A question on Carbon Copy Cloner's execution.

I want to have a bootable back up of my current state. I have TM running, but I guess those are not testable without restoring. Since CCC is free I figured why not.

2 window shots..
Which one should i do?
Delete or DONT delete?

I want to leave my TM backups on the 'Tedd's External'.

Will either option leave that as it is?

thanks

Go with the delete option. Your external no doubt has been formatted and GUID chosen under partitioning?

Personally prefer SuperDuper as the registered version allows a weekly or so Smart Backup of any changes to the operating system and takes less than three minutes. Have used CCC when donationware and found it much clower.

Yeah the drive is formatted to OS journaled or something. TM has been going since April/may ish. GUID is something I'm not familiar with.

You recommend deleting?

I did forget to mention that my iTunes media folder automatically saves onto the external, to save on HDD space.

Ttaylor394 said:

I did forget to mention that my iTunes media folder automatically saves onto the external, to save on HDD space.

Click to expand...

*smacks head*

That changes the answer considerably.

If you have stuff on the external drive that is NOT present on the source drive, then the "delete" option will -- obviously -- delete anything on the external drive that is not on the source drive. Just like it says on the tin. That means your iTunes library gets deleted, along with your TM backup.

Thus, you should leave the delete option UNchecked, but REALLY what you should do is *get another backup drive.* The clone backup should not be on the same backup as the TM backup, for rather obvious reasons.

???

Delete items that don't exist on the source

Click to expand...

Not really sure how much plainer language that can get.

Is your TM backup on your internal drive? - No? - then it will delete that.

Is your iTunes media folder on your internal drive? - No? - then it will delete that.


Do not create a bootable backup on a partition where you are storing any other data.

I personally would not recommend keeping a bootable backup and a TM backup on the same drive. But, if you insist, you need to have each one in it's own partition, not the same partition.

I would also recommend you do nothing to that external drive until you have it backed up unless you are willing to take the risk of losing your entire iTunes media.

You want a bootable backup, then you need to get yourself another drive - and make it one that's large enough to backup not only your internal drive, but also your iTunes media (since at this time, you apparently have none of it backed up at all).

THanks.. i think?

Sorry, I'm sort of plain spoken - and I've been accused of being rather brash on more than 1 occasion. ;D

It's really designed to make you think and take some time considering your backup plan.

The whole point of backups is to have your data stored in at least 2 places so that if a hard drive dies, you still have your data. A 3rd, off-site storage to protect you in case of fire, theft, etc.

Saving your iTunes media to the external "only", in order to conserve space - when that external dies, you will probably lose all of that - at least without spending money to retrieve it. Is that really what you're wanting to do by saving your iTunes media there instead of on the internal drive?

There are many of us here that use bootable backups in lieu of TM - we're probably in the minority because TM is so easy and sitting in the OS already. There are some of us that use both.

Not everyone can afford to do everything. So, only mho, your first consideration should be in protecting yourself from a dead drive and having only a portion of your data backed up doesn't do that. Get this one taken care of, then start considering how to protect your data from fire, theft, etc.

i understand, thank you. and this time, it comes without the hesitancy of an abused child.