![]() ![]() You should use a direct connection to a USB (or Firewire or Thunderbolt) hard drive of sufficient size, NOT a wireless connection to a network drive. It is no longer freeware/donation-ware (although you can try it for free) well worth the one-time cost especially after using it for free all these years. Select your current startup volume as the “Source” and your external (backup) drive volume as the “Destination.” You do need to be started up from another disk (or from Recovery HD) when you do this with Disk Utility, but that’s actually a good idea (not to be started up from the volume you are cloning) with any cloning utility (even if you can).įor cloning, I like Carbon Copy Cloner. NOTE: You can also use the built-in Disk Utility to do a “clone” using the Restore tab. It would be best NOT to do it for the first time when you actually have a problem. I encourage everyone who uses Time Machine, to try that “restore complete volume” command on a blank “test volume,” so you understand how it works. Then, I boot from the restored volume to make sure everything works as expected. I use a blank external drive volume as the “test target,” so nothing happens to my actual (internal) startup volume. I start up from Recovery HD and used the command to restore the full startup volume from the Time Machine archive. ![]() I also trust Time Machine because I have used it “for practice” and testing multiple times. Also, if there is only one cloned backup, during the time I’m creating the newest clone, I’m vulnerable because NO BACKUP exists. With a cloned backup, it’s only up-to-date to the last time I cloned (which could be days, weeks, or even months ago), and unless you keep multiple clones (which takes a lot of space), I only have that one most recent state. I can also restore to an older “state,” in case something like a recent system update (or third-party software installation) screwed up my system I can restore to a state immediately before that incident. The key reason is because it is “set it and forget it,” and is up-to-date to within one hour of use. Or, if I’m doing a clean install of a major new OS X release, I’ll make a clone of my existing startup disk, just in case I need or want to go back to it (exactly as it was before).įor “backup” purposes, I’ve come to trust Time Machine. Then, I clone to an external drive, and then “clone the clone” back to my (new) internal drive. I only do it when I’m taking a specific action, such as physically upgrading my internal drive. I don’t clone anymore, on a regular basis. Much more in the full article – recommended – here. Kissell covers the pros and cons of the following apps: A few moments later, you’re back up and running-and you can then repair (or replace) your main startup drive more or less at your leisure.” You simply attach your clone drive, restart while holding down the Option key, select the clone drive in OS X’s Startup Manager, and press Return. “What a clone offers that the likes of Time Machine and CrashPlan do not is immediate recovery: You can get back to work almost instantly after a drive crash or other severe problem with your startup volume. “But while both these forms of backup serve important purposes, I also recommend maintaining a clone (also known as a bootable duplicate)-a complete, identical copy of your startup volume, stored on an external drive in such a way that you can boot your Mac from it if necessary,” Kissell writes. And if you want the security of off-site backups without having to physically move drives around, an online backup provider such as CrashPlan is a good option.” “Tools such as Apple’s Time Machine, included as part of OS X, make it easy to store multiple versions of every file from your computer on an external drive or an AirPort Time Capsule. “Good backups are essential for every Mac user,” Joe Kissell writes for Macworld. ![]()
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