It’s Time to Move On from Bootable Backups

First of all, David needs to be commended ALOT for his efforts. He is the only developer who has been able to have his software create a bootable clone. He has refused to give up, and needs to be commended for that.

Secondly, David clearly is “thinking outside the box”. Wow, innovation! Seems like some folks don’t approve of such innovation. I do. Shoot, Apple supposedly is an innovative company, and I’ll bet some of their development efforts involve “thinking outside the box”.

Third, if Apple does not “approve” of David’s methods, why would they fix the replicator on OS 15.3? Also, as I have mentioned before, David has been doing this for quite a while, whereas applications like CCC and Chronosync have “gone the way of the doo doo bird”. Apple never stopped him then, correct?

Finally, so what CCC has more capabilities than SD. It of course depends on what one needs. For me, SD is good enough. And SD does something that CCC can’t do: create bootable clones. I’ll take such effort and innovation ANY day!

Yes, agreed thank you.

What I would greatly appreciate (and possibly many others) is a summary of what to move to after moving on from bootable backups/clones.

Grateful for the post bootable anecdotal practices mentioned but is there any best practices consensus we might end this discussion with?

:smiley:

Yes, even with the most recent Shirt Pocket Software blog, David does say something to that effect. One issue of course is that even if folks like myself are successful with SD, they tend not to relay such feedback to David. I do, and will continue to do so. I just wish other SD users (not necessarily on here) would provide such feedback. Seems like their attitude is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

I guess there is one other “issue” that I (and others) have neglected to mention. When using SD to make bootable backups, it is imperative to NOT use the DFU port for that purpose. From my “basic” understanding, the backup will be created using that port, but it will not be bootable.

I discussed this in the article and in the follow-up about the poll results.

In short, I think a duplicate is a useful part of a backup strategy, and there’s no harm in making it bootable (apart from potentially spending recovery time fussing with it), but what’s critical is that you can restore from it using Migration Assistant after installing macOS. Migration Assistant also works with Time Machine, but I prefer the simplicity of restoring from a duplicate and focusing Time Machine on versioned backups. It’s also helpful to have a diversity of backup apps and media, so if Time Machine or its drive were to fail, you’d also have the duplicate on a separate drive, created with independent software.

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To “enhance” what Adam said, Migration Assistant is an excellent tool. I use it all the time whenever I install a new version of the Mac OS (like I did a week ago with OS 15.3). After installing it on each of my Macs, I then successfully used Migration Assistant to copy/retrieve all the other “items” I needed from a recently created SuperDuper! backup. It works like a charm. And I have done it many times.

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Daring Fieball: Bootable Mac Startup Drive Backups, and Another Ode to SuperDuper

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This is exciting to me because I am struggling to back up my wife’s laptop which goes back and forth to work (she switched from an iMac), I have a 2010 MacMini or a 2015 MacBook Pro. Would either work with Arq? Or could I run Arq on my desktop? Currently I back her up using Carbon Copy Cloner when she comes home.

Gruber does a terrific job of describing the utility of backups in this article. In the last section, ‘Why Bootable Backup Drives Sill Matter,’ he concludes that, in most cases, they don’t and that unless you meticulously keep the system portion up-to-date, you may end up doing serious harm if you attempt to boot from such a drive. Here’s how he concludes the article:

"Having my SuperDuper-cloned backup drive be bootable is nice to have, but I really can’t say I need it any more. 20, 15, even just 10 years ago, that wasn’t true — I really did want the ability to boot from my backup drive at a moment’s notice. But that’s really not true any more for me. It probably isn’t for you, either. It definitely isn’t true for most Mac users.

But it remains true for some people, who are using (or responsible for) Macs in high-pressure tight-deadline production environments. Live broadcast studios. Magazines or newspapers with a deadline for the printer that’s just hours (or minutes) away. Places with strict security/privacy rules that forbid cloud storage of certain critical files. If the startup drive on a production machine fails, they need to get up and running now. Plug in a backup drive, restart, and go. Anything longer than that is unacceptable.

That’s not me. That’s probably not you. But there are a lot of people whose work environment that describes. For as much as Apple Silicon Macs have become iOS-like devices in many ways, they’re still Macs at heart: workstations. There remain people inside Apple who know that, too."

The rest of that section describes why he feels this way.

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Interesting article by John Gruber, and a lot of useful (but not necessarily “universal”) information. I will make a couple of remarks.

First, I am also a long time user of SuperDuper! (SD), and it has “saved my bacon” a couple of times. But then I make a concerted effort to take care of my Macs, and keep them “lean, mean, and clean”. Until the “hiccup” on OS 15,2, and in fact for some of the time I was using OS 15.2, I always used the “Backup - all Files” option with SD. And yes, it does take some time. But I am actually doing other non-computer related tasks while doing my 2 SD backups every Saturday, and thus am not concerned about how long it takes. I just make better use of my time to “multi-task”. And now that OS 15.3 is out, and with Apple finally fixing it, all is well with me.

Secondly, by doing the “Backup - all Files” procedure, I am guaranteed to have the latest version of the OS, including any security updates that were “pushed” by Apple onto my machines since the last backup (typically one week earlier).

Third, while I am not part of a “production” environment, I much prefer to get back up and running right away in the event of a disaster. Yes, the Recovery procedure has evolved rather well, but still is somewhat burdensome. I am a firm believer in the “KISS” philosophy, ie, “Keep It Simple Stupid”, and for that reason, bootable backups are the way to go, at least for me. Also, I am getting better at frequently testing those bootable backups, and that is comforting.

Finally, I believe I am not like all Mac users, especially still requiring bootable backups. But then I’ll bet most users are not like myself in performing frequent cleanup and maintenance for their machines. Some might see that as “over kill”, but it is second nature to me (just like doing weekly backups). I actually follow that same philosophy with other tasks (like our automobiles, our appliances, keeping our place clean, etc.). Many folks prefer not to do those tasks. Fine. But that is not for me.

In SuperDuper!, using “Backup - all files” does not mean you get macOS copied. Whether it is a data-only or full copy is determined by Options > During copy > Smart Update or Erase, then copy. The “erase then copy” option copies macOS and data, Smart Update only copies data.

SuperDuper! takes a snapshot before the copy. You can be doing computer related tasks while it is copying, it has no effect on what’s copied.

One more point for people doing a full clone of macOS + data, using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner: a full asr clone erases the disk first, which means you lose FileVault encryption. The only way to FileVault encrypt a bootable drive is to clone it and then boot into the clone and turn FileVault on. So, either you have to do that again after every full clone, or you are creating an unencrypted drive. That has its own risks.

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Informative post Michael. Regarding your first point, yes, I am well aware of all that. Myself, I have set the Option in SD to “Erase ‘Backup Volume Name’, then copy files from Macintosh HD”, And yes, that actually first Erases and Formats the backup volume, then does a full, complete backup of both the System and Data volumes from the machine’s internal SSD.

Secondly, interesting about the snapshot, but that seems to be “normal” practice with SD and CCC, at least. But when I do my backups for each of my Macs, I am actually cleaning our place. So again, the “extra” time involved does not bother me. Also, I prefer for SD to function “on its own”. If one makes efficient use of their time, all this “extra time” stuff is a non issue.

Third, thanks for info about FileVault encryption. I’ll make it a point to “turn on” FileVault encryption" when booting the respective Mac from its respective bootable backup/clone.