Now that I'm all set up... Best way to make a clone backup?

[wermy]

I'm looking for the best way to just completely clone my drive, EFI partition and all so that if something goes awry, I could just switch to the clone drive without skipping a beat. Anyone know the best (and hopefully free) way to do this?

 

[rwillett]

I'm looking for the best way to just completely clone my drive, EFI partition and all so that if something goes awry, I could just switch to the clone drive without skipping a beat. Anyone know the best (and hopefully free) way to do this?

I use Carbon Copy Cloner. It used to be free but is not paid for. I brought it and have never regretted the decision to pay hard cash. Ive used it in anger a free times after I've cocked things up.

There are free ones but I can't speak for them,

Rob

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

You could also consider making a bootable external drive and update it whenever you update your main system. Not as efficient but certainly free, bar the cost of the drive itself.

 

[linuxrox]

i love CloneZilla. Open Source, creates a backup image that also contains the bootloader (other options require that you install the bootloader after the fact)

 

[Anachronaut]

+1 for Clonezilla and an external hard drive.

 

[wermy]

Thanks, guys! I finally got around to using clonezilla to make a backup, so I could try out upgrading to 10.11.1. Worked like a charm.

 

[Wiet]

Like a charm, really?
I use Carbon copy clone, but just a copy doesn't work, again you have to make it bootable.
That still can be hassle. And I advise you to use Time Machine as well

 

[wermy]

Like a charm, really?
I use Carbon copy clone, but just a copy doesn't work, again you have to make it bootable.
That still can be hassle. And I advise you to use Time Machine as well

Yep, like a charm. I cloned my OSX drive, shut down, hooked up the clone and disconnected the original drive and it worked fine, didn't have to do a thing to make it bootable.

And yeah I use time machine as well, but I wanted an exact, bootable copy of my OSX drive in case installing an OS update went sideways. This did exactly that, so I'm a happy camper.

 

[jperkins909]

Superduper has been great for me to make bootable backup images

 

[aopisa]

+1 for Clonezilla and an external hard drive.

Actually, last night I was trying to clone my old Yosemite drive with Clonezilla to an external drive and it just would not do it. Tried multiple times.

Downloaded CCC and was off and cloning in about a minute.