Troubleshooting
Why I hate Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner
07/14/08 19:26 |
Permalink
I frequently have conversations and stumble upon
articles on how to do backups with Super Duper or
Carbon Copy Cloner. Every time, my mind gets boggled
by the extreme measures people seem to go through to
do something so simple as make a copy of your
computers hard drive. Essentially what these programs
do is make a copy of your hard drive, but since they
are trying to sell a product they think they have to
add a half a dozen ways of doing it. Do you really
need the option to do an incremental or an every
other odd day smart sandbox clone? I can understand
how some might find these features useful, but to 99%
of the people they are just plain confusing and only
serve to make you unsure of if your hard drive is
really backed up or not. Please don't tell an average
computer user that they should use these programs!
I am a firm believer that a backup method should be simple and instill confidence; and this is where these two programs and time machine fall short. As for Duper and CCC, they fail in how simple they are to use- just too many options and variables. They both also fail in "instilling confidence"-the reason why is that apples updates often cause these programs to stop working. Do you really want to worry about whether or not your backup is going to work or not? I guess simplicity and instilling confidence are both tied together. If you do not completely understand what your backup up program is doing, or you don't completely understand how to restore your backup you are not going to sleep very well.
So, you must be thinking that I must love Time Machine, after all, Apple says you just "set it, then forget it". Are you kidding me, there are two parts to a backup strategy, backup and restore. The only way to be confident in your backup is to be able to check it. The only way to check Time Machine is to go through the six hour process of restoring it. The backup is either in a disk image or is in a series of folders that makes it impossible to actually see what you have actually backed up. Not only that, but you can't just look at the size of the file to see if it matches the size of your source hard drive, because it grows and shrinks .
So, how do I recommend you backup up, well, just copy your hard drive to another hard drive with disk utility-a program built into os10. Well, it's not quite as simple as it should be. Apple built in the os everything you need to create a bootable copy of your hard drive that you can then boot your computer up to over firewire or usb. Instead of Time Machine, Apple should have made this a one of two click option and called it BACKUP. Instead they thought they needing to create a wiz bang new feature that appeals to the Star Trek geek.
Here is what you do:
1. Launch Disk Utility located in apps-utilities-disk utility
2. Select your backup drives top level icon, go the the partition tab, select 1 partition from the drop down list, go the the options tab and select GUID(unless you are on a power pc), hit apply(after you have done this once, you can then just select the hard drive icon and hit erase for each nights backup.)
3. go the the restore tab, drag the source hard drive icon into the source box and the destination into the destination box, do not select "erase destination", and then hit the restore button.
*if you think this sounds too complicated, hey, just drag and drop all of your files to another hard drive. It will not be bootable, but you can always re-install your os and then use the migration assistant to restore your data.
Every night I just redo this restore process. Sure it takes 4-5 hrs, but I don't mind-Because I am asleep. It is simple to do, and I can know my backup works because I can simple boot up to the backup by holding down the option key and selecting the back up hard drive. It is an awesome feeling when your hard drive, or computer dies, and you just grab a friend computer, or go buy another(then re-sell the original whey you get it fixed) and boot up to your backup drive and keep on working. On a side note, unlike Windows, any mac can boot from any other macs hard drive(only between power pc to power pc and intel to intel). Troubleshooting is much easier when you have this option.
I am a firm believer that a backup method should be simple and instill confidence; and this is where these two programs and time machine fall short. As for Duper and CCC, they fail in how simple they are to use- just too many options and variables. They both also fail in "instilling confidence"-the reason why is that apples updates often cause these programs to stop working. Do you really want to worry about whether or not your backup is going to work or not? I guess simplicity and instilling confidence are both tied together. If you do not completely understand what your backup up program is doing, or you don't completely understand how to restore your backup you are not going to sleep very well.
So, you must be thinking that I must love Time Machine, after all, Apple says you just "set it, then forget it". Are you kidding me, there are two parts to a backup strategy, backup and restore. The only way to be confident in your backup is to be able to check it. The only way to check Time Machine is to go through the six hour process of restoring it. The backup is either in a disk image or is in a series of folders that makes it impossible to actually see what you have actually backed up. Not only that, but you can't just look at the size of the file to see if it matches the size of your source hard drive, because it grows and shrinks .
So, how do I recommend you backup up, well, just copy your hard drive to another hard drive with disk utility-a program built into os10. Well, it's not quite as simple as it should be. Apple built in the os everything you need to create a bootable copy of your hard drive that you can then boot your computer up to over firewire or usb. Instead of Time Machine, Apple should have made this a one of two click option and called it BACKUP. Instead they thought they needing to create a wiz bang new feature that appeals to the Star Trek geek.
Here is what you do:
1. Launch Disk Utility located in apps-utilities-disk utility
2. Select your backup drives top level icon, go the the partition tab, select 1 partition from the drop down list, go the the options tab and select GUID(unless you are on a power pc), hit apply(after you have done this once, you can then just select the hard drive icon and hit erase for each nights backup.)
3. go the the restore tab, drag the source hard drive icon into the source box and the destination into the destination box, do not select "erase destination", and then hit the restore button.
*if you think this sounds too complicated, hey, just drag and drop all of your files to another hard drive. It will not be bootable, but you can always re-install your os and then use the migration assistant to restore your data.
Every night I just redo this restore process. Sure it takes 4-5 hrs, but I don't mind-Because I am asleep. It is simple to do, and I can know my backup works because I can simple boot up to the backup by holding down the option key and selecting the back up hard drive. It is an awesome feeling when your hard drive, or computer dies, and you just grab a friend computer, or go buy another(then re-sell the original whey you get it fixed) and boot up to your backup drive and keep on working. On a side note, unlike Windows, any mac can boot from any other macs hard drive(only between power pc to power pc and intel to intel). Troubleshooting is much easier when you have this option.