How to back up to an external hard drive without Time Machine

CCC is a good product I have used for years. But its behavior changed recently regarding core-system files with Apple "sealed system file container".

One you had free access to even system files, once you "approved" CCC to access them.

Now CCC freely accesses your data-only partitions for the "copy changed and new files, making archives of changed files", but cannot easily access "seal container" in Monterey so does not even try.

Time machine is not sensitive to RAM memory avaiablity. if it needs more, it just ask for more and the system simulates more by spilling stuff onto the boot drive.

Time machine on older Macs used to create a temporary backup called a snapshot on the boot drive. If you did not connect your backup drive very often, the snapshots could build up and cause Storage Space issues. But the solution was always to just connect the drive and let it run.

Since Apple File System APFS has been implemented for the boot drive (10.13 High Sierra and later), duplicating a file for a snapshot boils down to a pointer, not an actual duplicate copy. so the snapshots stay compact.

I expect the information you were reading was too old to be applicable today. It was trying to say Storage space filled up with snapshots. For users who refused to connect their backup drives in a timely fashion on older MacOS that may have been true. But it is much less of a problem now.

I continue to say that the larger problem is the 'not connecting the backup drive more often' rather than 'snapshots are too big'.

One of the key ideas with either a clone or TM is not just performing a backup, but can also be the frequency of backup. If you have 1 or more critical files that completely recycle internally (a point-in-time inventory spreadsheet, for example), backing it up only once a month may allow the file to change completely several times between backups. With backup products that monitor when files change you backup every day (or hour) the backup volume may not grow much for weeks on a "static" system.

Backup as often as required to catch the-current-state-of-files for safety. TM is designed to be low-impact, not interfering with your work, backing up every hour.

You can drag (copy) over individual files or get CarbonCopyCloner or Superduper (apps) to create backups.

Why do you ask?

there may be other suggestions readers could make if they knew what you want to accomplish (or what you wanted to avoid).