Backup Solutions For Your Mac or CustoMac

[TheItalianJob]

i recommend "Carbon Copy Cloner" Works fantastic!

Please, help me. Can you tell me step by step, how to do CCC bootable? Actually I have El Capitan 100% working. I did download a trial version of CCC, doing a clone of my ssd where El Capitan is. I don't understand how to do bootable the CCC ssd.

 

[seizmos]

Please, help me. Can you tell me step by step, how to do CCC bootable? Actually I have El Capitan 100% working. I did download a trial version of CCC, doing a clone of my ssd where El Capitan is. I don't understand how to do bootable the CCC ssd.

Make a clone drive from current hdd to new hdd with CCC(carbon copy cloner), then you can try install all desiered options with Multibeast, only select NEW drive before install. Thats it.

 

[mm2margaret]

Please, help me. Can you tell me step by step, how to do CCC bootable? Actually I have El Capitan 100% working. I did download a trial version of CCC, doing a clone of my ssd where El Capitan is. I don't understand how to do bootable the CCC ssd.

I'll tell you how I do it, and this has been working for me and pretty bulletproof. This may not be the best way, but I know it works. There are lots of ways to do this, but this one works for me.

- The first step is install Clover on the "new" drive, ie, the new empty, unformatted clone drive. When you do that, make sure you have set it up to be a UEFI bootable drive. If you don't know how to do that, check one of the many guides here which will show you how to do that.

- Next Expose the EFI partition on the current working boot drive that you are currently booting with (with EFI Mounter (available on this site) or any other utility - there are many that can do this, and there is also a way to do this via the command line), and copy the EFI directory. I put it on the desktop. Then I dismount the EFI partition. Just right click on the drive and choose "Eject". Sometimes it will ask you to dismount additional drives. If it does, don't do it. This step is a convenience and is not required. Just dismount the EFI partition only, nothing else.

- Next, expose the EFI partition on "clone" drive, the drive you have just installed Clover on. Be careful not to confuse the two EFI partitions. If you were able to eject the first EFI partition on the existing current drive, this should be easy, as you should only have one exposed EFI partition to work with. But if you have two, it is very important to keep track of which one is which.

- On your new "clone" drive, on the EFI partition there, you should have an EFI directory. It should be mostly empty, with not a lot of files and Kexts on it. What I do is delete that EFI directory and copy the EFI directory that is on my desktop and put it right on the "clone" EFI partition. Essentially, you are replacing the EFI directory on the "clone" drive with the EFI directory from your current, working boot drive.

- Then, and only then, do I run Carbon Copy Cloner, cloning from the working boot drive to the new "clone" drive.

- When it's done, I test the new "clone" drive and boot to it to make sure I know it's bootable, and working.

As long as you don't change much in your EFI partition (like adding Kexts, or changing parameters), you only need to do this one time. Every other time you backup, as long as your EFI partition remains unchanged, you only have to run CCC.

So, that's one way to do it. Like I said, there are many other ways to do this. It's up to you to choose which works best for you, and your situation.

 

[input_output]

Thanks mm2margaret,

Your detailed steps helped what i had in mind. I just came in here to find out how i should do the partition on the new cloned drive to setup EFI. Having clover do it for me seems the best way.

Now im all set to do some housekeeping on all my drives and update/move folders as i go

 

[ksy]

View attachment 29945​

At tonymacx86.com, we've seen many users ask about the best backup solution for their CustoMac. Doing regular system backups of important files and documents can help ensure that you can recover from an unforeseen disaster. Aside from Apple's iCloud based cloud storage, some still like to do regular backups locally; either to an external USB drive or a local hard disk. I want to highlight a few of the 3rd party backup solutions as well as Apple's own solution that many of our members have stated as working solutions.

Let's start with Apple's own built-in back-up solution, Time Machine.

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"Time Machine is the built-in backup that works with your Mac and an external drive (sold separately) or Time Capsule. Connect the drive, assign it to Time Machine, and start enjoying some peace of mind. Time Machine automatically backs up your entire Mac, including system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents. But what makes Time Machine different from other backup applications is that it not only keeps a spare copy of every file, it remembers how your system looked on any given day—so you can revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past."

Time Machine is pretty simple to configure and use. Instructions on how to configure Time Machine can be found here.

View attachment 29953​

Next is Carbon Copy Cloner, otherwise known as "CCC" that is very popular for it's ability to do full bootable clones of your system drive. It used to be free but sadly, the developer Bombich Software Inc. has now made it a commercial product and currently it costs $39.99. It has been updated recently to support OS X 10.8 in version 3.5.1. CCC provides additional enhancements that Time Machine doesn't.

Check out CCC here.

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Lastly, there is Shirt Pocket's Super Duper which has also been updated to support 10.8. Super Duper is shareware which means that is free to download and run, however in order to unlock additional features such as scheduling and smart updates, you'd have to buy it for $27.95.

"The latest version of SuperDuper! is faster, better, compatible with Mountain Lion (in fact, it's compatible with OS X 10.4.11 and later), and improves many parts of the user experience. Of course, it still includes great features likeBackup on Connect, Eject after Copy, Sparse Bundle support, lets you store a bootable backup alongside Time Machine backups, copy Time Machine backups to other drives, and run scheduled copies on demand. As with every update, we've polished and improved many other aspects as well."

Super Duper can be found here.

Please note that if you make a full clone backup using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper, you'll still need to additionally install the bootloader to make the drive bootable on a CustoMac. Simply choose the Chimera option from MultiBeast and target the cloned drive.

Whichever the option, backups are extremely important, and these tools can help you recover from a sticky situation.

As this was posted in 2012, it might be outdated now. Does anyone have complete guide that shows (step-by-step) how to create a backup and make it bootable?

 

[tonymacx86]

As this was posted in 2012, it might be outdated now. Does anyone have complete guide that shows (step-by-step) how to create a backup and make it bootable?

The easiest way to make a full backup is use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a cloned backup drive. Afterwards install Clover using MultiBeast to the cloned drive. Then mount both your system drive's EFI partition and your backup drive's EFI partition using EFI Mounter v3. Then copy your EFI folder from your system drive to backup drive. Then you'll have a full bootable clone.

 

[P1LGRIM]

The absolute easiest way is to ignore the software solutions and use a hardware disk duplicator.
They aren't as expensive as you might think, this is mine :

Startech USB 3 SATA Duplicator

 

[P1LGRIM]

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/backup-solutions-for-your-mac-or-customac.70173

There's just two problems left:
1. i always have to open the case and friddle the 256GB SSD in and out of the system to make regular clone "backups" beside other backup strategies.

The one that I use connects via USB 3 so that you don't have to remove a drive to clone it but I use SATA hot swap racks in most of my builds which makes it easy to plug drives in and out anyway.

2. Even when there's only ~80GB used on the SSD, those cloners just clone sector/partition wise which means that your target drive has to be at least the same or bigger size as your source. Goddamn, the smallest size i own is a 512GB 2,5" HDD :/ Waste of space IMHO, but what should i say.

That is the one drawback but you can use normal spinning disks to back up your SSDs which reduces the cost.

 

[SOKRAT]

The easiest way to make a full backup is use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a cloned backup drive. Afterwards install Clover using MultiBeast to the cloned drive. Then mount both your system drive's EFI partition and your backup drive's EFI partition using EFI Mounter v3. Then copy your EFI folder from your system drive to backup drive. Then you'll have a full bootable clone.

I formatted my disk with GUID partition map (so it created EFI), cloned using SuperDuper and copied EFI partition content.
Do I need to install MultiBeast?

 

[friskfrugt]

The easiest way to make a full backup is use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a cloned backup drive. Afterwards install Clover using MultiBeast to the cloned drive. Then mount both your system drive's EFI partition and your backup drive's EFI partition using EFI Mounter v3. Then copy your EFI folder from your system drive to backup drive. Then you'll have a full bootable clone.

Do you need a dedicated drive for a CCC bootable backup?