Carbon Copy Cloner

Using CCC is an excellent idea - I've been doing that for years. Now, did you say you wanted to back up your Time Machine back up? I would not do that - I would create a bootable clone of my internal hard drive instead.

You also asked about cloning options: I've never seen the dialog you mentioned; when I open CCC, the cloning option mentioned is: backup everything (which will create a bootable clone) - other than that, all you need to do is pick the source and target drives. It will keep all your stuff on your computer and you will have an exact and full copy (clone) of everything on the external.

Before cloning, make sure that your external hard drive is formatted correctly (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and use the GUID partition scheme in order to make it bootable.

Also, it is best if you turn off screen saver, sleep, etc. - do not let the Mac go to sleep while creating a clone. When done, test it by choosing the new external clone in Startup Disk Pane in System Preferences and choosing restart.

As for turning off Time Machine (or not); I'd turn it off, but since I don't use Time Machine, I'll let someone who does chime in here.

Hi Joseph

If your TimeMachine drive is large enough, then yes you could make a second partition on it and then Clone your Internal Hd to that partition. However it is better to use a second External hard Drive so that, 1) you do not restrict the space on the Time Machine drive and 2) you lose both backup's if the External HD fails.

Also see: http://www.macworld.com/article/141363/2009/07/backup.html

Dennis

So are you going to partition the external for both Time Machine and the bootable clone? Or are you getting rid of TM backups? I personally prefer to use bootable backups instead of Time Machine and for the valid reasons mentioned by den.thed, I have two clones/backups of everything. When it comes to hard drives, redundancy is good!

You're welcome!

Hello Joseph:

For a variety of what I felt were good reasons, I quit using CCC several years ago. I do make bootable clones (in addition to using Time Machine). I have one external HD partitioned - one for TM, one for the clone. I also make a bootable clone on another external HD (I am paranoid about backups).

Anyway, I (and many of my virtual colleagues) recommend SuperDuper! for making bootable clones. The program costs $28 US, is well maintained, excellent support, and just plain works!.

Barry

P.S. I do not get commissions! 🙂

I have nothing against CCC but I also use SuperDuper! as mentioned by Barry. The Smart Backup feature with the paid copy of SD! is nice and support from shirtpocket is excellent.

I also have both a TM backup and a bootable clone (using SuperDuper) on two separate external hard drives. In addition to having insurance should your TM hard drive fail, another advantage of having a second backup on a different drive is that you can move that drive off the premises to a different physical location if need be (eg as insurance against fire or burglary).

Personally, I prefer to leave my TM drive in situ, as it's connected to the cable ethernet and would be fiddly to disconnect (owing to the nature of my set up), and I use a desktop Lacie HD as my SuperDuper clone as it's easy to disconnect and transport when necessary.

Edit: oops, I replied to the previous poster rather than the OP. Sorry about that!

Message was edited by: John Potts

I actually use both CCC and SD and, according to info I've gathered here from people far more experienced than I am, I learned that CCC does a better job with block level cloning (not my opinion - just what I've read here). So I use SD on one of my externals and CCC on the other - just in case!

A bootable clone is an excellent idea. Here is the strategy I use now after having some time machine issues and spotlight indexing issues.

pre stats:

Internal HD 1TB, 100GB used

External FW HD 1TB, formatted as 1TB backup

External USB HD 320GB, formatted as 320 GB exfat (this was just a movable drive I use between my work/home, it does not stay connected)

Key programs I have...Disk Warrior, Carbon Copy Cloner, clean my mac

I cleaned my internal HD of trash, caches, etc using a program called clean my mac. I turned my time machine off. I then reformatted my backup drive creating two partitions, one I could boot from and fix things and one for time machine. I then reformatted my USB drive as something I could boot from and space so I can still use it to move stuff between work and home.

post stats:

Internal HD 1TB, 100GB used

External FW HD 1TB, formatted at 880 GB backup and 120GB emergency

External USB HD 320GB, formatted as 200 GB exfat and 120GB emergency

Disk utility was used to change the disk formats.

I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my internal HD to the emergency partition of the FW 1TB drive. I also used the same program to clone to the emergency partition of the 320GB smaller USB drive. I ran disk warrior on both clones and it found errors on both in the directory structure. I allowed it to fix those errors and then ran the files/permissions check.

The next thing I did was turn off spotlight indexing of my internal drive by adding the drive to the spotlight exceptions control panel. This will delete the current index.

I validated by clones by booting from them. Satisfied that they worked, I turned my attention to my internal HD and ran disk warrior on it (you can only do this if you boot from a clone drive). It also found directory errors which makes sense considering it found those errors on the clones. With my internal HD fixed and files/permissions checked, I rebooted using the internal drive.

I now turned spotlight back on and allowed it time to rebuild the index, when it was done, I turned time machine back on selecting the 880GB backup partition of the FW drive.

So I ended up with two bootable clones (one as backup to the other), a clean and error free internal HD, a new spotlight index based on a correct file structure, and a new backup that works as it should. If I lose my internal drive, my external FW drive can get me back and running. If I lose my external FW drive, I still have my portable as backup to my internal.

My strategy may not be the best but it works for me. The most important thing in my opinion is to have an ability to boot from a clone to address any issue that may affect your internal drive.

I validated by clones by booting from them. Satisfied that they worked, I turned my attention to my internal HD and ran disk warrior on it (you can only do this if you boot from a clone drive). It also found directory errors which makes sense considering it found those errors on the clones. With my internal HD fixed and files/permissions checked, I rebooted using the internal drive.

I pretty much use the same method except for the fact that I run DW on the internal first - that eliminates having to run it on the externals because they are getting a "pristine" copy/clone.

DW would not unmount the internal when booted from it (at least my version won't) so I could not rebuild the directory structure until I booted from a clone.

Yes, I know - DW will not do anything unless you're booted from something other than the drive you're trying to run it from. So, I have DW installed on my external clones (because it was copied there when I did the clone). I first boot from any external and run DW on the internal; then I reboot to the internal and create a new fresh clone.