Head to head: Apple's Time Machine versus three local backup utilities for macOS

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  • Reply 21 of 43
    normmnormm Posts: 653member
    Some features of Time Machine that you didn't mention: you can do wireless backups from your laptop to a server (or time capsule), and you can restore a new Mac from the backup as part of Apple data migration.  It's also true backup, since you have historical versions of data you can revert to.

    I would also recommend BackBlaze for offsite (encrypted) redundancy -- in addition to local backup.  This guarantees that if your place is burglarized or there's a fire, you don't lose any data.  It's also worth mentioning that BackBlaze will send you a disk with your data if you need a big restore, and you get the cost of the disk back if you return it.  BackBlaze is $50/year, or $5/month (per machine) if you pay monthly.  Why would you say "about $10/month" when it only takes a few seconds to check??? 

    Finally, it's always worth emphasizing the difference between backup and data protection in an article on backup.  BackBlaze or Drobo or any other redundant data solution only protects your current data.  If you accidentally delete something or do something that corrupts a bunch of data, it's the corrupted data that is redundantly protected.  You also need historical copies of data: a true backup.  Do the programs that you mention (other than Time Machine) give you true backup, or just redundancy?

  • Reply 22 of 43
    There's a simpler way to verify a Time Machine backup ... hold down the Option key and click on the Time Machine icon in the Menu Bar.
    Rosynapscooter63watto_cobra
  • Reply 23 of 43
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    grokJim said:
    Why not include Carbonite in this review?

    Because this is more about local backup, as indicated in the title. We'll be discussing online options shortly.
  • Reply 24 of 43
    djkfisher said:
    Personally I like Intego and have been using it for years to back up a few TB's of data. Also their virus and other programs work well.
    Virus?
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 25 of 43
    Too bad this article does not mention how well the products restore data. The true measure of a backup product is not how easy they are to use, it is how completely and correctly they restore data.

    Also, there is no mention about how each manages incremental backups. 

    For total backups SuoerDuper is the best. Not only does it create an exact clone of your computer (OS/ software/ all users) it does it so well that even the $4,000 Adobe Suite does t know it's been moved!  We all know how easy Adobe likes to corrupt when it thinks it's being "moved". 

    And the best part once you do the "one click" backup you can install it on ALL your computers to bring them up to date and matched to one another. 

    Every time i buy buy a new computer I backup the old making a SuoerDuper clone (one click that's all). Then when the new computer arrives connect the external SuperDuper, hold down OPTION when starting the computer, select SuperDuper to start from, then launch SuoerDuper and copy it over. Instant computer copy ready to go

    hope that helps
    pscooter63CurtpusaStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 26 of 43
    Using Time Machine and Backblaze for about 3 years. Haven't had to restore from Backblaze yet.

    Many years back my computer crashed while - I presume - a Time Machine back up was in progress, neither my primary drive nor external drive could be recovered. (Sent the external off to a professional service which thankfully doesn't charge if they can't recover data). 

    So initially I have two time machine drives, they automatically alternate which drive they back up to each hour. Then eventually picked up Backblaze for off site backup.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 27 of 43

    Mike, as a part of this series, it would be nice if AI could also cover the different external hard drives available for backing up data.

    Would a WD suffice? What advantages would a LaCie drive have over a Seagate drive to warrant the high price? Information on things like that would really help.

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 28 of 43
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,631member
    I use CCC and have for about 12 years.  It creates bootable clones of your hard disk (and does it incrementally reducing backup time after the initial).  Nothing is easier tHan booting a clone. 

    How do you restore?  Backup your clone to the new hard drive!   

    I recommend it.  I've never used the others because what I have works, but I've read (above and elsewhere) that SuperDuper does the same.  
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 29 of 43
    krislord said:
    timmerk said:
    I wish they included Arq, so I could compare against the other programs mentioned. Arq seems to be like Time Machine and an offsite cloud backup in one. It doesn't make bootable backups, but it's supposed to backup everything, including system files.
    Arq is excellent, I've used in for 4 years. 

    Note that it backs you your files, not all your system data. If a drive failed you'd need to reinstall MacOS then restore your backed up files via Arq. 

    I love the the fact that i can choose where my data goes. For me that's Amazon S3 in Ireland. 

    I had used crashplan but when it when switching from PC to Mac it was going to take a month to backup. That same backup to Amazon was at line speed (10Mbit)

    amazon s3 is cheap too. 

    I use use time machine for local backups and Arq to get my data offsite. 

    The thing I dislike about the disc cloning solutions is they're cloning a potentially bad disc. If things fail I'll always do a clean install. They also don't offer great protection against accidental deletion. 
    IMO Arq is how TM should have worked. Incremental backups based on content not just modification time (copying a file won't result in two full copies in backup under Arq, nor would reverting a modification to a file as under TM). It works with either local, NAS, or variety of remote storage. It supports quotas for managing total size of backups; TM will consume an entire disk with no option to keep some space free or share between multiple TM clients.
  • Reply 30 of 43
    dcgoodcgoo Posts: 280member
    A slightly modified approach involve OS X Server ($20) allowing time machine backups over the network to multiple destinations.  I have two plug in the wall Macs, each running Server with a large drive attached.  Time machine on my MBP uses both as destinations alternating between them.  
  • Reply 31 of 43
    Online backups take to long. You could spend months just trying to get your data up there. Time Machine is quick and efficient, set it and forget it. Just need to have your backup drive plugged in. I take risks testing beta software so sometimes things don't go as well as they should. However with Time Machine at work recovery is simple and I get everything back from up to the last hour. Done it many times without issues. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 32 of 43


    Every time i buy buy a new computer I backup the old making a SuoerDuper clone (one click that's all). Then when the new computer arrives connect the external SuperDuper, hold down OPTION when starting the computer, select SuperDuper to start from, then launch SuoerDuper and copy it over. Instant computer copy ready to go

    hope that helps
    i have always done the same using SuperDuper when purchasing a new computer. Not going to be quite as smooth for my next new computer purchase. Current iMac is too old to install Sierra, so will still clone my old El Capitan iMac to the new one, but then will have to go thru the extra step of installing Sierra on the new one again. No big deal, just an extra step this time. Still love SuperDuper.
  • Reply 33 of 43
    snookiesnookie Posts: 139member
    There is a lot more to all of this software than was provided in this very high level review.  I guess it was a review...
  • Reply 34 of 43
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    I'm glad that I bought a AirPort Time Capsule before it's discontinued. $179 for 2TB on Apple refurbishment never gave me any issue. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 35 of 43
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    I use a different method altogether but there may be weaknesses - I am not sure.

    I cloned my work iMac to an external 1tb ssd and then renamed the new one, and brought it home

    When I work from home I use my wife's MBP processor but running off my cloned SSD via USB3. I keep all my files on iCloud Drive and my photos are automatically backed up to iCloud, too.  Any changes made at my office are immediately replicated on my SSD when I plug it in, and vice versa.

    This way I have two identical systems running on two hard drives in two different locations and all my files replicated via iCloud. 

    On both locations the systems are automatically backed up via Time Machine  (Time Capsule). 

    I have to update apps and systems on each drive but that is a minor hassle.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 36 of 43
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    snookie said:
    There is a lot more to all of this software than was provided in this very high level review.  I guess it was a review...
    There are three other pieces examining the third party software as well, and they're linked in the story. 

    However, Carbon Copy Cloner and ChronoSync have SO MANY features, a review couldn't possibly touch on them all.
  • Reply 37 of 43
    I use a Mac backup/sync/clone tool called SmartBackup from SoleSignal. I run alternate monthly backups to a pair of external HD's and also do an offsite quarterly backup of just my user folders (photos, documents, music...) to a smaller third drive. SmartBackup is fast, easy to use and gets the job done. The developer is responsive and provides good support as well. http://solesignal.com/smartbackup4/
  • Reply 38 of 43
    CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper are image backup programs. Their primary purpose is to make a complete bootable bit-for-bit backup of the given disk image. You can use them incrementally, but all that really does is copy the differences from the source volume to the target volume, in order to bring the target up-to-date with the source volume. They are not meant to be used to go back and restore earlier versions of a given file, in case the user screwed something up. They are meant to be used in the event of a catastrophic disk or machine failure.

    Time Machine is an incremental backup solution. It cannot make a complete bootable image backup of a volume, but is great at being able to go back and allow you restore an older version of a file that you accidentally messed up. So, SD/CCC and TM are great tools to use in combination with each other. Use SD or CCC to create the bootable image backups you might need in case of emergency, and TM to do incremental backups of the files. Make sure to update your SD/CCC image backups often enough, so that you can restore an entire disk image as quickly as possible, and make reasonably sure the it should work.

    I do agree that you should do the above, in combination with storing off-site backups. Unfortunately, I don't know how ChronoSync compares. For my own part, I use Time Machine to do encrypted hourly backups to a Synology NAS RAID array, and from there I use one of their standard plug-ins to do encrypted backups of that data to Amazon S3. CrashPlan and BackBlaze are two other options I've used in the past, back before I bought my Synology NAS. But ultimately, Rdevillers is right -- backups are useless. Restores are priceless. If you don't test your restores, then you don't really have backups.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 39 of 43
    horvatic said:
    Online backups take to long. You could spend months just trying to get your data up there. Time Machine is quick and efficient, set it and forget it. Just need to have your backup drive plugged in. I take risks testing beta software so sometimes things don't go as well as they should. However with Time Machine at work recovery is simple and I get everything back from up to the last hour. Done it many times without issues. 

    The one thing you cannot do with Time Machine is "forget it".  After the fourth or so time that an hours-long backup was simply erased by the computer screen going to sleep, I have had it with TM.  I don't know what to replace it with (which is why I came to these reviews), but it has to not destroy what it has done if it is interrupted.  That is absurd.
  • Reply 40 of 43
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    razormaid said:
    For total backups SuoerDuper is the best. Not only does it create an exact clone of your computer (OS/ software/ all users) it does it so well that even the $4,000 Adobe Suite does t know it's been moved!  We all know how easy Adobe likes to corrupt when it thinks it's being "moved". 

    Well, it does not seem to do that now, but I agree SuperDuper is awesome and probably the best. I remember it was the only application capable to copy files from a damaged mechanical rotational disk when other applications like Apple Finder or Carbon Copy Cloner failed, saying that such files were corrupt. Really remarkable.

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