And one more very important thing - TEST your backups every so often. Do a restore or two or three from all your backups every so often.
I have had the unfortunate experience of making multiple backups and then finding they were corrupted, missing file data, etc.
I don’t have an Apple Silicon machine, but that raises an interesting question. Would a bootable clone boot on a different AS machine? One of the several times a bootable clone saved my bacon was when I dropped my laptop. I was just down the street from an Apple store at the time and walked in and picked up a new laptop. I was back at work within the hour, 100% functional (except for having missed lunch).
I know that the internal storage of modern MacBooks is keyed to the mainboard; does something similar happen with external storage these days?
There’s no technical reason why not. You could get a thumb drive of suitable size (32 GB? 64 GB?) and install macOS on it. And it should boot. But most thumb drives are really slow, so you wouldn’t really want to use it. But it might help you copy your documents from the internal drive to something else if you don’t have another Mac that could use Target Disk mode.
It depends on what failed.
If macOS is dead and you can’t boot into safe mode (unlikely because the SSV doesn’t change after installation, but anything is theoretically possible), you can boot into Recovery mode. From there, you can reinstall macOS, either preserving your Data volume or wiping it (after which point you’d need to restore/migrate from a backup).
You could also make a bootable installer on a thumb drive and boot that, which would boot to a Recovery mode that installs the OS on that thumb drive. If you try to install the same version or a newer version of macOS this way, it should work. If you want to downgrade, you’ll need to wipe macOS and your Data volume, then restore/migrate afterward.
If the pre-boot part of the internal SSD gets damaged such that Recovery isn’t possible, you would have to put it into “DFU” (device firmware update) mode and reinstall the pre-boot data from another Mac using Configurator. Configurator should also be able to reinstall macOS at the same time, after which you’d restore/migrate from your backup.
But if the SSD is damaged such that you can’t reinstall that pre-boot code, then the computer is going to be a brick unless you can replace that SSD. For Macs where the storage is soldered-down (which is most models), that’s going to require either a motherboard replacement (what Apple will do) or some microsoldering to replace the flash chips (what some very skilled repair shops can do). For Macs where the flash storage is installed in sockets (Mac Pro and Mac Studio), then the flash modules can be replaced, either by Apple or by a third party (there have been demonstrations of this, but no products yet), afterward you’d use Configurator to reinstall everything and restore/migrate from a backup.
The macOS installer, when run from Recovery mode, gives you the choice to preserve or wipe your data. But it can only preserve it if you’re installing the same version or an upgrade. If you try to downgrade, you should wipe everything and then restore/migrate from a backup.
That having been said, you can use Disk Utility from Recovery mode to delete your macOS System volume (the SSV) and then install an older macOS over that, such that it re-links with your existing Data volume. I did this for a small downgrade (from 14.7 to 14.6.1), but I don’t know if I’d want to trust that for something more significant, since I think it has the potential to make everything unstable in a hard-to-diagnose way.
Absolutely true. Which is why it’s so wonderful that cloning tools that use APFS (like CCC and I assume others) can create snapshots to preserve your backup history. You should be able to restore/migrate from any snapshot on your backup device.
Good question. I’d like to think it would work on a compatible machine (same model, maybe a different model with the same CPU type), but I haven’t read about anyone testing this theory.
Great use-case. You would want to boot the new Mac and migrate your stuff from your backup, but it would be nice if you don’t have to do it right away.
Some guy @Shamino asked a similar question in Howard Oakley’s article on Ownership of Apple silicon Macs matters: how it can stop external bootable disks: can you boot two Apple Silicon Macs from the same external drive? The answer was, yes, using a “party trick” documented in article Booting two Apple silicon Macs from one external disk.
In that article, Howard:
This tells us the answer to your question is yes, because what you want is just steps 3-5 above.
So the procedure would be:
There is the point though, whether in this case it would be better to just use the Migration Assistant to migrate from the clone to the new computer. I think that’s what I would do.
That is,
I decided that having a bootable backup was no longer needed for my recovery plan. If my iMac dies I can still access everything from my old MacBook Air or my iPad via iCloud. If I need an older version of a file there’s always my Time Machine or CCC backup.
An important consideration of any backup scheme is to make it as automatic as possible. If you have to physically take a drive offsite there’s a good chance it might be forgotten or delayed due to other needs.
I think I may be way too attached to bootable clones… hangover from my days when I was working and did work stuff at home frequently. Absolutely needed it in those days, but those days are long over.
Then the question becomes CCC or TM… I know about using CCC’s Safety Net and TM is way easier and more straightforward to locating a previous version file, at least looking at it from a High Sierra perspective. One thing I LOVED about CCC is its ability to boot the machine in the middle of the night, do an incremental backup then shut the machine down… but of course, no need using TM. And no need to boot & shut down as I think I’ll go the “let it sleep”" instead of shut it down mode. How do y’all feel?
Why not both? External storage devices, especially HDD devices, are cheap and easy to use.
I have three 4TB HDDs (Toshiba N300 drive mounted in Vantec USB3 enclosures). One is used by Time Machine. The other two are for making clones with CCC, alternating between the two drives.
I recommend both, plus Internet backup. I use Time Machine for versioned backups and SuperDuper for clones on separate media, plus Backblaze for offsite.
Almost my exact solution only I have two TM volumes and I’m using SuperDuper! instead of CCC. (Also using Arq for offsite backup of critical data files.)
(One reason I’ve cooled my ardor for the new M4 Mini is my current M2 Pro Mini has two USB-A ports that I can use for my ‘legacy’ HDs without buying dongles or a hub to expand the ports.)
Forget dongles and hubs. Just get the right cable.
Don’t let a $9 cable influence your decision to buy a $900 Mac.
I use both - 2 CCC backups, one a SSD and one on hard drive on another Mac. One TM drive. Then BackBlaze for offsite.
That’s what I do on my Studio and mini. For the laptops…TM to a network destination is functionally unreliable and useless despite multiple tries by a Mac buy since the 80s. I use a roll your own TM equivalent with CCC but found it isn’t reliable either using mounted drive as the destination but it is bulletproof with Remote Mac as the destination. I have these twice a week to 2 different destination Mac’s (the desktops).
I also have a pair of Samsung T7s that get weekly clone of the Data volume via prompted CCC jobs on both our laptops.
Not so sure I need to double my backup, like I said, I no longer have live work at home, it’s just all my email & photos. As I’m keeping my cMP for running winblowz, it has a boot volume and a clone where all my data also sits. The boot drive is realistically only usable in that machine (pair of SSDs on a PCI card), but the clone is a simply single SATA HDD.
BUT all a ya have got me re-thinking a bit… I HAD been thinking about a fast NVMe for backup… but that was before I learned no bootable backup. I had planned to spend about 250 bucks on that, but maybe I can rethink that. I could go with just a HDD (or two) or a external SSD, like the Samsung T7 for 150 (@ one third the read/write performance my previous plan had).
Don’t really feel any need for running both CCC & TM so the question still remains. So for those familiar with both (as most of you seem to be) it comes down to one question I have. I AM familiar with CCCs Safety Net which is hugely inconvenient to use compared to TM. Is is a lot more straightforward to use than the current stuck on High Sierra one I am familiar with?
My advice is to stick with flash. HDDs are prone to mechanical failure, they make noise and they’re bulky (at least the inexpensive 3.5" models). These days, for backups (≠ archival!) I would always suggest getting an SSD instead with the exception being people who need huge storage capacities where fast SSDs become prohibitively expensive compared to slow HDDs.
That said, for backup purposes you can go flash and still save lots of money by just recognizing that you don’t need to buy expensive high-performance flash for backups. TM is throttled anyway and when it comes to SD or CCC, even inexpensive flash will reach the ~1 GB/s level (= ~30 min/TB when backing up[1]). That in turn offers another savings opportunity: although TB3/4 certainly has its advantages, for backup purposes a decent USB3 bridge that supports 10 Gbps traffic is perfectly adequate. And its performance will still easily beat the pants off any HDD you can find.
It’s certainly true that even without cloning, you will at some point likely want to copy back larger amounts of data from a backup (eg. through Migration Assistant). At that point there is an advantage to having an fancy 980 PRO in a TB4 case that can haul 3.2 GB/s so that instead of waiting 10 min for your 500GB to play back, you’ll only be waiting 3 minutes. But unless you do this all the time (eg. you’re testing setups or something), I’d claim it’s likely not worth the extra expense of fancy flash and TB4 over USB3 just for backups.
You can get plenty fast (~1 GB/s) and reliable flash plus a decent USB3 enclosure for just a tad above $100 for 2TB these days (happy to supply links if that helps). You save money while still exploiting fast and silent storage. As always, I encourage people not to buy overly expensive ready-made flash/enclosure combos but to instead shop separate. And stay away from SATA flash — these days NVMe is the way to go and inexpensive too.
Both SD and CCC rely on asr which when backing up requires a 2nd verification pass. This appears to cut the achieved data data rate in half compared to raw throughput. ↩︎
Just a quick thought. Something you could consider as you make your plan is to think about which scenario would cause you more pain: setting up and running two (or more) backups or discovering some files are incomplete or corrupted when attempting to restore from a backup.
I’d also say if any of your emails, photos, or something else you have stored on your Mac is irreplaceable or has a high value, financial or sentimental, to at least put copies on USB thumb drives or CD-ROMs periodically.
I’d say both SSDs and HDs have their upsides and downsides. In my opinion, redundancy is the best way to manage the risks of either type of drive.
I cannot agree more when it comes to redundancy.
Myself I cycle through multiple SSDs at home and work, using TM and SD “clones”. TM is very good at juggling many backup disks.
I always try to make a point about redundancy not just meaning two drives, but drives in 1) different locations and 2) drives using different software solutions to back up. The former is because your house can burn down, the latter is because you don’t want to be the guy who discovers some obscure bug in your backup software just when you’re restoring from that last disk that didn’t burn up.
I think that Samsung T7 I mentioned is an SSD. 2T in a USB 3 box around 100, do tell!
Found something, this is what you’re talking about?
I’d be thinking more along the lines of this. It’s a $94 no-name but we have dozens of these around our labs and they have performed perfectly without any shenanigans. I don’t say that lightly — we have had trouble with other no-names (such as “Silicon Power”). Pair that with a decent USB3 case and you’re in business.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CDM2HSS/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G14NBCS/
Some folks prefer sticking with brand names. For an extra $20 you can get a Crucial.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25MJ1YT/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25ML2FH/
Obviously, these are just for backups. If you want really performant external SSD solutions, you’d opt for something a bit pricier (and get TB4).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RK2SR23/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQWXD2QT/
Oh, building from scratch! The 95 bucks item I mentioned is pre-built. So far I have been pleasantly surprised that Chinese no-name stuff seems to perform and work quite well. As it is, I’m going for the 1T internal in the Mini so I have no need for T4 external storage (which I believe is still a tad slower than the internal storage).