Using a bootable backup clone as primary startup

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You can carry on using that clone without any issue and start up the MacBook Air with it, and it is a valid option. However, in my opinion and if you only needed old user files, you could simply keep the files you needed on an external drive and connect it whenever you want to, so you can access to the files without having to restart your Mac, but that option is valid. Also, it should not be deleted.

to2204 wrote:

How will the clone be able to continue using Time Machine(based off the following forum thread it seems that the clone will start its own Time Machine backup-- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5189252)? Will the presence of original and clone confuse Time Machine? Are there any settings I should adjust when booting from the external drive as a permanent feature (e.g. directory chains leading to Internal HD rather than External)?

Do not use the external drive with your old files to make new backups or you will lose your files. Instead, if you want to make backups, get another external drive and make backups in it.

1. NO computer is a data storage device, regardless of size, you always needs external HD for backups and data archives.

2. Time Machine has some disadvantages, bootable clones are 'best'.

You can use the bootable clone yes, however of course its always dangling off the computer. You dont want to run that way all the time for obvious reasons.

There is no quantitative difference between a boot clone and your SSD, except of course a BIG difference in speeds.

You DONT want time machine AND the boot clone together at the same, time , keep the TM copy for the SSD, youre just complicating things where they dont need to be.

#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule

Drawbacks:

1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.

OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine

"you can't boot directly from your Time Machine backups"

2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.

3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.

4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.

5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.

6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.

7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.

8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.

9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.

10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.

11. In the case of Time Capsule, wifi data storage is a less than ideal premise given possible wireless data corruption.

12. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.

13. *Level-1 security of your vital data.

Advantages:

1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.

2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.

3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).

#2. HD archives

Drawbacks:

1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.

2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.

Advantages:

1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.

2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).

3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.

4. Best-idealized 1^st platform redundancy for data protection.

5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.

#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)

Drawbacks:

1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).

2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.

Advantages:

1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.

2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.

3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.

4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.

5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.

6. Best-idealized 2^nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1^st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2^nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).

7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.

HD cloning software options:

1. SuperDuper HD cloning software APP (free)

2. Carbon Copy Cloner APP (will copy the recovery partition as well)

3. Disk utility HD bootable clone.