When to use Time Machine vs Carbon Copy Cloner vs Super Duper
Ok, so you want to backup your data on a Mac. What is the best way to do it? Here are some options.
Time Machine is the built in backup application.
Pros: What is nice about it is that it is free, simple to use, and integrated well into transferring data and settings to a new computer during the setup process since the Mac installation manager asks if you have any Time machine drives you want to import. Also, a fresh install on OSX and transferring data from your time machine won't increase your bootup time as significantly as a clone from Carbon Copy Cloner and I assume Super Duper) would. (An extra 40-60 seconds) With a Time Machine 104GB restoration, boot time for 2008 Core 2 Duo is between 48 and 62 seconds 320GB 5200rpm hard drive. Virtual Machines, CS6, etc all seem to work after being transferred.
Cons: It is hard, and sometimes not worth the time, to find files on your backup hard drive. If you backed up a paper under 'Documents' and someone took your computer and you just have your hard drive with your Time machine backup, you will probably have a hard time finding your paper. The Time Machine backup does not backup all your folders in an easily navigable way. It backs up things in an incremental way with the changes saved on the time Machine date it was saved so it had files for differnt dates... it's a mess. Maybe a Find would help... Not sure.
I did notice that in "Mail" it did not copy the e-mail messages stored "On My Mac" section and many of the other folders though it copied the folder names but not the e-mails in the mail folders. I have also noticed that sometimes an application may ask for the product key again, like CS5.
It also does not copy some files that you don't really need like some temporary files and stuff like that you don't need, so it may save a little space.
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) - This software will exactly copy your hard drive, so you can navigate the folders, find your files on your backup drive, AND one of the coolest features is that it will let you make a bootable copy on a hard drive including your USB drive (or another laptop hard drive). This means you can connect the USB drive with your bootable backup into ANY Mac, hold down "Option" as it is starting up, and you will be able to choose which hard drive you want to boot from, including the backup of you other computer.
It also will install the Mountain Lion backup/recovery partition if you tell it to, which is nice. Usually you need the 10.8 install file for that.
3.4.5 is freeware that I use. Looking at their site 3.4.7 is the most recent freeware version. Newer versions you have to pay for since the company apparently thought they would make more money charging for their product instead of asking for donations.
There is a message that pops up saying that it hasn't been throughly tested with Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) but I haven't had any huge issues.
I have seen the boot times with CCC clones onto main hard drives take 1:00-1:50 which is long...
Super Duper- My understanding is that it is virtually identical to Carbon Copy Cloner. I used it in 2010 to clone my hard drive. I tried it again in 2012 and the version I use would just freeze when I tried to make a bootable backup. One really nice thing it let me do (without freezing) was opt to only backup (and set a schedule to continue to sync after the initial copy) my folders with data I care about and exclude operating system and application files (things you don't want on a new computer if you went through a techie phase where you tried every application you could get your hands on to see if it was worthwhile). This is something I like doing for myself when it is time to wipe my hard drive, reinstall an OS and the applications I actually use, and then replace my personal files (pictures, documents, etc.)
Drag and drop - This can be fine, but there are some exceptions. In 2010, I copied my iPhoto folder from one computer to a new one. When I did that, I got a lot of duplicate pictures, I got a large amount of images of just faces that were supposed to be used to identify people you knew to tag them, but they showed up as images themselves. Also, some pictures came across only at thumbnail resolutions and not full resolution. It was really weird and disappointing.
Interesting notes
You can take a hard drive out of one MacBook and put it into another macbook Pro and it will work. however, it will add about 40 second to the bootup time. This longer boot time also applies if you use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable backup on an external hard drive, (that also has another bootable backup on it) then put a new hard drive in a connected MacBook, then start up the computer holding 'Option'
If you are installing OSX, you have the option to "restore from backup" or to "Reinstall OSX 10.8". I recommend Reinstalling 10.8 because it will then also install the recovery partition." the "Restore from backup" will not install the recovery partition.
Time machine time says it takes about 60 minutes to backup, but it takes longer.
2010 17" i5 Macbok Pro too 1:30 to start up with a
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment