Backup your Mac.

[tompatrick]

thanks for the explanation. So an SSD is a better option for backup?

I personally use HDDs for backing up the drive. I will prefer SSD for my startup disk that will boost its performance.
Is it safe to use an SSD for Backup purposes?

 

[honestone]

I personally use HDDs for backing up the drive. I will prefer SSD for my startup disk that will boost its performance.
Is it safe to use an SSD for Backup purposes?

Why not? I am actually planning on purchasing a 512 gig Samsung SSD in the near future, installing it in a nice, slim external case, and using it for the SuperDuoer! bootable backups for both of my Macs. Doing that will result in a much faster backup and recovery, as those backups will boot up faster, as will the use of Migration Assistant for "migrating"/copying non-Apple system "stuff". My only issue is that I am having difficulty finding a 2.5" external case with a Firewire 800 interface.

 

[Pasquanel]

I'm relatively new to Mac OS X ( early 2013) and as a former "Windows" user who spent many dollars for software that did not work nearly as well as Time Machine i'm truly impressed! I recently using Time Machine copied all my files and OS to a new SSD flawlessly. I keep nothing I care about on the operating system drive and back up everything to external drives and Idrive. I think Time Machine is great for my needs and feel secure that my data is safe

 

[Pasquanel]

Why not? I am actually planning on purchasing a 512 gig Samsung SSD in the near future, installing it in a nice, slim external case, and using it for the SuperDuoer! bootable backups for both of my Macs. Doing that will result in a much faster backup and recovery, as those backups will boot up faster, as will the use of Migration Assistant for "migrating"/copying non-Apple system "stuff". My only issue is that I am having difficulty finding a 2.5" external case with a Firewire 800 interface.

Why not an SSD/USB drive? I'm using a 1TB Seagate SSD/USB drive for storage and TM backups and then back it up to I-Drive . This is not intended as as a challenge but a question?

 

[honestone]

Why not an SSD/USB drive? I'm using a 1TB Seagate SSD/USB drive for storage and TM backups and then back it up to I-Drive . This is not intended as as a challenge but a question?

The movement of data over either Thunderbolt or Firewire 800 connectivity is faster than USB 3.x. That's even true for my 1 TB Seagate 7200 rpm HDDs I have in each of my external cases. So, a 512 gig SSD (especially one made by Samsung) would be really fast.

Yes, I can buy a nice, slim 2.5" external drive case with USB 3.0 connectivity, and a Samsung 512 gig SSD would fit inside of it. But, I want the speed improvement offered by Firewire 800 and/or Thunderbolt connectivity.

 

[honestone]

I'm relatively new to Mac OS X ( early 2013) and as a former "Windows" user who spent many dollars for software that did not work nearly as well as Time Machine i'm truly impressed! I recently using Time Machine copied all my files and OS to a new SSD flawlessly. I keep nothing I care about on the operating system drive and back up everything to external drives and Idrive. I think Time Machine is great for my needs and feel secure that my data is safe

Time Machine, from what I understand, does an admirable job for backups. But, I prefer the bootable backups created by SuperDuper!. The software only costs $27.95, and it works flawlessly. Plus, it makes recovery easier and faster than from a Time Machine backup, which is not bootable.

 

[linneacd]

I personally use HDDs for backing up the drive. I will prefer SSD for my startup disk that will boost its performance.
Is it safe to use an SSD for Backup purposes?

This is a much safe solution. However, it really takes to back up files on a HDD if it was too big. SSD boots the performance a lot as a startup disk.

 

[honestone]

This is a much safe solution. However, it really takes to back up files on a HDD if it was too big. SSD boots the performance a lot as a startup disk.

Given how expensive SSDs still are (although they are dropping in price), if one is backing up a lot of information, then standard HDDs are the way to go. For me, though, that is not the case, as far as my weekly backups go. On both of my 1 TB external drives, I have 3 partitions on each one: a 250 gig partition for my Mac Mini backup, another 250 gig one for my MacBook Air backup, and a 500 gig "Miscellaneous" one, where I keep movies, TV series, Tax Returns, photos, etc. For each such partition, I am only using half the space on each one. So, a 512 gig SSD, with two partitions of 256 gig each for the two backups, would be perfect. Only half the space for each partition would be used, and given that each such backup is a bootable one, recovering from a "disaster" on either of my Macs would be fast, efficient, and easy.

 

[Pasquanel]

Time Machine, from what I understand, does an admirable job for backups. But, I prefer the bootable backups created by SuperDuper!. The software only costs $27.95, and it works flawlessly. Plus, it makes recovery easier and faster than from a Time Machine backup, which is not bootable.

OK that would be my question "bootable"? I have a Mac Mini late 2012 that I upgraded the ram to 16 gig. I purchased an SSD from OWC and an external usb enclosure and using TimeMachine "restored" my newest backup to my new SSD. I then removed the original "platter drive" and installed the new SSD and it works perfectly, except much faster. So again how was the Time Machine backup not bootable?

 

[honestone]

OK that would be my question "bootable"? I have a Mac Mini late 2012 that I upgraded the ram to 16 gig. I purchased an SSD from OWC and an external usb enclosure and using TimeMachine "restored" my newest backup to my new SSD. I then removed the original "platter drive" and installed the new SSD and it works perfectly, except much faster. So again how was the Time Machine backup not bootable?

Time Machine does back up all your files (including the system stuff), but it does not make the backup bootable. Only SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner make an exact, bootable backup of your entire system. You cannot boot from a Time Machine backup.

 

[Pasquanel]

I'm still struggling with the concept, I was able to using TM restore my last TM backup to a new SSD and it was bootable. I did not use any other software. But TM backups are not bootable, so using the restore function makes it bootable? Please forgive my ignorance my confusion is probably due to my misunderstanding the terminology.

 

[honestone]

If you use Time Machine for backing up your stuff, and if you have a disaster requiring the full recovery of everything from your Time Machine Backup, here is what you would need to do:

1. Assuming your Mac has been running Lion (OS 10.7) or beyond, you would first boot to the Recovery HD partition on your internal drive (this link talks about that partition: how to boot to it, and what it can do: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314).

2. Next, you have a choice:

A. If the drive is OK, you can choose the first option to perform a complete recovery from the Time Machine backup. Once that is done, you can then boot your Mac "like normal".

B. If the drive is damaged. you would use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and if necessary, Partition the internal drive. Then, you would do a clean, "virgin" installation of whatever OS you had been using. Finally, you would then boot your Mac, and then use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the "necessary" stuff from the Time Machine backup.

Now, the other way of backing up/cloning one's Mac is to use either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. If you then have a disaster requiring the full recovery from the SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner backup, you would boot your Mac from such a backup (ie, not use the Recovery partition). From there, the options are "similar". That is, if the drive is OK, you would perform a "Restore all files" (that's the option in SuperDuper!, which is what I use. Carbon Copy cloner has something similar, but I do not know what it is called). What SuperDuper! does in that case is to Erase the internal drive, and restore everything from the backup to the internal drive. Then, one would just boot their Mac normally, and be back in business.

If the drive is bad, then one would use Disk Utility on the backup to Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the internal drive, do a virgin installation of the OS one had been using (it would be necessary to have the "Install OS X "whatever"" file on the backup; I of course have mine in two places). Then, boot your Mac, and like above, use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the necessary stuff from the SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup.

You are probably thinking that both processes basically function the same. Yes, that is true, but the huge advantage of a clone/backup is that one can actually do their work running from the backup (albeit slower). And, the other big advantage is that if the internal drive on your Mac is beyond repair, one can still work via the backup until a new drive is installed. In such a case, one would not be able to boot to the Recovery HD partition. That is another reason why it is imperative to perform disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs on a periodic basis. Disk Utility is "OK" for such tasks, along with Onyx and one's own cleanup efforts. But, I prefer TechTool Pro (along with Onyx) instead of Disk Utility for my weekly disk maintenance/repair tasks. It can perform some functions that will warn me when the drive is starting to go bad.

Finally, there are instances where the Recovery HD partition does not get created from an OS installation. I believe such instances are rare, and I have never had an issue with it. But, I have seen it mentioned on some other sites/discussion groups.

 

[Pasquanel]

If you use Time Machine for backing up your stuff, and if you have a disaster requiring the full recovery of everything from your Time Machine Backup, here is what you would need to do:

1. Assuming your Mac has been running Lion (OS 10.7) or beyond, you would first boot to the Recovery HD partition on your internal drive (this link talks about that partition: how to boot to it, and what it can do: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314).

2. Next, you have a choice:

A. If the drive is OK, you can choose the first option to perform a complete recovery from the Time Machine backup. Once that is done, you can then boot your Mac "like normal".

B. If the drive is damaged. you would use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and if necessary, Partition the internal drive. Then, you would do a clean, "virgin" installation of whatever OS you had been using. Finally, you would then boot your Mac, and then use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the "necessary" stuff from the Time Machine backup.

Now, the other way of backing up/cloning one's Mac is to use either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. If you then have a disaster requiring the full recovery from the SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner backup, you would boot your Mac from such a backup (ie, not use the Recovery partition). From there, the options are "similar". That is, if the drive is OK, you would perform a "Restore all files" (that's the option in SuperDuper!, which is what I use. Carbon Copy cloner has something similar, but I do not know what it is called). What SuperDuper! does in that case is to Erase the internal drive, and restore everything from the backup to the internal drive. Then, one would just boot their Mac normally, and be back in business.

If the drive is bad, then one would use Disk Utility on the backup to Erase, Format, and if necessary, partition the internal drive, do a virgin installation of the OS one had been using (it would be necessary to have the "Install OS X "whatever"" file on the backup; I of course have mine in two places). Then, boot your Mac, and like above, use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the necessary stuff from the SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup.

You are probably thinking that both processes basically function the same. Yes, that is true, but the huge advantage of a clone/backup is that one can actually do their work running from the backup (albeit slower). And, the other big advantage is that if the internal drive on your Mac is beyond repair, one can still work via the backup until a new drive is installed. In such a case, one would not be able to boot to the Recovery HD partition. That is another reason why it is imperative to perform disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs on a periodic basis. Disk Utility is "OK" for such tasks, along with Onyx and one's own cleanup efforts. But, I prefer TechTool Pro (along with Onyx) instead of Disk Utility for my weekly disk maintenance/repair tasks. It can perform some functions that will warn me when the drive is starting to go bad.

Finally, there are instances where the Recovery HD partition does not get created from an OS installation. I believe such instances are rare, and I have never had an issue with it. But, I have seen it mentioned on some other sites/discussion groups.

 

[Pasquanel]

honestone, thank you Sir it finally sunk in! Thanks for taking the time I do appreciate it!

Rick

 

[honestone]

You're welcome. Sorry for the long explanation, but it was important for me to include all the information connected with backing up, by the two methods.

 

[Pasquanel]

I finally got it my misunderstanding of bootable was the issue. My view was if I could copy/restore a TM backup to a new SSD and it worked just fine how its that not "bootable"? OK got, it I cannot boot directly from TM. Thank you all for the assist.

 

[honestone]

Glad to help. No matter which kind of backup one recovers from, it is still not a "just push the button" exercise. It does take some effort.

 

[Ervz]

Very helpful guys! Now, I have a related question here : https://www.mac-help.com/threads/cleaning-up-system-drive-library-preferences.221930/

 

[teapot]

I'm afraid I'm a bit helps and braises when it comes to backup, I use Time Machine and I also have a physical backup of my documents. I have come across a company called back blaze which does a constant backup of anything I select, and like Time Machine runs harmlessly in the background without slowing my machine up at all. As with all things in this modern life there is a cost, it costs me five dollars per month. As far as recovery goes they offer various methods, I can go online and do a physical search for whichever item I want to restore or, as an extra cost, I can get volumes for some flash drives and sent by post or even complete volumes on a hard drive. Costs vary according to whichever method, there is no cost for the direct download.
I don't work for the company or have anything to do with it but have a look at www.backblaze.com all is explained there.
Just a thought.

 

[ihabarneh]

Hi,
Is there a way to find when my mac erased? any app or a way to find out?

Thanks,