Backup software from home drive to offsite drive

[Sossity]

After I have done the initial clone/backup of my main hard drive to another to store offsite, & when I bring it back home in about 6 months to update, I would like to be able to backup incrementally/quickly my newest content from my home drive to the offsite drive without having to start over & reclone, as I have been told it is best not to have the offsite backup drive at home for too long.

since I am on a mac, I have been told about Carbon Copy Cloner, would it do the backup I am describing?

[admin]

I would seriously just clone the whole thing from the beginning.

There are secondary issues to consider with incremental backups, such as fragmentation of data on the backup drive. You'll be best to quick format the old drive, or just delete everything and empty the trash, and copy a new and fresh sequential backup to the drive.

Yes, it will take a while -- so do it overnight.

My last big backup was a 2TB drive clone, and that only took maybe 10 hours -- all of which happened while I was asleep. I often think Mac OS X USB2 copy works faster than Windows XP USB2 copying, so it could be even less time.

Using "backup software" adds a level of complexity that can simply be avoided.

I'm also assuming you're simply backing up data here, too -- your work files from their own drive. This isn't a backup of the operating system, the installed software, etc. If you need to backup the computer's operational files, you can use Time Machine. I prefer Paragon Drive Copy for Mac OS X. But again -- only for the system, not for work files backups. For work files, simply drag and drop to do basic copying between drives.

[Sossity]

So each time the family member brings back the offsite drive, I should just wipe it clean & do a clone from my home drive to the offsite one each time? or do the incremental backup by hand?

I remember when I was on a pc & tried to duplicate the contents of a drive to another using syncback, & it was a mess, it made errors everywhere, I ended up doing the whole thing by hand myself.

another thing, is I will be doing a clone of a drive that is in a bytec enclosure with no power brick plug, it just has a plain 3 prong power cord, but it is aluminum with a fan inside, so from what I have gathered it's power supply is inside. Would it be safe to leave it on overnight while it's contents get cloned to another new drive?

I learned that hard drive enclosures that do not have the block or brick in it's power cord, that is it's power cord is just a plain power cord, that it's power supply is inside & these are not as good as ones with their power supply on the outside, & that is why they have fans.

I was curious as to what one of my other enclosures would classified as; it has the power brick, but it also has a big fan inside, it was a rosewell.

right now, I have gone to the OWC & macally enclosures, as I have gotten the general idea that these are among the best.

[admin]

Quote:

So each time the family member brings back the offsite drive, I should just wipe it clean & do a clone from my home drive to the offsite one each time?

Yes.

Quote:

or do the incremental backup by hand?

No. That's almost sadistic.

Quote:

using syncback

As per past posts, skip the backup tools -- just copy the files when it's simply work files (user data).

Quote:

Would it be safe to leave it on overnight while it's contents get cloned to another new drive?

Yes. Some of the drives here stay on for weeks, maybe even months.

Quote:

I learned that hard drive enclosures that do not have the block or brick in it's power cord, that is it's power cord is just a plain power cord, that it's power supply is inside & these are not as good as ones with their power supply on the outside, & that is why they have fans.

Not really. The fans are for heat, period.

Quote:

right now, I have gone to the OWC & macally enclosures, as I have gotten the general idea that these are among the best.

Not sure I'd say "the best" -- far too enthusiastic for my tastes -- bit those are definitely good drives. The OWC stuff is top-notch, without a doubt. They put together some great gear, even if it is a bit more costly (mostly because it's specialty gear, like Firewire 800 or RAID-1, and not run-of-the-mill USB2 SATA).

[Sossity]

could I be cloning the drives, running the clone software while I am doing other stuff on my mac? as my content grows, so will the time to clone, & I do have other things I need to do on my computer, such as my online classes (right now am taking photoshop CS5 & In Design CS5), & cant have the computer occupied for just cloning longer than an overnight period.

[admin]

You can do "others things" -- but it depends on what it is. An online class, checking email, writing a report -- those are fine. Trying to encode a video, work on large InDesign documents, etc -- not so fine.

I doubt it would take longer than overnight to copy a drive.