babbler

I finally got an external storage HD - a LaCie 1TB Grand USB - and plan to do my first back up this weekend. Are there any preparations I should do? I know I have to format the Disk and plan to partition it in fourths, but I'm wondering what I might do to my computer to make the back up best possible. I thought of running YASU and/or ONYX or APPLEJACK first.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Intel Mac, Leopard v.10.5.8
2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
250GB disk space (160GBs free space)

MacGenius24

If your computer is running fine, then you can just format the hard drive and use a software such SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner

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babbler

Thanks for your reply.
By "just format the hard drive" do you mean the LaCie Hard Disk or my internal iMac hd?
You're not a fan of Time Machine because......?

MacGenius24

I meant the LaCie External. And I haven't used Time Machine in awhile, but it's really good, but I don't think you can use the hard drive for anything else other than a T M Backup. I don't know if that's true, but I Believe so.

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babbler

Thanks for clarifying. I'd be surprised and disappointed if I can only use the LaCie HD with Time Machine as I was going to partition it and use CCC or SilverKeeper to make a second backup onto one of the four partitions.

mac-man6

Time Machine doesn't make bootable copies. So if you have a catastrophic problem you can restore to your last back up but you need to reinstall the OS.

If you use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner and the same thing happens you can boot to the external and have a usable computer within 5 minutes.

Safest option would be a copy of both.

If you partition your external you can clone to one partition and put Time Machine on the other. The only problem is if your external fails you loose both backups.

chas_m

I prefer to use two different external drives for my backups -- one for TM, one for a clone. Putting both backups on a partitioned single HD just means you lose both backups if that drive fails.

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DavidH

Plus One for the two hard drive solution.
I feel better have an incremental backup like Time Machine so I am able to go backwards in file versioning.
I also like to know that I have a bootable copy (Super Duper) in case of catastrophic failure.
I also have a third Hard Drive which is a Super Duper bootable version stored off-site.

I know you probably think I am over doing it but I sleep well at night.

DavidH

screature

Why would you do this? It is not necessary and doesn't do anything as far as data protection goes.

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eMacMan

Partitioning is a matter of choice. If you do choose to partition be aware that historically Spotlight Indexing is more likely to become corrupt if dealing with partitioned drives.

That said one reason to partition is so that you can clone one week to one partition and to a second the next clone. This way you can go back a step if a problem is not immediately apparent.

Also you can use a clone that is not your main back-up to test an application or update that you are somewhat uncertain of.

I do partition but I also have disabled Spotlight. With my older computer and OS there is a noticeable performance improvement but this forces me to use EasyFind as a search tool. While it is free it does have a clunky feel and lacks some of the elegant search features that have been part of the Mac OS for at least fifteen years.

Having said all that any recommendations would depend entirely on how you use your computer and what data you consider vital to protect.

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