Backup and external Drives

Hi everyone.

I am a total newbie to Mac having spent a long long time with Windows. A new MBP arrives on Thursday !

Can someone just give me some advice on backing up. I'm in he process of getting all the accessories I need but can I use one large external drive for both Time Machine back ups and for storage of other data, e.g. music, photos or would it be better to get two individual drives. I'm guessing e same question applies if I want to clone my drive - do I need another individual drive. I can just see me ending up with lots of external drives everywhere!

Thanks for some excellent advice which I have been avidly ploughing through

It is possible to have the same drive hold Time machine backups as well as other data. It might be a good idea to partition the drive first putting Time Machine backups on one partition and data on the other.

It should be possible to have Time Machine backups and a clone on the same drive but it really would need partitioning. Otherwise Time Machine may gradually eat into space the OS needs for swap fills.

My system is simple: I have one external drive dedicated to Time Machine, and another external drive dedicated to a clone (using Carbon Copy Cloner, but you can also use SuperDuper or other programs if you prefer them). I don't store anything else on those drives because then I have to figure out how to back up the stuff on them!

I also have a large "media" drive (videos, RAW photos, iMovie projects etc) and a dedicated backup drive for that (so four in total). They sit neatly together in a little cubbyhole, and the cost of the drives was trivial compared to the peace of mind they provide.

chas_m said:

My system is simple: I have one external drive dedicated to Time Machine, and another external drive dedicated to a clone (using Carbon Copy Cloner, but you can also use SuperDuper or other programs if you prefer them). I don't store anything else on those drives because then I have to figure out how to back up the stuff on them!

I also have a large "media" drive (videos, RAW photos, iMovie projects etc) and a dedicated backup drive for that (so four in total). They sit neatly together in a little cubbyhole, and the cost of the drives was trivial compared to the peace of mind they provide.

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Hi chas_m,

regarding the Carbon Copy Cloner, is it cloning the recovery partition of the internal HD too? If my internalHD will totally crash how can I transfer the cloned one?

If I have SSD in an iMac (which will be not as large as typical HDD in terms of capacity), is it wise to store all my media files like music, movies, pictures etc in an external HD and leave the rest to SSD internal? Will it make a difference in terms of accessing speed of those media files by iTunes?

Thanks

The latest versions of Carbon Copy Cloner do indeed clone the recovery partition (as a disk image).

Because the clone is fully bootable, you would just replace the crashed internal HD, start up from the clone, and clone back. The recovery partition would be restored as part of the overall restoration.

Carbon Copy Cloner - Features

As for your second topic, I would say it's wise to store media on a separate drive. I don't feel it will make enough of a difference in terms of speed to be any sort of an issue, but of course HDs are slower than SSDs (but the cost of storing everything a typical user has on an SSD would be astronomical).

chas_m said:

As for your second topic, I would say it's wise to store media on a separate drive. I don't feel it will make enough of a difference in terms of speed to be any sort of an issue, but of course HDs are slower than SSDs (but the cost of storing everything a typical user has on an SSD would be astronomical).

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I have an idea about transferring the media library in iTunes but how about Pictures and Movies folders located in the sidebar? Is it possible to automatically save it to the external HD once I save pics and movies on those folders by just saving it to the sidebar shortcut icons?

While it would be ill-advised to move the Movies and Pictures folders themselves, you can easily locate iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes libraries on any drive or location you wish.

iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location

iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

iMovie '11: Copy or move a project to an external hard disk

chas_m said:

While it would be ill-advised to move the Movies and Pictures folders themselves, you can easily locate iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes libraries on any drive or location you wish.

iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location

iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

iMovie '11: Copy or move a project to an external hard disk

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Thanks for the links @chas_m

So if you have a time capsule and you want to attach two or three usb external drives - is that possible? Can you use a usb hub? Can you recommend a good usb hub for this use?

I have a USB hub attached to my Time Capsule and it seems to be working fine. I have used two or three different hubs with no problems.

I currently have a hub with two drives attached and have had a third from time to time. Two of the drives are in a double enclosure but I don't think that is necessary.

It you are going to connect several drives/devices it is probably best if the hub has its own power supply. In either case the hard drives should have their own power supplies. I am not a fan of the drives drawing power only from the ports. It seems that too many of our members have problems with them.

chas_m said:

The latest versions of Carbon Copy Cloner do indeed clone the recovery partition (as a disk image).

Because the clone is fully bootable, you would just replace the crashed internal HD, start up from the clone, and clone back. The recovery partition would be restored as part of the overall restoration.

Carbon Copy Cloner - Features

As for your second topic, I would say it's wise to store media on a separate drive. I don't feel it will make enough of a difference in terms of speed to be any sort of an issue, but of course HDs are slower than SSDs (but the cost of storing everything a typical user has on an SSD would be astronomical).

Click to expand...

Ok I'm a little confused, what is the difference in backing up via time machine or using carbon copy cloner? do they both work with one another? I purchased a 2TB external hard drive and partitioned it with 1TB each and backed up both my MBP and My wives. trying to make sure I am ready for mountain lion.

Time machine back ups are not "bootable".
Carbon Copy Cloner is able to make ordinary back ups - but it is also able to make a "bootable" back up.
A bootable back up will save a significant amount of time and effort in the event of a hard disc failure.
Time machine is very convenient in the event you are looking to restore a particular file or files that have been lost.
Some people, not all, use both time machine AND carbon copy cloner for these reasons.
At least that is how I have come to understand it.

Please forgive if this is repetitive or if I ask newbie questions. I have a WD My Book Live (3TB) with all of my media on it and I bought another one to use as a backup. They both connect directly to the network via switch. Everything I am reading speaks of Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner. But I am still not sure what software to use to create and autosync this backup need. Also, what is an SSD? Thank you

An ssd is a solid-state drive. It is an electric hard drive vs. the older style spinning hdd...

Thanks for the info. So, I have two WD My Book Live 3TB drives. I have one over two-thirds full of music and film media. I want to use the other as a mirror, backup, whatever, and have it automatically back up overnight like Time Machine. I've sifted through many forums but I haven't figured out how to do it properly. So, the other 3TB still sits in the box while the original is dangerously un-backed-up. Thanks if anyone can give me a step-by-step wth a software recommendation.

chas_m said:

..., and another external drive dedicated to a clone (using Carbon Copy Cloner, ...

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What is your routine with respect to the drive dedicated to a clone? How often do you update the clone and how do you go about the update process with CCC?