Backing Up an External Drive

[Rick T]

I currently have three external drives connected to my MacBook Pro:

1. Time Capsule
2. A drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.
3. A drive to offload files from the Mac to save space.

What would be a recommended method for backing up the third drive as it is simply an extension of my Mac?

 

[MacInWin]

You can use CCC to clone that third drive to another drive. That's probably the easiest, given you already use CCC. There is also a product called Chronosync that can keep that drive and the backup to it synchronized.

If you're looking for a way to backup to the TimeCapsule, that would depend on how much space is on the TC and how you want to backup to it. Not enough information to get specific there.

 

[Rick T]

Thanks, Jake. Adding another drive was the direction I was aiming, but wanted some concurrence. I will check out Chronosync as it sounds useful.

 

[ferrarr]

Why not use the Time Capsule to back that drive up?

 

[MacInWin]

ferrarr, he can use the TC, but if the external drive is large, and if it has a lot of data on it, it may fill the TC so much that his TM backups to that TC start to eliminate the older backups sooner. That's why I said we don't have enough information to definitively say he should do that.

 

[joema]

I currently have three external drives connected to my MacBook Pro:

1. Time Capsule
2. A drive using Carbon Copy Cloner.
3. A drive to offload files from the Mac to save space.

What would be a recommended method for backing up the third drive as it is simply an extension of my Mac?

If #2 drive is itself a backup drive, you can backup multiple drives to it using Carbon Copy, assuming the destination drive is big enough. E.g, I back up *both* my internal iMac drive and external Thunderbolt drive to a third drive via Carbon Copy. See the documentation or FAQ for how to do this: https://bombich.com/kb/ccc4/i-want-backup-multiple-machines-or-hard-drives-same-hard-drive