Backing up my backups

[kimmer]

I’m sure I’m pushing the limits here with my two backup drives (one dedicated to TimeMachine and one dedicated to SuperDuper) as they have been “on” continuously since February!

This is what I currently have for backup drives (both the same):

• OWC Mercury Elite Al-Pro
• 1 TB
• USB 2.0 (not in use on either drive)
• FireWire 800 (this is how they are daisy-chained to each other)
• FireWire 400 (not in use on either drive)
• eSata (not in use on either drive)

I figure it’s time to backup my backups and so I’d like advice on what drives to buy and how do I do this backup? Do I set up two TM drives, and 2 SuperDuper drives and let them all run continuously? If so, is this easy? Backup my current backups and then shut those down and set them aside? Start fresh for backups with the new drives and set the old backups aside? Can I daisy chain 4 drives together?

I’ve never had to deal with this and I’m not sure what to do.

[Jack W]

I have (1) TM drive and (2) SuperDuper! drives. All 1TB

I rotate the SD! drives to a safe Deposit Box every 2-3 weeks.

This gives me some protection in case of a disaster at my house.

The TM drive still has very ample space left.

And I very seldom have to recover data from it.

FWIW

Jack

[Xairbusdriver]

I doubt it makes any difference whether the drives are 24/7 or not. Same for the computer. Constant heat vs. Heating/cooling expansion of electronics. Both will probably cause death before leaving something off 24/7! I would assume that Time Machine could cause more wear and tear on the head mechanism since it will be moving it every hour whereas the SuperDuper will only run once a day. On the other hand, the total time each drive actually is in use may be very close to the same; SD just works the drive longer once a day, TM work is usually less than a minute but for each hour the Mac is running. Apple and grapefruit?

Off-site storage is fine if you have the space. Once a week means you may lose a weeks worth of work which might be too much for a business. It may mean a longer first backup for the returning drives, also. If you don't have the off-site space, the whole discussion is moot, of course.

I have two 2TB drives. Similar uses as both of you. Except I did partition each one. And every time I do, I wonder why!

Seagate GoFlex FireWire drive
The TM backup is on a 1.64TB partition with ~27 space remaining. It's set to erase old stuff as needed.
The other partition is a Mavericks 'mini boot' partition using barely 15GB out of 355GB. Thus, almost 340GB is wasted!
The SuperDuper drive is a 2TB Western Digital 'Caviar BLACK'
SD just ran out of space the other night, so it now has a 1.25TB partition which has 909GB still available.
The rest of the drive is a partition cleverly named "Empty" and has nothing in it. Theoretically, it is a 'scratch' disk. However, even when it had that name, I don't think I ever used it that way!

I'm not sure exactly what you want to do. Another SD backup will be a smaller version of what you have; it will not really have backups of anything you deleted prior to installing it. Same for the TM backup; it's 'history' will only go back to the first backup it makes. The two drives for use by each app will never be the same.

I suppose you might be able to make and keep them identical with Carbon Copy Cloner. That would be simple for the SD backup (I assume you have it scheduled to run every day at the same time). TM could be a little tricky. While it runs every 60 minutes, the clock starts when the Mac starts up. If that is different one day or it has to be restarted/shut down/started up for some reason, a CCC schedule could end up running during the TM backup time; that would make both actions slow and create a lot of work for the internal drive as well as the OS.

I think your best solution is to simply buy one 2TB drive (Hitachi is my favorite brand) and have it shipped to me to replace the old Seagate. I'll PM my mailing address...

[kimmer]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jun 21 2014, 03:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt it makes any difference whether the drives are 24/7 or not.

Thanks. I'll quit worrying.  Off-site storage isn't an option, so I can skip that as well.

QUOTE

I think your best solution is to simply buy one 2TB drive (Hitachi is my favorite brand) and have it shipped to me to replace the old Seagate. I'll PM my mailing address...

[Paddy]

QUOTE(kimmer @ Jun 22 2014, 12:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jun 21 2014, 03:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt it makes any difference whether the drives are 24/7 or not.

Thanks. I'll quit worrying.  Off-site storage isn't an option, so I can skip that as well.

QUOTE

I think your best solution is to simply buy one 2TB drive (Hitachi is my favorite brand) and have it shipped to me to replace the old Seagate. I'll PM my mailing address...

Actually, another backup is not a bad idea, but I wouldn't suggest a backup of your SD backup or your Time Machine.

What I do in addition to the daily and TM backups is a weekly cloned backup to another drive. This provides a little insurance if both my primary drives AND my cloned backup become corrupt somehow; there is some hope that I'd notice and have the weekly backup to restore things with not too much lost. Time Machine of course may also be of some assistance in this instance.

I have a lot of backups - for me, data loss would be a major problem, so I take it pretty seriously. I think I have at least 5 current ones at the moment. Before you think I'm completely nuts - a couple of those are portable drives that come with me to the cottage for the summer, basically allowing me to take my MacPro with me, without lugging all 65 pounds of it along. The SSD on the MBP isn't big enough for me to duplicate everything, so I keep the photos and music on the external drives, with Lightroom and iTunes pointed at those libraries, rather than the local versions. Then, when the summer is over, I replace the libraries on the MacPro with the ones from the external drives.