Q: Need recommendation for bootable External HD for CCC
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Nov 13, 2013 5:55 PMby macjack,It's usually not the WD drive itself but rather the installed WD software. If you do have a WD external be sure to remove the software by reformatting before use.
That said most here trust OWC (OtherWorld Computing) for their drives especially the Mercury Elite. Another good external is LaCie, I have several of those. Both are very reliable vendors.
If you're handy you can "roll your own" with a bare drive and an enclosure and save some money.
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Nov 13, 2013 5:57 PMby babowa,I have both LaCie's and OWC drives and both have performed well. If/when a LaCie needs to be replaced I will go with another OWC drive - they are reliable, quiet, 7200 rpm (fast) and bootable.
I ahve the Mercury Elite Pro:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
Any drive may/will need to be formatted properly: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and, under Partition options, GUID partition scheme to make it bootable. Other than that, turn it on, plug it in, format the drive, and it'll be ready for CCC.
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Nov 13, 2013 6:06 PMby PlotinusVeritas,probably should be making a bootable clone of my HD
Bootable clone is very important to have, and MUCH more useful than time machine in general.
Forget about CCC, Superduper does the same thing for FREE. Download the APP SuperDuper (most use it).
Some advantages of a cloned HD:
In case of an internal HD crash and failure, there is absolutely nothing quicker to getting back to 100% operation than having a HD clone handy to either boot from, or within 20 mins. installing and removing the bad HD. Nothing to install software-wise, and a speedy immediate return to your computer use and productivity.
If you do an option key startup at boot you can directly boot to your cloned drive externally and operate from same like normal.
Sandboxing: With the help of the Cloned Drive, you can perform sandboxing, or the testing of new software, their updates and applications before they are installed on your Mac system. Moreover, if there are issues with the system, you can troubleshoot them by booting off the Clone. Many people test new APPS or experiment with a secondary clone and never worry about a failure or serious issue since the internal HD is untouched and the secondary clone can be wiped afterwards if any major issue occurs in testing. This is an invaluable tool in many instances.
If you sell you computer for purchase of a new one, you can take the clone you have on hand and install same or clone it to the new internal drive of your new Mac.
As it turns out one of the huge positive benefits of a clone is that people were seeing faster HD speeds; with APPS booting up from the clone than they had seen with the internal HD. The cloning applications in cloning the drive defragments the data to the clone and remove the “holes” in the cloning process.
With a small portable HD clone you can take your ‘computer’ anywhere to most any other current Mac and boot from your HD clone and have your entire system and its data immediately there for use. In case one is across the world and their macbook gets stolen, or damaged, with another Mac you can be up and 100% in the time it takes to boot to the new or borrowed Mac!
You can clone from your external clone to the internal HD/SSD in case of corruption.
The best thing that can be said, ideally, when your HD crashes with all its data is “so what, I’ve got a clone right here” and you can return to normal operation within seconds (by booting from the clone) or minutes (by swapping drives).
In separating out your system hub (OS) and your data hub, and storing them separately, is if you make only periodic clones (every month or so), and have a HD crash, the worst case outcome is that what is lost on your clone are some bookmarks and preferences since your data hub containing your vital files is constantly archived separately as it should be.
Disadvantages of a cloned HD:
A HD clone takes a rather long time to update since it checks all files for changes.
Ideally you would erase and create a new clone of your updated system every 2 weeks or month, which would therefore leave a gap in data integrity and OS files and system changes.
Autonomous constant data hub archiving fills this downside “gap” of HD clones, wherein which the worst that would be lost is a 2 week or one month window of application updates, or system changes irrelevant to your vital data.
best options for the price, and high quality HD:
Quality 1TB drives are $50 per TB on 3.5" or $65 per TB on 2.5"
Perfect 1TB for $68
Nice 500gig for $50. ultraslim and perfect
- 2.5" USB portable High quality BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 2TB drive (have several of them, LOT of storage in a SMALL package) $117
*This one is the BEST portable external HD available that money can buy:
HGST Touro Mobile 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive
$88
Most storage experts agree on the Hitachi 2.5"
macjack My Swamp
It's usually not the WD drive
If you're handy you can "roll your own" with a bare drive and an enclosure
Its never the WD mechanical HD itself. None of those posts on "data corrupted .....Mavericks...HD RAID arrays" has any issue with the mechanical HD from WD
(that being said WD quality is the worst and I refuse to buy them).
Ill let you know when I find a HD enclosure that is worth more than 50 cents and/or is reliable.
(actually this one IS reliable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Anker-2-5-Inch-USB-3-0-eSATA-to-SATA-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD -External-Enclosure-/321085534744?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item4ac23072 18 )
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Nov 13, 2013 6:09 PMby etresoft,chrstene96 wrote:
according to Disk Utility I need to reformat my HD
What, exactly, does it say? It is pretty unusual to be required to reformat a hard drive. How did it get into that state? It sounds like the drive itself may be failing. They tend to do that after 3 years.
I wouldn't get too hung up on a bootable clone. It sounds like a better idea than it really is. If you ever use that bootable clone then you still have to replace some hardware to get back to a nominal state.
A locally connected Time Machine drive is bootable too and far more convenient.
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Nov 13, 2013 6:20 PMby chrstene96,THank you so much for ALL of that information ! I actually even understood it ! I think that Toshiba 1tb you mentioned is one of the ones I was actually considering today when I was out looking around ! When I came home to read up on it, I did see it noted a few times that it had problems sometimes getting enough power from the MBP USB port and they had to use some powered Y connecter. I assume you have not had that problem?
For the price of those ehd's, it seems silly NOT to have a bootable clone (or two)!
I will be attempting this tomorrow so I may be back with follow up questions ! Thank you.
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Nov 13, 2013 6:22 PMby chrstene96,In the past I had a problem with what I THINK were kernel panics (the white screen of death, etc)...came on here and found my way out of that and was able to get up and running with no future noticeable problems.
Lately, I've noticed the computer is running more and more sluggish. Loading my photos in iPhoto takes quite a bit of time, and I dread opening iMovie. Grumbled looking graphics in the corner of my Mail screen. Sometimes, other things lag behind as well, but those are the "heaviest" things I do so I thought I would mention them.
I decided to run the Disk Utility and tried to Verify permissions. I got a message "Disk Utility stopped verifying "Macintosh HD. The disk needs to be repaired using Recovery HD.....etc."
I attempted to follow the instructions to Repair as suggested...and got the following message:
"Disk Utility stopped repairing Macintosh HD. DU can't repair the disk. Back up as many files as possible, reformat the dis and restore your backed-up files".
ANd so that is how I ended up here. Physically, the only thing noticeable is that sometimes I hear what I THOUGHT was the fan running and running occassionally, but maybe it's the HD? A sign it's failing?
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Nov 13, 2013 6:52 PMby PlotinusVeritas,babowa Pacific NW
I respectfully disagree as SuperDuper does not and cannot create or update the recovery partition - and CCC does.
I know that, yup. Dont need the recovery partition. Even in talks with the creator of SuperDuper it stumps him why anyone cares about same. Dont need it.
Keep your original HD handy, if you sell it, throw in the original HD and use recovery to bring your Mac to its original state.
Again, still dont need it. Ive got both CCC and Superduper, used both, ............I DONT need CCC, ....yes I can see how some would think the recovery partion is 'handy'.
If you JUST want a bootable clone of your HD for safety, there is no reason whatsoever to need a recovery partition. If there is always a clone present,..........who needs the recovery partition?
Recovery partition:---repair the hard drive, erase the hard drive and install a new copy of OS X, or even restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.
If your HD is kaput, repair is useless
If you have a HD clone handy, erasing your HD is useless with the recovery partition
If you have an updated clone,......a TM restore/backup is also useless.
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Nov 13, 2013 6:41 PMby PlotinusVeritas,I actually even understood it ! I think that Toshiba 1tb you mentioned is one of the ones I was actually considering today when
Ive got piles and piles of HD, the one below is the best for the money, tiny and 2TB.
A terabyte seems like a lot, but most people can fill a Terabyte in no time.
2.5" USB portable High quality BEST FOR THE COST, Toshiba "tiny giant" 2TB drive (have several of them, LOT of storage in a SMALL package) $117
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Nov 13, 2013 7:08 PMby chrstene96,Ok, so the post about the "recovery partition" got a little too technical for me But it sounds like if I keep my cloned HD up to date, it's not necessary?
As far as the external hd itself...you say the 1 tb will get filled up in no time. My MBP is 500 gb and I am cloning that, so I just assumed it would be enough. Lets say I decide to update my "clone" once a month ( I Have no idea what the suggestion would be), will it just replace what is on there? I'm all for buying more storage, I'm just trying to learn the logic so I understand.
So in the end: I will have my Time Capsule with my constant Time Machine backups. The external HD that I am using to create a bootable clone. And I still have the other external that I had drag/dropped the iphoto library to initally. I figure keeping my precious photos on an external that I can update every so often could give me peace of mind. Is all of this sound like a secure backup plan ?
I really appreciate the help !
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Nov 13, 2013 7:14 PMby babowa,But it sounds like if I keep my cloned HD up to date, it's not necessary?
That is one opinion and opinions differ. The recovery partition is a hidden partition automatically created by Mavericks so you can restore your system (doing a clean erase and install if necessary of either the currently or originally installed OS) - clones can be corrupted as well (especially if you created it when your drive was corrupted). And, your clone has the OS you cloned - not another version. It is also the only Apple approved/legal method to return your Mac to the originally installed OS (if that was Lion or newer) if/when you sell it. So, my opinion is that it may become necessary to have it.
