I like to use different apps for multiple backups. I’ve settled on SuperDuper and CCC. All of them are on a schedule because I keep all the backup drives attached to my Mac mini, and the Mac mini is always on. Both have great support. Recently, I had a problem that I thought was going to require a new install. I contacted SuperDuper guy (what’s his name? Can’t remember now) to make sure I knew how to use my SD backup to restore. He strongly urged me NOT to do the complete install, and not to contact Apple Support (ha!). Pretty much held my hand by suggesting some things to look for. Finally, I did resolve the problem without a complete install. This support actually had nothing to do with SuperDuper, so I really appreciated his time.
If I keep the drive connected but unmounted, SuperDuper still does a scheduled backup - it automatically mounts the drive and does the scheduled backup.
Dave Nanian.
Exactly this! I think version 5 is perfect, and it’s all been downhill from there.
I have no problem with CCC’s current interface. My use is straightforward - back up a complete disk (or volume) on a schedule, unmount the backup drive when done.
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I am currently using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) 7.1.3 (8219) to back up multiple volumes to large external drive, one of several, including multiple offsite swap drives. which I treat as removable media analogous to past usage of tapes. The advent of Task Groups has been a boon, simplifying management of backups as the set of external data drives evolves to changing needs. Individual CCC Tasks in a set are completely independent but are called by the Task Group as part of unified single operation – local backup, offsite backup 1, offsite backup two, and so forth. Most of the other recent changes to CCC have been driven by APFS, especially Snapshots. I continue to be a delighted user.
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I should be clearer: I have no problem whatsoever with the functionality of CCC. I, like you, am extremely satisfied with how it works. My complaint deals squarely with how the information is presented to the user. The interface has gotten more and more complex, to the point where I could see that it might scare off a potential new user.
As I was backing up my mom’s computer, she was wondering what those two colored lines (in the performance chart) were. But she wondered if it was encountering a problem. I assured her everything was absolutely fine.
And I notice that version 5 and earlier seem to tackle folders in a more logical order (copying all of a folder, such as Applications, for example, before moving on to the next. Starting with version 6, it seems to jump all over the map. There may be an explanation for why it does it that way, but it seems more chaotic.
Minor quibbles to most? Perhaps. But I simply find the presentation of CCC 5 much cleaner and simpler than that of more recent versions. It doesn’t mean I dislike the product or the result. 
I owe SuperDuper, Dave, and this group an apology. David and I exchanged communications when I was having an issue with the App Store launching apps that I had deleted by accessing my SuperDuper Backup. Dave did respond to me, but it didn’t arrive in my email; I have no idea why.
I still am amazed the App Store was able to do this, but I didn’t understand its relationship with Spotlight. Now that I have excluded all of my backups from Spotlight, all my problems are cured!
This is one spectacular backup client, and Dave is amazing too! I wouldn’t want to protect my iMac without it!
Finally, I am appreciative of all of you who filled my knowledge hole with the Spotlight explanation and what to do. 
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I tried another backup client (BeLight Software Get Backup Pro). I used it for two days. First I tried full backups. These took over 9 hours. I contacted BeLight support; they suggested going to an incremental backup of the user/folder only. Sadly, the timing option allowed a max time delay of 4 hours. That seemed okay until it took over 2 hours to come close to completing that backup. By the time the incremental backup finished, it was time for the new one to begin.
With every app, system component, etc. excluded, as well as the iCloud folder, this was just too slow to maintain.
The support staff as well as the sales staff were excellent. It’s possible others will have more success… At $32, it’s not the most expensive. BeLight
Another happy CCC user. I have TimeMachine drives on each machine, and then use CCC to backup the primary laptop to an external drive connected to a Mac Mini. It’s a Best Practice, I think, to use -2 different backup programs-. The one thing my backup strategy is missing is offsite storage. A couple years ago I looked at offsite (need about 5 tb), and couldn’t find anything that did what I wanted, just a “place to dump files”. Either they wanted to install active backup software on my local machine, or the cost for the storage was prohibitive.
Yep…me too. I also own SuperDuper and while it is excellent at full disk clones it’s pretty much a one trick pony. CCC lets you backup either full volumes or just folders with ease…and while SD has some folder backup capabilities they’re pretty obtuse to setup and conversations with Dave about adding the ability to select a folder as both source and destination resulted in him saying he wasn’t interested in doing that and that full volume clones was all he is interested in. That makes it a non viable backup option for me although it is good at the one thing it attempts to do. I tried to explain that adding more capabilities to SD would increase the likelihood of sales to people that wanted folder clones as well…but he simply isn’t interested.
FYI:
IDrive e2 Cloud Object Storage; Amazon S3 Compatible is $250 per year for 5TB (less for the first year). I haven’t used it but I have used their RemotePC product which I like.
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I took a look at the BeLight web site. The last release of Get Backup Pro was nearly two years ago. No mention of support for Tahoe or even Sequoia. I would be suspicious about the quality of the software. (To be clear, I have not tried it.)
I was using this for backup 25 years ago (we briefly used tape for backup) and am amazed to see that Retrospect still exists.
Retrospect is great for an IT department that wants automated backups of a fleet of a computers to a server. It’s also great for driving backups to tape.
I question the need for its expense and complexity for simpler solutions, like backing up a single computer to a USB hard drive.
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Retrospect made more sense when hard drives were expensive and before CD-R drives were common. IIRC the first CD-R drive I bought cost over $400. For a couple of years, I was using DAT and Travan tape to do backups at work. I still have a little stack of tapes and a SCSI Travan drive. Please don’t ask me to explain that.
No need to explain. I also have a SCSI TR-4 drive and a stack of tapes. It was how I backed up my old Quadra 840.
When I got my PowerMac, its 80 GB drive was too large for a TR-4 drive. That’s when I bought a FireWire VXA-1 drive, which I used for many years until my backups grew too large for two (33 GB) tapes.
I’ve also got a PC with an Aiwa DAT DDS-4 drive, which I used with OS/2, back when that was my primary system.
Tape is a great backup medium. Sadly, drives and media large enough for modern desktop systems cost far too much for personal use.
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I used Retrospect for years and I was interested in its ability to handle Ransomware:
For a while, Retropect was AWOL – not available for some reason. Now I use Carbon Copy Cloner which just works. For one thing, it unmounts my wife’s backup hard drive after it backs up and remounts the drive when needed. This is helpful because my wife often disconnects her laptop from her Studio Display.
Probably related to the number of times the company was acquired and divested:
- 1989: Developed by Dantz
- 2004: Acquired by EMC (under its Insignia brand)
- 2007: Insignia was shut down
- 2008: Retrospect transferred to Iomega (another EMC acquisition)
- 2010: Sold to Roxio, which was acquired by Rovi, which divested Retrospect into Retrospect, Inc.
- 2019: Acquired by StorCentric
- 2023: StorCentric went bankrupt and Retrospect was spun off into a company owned by Serene Investment Management, a private equity company.
It’s nothing short of a miracle that the product exists at all today. And I don’t hold out much hope for the future, because private equity companies usually run companies into the ground and sell off the assets in order to pay off the debts they incur.
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Wow!!
I still have installers for Retrospect 4 stashed away. I’m assuming this a safe space for such admissions.
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Yeah, I used Retrospect for years, but that was many years ago (in the PowerPC days). I have recycled two boxes of DATs. There is no hardware available for Macs, so DAT backup is irrelevant. 8GB doesn’t get you very far these days. Now I have two multi-terabyte SSDs for online backup, and a stack of 1TB HDs and a docking unit for offline.