Cloning — a good backup strategy for your backup strategy Cloning using SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner or another tool further reduces the risk. Periodically — and let your workflow be your guide here when it comes time to decide what the period should be — you can use a cloning app to create a perfect replica of your hard drive, which. In the meantime, here are the two methods I use to safeguard my Mac’s digital files: Incremental backups with Time Machine. The first (and least hands-on) way I backup my Mac is with Time Machine. Apple introduced this knock-out feature as a part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in October 2007 and it’s something every Mac user should take.
General Backup Strategy Comments
Your overall backup strategy should include, as a minimum, the first two items in the list below. The last two items would be considered optional and only deemed necessary if your data is both critical and you would want additional means to retrieve it.
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The advantage of incremental backups is it allows you a means to quickly recover individual files or folders that have been deleted. They can also be used to recover your Mac in case of a complete system drive failure.
The disadvantage of incremental backups is the recovery process itself; It would require that you first replace the failed drive before you can restore the system. This would introduce a significant delay between the time of the disk failure to the time you can be 'back up and running' again.
The advantage of cloned backups is that it overcomes the disadvantage of incremental ones. That is, with a bootable clone of your system drive, you can boot up your Mac from the clone and use your Mac almost immediately. You can also use the clone to restore your Mac when you finally have the opportunity to replace the failed drive.
Incremental backups
- Using Time Machine.
- To a network drive:
- Time Capsule
- NAS (ex. Synology DS916+)
- Mac Server
- A HFS+ formatted USB drive attached to an 802.11ac AirPort Extreme base station.
- To a locally attached HFS+ formatted Thunderbolt, FireWire, or USB drives:
- Semi-portable (ex. WD My Book Pro)
- Portable (ex. WD My Passport)
- To a network drive:
- Using a third-party application, like Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC).
- To a network drive:
- Time Capsule
- NAS
- To locally attached semi-portable or portable drives.
- To a network drive:
Cloned backups to an external drive
- Using the built-in macOS Disk Utility to clone the Mac's system drive to a locally attached semi-portable or portable drive, OR
- Using a third-party app, like CCC or SuperDuper!, to clone the Mac's system drive to a locally attached semi-portable or portable drive.
Cloud-based backups
Backup Strategies For Mac
- Incremental backups to the cloud would require, as a minimum, two things:
- An Internet connection.
- A cloud-based backup service.
- Ex. Backblaze, IDrive, CloudBerry Backup, SpiderOak ONE, or Carbonite
Backup Strategy For Mac Pro
Off-site storage
Backup Software Mac
- Rotate portable backup drives to a single or multiple off-site storage locations. (ex. Bank safe deposit box.)