Cloning is more than a backup, it’s a
functionally-identical
copy, a distinction that is particularly
relevant for your boot drive
(system and applications): you can start the Mac from the clone. But
it’s also useful for efficiently backing-up any volume.
My preferred way to backup is with a large external 2TB or 3TB drive,
so that I can backup everything to one drive. I backup both my
Boot drive (system and applications, mail, calendar, etc), as well as my data (
Master volume).
Step by step
To backup my two desktop volumes
Boot and
Master onto a single external hard drive:
- Partition the external backup drive into BootClone and MasterClone. This need only be done once, the first time. Subsequent backups it’s ready to go.
- Clone Boot to BootClone.
- Clone Master to MasterClone.
- You now have a bootable backup drive with all your stuff. Store the backup drive somewhere safe, away from the computer.
The cloning process takes time in proportion to how much data is
present, so clear out any files you don’t need, and empty the trash
first. In most cases, cloning is smart enough to only copy what has
changed.
My preference is to append the date and time to the volume name of the clone, so that I know when I made it.
Cloning with Carbon Copy Cloner
Shown below is the window for
Carbon Copy Cloner, one of several programs that can make a clone.
Select your existing drive (“Source Disk”) and select the new drive (“Target Disk”), then click the button.
As shown below, the boot volume
Master is being cloned to
MasterClone-2011-0120-1335. Be careful not to clone the backup drive to the original!
The cloning process will take time proportional to how much data you
have on the drives, the speed of each drive, etc. If this is an update,
the process can be very quick, since usually only changed files need be
copied.
