MacOS + BootCamp: system image and backup

I like SuperDuper! for backups. Running Windows 7 under BootCamp I use WinClone to back that up to my OS X desktop.

I do this on a fairly regular basis, but (knock on wood!) have never had to use any backup due to a crash. I did back up my last OS X 10.8.5 intantiation before installing Mavericks, but that back up is over a month old now and 10.9 is working well for me.

Many prefer Time Machine for backups, so you might want to look into that, too.

Phil

The most common methods are:

• SuperDuper! - Free utility which will make a full disk clone or disk image of your MacOS volume. You can also purchase a license and make incremental images or sandboxes if you like.
• Carbon Copy Cloner - Commercial utility that will make a clone of your MacOS partition. This utility will also allow you to "clone" the hidden Recovery Partition on your Mac.
• Time Machine - This free utility is a part of the OS. It does not make bootable clones like the first two options mentioned, but it does allow you to have regularly scheduled backups so you just re-install your OS on a blank drive, then restore your user files/applications from the Time Machine backup.

Many people around here use a combination of the above options. They make regular fully bootable clones of their drive, and they use Time Machine to capture changes to their "in progress" files they change regularly. Once enabled, I believe the Time Machine default is to backup changes hourly, so you should never lose more than an hours worth of work in a disaster.

I forgot to mention about backing up your Windows partition. None of the options I mentioned will backup yoru Windows environment.

I am aware of 3 options to backup yoru WIndows environment such that it can be restored and working later. THe first is WinClone. Froim what I understand, it is now a commercial product. WHen I last used it it was still freeware, but it was also new enough that it did still have some problems restoring a backup onto your machine sometimes. I am also aware of the commercial product form Paragon Software. I believe the name is CampTune, but it may have been rolled into one of their other HD tool packages. The last package I know of that I have verified worked for me was Clonezilla. It is a free software package that you boot from a boot DVD and it will make a clone or backup image of your MacOS and/or your Windows environments. I verified that I could make a backup image of my MBP drive and restore that image onto another dirive and everything was full bootable.

Let me add a disclaimer or two. Ever since I bought my latest MBP (almost 2 years ago) I quit using Boot Camp. I use WIndows in a "pure virtual" environment. Tis means that I use Paralles Desktop (or VMWare Fusion, or Sun/Oracle Virtual Box) to create a virtual PC and install Windows in that environment. This gives me access to the Windows environments without shutting down my MacOS. With my Quad Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM, my virtual Windows machines have no performance issues for my applications, and it makes it very easy for me to make backup/clones of my VMs because they are just files on my MacOS environment.

GeekBoy.from.Illinois wrote:

Ever since I bought my latest MBP (almost 2 years ago) I quit using Boot Camp. I use WIndows in a "pure virtual" environment. Tis means that I use Paralles Desktop (or VMWare Fusion, or Sun/Oracle Virtual Box) to create a virtual PC and install Windows in that environment.

WinClone seems to work well. I did use CCC for a while but am more comfortable with SuperDuper! And with USB3 drives backups take little time.

I used Parallels with some success, though the updates got significant over the years. Now my main Mac is a MB Air, so booting into Windows (which I use rarely) take little time. My main Win 7 machine, which I use for archiving and activities where high-speed DVD burners are needed, is an old Dell desktop; but that's another OT story.

Phil