Unmount or eject Passport drive?

[faler]

I have two Passport drives. One for Time Machine and other data backup. I also have one dedicated to CCC. It was suggested to me to not keep the drive with CCC connected all the time. So I need to disconnect it. Should I eject the drive or unmount (or is it dismount) the drive? I do not know what the difference is between these two actions.

TIA

 

[RadDave]

I have two Passport drives. One for Time Machine (TM) and other data backup. I also have one dedicated to CCC. It was suggested to me to not keep the drive with CCC connected all the time. So I need to disconnect it. Should I eject the drive or unmount (or is it dismount) the drive? I do not know what the difference is between these two actions.

Well, I have 4 external HDs dedicated to TM backups, 2 each for my iMac & MBPro - I also have two HDs, each w/ two partitions for CCC backups (like to be redundant!). The TM HDs are plugged into my iMac, and I do TM BUs on my laptop once a week, so need to eject properly. The CCC BUs are also done about once a week and again both partitions of each drive need to be ejected.

For these HDs, ejection and dismount are really the same - take a look at the screen capture from Finder below - one of my partitioned HDs is plugged into my MBPro - each partition is mounted - when done simply click on the right-sided icon (w/ the arrow up symbol) - in my case I am given the choice to 'eject' one or both partitions. Dave

P.S. As to whether leave your CCC HDs constantly attached or used intermittently like me, I'm sure that you'll get opinions both ways?
.

 

[vansmith]

Ejecting and unmounting are effectively the same thing.

I'd suggest ejecting it given what the purpose of (clone) backups are: a copy of the hard drive removed from the immediate context in case something happens to the machine.

 

[faler]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. It seems logical to me to create the backup on the dedicated CCC drive and keep it disconnected to avoid viruses / contamination or other disasters.

 

[vansmith]

My recommendation was more to address the idea that your backup should be physically separated from your computer in case something like a liquid spill or theft occurs.

 

[RadDave]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input. It seems logical to me to create the backup on the dedicated CCC drive and keep it disconnected to avoid viruses / contamination or other disasters.

Hi Faler - agree w/ Vansmith, i.e. if I took my plan one step further, I would keep both Time Machine & CCC backup drives 'off site', e.g. in a safe deposit box @ my bank (or if I was not retired, then @ work).

As to 'viruses', I hope you don't believe that is an issue w/ the current Mac OS X? Not a concern, but I guess if you backup drive(s) were attached to your computer and a lightening strike hit your house then all could be knocked out. Just a few more thoughts - good luck! Dave