Reistad wrote:
Hello,
I have just installed my new Time Capsule and made my backup with Time Machine of all my Macs.
But I know want an extra security with duplicate of my back-up on a portable hard-disk that I can store in a secure place outside the house.
My strategy is to update the extra hard-disk from time to time.
What is the easiest way to do that?
The easiest is to attach the disk to your Time Capsule and use Airport Utility to "archive" the TC to the external.
But I'd recommend a different strategy, for a couple of reasons. First, if there's a problem with your TM backups, it will be copied to your external HD.
Second, one of Time Machine's main advantages is the multiple, hourly "snapshots" it keeps, so you can recover a previous version of something. A weekly or monthly copy won't have that.
I'd suggest making a full, bootable "clone" with CarbonCopyCloner (which I use), or SuperDuper! (similar). These will make or update a copy of your entire system, but without the "archive" of older copies of things. Thus you don't need as much room, and you have the advantage of a completely separate, independent backup. (It's no iron-clad guarantee, of course: if there's corruption on your internal HD, either TM or a clone may just copy it.)
When you make the clone, you can test it by booting from it, and using the apps, etc., just as if you'd started from your internal. It won't run as fast, of course, but otherwise should be exactly the same. (Again, if something you don't test is corrupted or missing, you won't notice it, but that's quite unlikely).
CCC is donationware, so you can try it for a while, then send them some $$ so they can keep it up to date. SD has a free version, but to do an update (much faster than a full replacement) you need the paid one (about $30, I think). Find them via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.
