! offers those same enhancements (beyond copying/cloning). I always do just a simple backup/clone every week for each of my Macs, even though I have the paid version.CCC Scripts - for automatic weekly backups (incremental - no safety net) and use the clone button manually sometimes if there is important new info / data / media to "make safe"
2 MBP's - each Backed up to separate bootable SSD's weekly and sometime more often (manually - just press clone button)
Media Drive - 3 Large "Photos" libraries and home movies - from MBP's and external working drive to a "Master Media Backup Drive" Drive
Music, Movies Garageband Drive - iTunes Backed up to master SSD weekly Sat - and WD-HDD wednesday and to TCAP sunday
Passwords File - Backed-up separately to Media Drive - weekly
Outlook (10 years of emails and attachments) - separately backed-up to Media drive - as a back up to the cloned MBP's
Have time machine turned off - had issues in the past
CCC = IMHO "worth every penny"
For me, being able to boot the backup is worth its weight in gold!
1) Time Machine - primary backup
2) CCC clone - weekly and manual clones when needed to backup bootables
3) Arq [version 7 beta] - daily backups to two different cloud services
2) CCC clone - weekly and manual clones when needed to backup bootables
3) Arq [version 7 beta] - daily backups to two different cloud services
I have a mate who uses ChronoSync for certain cloud purposes. He uses its DMG encryption feature.
See, Effective Cloud Strategies > 7. Backup to Disk Images (DMGs):
https://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/guide-effective-cloud-strategies.html
And, Backup to a Disk Image Assistant:
https://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/guide-assist-backup-to-a-disk-image.html
The best backup software out there. Carbon Copy Cloner. I don't know why some people like SuperDuper, while it gets the job done it doesnt look as professional as the CCC guys.
Time Machine once almost made me lose my digital life when I used it as a backup and it didn't work. The only reason I see that "tool" useful is if you have a mac and want to go back in time to an earlier version of your file. Very rare case for me.
Time Machine once almost made me lose my digital life when I used it as a backup and it didn't work. The only reason I see that "tool" useful is if you have a mac and want to go back in time to an earlier version of your file. Very rare case for me.
Good point, I forgot about that feature.
CCC and Super duper should be able to do this too, as a mounted (and encrypted) disk image is just a disk as far as any software is concerned.
However, Chronosync does have the feature to automatically mount/unmount the .dmg - I've used it myself.
I read their newsletter, they say this is a current issue that Apple should fix in the future and not a permanent obstacle. External drives can still be bootable, but you have to install Big Sur on them first then back up to them using CCC. That way it will be bootable. I wonder if booting from them then upgrading to Big Sir within them would be enough.
This problem should affect all bootable drive cloners including SuperDuper.
