Monitoring and testing a backup system are two critically important steps which many people skip. If you don’t monitor your backup system to ensure that it’s running and you don’t test it periodically to have confidence that it’s backing up file properly then you might be in for a big surprise when disaster strikes and you try to retrieve files from your backup system.

In my Tech Tip about setting up a comprehensive Macintosh backup system, I encourage everybody to setup both Time Machine and Copy Copy Cloner. Here are simple instructions to ensure that Carbon Copy Cloner is creating a full and bootable backup copy of your Mac’s hard drive.

• Quit all applications that you’re working in.
• Go to the Apple menu and select Restart.
• Immediately after you hear the startup chime hold down the Option key.
• After 10-15 seconds the “Startup Manager” will appear. The Startup Manager will display a row of icons on a blue background. You can release the Option key.
• Once your cursor becomes an arrow then click on the hard drive icon for your full bootable backup made by Carbon Copy Cloner to select it. In these instructions I’ll assume your full bootable backup is named “Full Bootable Backup.” If you don’t see your full bootable backup drive listed in Startup Manager that is an indication that your full bootable backup didn’t work properly. In this case follow the instructions I list in this Tech Tip about setting up Carbon Copy Cloner.
• Next click the button with an arrow pointing to the right to tell the computer to continue to start up.
• Once the computer has started up go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac. In the section labeled Startup Disk you should see Full Bootable Backup listed. If you see Macintosh HD listed then the full backup didn’t work properly since the Mac failed to startup from the full bootable backup. In this case follow the instructions I list in this Tech Tip about setting up Carbon Copy Cloner.
• Close the About this Mac window.
• Now test a few important files. For example open some important word processing files. Open iTunes and verify that you can play some songs. Open iPhoto and ensure that your photos are there.
• Go to the Apple menu and select Restart.
• The Mac should startup from Macintosh HD.

You’ve successfully tested your full bootable backup made by Carbon Copy Cloner!

The final step is to have your Mac startup from its internal hard drive as it does typically. Go to the Apple menu and select Restart. Let your Mac startup and it’ll automatically revert to starting from its internal hard drive. Once it’s started you can verify this fact by going to the Apple menu, selecting “About This Mac” and seeing which hard drive is listed as the startup disk.

In a previous Tech Tip article  I encouraged users to setup a comprehensive backup system by partitioning a hard drive into two pieces and then configure Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine to  backup to the two partitions. Here are some more detailed setup instructions.

Connect a FireWire or USB hard drive to your Mac with a cable, turn it on and wait for its icon to mount on the Desktop. Go to /Application/Utilities and open Disk Utility. Select the hard drive from the left-hand list. The hard drive is typically named by its size, manufacturer and sometimes a model number. (In the image below you can see that I’ve select the drive named 750.16 GB OEM.)

Paritioning in Disk Utility

Next, click the Partition tab. In the Volume Scheme section select 2 Partitions. Fill in appropriate names and sizes in the fields on the right-hand side. I recommend making the first (top) partition your partition for storing Time Machine backup data and the second (bottom) partition your partition for storing your Carbon Copy Cloner full bootable backup. The reason for putting the Time Machine partition on top is so that you can more easily make the second partition larger, as needed, in the future.

To determine appropriate sizes you should click on your Mac’s hard drive icon on your Desktop. Then go the File menu and select Get Info. Look at how much space, measured in gigabytes (GB) is being used and look at the drive’s total capacity. At a minimum the size for your Carbon Copy Cloner partition needs to be large equal to the number of gigabytes currently used. I typically make the partition at least 10-20% bigger to allow for growth in the amount of data on your hard drive.

I suggest naming the partitions something like Time Machine Backup and Full Backup. If you’re going to follow my recommendation and switch between two backup hard drives then you should add letter or number designators in the partition names, such as Time Machine Backup A.

Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Click the Options button and make sure you select GUID Partition Table if the drive is connected to a Mac with an Intel processor. Select Apple Partition Map if the drive is connected to a older Mac using a PowerPC G4 or G5 processor. Click the Apply button so the drive will be partitioned and then formatted. When Disk Utility finishes the drive is now ready for use. If my instructions are too brief, you might benefit from Ken Stone’s detailed instructions with lots of pictures.

Two icons representing the two hard drive partitions will appear on your Mac’s Desktop. Go to the Apple Menu, select System Preferences and click on the Time Machine icon (Mac OS X 10.5 or newer is required). Click the Select Disk button and pick your Time Machine and then click the Use for Backup button. Apple offers a succinct introduction to using Time Machine.

After you download and install Carbon Copy Cloner, open it from your Applications folder. In the Source Disk section select your Mac’s internal hard drive which is typically named Macintosh HD. In the Target Disk section select the smaller partition which you created in Disk Utility. Click the padlock icon in the lower left corner and enter your Mac OS X administrator password. Then click the Save Task button. In the Scheduler window that appears enter a name for the task in the Scheduled Tasks section. On the right-hand side, in the Run this task: section select When Target  is Reconnected. Click the Save button in the lower right corner to save this configuration. The developer offers lots of support and instructions for Carbon Copy Cloner.

Carbon Copy Cloner

You have now partitioned an external hard drive and configured Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner to backup to each of the partitions. If you follow my recommendation of buying two external backup  hard drives then you’ll want to repeat this setup procedure for the second drive. Next week, I’ll provide instructions on how to swap between two hard drives and have Time Machine backup to both hard drives.

The focus of this article is to describe the essential components of a comprehensive backup system for your Macintosh computer and to describe a simple comprehensive backup system for one Mac. This article’s recommendations are appropriate for anybody with a few Macs which they would like to backup. If you have a larger network of Macs then other applications and approaches would be more appropriate.

I believe that there are two types of people in this world. Those who have lost data and those who will lose data. Thus, I feel strongly about the importance of backing up your computer. A comprehensive backup system will help you minimize the amount of data that you could ever lose.

We all store valuable files on our computer though what is valuable varies by person. For some it is email messages, calendar data and address book information. For others it is their Quicken or QuickBooks information. For others still it is their digital pictures, home movies and music. For some it is all of these kinds of files. We increasingly rely on computers, so minimizing downtime and recovering quickly from problems need to be incorporated into a comprehensive backup system.

In some ways, a backup system is analogous to an insurance policy. We hope we never need to rely on it, but we’re very glad that we have it if it is needed. And just as different types of insurance policies provide different amounts of coverage, not all backup systems provide the same levels of protection, however, any level of protection is better then no protection at all. Here is a list of the essential components in a comprehensive backup system.

• It should backup all files on your computer
• It should run frequently and automatically
• It should produce multiple backup copies of your files. The old rule of thumb is that if it’s important enough to backup once then it’s important enough to backup twice.
  
• The multiple copies should be kept on multiple disks which are securely stored in multiple locations. One of these locations should be off-site or, if on-site, in a Class 125 fireproof safe.
  
• You need to monitor the backup system at least weekly to ensure that it is making backup copies of your data.
  
• You need to test your backup system a few times each year to ensure that it’s working properly and so you’ll know how to use it to restore a file under pressure, when a problem arises

The Tao of Backup web site does a very good job of describing the importance of each of these components in an entertaining and educational way.

Backup systems allow us to recover from a range of problems that can occur. The most common type of problem is accidentally deleting  a file and needing to get it back. Another all to common problem is hard drive failure in which case we’d need to recover all files. Although rare, burglaries, fire, flood and theft all occur and would require us to recover all of our files too. To recover an accidentally deleted file or to recover from a hard drive failure all one needs is a local, on-site backup copy of their files. However, to recover from a burglary, fire or flood can often require having an off-site backup copy of your data.

While I encourage everybody to setup a comprehensive backup system, I understand that not everybody has the time or money to commit to such a system so I’ll re-iterate that any level of protection is better than none at all and a pretty good backup can be surprisingly affordable.

In more practical terms here is a simple, comprehensive backup system for one Mac. Start by purchasing two external hard drives. Partition each drive into two parts. Configure Carbon Copy Cloner (donations requested) to make a full bootable backup of your Mac to one of the partitions on each of the external drives. Carbon Copy Cloner can be scheduled to perform automatic backups whenever the hard drive is connected. Configure Time Machine, which comes included in Mac OS X 10.5 and higher, to perform automated hourly backups of all files on your Mac to the other partition on each of the external drives. On a designated day each week you can switch between the two hard drives. The idle drive should be stored off-site at a secure location across the street or across town. If you’re not inclined to buy two backup hard drives then you could supplement your one on-site hard drive with off-site backups made by CrashPlan. CrashPlan is an online backup system. They have different pricing for personal and business use. (I’ve now written Tech Tip articles about using CrashPlan for either personal or business use.)

The reason to use both Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine is even though Time Machine backs up all files on a hard drive it does not do so in a manner which lets one start (boot) their Mac from the Time Machine backup drive. Thus, Carbon Copy Cloner is a nice supplement to Time Machine since it’s focus is making a bootable backup drive. Having another hard drive from which one can boot their Mac can minimize downtime and can be helpful in the event of problem with the internal hard drive.

Monitoring the system is easy. To monitor Time Machine simply click on its Menu Bar icon to see when it last ran and/or look for its Menu Bar icon to spin while it is performing a backup. When you swap the backup drives you should see Carbon Copy Cloner automatically start.

Apple has an article which provides instructions on how to restore files from a Time Machine backup. Practice this a few times so you have confidence that Time Machine is working and so you’ll be calm if you need to rely on Time Machine for real. An important test of the Carbon Copy Cloner backup is to go to the Startup Disk System Preference, select this disk and then restart your Mac to ensure that you can boot from this backup. To determine which drive was used to startup your Mac, go to the Apple menu, select About This Mac and see which disk is listed as the startup disk or use Disk Utility.

A few final notes. Archives are different from backups and I think you should archive your more important data as well. I’ll talk about archives in a future article.

TidBits’ has written a couple of excellent Take Control PDF books about backing up Macs. Check them out:

Take Control of Mac Backups and Take Control of Easy Mac Backups

This article is the first in a series of articles that talk about Macintosh backup systems including specific products. Check my Tech Tip blog regularly for more articles in my Backup category.