Carbon Copy Cloner

Toca Loca Nation · Dec 29th, 2004, 10:17 PM

i just bought a very nice ext hd from macdoc. the case is really pretty and quiet is its m.o. great deal too.

just wondering if there's any tips anyone wants to offer regarding the process of cloning my ibook drive onto the external. the defaults seem pretty logical, but i remember with onyx there were a few mods that were suggested on ehmac that were quite useful.

thanks in advance.

GratuitousApplesauce · Jan 10th, 2005, 09:09 PM

I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner and it seems to work all right. The documentation that comes with it and the info on their web site and forums is not exactly user friendly, if you aren't totally tech savvy, like myself. I would suggest that if you use the program, read the documentation very carefully before proceeding.

MacDoc · Jan 10th, 2005, 11:17 PM

Grab psynch off the CCC site as well. Allows full synchronization.
Thanks for the biz

••••••••

Damn the typing is slow .....what's with that.

Heart · Jan 12th, 2005, 08:42 AM

CCC with psynch is great, I has saved my skin a once, and that is all it takes.

With psynch installed into CCC it will speed up the process when you need to update. (Daily, Weekly or more if you dare!)

GratuitousApplesauce · Jan 12th, 2005, 03:37 PM

I'm using CCC and psync with my new external FW drive, but I'm wondering if upgrading from 10.3.5 to .7 will screw CCC up.

Also, reading about Sync in Tiger yesterday, made me wonder if when it comes out it will perform the same functions as CCC.

I really like not having that vague dread in the back of my mind that a hard drive crash could wipe out 10 years of stuff. Before CCC and the FW my backup strategies were always too much of a pain for me to deal with, so I rarely backed stuff up.

PosterBoy · Jan 12th, 2005, 03:45 PM

FWIW, I have always found CCC to be a little sketchy. Other programs, like Backup.app (comes with .Mac), <a href="http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/">SilverKeeper</a> (free) or <a href="http://roxio.com/en/products/toast/index.jhtml">Deja Vu</a> (comes with Toast) have always worked better for me.

Granted, they won't back up your entire installation of OS X, but I've only had major problems with OS X once on my own machine, and when that does happen I just use it as an excuse to do a fresh installation (which doesn't take very long, really).

William · Jan 12th, 2005, 05:32 PM

I have used Silverkeeper (free download), and Retrospect (commercial, expensive) for fairly extended periods, and I have briefly tried several others whose names escape me. None has fully satisfied me, though given its price, Retrospect least of all.

I then discovered FoldersSynchronizer (shareware, not free, but relatively cheap, about USD 40). I would recommend it without reservation—though of course, personal tastes differ. It is versatile, fast, reliable, and very easy to use. I can be downloaded from:

http://www.softobe.com/products/flsy/pp.html

The User's Guide can be downloaded from the site. Although it is written by a person whose familiarity with English proves now and then less than perfect, it is very clear; above all, it is quite complete. Would that every other manual were as helpful as this. I suggest you consider trying FS out before you make your decision.

MacDoc · Jan 13th, 2005, 11:54 AM

CCC has been bulletproof - we use it a dozen times a day.

The nice side effect of the auto backup is it repairs permissions on the source drive each time.
That it is fully bootable and a complete backup is a real treat and that it's repaired before backing up even better.
We set the log to pop up at the end of the synch session and it's a very nice "warm and cozy" to see it functioning.

We did lose the synch function on 10.3.7 and had to get the new version of psynch from the site.

We also think it a good idea for those with extensive data going back many years to backup to an optical and put the key stuff offsite - bank box or somewhere safe other than home.

I'm sending a second drive home with a staff for safety as well which is another cheap safety, Just do a CCC to the roaming drive.

One last note - we think it's not a bad idea to do an optical archive of email as even with Mail there is the possibility older files might get corrupted or accidentally deleted and the daily backup would reflect that loss as well.
So having the entire folder backed up say once a week or even once a month on an optical gives a way to retrieve any older messages that might get lost.
Many will be able to fit their entire folder on a CD tho heavier users will need a DVD.

mikef · Jan 13th, 2005, 12:24 PM

Is psync supposed to make CCC faster for incremental/differential updates? Are there special options to enable it? I have psync installed and it's detected but the backup times are the same as doing a full backup.

thatcomputerguy · Jan 13th, 2005, 02:49 PM

i've used CCC a bunch of times, always with great success. the best example of which is when i purchased my latest ibook g4 just before christmas, i cloned my old pbook onto an external firewire drive (made bootable of course) and used it in setting up the new ibook to get all my prefs and programs onto it.