backup software

Here's my current situation as briefly as possible: After many years of being a PC user, I started with an iMac and then added a MacBook Pro. I've gotten more involved in photography since my retirement (fairly good amateur) and have about 20,000 photos. I've copied my photos to an external drive (My Passport for Mac) and I'm learning to use Lightroom for both cataloguing and editing. My plan is to continue to use Photos and iCloud for the photos that I want to be able to keep on all my devices (iMac, MacBook, iPhone, and iPad). I will delete everything else from my devices and iCloud, but first I need to figure out a backup plan for all the photos on my external drive. I have a TB of space on OneDrive that is nearly empty. It currently has only has one small folder of documents and the remainder could be used for photo backups.

I have two specific questions:
Is there backup software that will make it possible to easily use One Drive for backups?
Is there something other than One Drive that is easier to use with Mac devices?

Thanks!

Welcome to our forums.

If all your photos are on an external drive and you wish to back them up, we recommend using another external drive and clone one to the other. Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper (cloning applications) will clone one hard drive to another. You could of course use the space on OneDrive but it would be a drag and drop type of backup. In other words, manually dragging and dropping all those photos from your external drive to the OneDrive cloud. That will take a long time to accomplish.

Your other question regarding backup software to use with OneDrive would involve using something like ARQ or Backblaze. Do some searching and you should be able to find backup software that will work with OneDrive or any other on line cloud drive.

I've been using SuperDuper for longer than I care to remember. I make a regular weekly bootable clone of my iMac's hard drive. It's an easy bit of software to use meaning that you are not put off making regular back ups.

I also use Time Machine, and keep a further copy of all my RAW files on a separate hard drive.

But I would heartily recommend SuperDuper (and no, I am not in any way linked to the company)

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

backup

"I also use Time Machine, and keep a further copy of all my RAW files on a separate hard drive.

But I would heartily recommend SuperDuper (and no, I am not in any way linked to the company)

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html"


I use Time Machine for my iMac for automatic backups to an external drive. If I use another external drive to backup the photos that are on the Passport, can Time Machine back up from an external to another external?

I use Time Machine for my iMac for automatic backups to an external drive. If I use another external drive to backup the photos that are on the Passport, can Time Machine back up from an external to another external?

Click to expand...

Yes it can, and here are the instructions on how to do it. Now, having said that, it will be much easier and faster to use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Your choice.

I was somewhat surprised that Retrospect is still around:
https://www.retrospect.com/en/products#mac
I don't know if it will meet your requirements, but you might want to check it out.