Need good strategy for backup on Mountain Lion

I have been very happy with Time Machine since its initial release.

And Mountain Lion includes Recovery HD (what you referred to as "bootable partition"?), so you are well protected.

I do maintain a bootable clone of my startup drive, updated monthly, but have never had to use it.

I do, as preventative measures, verify/repair all drives weekly with Disk Utility, paying attention to SMART status, and rebuild directories monthly with Disk Warrior.

Just continue what you're currently doing. AFAIK, SD! is ML-compatible. However, I use CCC, since it can handle the Recovery HD, which SD! can't. It's unclear what you're running Tiger on, but seems that you have a new machine running ML. If so, hopefully you migrated from your Tiger version using the Setup Assistant. Also, FWIW, I don't use TM, relying on bootable clones, which TM can't do.

Chacapamac wrote:

Thanks drdoc.

Can Time Machine create a bootable clone — Same thing than Super Duper?

No

Chacapamac wrote:

Thanks drdoc.

Can Time Machine create a bootable clone — Same thing than Super Duper?

TM cannot create a bootable clone, but in the event of drive mechanical failure can completely restore to a replacement drive, and for non-mechanical problems Recovery HD can handle virtually all other repairs.

Time Machine has always been reliable for me. With Mountain Lion, it can operate multiple external drives, and at the cost of drives it seems safe enough for me to make use of the feature: TM backs up one hour to the first drive, the other hour to the second drive. In case of need, if one drive won't be able to restore, the other will, I'm sure.

My first drive is a FW800, the second is inside the Time Capsule. Life is good.

I use both SuperDuper to back up the entire drive including all applications etc, usually 1-2 times a week. I also use Time Machine backing up to another external than the SuperDuper drive and it backs up the files I work on and Mail, I don't need to backup the entire drive all day, but I do want hourly backups of my files and email.

Would be nice if TimeMachine had more options to back up more frequently, like every 15 or 30 min. For TimeMachine I got a OWC On-The-Go Oxford Firewire 800, it backs up much faster than a USB drive and since I'm only backing up files and mail and not the entire drive I could get a smaller drive.

I strongly suggest, if you're going to depend solely on a TM backup to restore the current boot volume to its current state, that you test it by doing a restoration to another volume. There are too many reports of failed restorations to depend upon it. I prefer multiple bootable clones that are immediately testable by booting into them.

baltwo wrote:

I strongly suggest, if you're going to depend solely on a TM backup to restore the current boot volume to its current state, that you test it by doing a restoration to another volume. There are too many reports of failed restorations to depend upon it. I prefer multiple bootable clones that are immediately testable by booting into them.

I would go so far as to say; Do Not Rely solely on TM, a second backup (preferably a clone) is required.

I use both SuperDuper to back up the entire drive including all applications etc, usually 1-2 times a week.

IIRC, there's no need to do a complete backup of everything, just do an incremental update of files that changed. That's an option that I use every other day with CCC, my preferred cloning app.

I would go so far as to say; Do Not Rely solely on TM, a second backup (preferably a clone) is required.

In my case, I don't use TM, so that's not an option that I'd recommend. I've never had to restore something that I deleted since starting with computers in the late '50s, so TM's main feature isn't one I'd ever use. Additionally, I never keep an HD connected and powered up unless I'm running the OS from it. Just a waste of electricity and serves no useful purpose. 😉

baltwo wrote:

I would go so far as to say; Do Not Rely solely on TM, a second backup (preferably a clone) is required.

In my case, I don't use TM, so that's not an option that I'd recommend. I've never had to restore something that I deleted since starting with computers in the late '50s, so TM's main feature isn't one I'd ever use. Additionally, I never keep an HD connected and powered up unless I'm running the OS from it. Just a waste of electricity and serves no useful purpose. 😉

Snap, I use CCC to create a clone which is updated daily (usually) + I backup my entire home folder in realtime to an online service, that way I can reboot to a clone (losing minutes at most) and let the online backup restore the changes that took place in between.

Amount of time spent in recovery/restoration? about 10 minutes.

This and the other posts should give the OP sufficient grist to chew on. 😀

🙂

Chacapamac wrote:

I come from Tiger — My backup strategy — Simple — Super Duper make a bootable backup of everithing on shedule to an external disk. If my hard disk explode tomorrow I can clone this back up to a new disk and restart to work.

Got Mountain Lion 10.8.2

I want the exact same simplicity...

If you want the exact same simplicity, then keep using Super Duper!.

If you want something even simplier and more reliable, then use Time Machine.

About that bootable partition?

Time Machine now includes its own recovery partition. So, if you have a mechanical failure, you can boot and restore from Time Machine.